Gain insights into building REST APIs with FastAPI, explore parallel processing in Python, and discover how to deploy APIs on Microsoft Azure with a CI/CD pipeline using GitHub.

Build a REST API Using Python and Deploy It to Microsoft Azure.png

fastapi-docker.tar.gz

FastAPI-test

Python3

In this course, you will learn how to build a REST API using a lighter web framework for Python, i.e., FastAPI. You will learn the basics of FastAPI and learn how to implement parallel processing in Python APIs.

Finally, you will deploy your API on Microsoft Azure and build a Continuous Integration/Continuous Development (CI/CD) Pipeline using Github.

Build a REST API Using Python and Deploy it to Microsoft Azure

# Introduction to Azure App Service?
*Microsoft* defines the app service in the following way:

> An **Azure App Service** is a fully managed platform for building, deploying and scaling your web apps.

It is a Platform as a Service (*PaaS*) used to host web applications, REST APIs, and back-end services for mobile applications. It doesn't really matter which programming language or framework you have used. Web applications and services that are developed using any of the following programming languages or frameworks can be hosted using *Azure App Services*: `.NET`, `.NET Core`, `Java`, 
`Ruby`, `Node.js`, `PHP` or `Python`. 

In short, *Azure App Services* is used to host web applications and services. 


# *Azure App Services* in comparison with its alternatives
At this point, you might be wondering how hosting on *Azure App Services* different from hosting on your own on-premise server, or in other words, why anyone would use Azure App Service instead of using other alternatives to host their applications and services. Well, to answer this question, it is very important to understand the difference between Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service. We discussed these two concepts in an earlier lesson. 

With on-premise web hosting, you or your organization are responsible for managing pretty much everything. You may have to spec out and procure physical servers, storage, networking equipment, and all the related hardware. You need to make sure that the main power supply, backup power supply, cooling system, etc. are in place. You also need to install and set up the network and install and configure the virtualization software, operating system, any middleware, or runtime components that your application needs. You then need to install and configure a web server like IIS, Apache, Nginx, etc. 

*Azure App Services* on the other hand is a 
Platform as a Service offering. This means that you or your organization will only be responsible for managing your critical business applications and their data. Everything else is managed by *Azure* itself. You or your organization don't need to worry about things like managing the network or underlying infrastructure or installing the operating system updates, critical patches,   runtime, or middleware components. All of these things are taken care of by *Azure*. This gives you even more time to concentrate on what matters to your business. 

# Features of *Azure App Services*
Let's look at some of the great features and benefits of using the *Azure App Services*. 
* It's a fully managed environment, which means it can automatically perform patching and maintains the operating system and language frameworks for you. You get the time to focus on designing, developing, and maintaining your application and its data.
 
* As we already discussed, *Azure App Services* supports a wide variety of programming languages and frameworks like `.NET`, `.NET Core`, `Java`, `Ruby`, `Node.js`, `PHP` or `Python`. You can also run Powershell and other scripts or executables as background services. 
* Scalability is another great benefit. Based on the demand for your application, the app service can scale resources up and down or in and out. You can do this either manually or automatically based on metrics like CPU utilization. 
* From a compliance standpoint, app service is ISO, SOC, and PCI compliant. 
* From a security standpoint, you can authenticate users with Azure Active Directory or any of the external authentication providers like Google, Facebook, Twitter, or Microsoft.   
* You can even host a custom Windows or Linux container in the *app service*. So, if you want to, you can dockerize your application and host it in the *app service*. You can also run multi-container apps with docker-compose.
* Devops automation and optimization is another benefit. You can easily set up CI/CD which is continuous integration and deployment with Azure DevOps, GitHub, Bitbucket, Docker Hub, or Azure Container Registry.
   > We will be using GitHub for CI/CD later in the course. 
* If you still have some of your data on your on-premise servers, you can still access it using hybrid connections and Azure virtual networks. *Azure App Services* provides support for accessing on-premise data as well. 

Learn the PaaS solution offered by Microsoft Azure for building web apps.

Overview of the Course

Building Blocks of an API in Python

Learn the Basics of FastAPI

Optical Character Recognition API Using Tesseract - Project 1

Cloud and Microsoft Azure Services

Text Analytics API Using Azure Cognitive Services - Project 2

Deploy the REST API on Microsoft Azure

Pop Quiz

Appendix

Azure App Service

Introduction to Azure App Service?

Azure App Services in comparison with its alternatives