Azure Spring Cloud Cloud Native App Development and Management

Azure Spring Cloud is a fully managed service that allows you to build and deploy cloud-native applications with ease.

It provides a flexible and scalable platform for developing, deploying, and managing microservices-based applications.

With Azure Spring Cloud, you can focus on writing code and let the platform handle the underlying infrastructure and operations.

The service supports a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Python, and Node.js, making it a versatile choice for developers.

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Getting Started with Azure Spring Cloud is a breeze, thanks to the straightforward installation process from the Azure Portal. You can deploy your app there without needing to know much more than the instance name.

The first step is to choose the right starter dependencies for your project. Spring Cloud Azure Starters are a set of convenient dependency descriptors that include all the dependencies and transitive dependencies needed to begin using their corresponding Spring Cloud Azure module.

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Here's a list of application starters provided by Spring Cloud Azure under the com.azure.spring group:

By choosing the right starter dependencies, you can boost your Spring Boot application development with Azure services and get started with using Spring Cloud Azure.

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To get started with Azure Spring Cloud, you'll need to add the necessary dependencies to your project. The core dependency is the Spring Boot Web starter, which enables REST support through the Spring MVC module.

You'll also need to include the Spring Data repositories to integrate with Cosmos DB. The dedicated starter for this is spring-cloud-azure-starter-data-cosmos. This starter includes all the dependencies and transitive dependencies needed to begin using Spring Data for Azure Cosmos DB.

To make things easier, you can use the Spring Cloud Azure Starters, which are a set of convenient dependency descriptors to include in your application. Each starter contains all the dependencies and transitive dependencies needed to begin using their corresponding Spring Cloud Azure module.

Here's a list of some of the starters provided by Spring Cloud Azure:

A Bill of Materials (BOM) is a crucial part of managing dependencies in your project. It's a centralized way to manage versions of your dependencies.

Maven users can add the BOM to their pom.xml file in the dependencyManagement section. This delegates versioning to the BOM, so you don't need to specify versions for individual Maven dependencies.

With Gradle, you have two options to import the spring-cloud-azure-dependencies BOM: use Gradle's native BOM support or the io.spring.dependency-management plugin.

Here are the ways to import the BOM with Gradle:

Spring Boot 2.x users should set the spring-cloud-azure-dependencies version to 4.19.0. This ensures all Spring Cloud Azure dependencies are using the same version.

Starter dependencies are a convenient way to include the necessary dependencies for your Spring Boot application to work with Azure services.

To get started with Spring and Azure Cosmos DB for data persistence, you can include the spring-cloud-azure-starter-cosmos dependency in your project.

The spring-cloud-azure-starter-cosmos starter includes all the dependencies and transitive dependencies needed to begin using Spring Data for Azure Cosmos DB.

Here is a list of application starters provided by Spring Cloud Azure under the com.azure.spring group:

Using a Bill of Materials (BOM) is a good idea when working with multiple dependencies, as it ensures that all dependencies are using the same version.

Cloud setup is a breeze with Azure. You can create a resource group for your exercise, like I did with "sample-spring-cloud".

In Azure, you can create a new database account with a name of your choice, such as "sample-pminkows-cosmosdb". This account should be placed inside your resource group.

To decrease instance cost, you can override some parameters when creating a database account, like setting the Local backup redundancy type using the --backup-redundancy parameter.

Once you've enabled your database account, you can create a database instance with a name like "sampled", which should be placed in your Cosmos DB account.

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To store data, you'll need to create a container inside your database, with a name that matches the value of the containerName field in your model class, such as the Account class.

The partition key path is also crucial when creating a container, and in this case, it's set to the customerId field in the Account class.

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App Configuration is a vital feature in Azure Spring Cloud, allowing you to manage application settings and configurations in a centralized manner. This makes it easier to update and maintain your applications.

You can store sensitive data such as connection strings, API keys, and other configuration values securely. This helps to prevent hardcoding these values directly in your code.

Azure Spring Cloud provides a built-in configuration service that supports various data sources, including property files, environment variables, and secret stores.

Azure Spring Cloud makes it easy to run Spring Boot apps in the cloud. It provides a service registry, client-side load balancing, and circuit breakers.

With Azure Spring Cloud, you can easily manage your Spring Boot apps. It takes care of service discovery, configuration management, and distributed tracing.

Azure Spring Cloud integrates with other Azure services to provide a secure managed microservice architecture. This includes Application Gateway, Azure Firewall, Azure Front Door, and Express Route.

Here are some of the network products that Azure Spring Cloud connects to:

Azure Spring Cloud allows teams to build new business services rapidly, as the platform and underlying infrastructure is fully managed.

The platform is integrated with the Azure ecosystem, which enables teams to achieve the desired level of automation and operate services securely.

Abhay Kamble, Director of Unified Commerce at Raley's, says that Spring Boot and Azure Spring Cloud have enabled developers to focus more on feature development and frequent deployments without worrying about underlying infrastructure or monitoring.

Nicolas Van Kerschaver, CIO of Liantis, states that Azure Spring Cloud capabilities complement and extend their existing Spring Cloud software factory, allowing them to focus on developing core business functionalities.

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Azure Spring Cloud is especially important in restructuring monolithic legacy apps as microservices.

Here are some benefits of using Azure Spring Cloud:

Sudipto Ghosh, a former Director of Content at iTech Series, notes that LTIMindtree and Microsoft have joined forces to supercharge AI innovation and digital transformation, which is a testament to the power of Azure Spring Cloud.

The sample app used in Azure Spring Cloud tutorials is called Piggy Metrics, a personal finance app.

It's deployed to Azure with Azure Spring Cloud capabilities, making it a great example of how the platform can be used in real-world scenarios.

The Piggy Metrics app is a quickstart tutorial offered by the Microsoft Azure DevOps team in their documentation blog.

This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide on how to use Azure Spring Cloud to build an app, making it a great resource for developers who want to learn more about the platform.

The app is a great example of how Azure Spring Cloud can be used to build scalable and efficient cloud-based applications.

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