Connect to and Consume Azure Services and Third-party Services¶

Overview¶

This domain covers implementing API Management, developing event-based solutions, and creating message-based solutions. It represents 15-20% of the exam and focuses on integration patterns and asynchronous communication.

📖 Azure Integration Services - Enterprise integration overview 📖 Azure Messaging Services - Comparison of Azure messaging services

Key Topics¶

API Management¶

• APIM instance creation and configuration
• API authentication configuration
• API policy definition and implementation
• API versioning and revision strategies

📖 Azure API Management - Complete APIM documentation 📖 APIM Policies - Policy expressions and transformations 📖 APIM Authentication - API authentication and authorization

Event-based Solutions¶

• Azure Event Grid solutions implementation
• Azure Event Hubs solutions development
• Event publishing and subscription patterns
• Event schema design and validation

📖 Azure Event Grid - Event-driven architecture with Event Grid 📖 Azure Event Hubs - Big data streaming and event ingestion 📖 Event Grid vs Event Hubs - Choosing the right messaging service

Message-based Solutions¶

• Azure Service Bus implementation (queues and topics)
• Azure Queue Storage queue solutions
• Message processing patterns
• Dead letter handling and retry logic

📖 Azure Service Bus - Enterprise messaging with queues and topics 📖 Azure Queue Storage - Simple message queuing service 📖 Service Bus Dead Letter Queues - Handling failed messages

Services Reference¶

Core Services¶

• Azure API Management (APIM)
• Azure Event Grid
• Azure Event Hubs
• Azure Service Bus
• Azure Queue Storage

Supporting Services¶

• Azure Logic Apps
• Azure Functions (triggered by events/messages)
• Azure Notification Hubs
• Azure SignalR Service

📖 Azure Logic Apps - Workflow automation and integration 📖 Azure SignalR Service - Real-time web functionality

Best Practices¶

API Management¶

• Use products and subscriptions for API organization
• Implement rate limiting to protect backend services
• Use policies for request/response transformation
• Enable caching for frequently accessed data
• Implement proper versioning strategy
• Use named values for configuration management

Event-driven Architecture¶

• Choose Event Grid for discrete events
• Use Event Hubs for high-volume streaming
• Implement idempotent event handlers
• Design events with clear schema and versioning
• Use dead letter queues for failed events
• Monitor event processing latency

Message-based Communication¶

• Use Service Bus for enterprise messaging requirements
• Choose Queue Storage for simple, cost-effective queuing
• Implement message deduplication when necessary
• Set appropriate message TTL values
• Handle poison messages properly
• Use sessions for ordered message processing

Common Scenarios¶

API Management Patterns¶

• API gateway for microservices
• Legacy service modernization with facade pattern
• Rate limiting and throttling policies
• API monetization with subscription tiers
• Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) enablement

Event Processing¶

• Real-time notification systems with Event Grid
• IoT telemetry processing with Event Hubs
• System integration through event subscriptions
• Event-driven automation workflows
• Reactive application architectures

Message Processing¶

• Order processing workflows with Service Bus
• Asynchronous task processing with queues
• Fan-out messaging with topics and subscriptions
• Request-response patterns with reply queues
• Scheduled message processing

Study Tips¶

• Understand when to use events vs messages
• Practice configuring APIM policies (inbound, backend, outbound, on-error)
• Learn Event Grid event schema and filtering
• Hands-on experience with Service Bus queues and topics
• Study message session handling in Service Bus
• Practice implementing retry policies and dead letter handling
• Understand Event Hubs partition keys and consumer groups
• Learn APIM authentication options (subscription keys, OAuth, certificates)
• Study the differences between Event Grid, Event Hubs, and Service Bus
• Practice creating event handlers with Azure Functions