# 2024-10-02: OE - Cloud Functions

### Overview

We are happy to announce that Orchestration Engine digital processes can now incorporate Cloud Functions as an alternative to process steps. This new integration allows you to seamlessly include Cloud Functions in your workflows, enabling real-time data processing, automated tasks, API handling, and IoT event responses directly within your digital processes.

A Cloud Function can be any web service with a public, internet facing, endpoint. This can include web services hosted in AWS, Azure and GCP as well as those internally developed, or provided by SAAS platform vendors.

### New features

| Feature                                       | Benefit                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Event-driven executions**                   | Cloud functions are triggered by specific events, such as HTTP requests, file uploads, or database changes. This allows for automated, real-time responses to various conditions and inputs.              |
| **Full Integration with the process context** | The Orchestration Engine can pull data from the process context to provide an input to the cloud function and the results of the cloud function can be returned as an event added to the process context. |
| **Scalability**                               | Cloud functions automatically scale with the volume of incoming events.                                                                                                                                   |

### Known problems

No known problems at time of release.

### Documentation and links

* [Digital Process Components](broken://spaces/8dAaH7DfB59pzZwLxmur/pages/hTGZ3pjA0n74tiN1GQ06)
* [Creating Digital Processes](broken://spaces/8dAaH7DfB59pzZwLxmur/pages/fpq7OwfGems7fCYXyLLI)
* [Digital Process Debugger](broken://spaces/8dAaH7DfB59pzZwLxmur/pages/1YXl8WTerm1Fwi2rfi88)


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