Let us dive deep into the Azure Functions Premium Plan—an excellent option that fills the gap between the flexibility of serverless and the capabilities needed for enterprise applications. This article explains what it is, its benefits, and how to create it.
Azure Function Premium Plan
The Azure Functions Premium Plan, also known as the Elastic Premium Plan, is an excellent option for Azure Functions, offering several valuable features, including No Cold Start and VNet connectivity.
You can deploy multiple Azure Function Apps under the same Premium Plan. The plan also allows you to configure the plan size based on your requirements.
Check out Azure Functions Dedicated Plan
Azure Functions Premium plan features
Pre-warmed Instances
One of the most significant advantages of the Premium Plan is the elimination of cold starts. Your functions run on pre-warmed instances, ensuring immediate response times even after periods of inactivity.
Enhanced Performance
The Premium Plan provides more powerful hardware than the Consumption Plan, resulting in:
- Faster CPU performance
- Higher memory allocations
- More consistent execution times
Advanced Networking Capabilities
The Premium Plan offers advanced networking features that are essential for enterprise environments:
- Virtual Network Integration: Connect securely to resources within your VNet
- Private Endpoints: Allow functions to be accessed only from within your network
- Static Outbound IP Addresses: Critical for IP allowlisting scenarios
Longer Running Functions
While the Consumption Plan limits function execution to 10 minutes, the Premium Plan extends this to 60 minutes (with the option to configure up to unlimited running time for specific scenarios).
Instance Size Options
The Premium Plan offers various instance sizes to match your workload requirements:
| Plan | vCPU | Memory | Price Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| EP1 | 1 | 3.5GB | Basic |
| EP2 | 2 | 7GB | Medium |
| EP3 | 4 | 14GB | High |
When To Choose The Azure Functions Premium Plan?
It would be best if you chose the Azure Functions Premium Plan in the case of a few Key scenarios like below.
- Choose the Azure Functions Premium Plan if your Azure Function Apps run continuously.
- If you need more memory or CPUs, compare them to the Consumption plan as part of your requirement.
- If your Azure Function code is taking longer to execute.
- If you want to utilize premium features such as Virtual Network connectivity, Unlimited Code execution duration, More instance sizes, Warm instances to avoid cold starts, and the ability to run multiple Azure Function Apps under the same plan, etc.
Benefits
Scaling for the Function App is much faster than the Premium Plan. Scaling will be done once every 30 seconds. When there is a high load, the Azure function infrastructure scales CPU and memory resources by adding additional instances.
You can use a CNAME or an A record to map a custom domain for the Function Apps hosted in the Premium plan. Whereas in the case of the Consumption plan, only the CNAME option is supported.
The Premium Plan offers numerous networking features, including Hybrid connections that enable you to connect Azure Functions with your on-premises database, Virtual Network Integration, Inbound and Outbound IP restrictions, Virtual Network triggers, and more.
Another thing is. In the Premium Plan case, your App will always be ready with a maximum of 20 instances. These instances help us execute first in case any events begin.
How To Create A Premium Plan
Follow the steps below to create a premium plan Azure Function App using the Azure Portal.
- Log in to the Azure Portal (https://portal.azure.com/)
- Search for the Function App and click on the search result.
3. Click the + Add button on the Azure Function App page to add a Premium Plan Azure Function App.
On the Basics tab, choose Your Subscription and select the Existing Resource Group. Suppose you don’t have any existing resource groups. In that case, you can create a new resource group by clicking on the Create new link, providing a name for the Azure Function App, choosing the Publish option as Code, choosing the Runtime stack as .NET Core, Version as 3.1, and then choosing your Azure Function Region.
Finally, click the Next: Hosting > button to navigate to the Hosting tab.