Due to the ease of use and availability of a diverse set of triggers and bindings for Azure Functions, Azure Functions are being used more and more in various use cases. In this section, we will see some of the use cases in which Azure Functions can be used.

Again, we make use of our fictional company, ShipAnyWhere, to explain some use cases:

• Extending Logic Apps functionality: ShipAnyWhere has a logic app that processes orders. Though the transformation is done by executing maps, the order needs to be further enriched with master data lookups. The master data lookup is a functionality that will be shared across various integrations. ShipAnyWhere has decided to use Azure Functions to implement the lookup logic. Using Azure Function connectors, Logic Apps can make use of this lookup functionality:

• Extending SaaS applications: At ShipAnyWhere, the invoices sent from the B2B partners need to be verified against contractual terms with the trading partner. The customer relationship manager (CRM) Microsoft Dynamics 365 handles the invoice processing. However, the custom validations require the extension of the built-in capabilities of Dynamics 365. So, ShipAnyWhere decided to use Azure Functions. When invoices arrive with Dynamics 365, it has built-in feature to place the invoice into a Service Bus queue. An Azure Function picks the invoice from the Service Bus queue, validates it against the contract, and based on results, takes action to either reject or process the invoice:

• For application backend processing: Regardless of whether it is a web application or mobile application, there will always be use cases where background processing takes place asynchronously. The following is an example of ShipAnyWhere's inventory management processing pipeline:

The ShipAnyWhere Web app places the order in a Service Bus queue. An Azure Function picks up the order from the queue, performs a transformation, and places it into Inventory Management DB.

• Real-time file processing: At ShipAnyWhere, everything is automated. However, when the goods are delivered, or inbound shipping is received, to improve the operational efficiency, they ask customers to fill in a paper survey form at the site. Keeping the survey form in a blob location is not going to bring ShipAnyWhere any benefits. They have to integrate this with their user experience system. They make use of Azure Functions to leverage Azure Cognitive Services for optical character recognition (OCR):

• Automation of scheduled tasks: ShipAnyWhere has a few blob locations that need to be cleaned up regularly. This includes deleting files older than few days in the Blob location. They decide to use Azure Functions to periodically execute a script to clean up the blob storage: