Azure compute options

Teach

Azure compute services run your code and applications. Choosing the right one depends on how much control and management you want.

Core compute services

• Virtual Machines (VMs) — full IaaS control of the OS; best for lift-and-shift and custom configurations.
• Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) — a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that autoscale together for large workloads.
• App Service — PaaS for hosting web apps and APIs without managing servers; built-in scaling, deployment slots, and patching.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) — managed Kubernetes for orchestrating containers at scale.

Containers and serverless

• Azure Container Instances (ACI) — run a single container quickly with no orchestration overhead; great for short, isolated tasks.
• AKS — for complex, multi-container, production-scale orchestration.
• Azure Functions — serverless event-driven code that runs on demand and scales automatically; you pay only while it executes (consumption plan). Ideal for triggers, APIs, and glue logic.

A control-vs-management spectrum: VMs (most control) → containers (ACI/AKS) → App Service → Functions (least to manage).

Quick decision checkpoints

1. Need full OS control or legacy app? Use VMs (or VMSS to scale them).
2. Hosting a standard web app/API fast? Use App Service.
3. Running containers? Use ACI for simple, AKS for orchestrated.
4. Event-driven, pay-per-execution code? Use Azure Functions.

Pick the least management that still meets your control needs.