title: Azure automation: can I use runbook for compute-intensive tasks
body: <p>I try to compare several similar (from some point of view) tools:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p><a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/automation-create-runbook-from-samples/" rel="nofollow">Automation runbooks</a></p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Microsoft Azure Automation provides a way for users to automate the
    manual, long-running, error-prone, and frequently repeated tasks that
    are commonly performed in a cloud environment.</p>
  </blockquote></li>
  <li><p><a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/IntroducingWindowsAzureWebJobs.aspx" rel="nofollow">WebJobs</a></p></li>
  <li><p>WorkerRole</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Background:</strong> Assume there are many images that have to be resized. The list of images is defined in some table, all they are stored in azure blob. The list may change so I need to run tasks periodically, for example each hour.</p>
  
  <p>I've read that WebJobs are more suited for such tasks especially if I already have some WebRole. And what about RunBooks? Are they worse? What I'm trying to figure out is any facts of their limitations for compute-intensive tasks (in terms of resources, cost and scalability). At the moment I can't find any information saying that Runbooks cannot scale, are slow and cost too much.</p>