Microsoft has announced the general availability of Azure App Service on Linux
and Web App for Containers. The service allows developers to build, deploy and scale applications without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure. Azure Web Apps were initially announced in 2015, without support for Linux.

“With this, we now offer built-in image support for ASP.NET Core, Node.js, PHP and Ruby on Linux, as well as provide developers an option to bring their own Docker formatted container images supporting Java, Python, Go and more,” said Nir Mashkowski, Partner Director of Program Management, Azure App Service.

All developers need to do is select the stack that apps need and the application environment will be set up automatically. Microsoft will handle the maintenance for you, including Linux OS patching and load balancing.

The service comes with built-in continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) capabilities and scalability. Developers can easily integrate with GitHub, Docker Hub, or Azure Container Registry, then achieve continuous deployment with Jenkins, VSTS, or Maven.
Deployment slots enable developers to deploy to targeted environments and easily move from staging to production. You can easily schedule tests and, if something doesn’t work as expected, roll back to previous working versions with zero downtime. Developers can easily scale their applications, either on demand or automatically.

If developers want more control over the application, they can SSH into the application and get complete remote access.

In addition to Web Apps for Linux, developers can use the service to deploy containerized applications to production very quickly.

“Simply push your container image to Docker Hub, Azure Container Registry, or your private registry, and Web App for Containers will deploy your containerized application and provision required infrastructure,” said Mashkowski.