Essential Azure Tools and Services for Front-End Developers
Tags: frontend, azure, cloud, beginners
Published: 2023-01-02 19:20:20

As a frontend developer, I want to improve my cloud skills to be ready to build and deploy web applications; I take a bit of time to find which Azure services are most relevant to frontend development and how they can be used to build, deploy, and manage frontend applications on Azure.

Microsoft Azure offers many tools and services that can help you streamline your workflow and build more scalable, performant applications. Still, I can't learn all of them, so this is a list of key tools and services for front-end developers in Azure.

This is my list of the most relevant services for frontend development and how they can be used to build, deploy, and manage frontend applications on Azure. So, Let's get started!

* Azure hosting options, Azure App Service, and Azure Functions
    
* Understanding of how to use Azure DevOps for continuous integration and deployment of frontend code
    
* Azure storage services, such as Blob storage or File storage, to store and retrieve static assets or user-generated content.
    
* Azure CDN (Content Delivery Network) to improve the performance of a web application by delivering assets from a location closer to the user.
    
* Azure monitoring and logging tools, such as Azure Monitor and Application Insights, to track the performance and usage of a web application.
    

## Azure App Service

We are building a web application that allows users to create and manage their blogs. Azure App Service could host the application and address the underlying infrastructure. Azure App Service would handle tasks such as scaling the application to handle traffic spikes and load-balancing requests across multiple servers.

As a front-end developer, you could focus on building the user interface and interactions of the application without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure. You could use Azure DevOps to set up a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) process to automatically build and deploy the application to Azure App Service whenever code changes are made.

Azure App Service is a cloud platform for building, deploying and scaling web applications and APIs. It offers many features that can be useful for frontend developers, including:

* Hosting: Azure App Service provides a fully managed platform for hosting web applications, including automatic scaling and load balancing to handle traffic spikes.
    
* Deployment: Azure App Service supports deployment options, including continuous integration with Azure DevOps, Git, and other source control systems.
    
* Domain Management: Azure App Service allows you to easily manage custom domains and SSL certificates for your web applications.
    
* Security: Azure App Service provides built-in security features such as authentication, authorization, and integration with Azure Active Directory.
    
* Monitoring: Azure App Service includes tools for monitoring the performance and usage of your web applications, such as Azure Monitor and Application Insights.
    

We can build and deploy web applications and APIs in the cloud using Azure App Service. It provides a fully managed platform for hosting web applications and offers a range of features for deployment, security, and monitoring.

## Azure Functions

We are building a web application that allows users to send messages to each other. You want to send an email to the recipient whenever a new message is sent.

You could use an Azure Function triggered by a message added to a queue to send the email. The frontend code could add a message to the line whenever a user sends a new message, and the Azure Function would be triggered to send the email.

This approach has several benefits: it decouples the frontend code from the email-sending logic, allowing you to change the email-sending process without modifying the frontend code, and it will enable you to scale the email-sending process independently of the frontend code by adjusting the number of instances of the Azure Function running.

Azure Functions is a serverless computing service that enables you to run small pieces of code, or "functions," in the cloud. It is a fully managed platform, meaning you don't have to worry about provisioning or maintaining infrastructure.

Azure Functions can be helpful to frontend developers in a few ways:

* Running backend tasks: Azure Functions can run backend tasks, such as sending emails or processing data triggered by events or on a schedule. This can free up the frontend code to focus on the user interface and allow you to decouple the front end and backend of your application.
    
* Integration with other Azure services: Azure Functions can be easily integrated with other Azure services, such as storage, databases, and messaging queues. This can allow you to build scalable, event-driven architectures that can be used to power your web application.
    
* Serverless architecture: Using Azure Functions can allow you to build a serverless architecture that can be more cost-effective and easier to scale than traditional architectures.
    

## Azure DevOps

We are working on a team of front-end developers building a web application. You are using Azure DevOps to manage the development process. You could use Azure Repos to store the source code for the application and track changes to the code over time.

Azure Boards to track tasks and bugs and assign them to team members. You could use Azure Pipelines to set up a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) process to automatically build and deploy the application whenever code changes are pushed to the repository.

Azure DevOps is a set of development tools, services, and features that enable teams to plan, develop, deliver, and maintain software more efficiently. It includes a range of services, such as Azure Boards, Azure Repos, and Azure Pipelines, that can be useful for frontend developers in a few ways:

* Collaboration: Azure DevOps provides tools for version control, collaboration, and code review, which can help front-end developers work together more effectively.
    
* Continuous integration and deployment: Azure DevOps includes Azure Pipelines, a continuous integration and delivery platform that can be used to build, test, and deploy frontend code. This can help automate the deployment process and ensure that code is deployed consistently and reliably.
    
* Project management: Azure DevOps includes Azure Boards, a project management tool that can track and prioritize work, assign tasks, and track progress.
    
    Using Azure DevOps help us improve their collaboration, project management, and deployment processes.
    

## Azure Storage Services

We are building a web application that allows users to upload and share photos. You could use Azure Blob storage to store the images uploaded by users. The frontend code could use the Azure Storage JavaScript client library to send the photos to Azure Blob storage and retrieve them when they need to be displayed in the application.

You could also use Azure Functions to automatically resize and optimize the photos uploaded by triggering a function whenever a new image is added to Azure Blob storage, improving the application's performance and reducing the server's load.

Azure storage services are a set of cloud-based services provided by Microsoft Azure for storing and managing data.

They can be helpful to frontend developers in a few ways:

* Storing static assets: Azure storage services, such as Blob Storage and File storage, can be used to store and retrieve static assets such as images, videos, and other types of media that are used in a web application.
    
* Storing user-generated content: Azure storage services can store and retrieve user-generated content, such as documents or images, that users of a web application upload.
    
* Integrating with Azure Functions: Azure storage services can be easily integrated with Azure Functions, allowing you to build scalable, event-driven architectures that can be used to power your web application.
    

Overall, Azure storage services can be a valuable tool for storing and managing data in the cloud and can be easily integrated with other Azure services to build scalable, event-driven architectures.

## Azure CDN

We are building a web application that displays many images. You could use Azure CDN to improve the application's performance by storing the images in Azure CDN and linking to them from your HTML and CSS code.

When a user accesses the application, the images are delivered from the server closest to the user, reducing the distance they travel and improving the page load time.

Azure CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a cloud-based service that allows you to deliver static assets, such as images, videos, and other media types, more quickly and efficiently to users. It does this by caching the assets on servers located in strategic locations worldwide and delivering them from the server closest to the user.

This can help improve the performance of a web application by reducing the distance the assets have to travel to reach the user. As a front-end developer, you can use Azure CDN to improve the performance of your web application by storing static assets in Azure CDN and linking to them from your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.

You can also use Azure CDN to deliver dynamic content, such as API responses or server-generated HTML, in conjunction with Azure Functions or other backend services.

Overall, Azure CDN can be a valuable tool for front-end developers looking to improve the performance of their web applications by delivering static assets and dynamic content more quickly and efficiently to users.

## Azure Monitoring

We are building a web application with a dashboard showing real-time data. You want to ensure that the dashboard performs well and that the data is updated smoothly.

You could use Azure Monitor to track the dashboard's performance, including the performance of the frontend code rendering the data. You could set up alerts to notify you if the dashboard's performance falls below a certain threshold or if there are errors in the frontend code.

You could also use Azure Monitor to track the usage of the dashboard, including information about the devices and browsers used by your users. This can help you better understand your users and optimize the dashboard's user experience.

Azure monitoring is a set of tools and services provided by Microsoft Azure that can be used to track the performance and usage of a web application. It includes tools such as Azure Monitor and Application Insights, which can be helpful to frontend developers in a few ways:

* Tracking performance: Azure monitoring tools can help you track your web application's performance, including the frontend code's performance. You can use these tools to identify bottlenecks and optimize the performance of your application.
    
* Identifying errors: Azure monitoring tools can help you identify errors and issues in your application, including frontend errors such as JavaScript exceptions. You can use these tools to track the root cause of the errors and fix them.
    
* Analyzing usage: Azure monitoring tools can provide insights into how your application is used, including information about the devices and browsers used by your users. This can help you better understand your users and optimize your application's user experience.
    

Overall, Azure monitoring tools can be helpful to front-end developers looking to track the performance and usage of their web applications and identify and fix issues.

## Conclusion

Using these services as frontend can help improve the collaboration, deployment, performance, and scalability using Azure cloud and the tools and services:

Azure DevOps provides various tools for version control, code review, and project management that can help front-end developers work more effectively as a team.

Using Azure Pipelines to automate the deployment process, ensure that code is deployed consistently and reliably, and improve the performance of a web application by delivering static assets and dynamic content more quickly and efficiently to users using Azure CDN and Azure storage.

Also, Improved scalability with Azure Functions and Azure App Service for building scalable, event-driven architectures that can handle traffic spikes and scale up or down as needed.

I hope this list helps you to pick which services to learn in azure land.

Happy Cloud!