What is Cloud Native?

How Cloud-Native Applications are Unique

Cloud-Native applications and services differ from legacy counterparts because they are specifically designed for the cloud from day one. They can be deployed and fixed faster, have a more fluid architecture, and can be placed and moved through different environments easily. Many organizations are adapting their legacy applications that were built before the cloud to have cloud-native characteristics. Certainly, non-cloud-native applications have still been built after the cloud’s rise to prominence, and will continue to be built in certain circumstances.

With the cloud, users can access applications through an internet connection. This means the application and its data can be accessed through potentially any internet-connected device. Moreover, updates and bug fixes can be delivered to users organically. If the app uses containers, horizontal scaling is easy, and when demand peaks, users are much less likely to experience interruptions.

Cloud-native applications tend to be developed to exist in containers and are deployed as a collection of microservices: the individual functions within an application. They also have a continuous integration and continuous delivery development system

The Production of Cloud-Native Applications and Services

Containers  and  Microservices:

Cloud-native applications are typically made up of microservices packaged in containers. Those microservices are treated independently of each other by developers so that they can focus on the fundamentals of a microservice to program a specialized functionality.

The microservices run in containers that are managed by platforms such as Kubernetes. The essence of containers is performing a single task. Red Hat published the white paper “Principles of container-based application design in 2017 that included the single concern principle (SCP)". This said that “every container should address a single concern and do it well”

Microservices go well with containers because both are made with the intention to do one thing. The isolation inherent to containers also means updates to an app can target only a handful of microservices, and not one large release to update everything in the app. This means that problems and bugs that are in an application can be detected and resolved faster and with greater specificity.

CI (Continuous Integration) / (CD)Continuous Delivery Development System: 

A microservices architecture and container infrastructure of cloud-native applications mean IT departments can quickly identify a problem and fix it without affecting the whole system. This is opposed to traditional application development where updates were a total overhaul of the software.

The system of constantly fixing bugs and deploying updates is referred to as continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD). To facilitate it, software development and IT operations groups are often combined into smaller DevOps teams.

A Changing IT Department

The shift from one large release for an entire app or platform to the CI/CD approach brings with it a change in the structure of a company’s IT department and their workflow. This shift is associated with the combining of software development and IT operations teams into DevOps groups.

There is resistance to transitioning to DevOps because the two groups are not used to working closely together, as was shown in a 2018 survey by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. However, many feel that the struggle is worth the benefits. Having smaller teams that monitor a microservice or microservices and develop patches makes for a more efficient approach to maintaining cloud-native applications.

Cloud-Native Applications vs Services

There is a very simple distinction between regular applications and services. Applications are programs that humans access. Services are programs that humans can’t access, operating in the backend to keep things running smoothly.

When it comes to cloud-native applications, developers are concerned with the effect the user experience has on the user’s needs. Cloud-native services must be able to serve an array of apps.

Cloud-native apps need to be portable, which is where containers come in, and not reliant on any specific cloud’s APIs. On the other hand, cloud-native services may be dependent on the cloud platform, because they are the how apps access what the cloud platform has to offer.

The Cloud-native approach to building applications and services seems to be where things are heading, as companies try to move their legacy apps to the cloud, while startups embrace cloud-native and DevOps approaches from the outset. The adaptable characteristics inherent to the cloud-native approach makes it appealing to companies new and old. The cloud-native approach has changed the way apps and services are built (microservice architecture, container-based infrastructure), but that is evolving. The more impactful change is in the development process that has affected the way IT departments look and function dramatically.