Does Your Car Really Need 3M Paint Protection?

Your car's paint is tough enough to remain in good condition but if you take a closer look at it, you will find out that it is far from perfect. A car can be maintained in excellent condition solely if it is kept in a garage and never taken out.

What causes minor car paint damage? A lot of harmful influences will be capable of scratching or nicking the coating. Something as simple as tiny flying rocks can cause a lot of damage. The same applies to sand, gravel and other kinds of roadside debris.

Car paint will also be permanently damaged through staining. Some of the roadside stains are exceptionally stubborn and impossible to remove. These are usually caused by tar and grease buildups. Bug stains, although removable, can be a true pain to handle. They demand a lot of effort to be taken out of the paint.

Most vehicle owners visit car shops to deal with minor damage like paint scratches. Although far from very expensive, fixing such problems on a regular basis can lead to some undesired expenditure. This is why the 3M paint protection film is a truly practical solution.

3M clear bra is a very thin polyurethane film that is very tough and nearly 100 percent transparent. This paint protection film will absorb the shock and deflect small flying objects. Thus, the car paint located underneath will remain unharmed.

The clear bra is just one of the options available on the market. Other bras are made of vinyl and leather, for example. They are much heavier and more difficult to install. The only advantage that such car bras come with is that they are capable of deflecting larger objects precisely because of the fact that they are heavier.

Apart from the fact that it absorbs shock, the clear bra film is water resistant. This is one of the biggest differences between it and the older kinds of car bras. No moisture can get trapped underneath, which means that the clear bra can remain in its place when the car is getting washed or whenever a rainfall is expected. The fact increases its practicality because other kinds of car paint protection need to be removed and re-installed each time.

Once installed, 3M paint protection will remain in excellent condition for at least five years. This is the duration of the product's warranty. Many vehicle owners have, however, reported that the clear bra will offer reliable protection over a much longer period of time. Proper maintenance of the car and the usage of a garage will extend its longevity.

Do you need a paint protection film for your car? The answer depends on the manner in which you maintain your car. Every vehicle suffers some damage, even if the driver is very careful and using solely the best of roads. The usage of 3M paint protection will minimize maintenance costs, which makes it highly affordable and very practical. To sum it up, everybody can benefit from the product, even the owners of motorcycles, bicycles, boats and private jets. Does 3M paint protection work? It does and it can prevent the appearance of ugly scratches from some of the most common types of roadside influences.

Auto Painting Tips - Auto Paint Protection and Care

Auto Painting Tips - Auto Paint Protection and Care

I remember when I first bought my new car, I was astonished at the look of a new paint job and I knew that from then on I would keep the paint looking great. Well, 3 years later I am looking at a car that has massive overspray and dirt all over. For a car enthusiast, it is at the utmost importance to keep your paint maintained and protected. Here are a few tips on how you can protect and maintain your vehicles paint job:

The Obvious: Wash Your Vehicle!

The most obvious tip in this article is going to be washing your vehicle. I know that it probably shouldn't be mentioned but even I get lazy every now and then and fail to get out there and wash my car. I would refrain from using car washes as they can accidentally scratch your vehicles paint. Most of the time, you will need to wash your car before doing anything else to it such as waxing or using compound and/or clay.

Keeping Your Vehicle Safe:

If you can keep your vehicle in the garage when you are at home, by all means drive her in there! You can save your paint job from random debris and overspray that the neighbors didn't tell you about. I have had this happen a few times. Also, try to keep your vehicle out of the sun as much as possible. After all, you wouldn't deliberately sit in the sun all day knowing it would be painful, would you?

Keeping your Paint Waxed:

A lot of people don't realize that your paint is just like the skin on your body. When it's hot outside the pores in the paint open up causing dirt and debris to fill in, easily damaging the paint on your vehicle. By Waxing your vehicle, you can ensure that the dirt and debris will not get in the pores of the paint when they are opened up by heat. If you are going to wax your vehicles paint, make sure you wash your vehicle first so that you can remove all the dirt and debris. Waxing your vehicle will also prolong the clear coat life and keep you semi protected from minor scratches.

Applying a Good Sealer:

Car Sealant became popular around the late 1980's and since then people have been using what is known as "clear coat" to coat over their vehicles paint for added protection. I guess you could consider it the skin on the apple. After a while of wear and tear, your paint will begin to lose its sealer or clear coat and you will have to add more. Now, you can go to a paint shop and paint boat loads of money to do this or you can do it yourself (it's not very hard). You want to make sure you always have a good paint sealant so that if you get overspray or a scratch on the paint, it won't hurt the paint.

In conclusion, you can always keep your vehicles paint protected. It's always better to be overprotective of your paint if you want to keep it in show room floor quality.

Integrating Social Media and Recruitment Together

Facebook has over 750 million users; Twitter has about 200 million and 100 million on LinkedIn! What are we doing just making friends, following each other and people or institutions we admire or update our professional profile just to let people know? Here we are, at a point in time where these social networks are being exploited for recruitment purposes. And not just for doing background checks on applicants but companies are utilizing these virtual spaces to establish themselves, create positive brand image, post about job openings, and search for relevant candidates and of course, to finally take a look at their profiles before processing the applications.

When using social networks for recruiting, information asymmetry exists between employers and prospective employees. It is important for candidates to take a step forward and bridge this gap. Apart from following/becoming a fan of all the companies that are on the list and applying whenever a relevant job posting come your way, there are some more things that can be done.

The first and foremost important thing is that being a potential candidate, you need to know your future employer better and also give him a chance to understand you. Begin with getting as much information about the companies as you can. And not just about the role and the salary but also understand what the philosophy of the company is, what are the work ethics like, the hierarchical nature. While finding out what the employees think about their company and taking interview tips from them, try and also find out what the customers of the company think about their product/services. Are they satisfied? Do they have any trouble? If so, has the company taken due cognisance and improved their customer relations?

In the sector that you might be looking at entering, it will also be interesting to observe closely the social network presence of competitors. On the outset all of them might be big companies but understanding the intrinsic differences in functioning can help a candidate carve out his/her own preferences better and understand where he/she can fit the best.

All the three social networks function fundamentally differently. It can be helpful to understand that as well. Each of them has pros and cons. Facebook might not be the best place for indiscretion but it is the best for mass recruitment. LinkedIn might be the best network while searching for a person to work in one particular role but the power of community is non-existent on LinkedIn reducing its utility if next year some company wants to employ a handful of HR professionals. Twitter’s most constraining feature is the 140 characters limitation but on the brighter side, it allows connect on on-on-one basis.

The essence is that one must become knowledgeable. And only holistic information can lead to such knowledge. Gathering information from all possible sources about every little thing matters is a must! It is not enough to only have the details that immediately matter in the recruitment process. Clear understanding of what one is getting into will maximize the benefits of this process for both the parties.

This is only one side of the story! Alongside these efforts, it is obviously important to create a strong brand and make yourself sellable. Candidates should carefully put down their profile details. If you are looking at getting a job through a social network, it is essential to put in as much effort as it is required to prepare a good CV. Past experiences and learning need to be concise but put down in a way such that it would appeal to all the prospective employers; across industries and companies. No scope to customize it for every placement! It is also important that the profile comprise of the most important keywords that would be potentially ‘searched’ for. If you are linking this to your blogs, articles or any other mention of you on the worldwide web, make it a point not to let it put you in any dimmer light than it should! Also be careful as to where that particular link might lead them. Google works in amazing ways! So do not try to hide anything.

But do not show too much also. Yes there still a bit more to do! Don’t overdo it. Too much noise and not sufficient substance can kill it for sure. But even if you do have the substance, don’t make it obvious and overtly visible. On the technical end; just a tip! The Corporate Recruiter Tool of LinkedIn favours the passive jobseekers over the desperate ones. And otherwise, it creates a very strong impression. You do not want the recruiters making judgements such as you are a show-off, even before they interview you. Right?

Yes, it is more difficult to know how much to balance out, even more than actually balancing the information. You never know if the company will appreciate your openness and frankness or think of you as careless and show-off. And therefore another suggestion, if you are looking for a job real bad, you might have to take more efforts than just putting all your hopes into the social networks. As mentioned above, the LinkedIn tool while selling information to employers, actually puts you down in the list.

Too much pressure is being built. The social recruiting methods build some amount of pressure on the candidates. I might not be an alcoholic, but a few photos here and there of my socially taken drinks can potentially tick me off the list. Ideally, the companies must make a fair judgement by looking at the photos carefully and making fair decisions. But really, the world is not ideal and the HR people have enough work to do. So what? Social network is about being the way I would be with my friends; I am myself there to the degree of introversion/extroversion that I am in the real life. It is not easy to behave on social networks the manner in which I would present myself in the workplace (Except on LinkedIn may be!). Alas! Given that this process is meant to be beneficial to both parties, the best we can do is to hope that in the long-run it will be all well.

KPI Recruitment for Recruitment Agencies

KPI Recruitment - How to set?

Many new recruitment agencies that have started their own recruitment agencies are having the basic problem of setting a KPI for their recruitment consultants. There are concerns that whether the KPI set is either too high or set at a level that is too low.

When the KPI recruitment is set too high, the problem is that the recruitment consultants will feel very pressured and not able to hit the KPI, if they are not able to hit the KPI, then there will be possible that they are not able to receive any commissions and of course when money is on the line, it will affect their own performance and morale too.

When KPI recruitment is set too low, it will not be able to bring in good profit margins for the company and eventually the company overheads will be higher than the sales in total and that will be a possibility that company will face a financial crisis.

Let’s look at what is KPI recruitment– Key Performance Indicator

Key Performance Indicator is a set of numbers or target set for the salesperson, in this case, is the recruitment consultant where they will need to achieve in a specific period, usually within the calendar month itself.

KPI can be measured in the total sales generated, total resume send to clients, total interviews arranged with the clients or even the total number of new clients secured. The type of KPI will be fixed by the boss of the company or the General Manager of the company where it will be set and to be followed by the consulting team.

Most of the time, many companies will use the total sales of the recruitment consultant as their KPI, which is to say that in this case, they will set a multiplier to their salary earned per month and that will be their sales target or we called it the KPI.

For example, if the salary of the recruitment consultant is $3,000 gross monthly and if the company set the KPI as 4 times the salary, then the KPI will be $3,000 x 4 = $12,000. That will be the KPI every month.

Some recruitment companies will use a lower multiplier such as 3 times, 2.5 times or even 2 times the salary and if the recruitment consultants reached their KPI, then they will be entitled to additional allowances or commissions. Other companies will set the KPI based on a fixed figure such as $6,000 or $10,000 to make calculation easier.

There are no hard and fast rule to set what will be the KPI for the recruitment consultants, it will very much depend on the direction of the company, whether to squeeze the most dollar from the recruitment consultants or create a non-KPI environment where people will be free and easy to bring out more from the consultants.

Regardless of whether it is based on sales figures or other indicators as a KPI, what most important is that KPI is a basic benchmark for a company and the consultants. As such the level of KPI will need to be managed properly so that the company survival and consultant morale will be balanced.

What Questions to Ask Clients When You Meet Them? For Recruitment Consultant.

For many new recruitment consultant that have chosen this very interesting career in the recruitment industry, one of the most important and frightening event is to meet up with potential clients and to convince the clients to give them the business so that they can work on the deals.

So when you meet up with the clients, done the presentation, what happen after that? You will need to ask further questions with the potential clients on the jobs and requirements.

Well, let me tell you a secret before you actually go and see your client – this is very important, not many people in the recruitment industry will tell you the secret, many instance, not many people actually does not knows it exist. The formula below only comes from people who have many years of experience in seeing and talking to people.

The Secret is : The QUALITY of your question is = How the clients PERCEIVED you = Whether they will GIVE you the business.

Many recruitment consultants will ask the basic questions such as:

-          What will be the salary range of the position?

-          Does your company works on weekends?

-          How are the working hours?

-          What are the job duties of this position?

-          What are the minimum qualifications needed for this position?

Well, I would say that whoever had asked these questions, the possibilities of the recruitment consultants not able to get the business had shot up to 70-80%, that means the recruitment consultant is losing the business!

Why am I saying this? The reason is very simple, let me ask you a vey straight forward question, the very client that you are meeting, are they meeting with you only? Will they be meeting with some other agencies that are your competitors? Have they meet someone before meeting you? The answer is YES, under normal situation, they would have met someone of the same industry and they are your competitors. Will your competitors ask the same questions as above? Very likely they have! So if you are queue number #5 meeting the client and you are asking the same questions the first 4 recruitment consultant had asked, what would that make you to become?????

I am sure you get my point, you are just the SAME, no difference, no spice and blend….sorry to say but this is what the other party will feel and they DO NOT like to see something that is the SAME, BLEND and TASTELESS….

YOU NEED TO BE DIFFERENT!!!!!

You need to impress them with something different, let me ask you another question what is the purpose of meeting with your client? To discuss about the job requirement or something else? If you are meeting with the client, your job is to IMPRESS the client, not to talk about the job description and requirement. Period! Get the fact right, you need to make them feel good, make them think that you can do the job, let them have higher confidence on you and your company….the point is, YOU ARE THE FOCUS, not the job order!

In the event that the company is confident on you, trust that you will be able to get the job done, will that make them give you the job order, requirements and also anything and everything you need to know without you asking? YES they will! They will be so anxious why you never ask those “Golden” questions!

My friend, you need to be different, unique so that it can impress the clients….

A recruitment Agency article by Dougles Chan

Slock.it working with Microsoft to bring its Dapp to the Azure cloud

Business analytics, data management, identity and messaging: meet Slock.it.

We’re pleased to announce that we’re working with Microsoft to bring the Slock.it Đapp to the Microsoft Azure Cloud, powered by Ethereum.


Microsoft has heavily invested in their cloud infrastructure, now leveraged by thousands of large corporate partners to deploy countless applications, ranging from machine learning to data warehousing — and now, interacting with the decentralized sharing/collaborative economy.
For Slock.it UG, this means unprecedented exposure to ‘mainstream IT’ and new potential partners in our mission to grow a DAO ecosystem. For the DAO to which we will make a Proposal, it would means expanding its serviceable available market to include thousands of new channels across a variety of verticals it could only have dreamed of a few short weeks ago.

This will also make it very easy for developers to build Đapps for the Ethereum Computer, by simplifying retrieving data from existing services (e.g. Oracles) or triggering hosted applications and devices based on messages and payments made on the blockchain. We’ll soon make available an Ubuntu core image bundling the Ethereum framework and the Slock.it Snappy Đapp for developers to build on. These Đapps can then be deployed without modifications to the Ethereum Computer, making the Azure cloud the perfect environment to experiment with Slock.it and smart objects such as the Samsung SmartThings line.


Samsung SmartThings are accessible via a REST API to Microsoft Azure apps
Some of you may wonder if there is added value of deploying a blockchain on top of a cloud service — an infrastructure which is by definition centralized. The Ethereum “Blockchain as a Service” allows Microsoft customers and partners to test and integrate blockchains as part of their network easily, within an environment they can understand and control. It’s a sandbox, a playground. It might not make sense for the hacker who enjoys spending 3 days compiling the Dev branch on CAELinux. But if your name is GE, Pearson or 3M — it’s the ideal way to get started — with a one-click deployment.

We’re particularly excited about what this will mean for companies that are keen to explore Slock.it in order to decentralize access control, but are hesitant with regards to how this integration might impact existing services.

Think about a warehouse provider wanting to:

Authorize users to access their buildings (brokers, property managers, leasing officers, maintenance techs, etc.) => Slock.it Đapp + Blockchain + Azure Identity
Create an agenda for users to plan their access to the building => Azure Compute
Deploy access control on the buildings that could be unlocked through a secure mobile app => Azure Mobile Services, including 2FA
Capture data on the Đapp (property information, site visit review form etc) => Azure Storage Service
Push all the above data to a CRM system (e.g., if visited by a broker, then it will be stored as an opportunity) => Azure platform as a service (PaaS)
Generate reports => Azure Business Analytics
I didn’t choose this example at random — this is paraphrased from a conversation with a company currently exploring our technology. Big chunks of their access control can be automated and decentralized with the Slock.it App, and now with Azure integration, it can be done as part of an incremental transition toward decentralization, eliminating the need to call an expensive integrator or spending months experimenting with costly PoCs.

Azure Cloud Functions vs. AWS Lambda What you Need to Know

Microsoft announced their answer to AWS Lambda at their Build 2016 conference. Brace yourself for the next cloud hosting change; because, it now seems like everyone is going “serverless.” Amazon Web Service’s Lambda, Google’s Cloud Functions, IBM’s OpenWhisk, and now Azure’s Functions.

There’s too much to compare in one article, so I’ll write about the differences in a series of articles. I’ve had the opportunity to play with some. Google’s Cloud Functions are in private alpha, so I can’t share much about them, but Microsoft’s are in public preview.

I’ve been using Lambda a lot lately and it’s been a game changer.

While Azure’s cloud function usage is billed the same way, the service is radically different than Lambda under the hood.

Before you make any major decisions, keep in mind that these services are evolving.

Supported Languages
This will change over time for every cloud function service.

Azure Functions supports Node.js, C#, F#, Python and PHP. They also list Java, bash, and batch but it’s not clear how to use these (again, it’s in preview).

AWS Lambda supports Node.js, Python, and Java for now.

I think PHP support is a very strategic choice given its popularity, but I wish one of these services would better support Go.

Why Go? Because it runs fast and its code is easy to read. It is a language of brevity and therefore fits well for the cloud and (micro)services. Add Rust and Swift to the list too.

It’s important to note that you can execute binaries in both services through one of these languages. This is the method in which Go works in Lambda. Both Apex and also Sparta are serverless frameworks that let you use Go in Lambda as well.

It would be great for a cloud function service to support Go natively. Swift for mobile developers who often need simple back-end services would also be a smart move.
Web Dashboard
No amount of fancy devops tricks or tooling will save you from having to use the web dashboard at least every now and then.

Azure’s Function usage charts are still being developed, but they will be there and at least on par with Lambda’s.

Azure’s new dashboard is beautiful.
Once you understand the organizational structure of Azure Function it becomes a little easier. The same can be said for AWS Lambda too.

One important difference is the editor. Both are on par when it comes to the function’s settings screen. However, Azure has the more robust Visual Studio Online which can also be used.


Azure Functions can be authored with Visual Studio Online.
Visual Studio Online is found under the Function’s App Service’s tools section. It’s worth noting that there are some other cool tools here too, including a console.

Most of your development time should be outside of dashboards anyway. I don’t consider them a huge factor in my decision making process but they can offer convenience.

System Structure
Let’s dive into the architecture of Azure Functions compared to Lambda.

An “App Service” is a container, or environment, for a set of Azure Functions. This is much different than Lambda. In fact, the two services couldn’t be more different.

Lambdas are organizationally independent, where Azure Functions are grouped logically into an “application.”

This App Service can either by “dynamic” or “classic.” The dynamic option is where you pay only for the time and memory your functions use. This is the biggest similarity between Lambda and Azure Functions.

It’s important to note that the memory you allocate is per app service (with potentially many functions), not per function like Lambda.

I think of the “classic” App Service more like Amazon ECS where you have EC2 instances running to handle the tasks or functions. The pricing model for this is then like EC2.

Azure is actually more like a blend between ECS Tasks and Lambda. For example, you can set environment variables on App Services which are then available for your Azure Functions. AWS Lambda cannot persist environment variables, but ECS Tasks can (correction/update: Lambda now can as pointed out by Jeremy Axmacher, thank you).

The entire container architecture is different. Lambdas provision a brand new one and deploys your code (from a zip file) on a cold request. Subsequent requests can be subject to container re-use and be handled much faster. However, you need to understand there is no persistence and with Node.js Lambdas you need to watch your variable scope because the container can be re-used.

However, Azure Functions are less subject to the cold/warm request effects. Azure still provisions resources as needed, but your files aren’t “frozen” somewhere in a zip file. They run on top of Azure’s WebJobs.

Azure Functions are also supposed to be accessible via FTP by connecting to the App Service’s FTP. Though I couldn’t get it to work so far during my review (no matter how many times I reset my credentials).

Azure Functions of course is a Windows system (32bit for dynamic services) while Lambda is a Linux system. Though I do hope that changes since Ubuntu can now run on Windows. In fact, that would put Azure in a good position with cloud hosting.

Continuous Deployment
Speaking of working with the files, you can deploy your Azure Functions in a variety of ways:

Git (you can connect GitHub, Bitbucket, etc.)
Dropbox
OneDrive
Visual Studio Team Services
Visual Studio Online editor
Cloud function’s own editor under it’s settings area (limited to just the code and the function.json)
You have many more inherent options than AWS Lambda, but I didn’t explore any sort of CLI deployment. Lambda has some great 3rd party tools for deploying Lambdas and both cloud services have SDKs to make just about anything possible.

I do have to hand it to Microsoft here though. You can hook up GitHub, even with your favorite CI tool, and easily deploy your cloud functions to Azure. Release managers rejoice.

Though it’s important to note that Lambdas can be versioned whereas Azure Functions can not (at least not yet). So if you wanted to rollback, you’ll need to rely on Git or some other version control system.

Run Your Functions Anywhere
One challenge with Lambda is development workflow. People have created tools to test your Lambda locally so you can write code, run, and then even deploy if all looks good.

There are also several “serverless frameworks” that help with this process too.

Regardless, Lambda is closed source. However, Azure Function’s runtime is open-source. I would expect some clever CI integrations in the future.

Function Triggers & Integrations
I also have to concede that Azure Functions make things a bit easier in this department too. Every function automatically maps to an HTTP endpoint if enabled. Whereas with Lambda, you must configure API Gateway separately.

API Gateway is fine, but complex and time consuming. Again, some serverless frameworks ease this pain point by automatically setting up an API for Lambdas.

Microsoft gets points for UX because you have a lot less to configure. I’m not sure you can run Azure Functions from multiple triggers though. It doesn’t appear that way, but maybe by editing the function.json directly you can.

I would say that AWS Lambda has a slight edge in flexibility here, but both services are constantly changing.

The Azure app and function names are reflected in the URLs to trigger the cloud functions. This helps avoid confusion, but might also be limiting.


Apparently all HTTP methods are supported (GET, POST, etc.) through the endpoint assigned to each cloud function. With API Gateway, you need to configure each method manually.

One thing I don’t see is path variables. It seems that everything must be passed as a querystring or in the request body.

To be fair, it’s called an “HTTP trigger” so when thinking about it in those terms, it makes sense. If you need more robust settings, then you’re talking about “API configuration and management.”

Azure Functions also have super easy authentication. You can protect the cloud function endpoints with 3rd party authentication; this includes Facebook, Twitter, Google, and of course Microsoft’s auth.

I’ve never setup Facebook auth for an HTTP endpoint so quickly and easily before in my life.
You can configure CORS and you can also manage your own domain name for the endpoints. Though I couldn’t see if there was a way to limit the HTTP request methods. I imagine with Azure’s API management service more will be possible, but then you’re going through as much work as API Gateway.

I don’t think there’s a clear “winner” here. Both Microsoft and Amazon have powerful features for triggering cloud functions with HTTP requests. Though I definitely think Amazon could learn a thing or two about UX from Microsoft.

Azure Solves a Few Pain Points
I was thoroughly impressed by Azure and I think it’s in part due to its new dashboard. The new dashboard and the process of setting up cloud functions in a logical group called an “app” makes complete sense.

To illustrate how obvious this pain point is, look no further than Serverless (formerly JAWS) and Apex. These are two serverless frameworks that address this specific organizational concern. They help a developer logically group functions.

Another pain point with Lambda is the maximum execution time limit. It wasn’t always clear and many people never thought their functions would run that long (at least in my experience).

The time limit used to be 1 minute for Lambda, but increased to 5 to help with “ETL” operations according to Amazon. I’m happy for the time limit increase, but even 5 minutes may not be sufficient for all operations.

Iron.io pointed out that their workers had no time limits in a comparison with Lambda. Iron workers are another option, though I stayed the course with AWS Lambda. I even found a way to re-purpose your Lambda code as ECS Tasks to cope with the 5 minute limit.

While that solved my own problems with the time limit, I understand that it’s not a solution for everyone. It also requires EC2 instances which are billed in a different fashion. So it’s not a perfect solution if “pay as you go” is a top priority.

Azure’s Functions really are the perfect blend of Lambdas and ECS Tasks. You can write and execute the same exact code regardless of the environment and billing model. There are apparently no time limits either(so long as your function is not idle).


“Always On” will change the billing model.
On the other hand, I imagine there could be some surprises in billing too. Lambda’s 5 minute execution time limit does serve to protect you from expense. Will Microsoft keep billing you for some accidental loop in a cloud function? Assuming the same amount of resources were used, will the cost work out to be about the same regardless of billing models? It’s perhaps too early to say since it’s still in preview and there is no pricing information available yet.

There is some chatter about this concern though if you follow the GitHub issue.

Other Observations
As I explored Azure Functions and it’s underlying architecture (as best I could), I realized a few other things of note.

First, since there is persistence and no execution time limits, working with large files and ETL is easier. Just watch out for how cost effective this ends up being or not being.

With Lambda + API Gateway, the content-type of the response is set via API Gateway. With Azure Functions, the content-type is set by the code. This can be very useful, but could also lead to some bloated functions.

Remember, your goal is not to build a complete application within a cloud function. It’s not really possible to do with Lambda’s limitations, but it is with Azure. So be careful not to fall into any bad practices.

Watch out for Azure Function’s limitation — only 10 concurrent executions per function.
Again, Azure Functions run on a server with a persistent filesystem and webroot. It’s just not accessible to the outside world. However, it is accessible to you while logged in.

All of your code and assets can be seen via a URL like this: https://yourAppName.scm.azurewebsites.net/dev/api/files/wwwroot/HttpTriggerNodeJS1/index.js

This maps this location on disk: /home/site/wwwroot/HttpTriggerNodeJS1

Is there a cost to request these files this way? Can you somehow open this to the public? I don’t know. It definitely might raise an eye-brow or two though.

You have more insight, access to and control over the environment running your cloud function than you do with AWS Lambda…For better or worse.

Speaking of insight, when listing the directory of D:\home\site\wwwroot where your files are, it indicates that there is over 5 terabytes of disk space available!

This is much more than Lambda’s default ephemeral disk space of 500MB. There isn’t as much info about Azure’s Cloud Functions limitations just yet, but it is important to note that the instance limit is 10 while using “dynamic” service apps (up from 4). The concurrent execution limit per instance is a bit unknown. Lambda’s limit is 100 concurrent executions total (which is a soft limit).


Your Azure Functions are but a drop in a very large bucket.
Is everyone’s code on the same storage volume? Or does each Azure account gets its own, very large, storage volume? I’m not familiar enough with what’s going on to know, but exploring is fun.

So Which Path?
I would encourage everyone to explore and try each of these services. Understand why and when they they can help you. The end result can be a game changer for you too.

The cloud has powerful magic, but not all clouds are the same. Get to know the environment your code lives in as well as the capabilities of the services available to you. Read the fine print. Understand the limitations and tradeoffs.

Only with this information can you make an informed decision. Remember, your choice will be the path less taken here.

My choice? The jury is still out. I use a variety of services because I believe there is strength and opportunity in diversity.

I primarily use Lambda and ECS because it’s well established. I love AWS and will continue to use it happily, but I definitely think these companies can learn a thing or two from each other.

There’s a lot of opportunity in this fast changing landscape. There aren’t many books. Few best practices. Barely any frameworks. Less than ideal monitoring and debugging. There will be trial and error. You are subject to the possibility of having to re-build code and move your operations. If it gives you any solace, you will be in good company. Some major companies and smart developers are on board with cloud services and the (micro)service movement. This is the new frontier on the web. Buy the ticket, take the ride.