Features, reasons, characteristics of cloud-native applications

What is a "cloud-native" application in the context of cloud computing? And do "cloud-based" and "cloud-native" refer to the same type of architecture?

Does "cloud-native development" mean using a specific set of methods and tools, or simply hosting, running, and managing your application in a specific environment?

Let's try to understandably define what cloud-native applications are and explain the key features of a cloud-native application to clear up the confusions around cloud-native technologies and cloud-native architecture.

What are cloud-native applications? At first glance, the definition of a cloud-native application seems straightforward. It is an application that is created in the cloud. But what does that really mean and, more importantly, are cloud-native applications better than traditionally developed applications?

What is a cloud-native application?

The most concise definition would be that it is an application developed using cloud-based technologies and hosted and managed entirely in the cloud.

Recognize the fundamental difference between a "cloud-based" and a "cloud-native" application.

While the cloud-based is an older application that has been redesigned to run properly on a cloud operating system, the cloudnative has been hosted in the cloud from the beginning. It runs end-to-end in the cloud, meaning it was written, tested and deployed in the cloud, using technologies and services based on the cloud, not just moved to a cloud computing environment after the fact.

Now, if we were to highlight the characteristics that differentiate them from traditional applications, I would summarize them in three points:

• They are built with agility and high flexibility in mind, which translates into better security, peak performance and improved customer satisfaction;
• High speed with which you can run new features, make changes, and customize your application overall;
• There is no monolithic software code base on which they depend; Instead, they are modular and leverage multiple infrastructures and cloud computing frameworks.

5 Features of cloud-native applications

Cloud-native applications can be packaged in containers

The ability to scale quickly and easily makes a container an ideal platform for autonomous and independent services. This is also reflected in the fact that the container's infrastructure can be optimized to be as small as possible.

Services are developed as individual, loose microservices

The microservices of cloud-native applications are not further linked in themselves, thereby developers can edit and adapt each existing service individually and independently of the others. This allows developers to focus purely on the core functionality of each existing service and create perfectly tuned and idividual functionality.

Cloud-native is independent of servers and operating systems

Cloud-native applications run at a different level of abstraction and are not tied to operating systems such as Windows or Linux. So for the most part they are independent, with one exception, for example when a micoservice requires certain features, like GPU & SSD, that not all machines can provide.

Easy management through automated functions

Cloud-native applications fit into the concept of infrastructure as code and can be highly automated. Moreover, a certain level of automation is always required to easily manage these large and complex applications.

Elastic infrastructure ensures dynamic adaptation

Cloud-native applications are deployed in a shared and elastic infrastructure. They can flexibly adapt to the underlying infrastructure. They dynamically evolve and adapt to varying loads.

7 reasons to develop a cloud-native app.

Make it easier to manage your infrastructure

Let serverless do it for you!
With Serverless platforms like AWS Lambda and Azure Functions, operations like configuring your network, provisioning cloud instances, and ensuring you have enough storage are handled automatically.

All you need to do is upload your code as Functions.

Cloud-native apps are resistant to failures.

The "ideal" app comes with built-in self-healing.
Therefore, expect it to handle failures automatically and be fault-tolerant by nature. When a problem occurs, your cloud-native app's processing will be immediately and unobtrusively moved from one data center to another.

In short, the end-user experience is unaffected, and you don't have to worry about the cost of downtime.

You can publish your apps faster

By supporting DevOps processes - streamlining key operations like build, test, deployment automation, and collaboration - your cloud-native app speeds up the entire software delivery process.

Lower costs

The four main reasons for lowering costs are:

• Containers: containerizing your app makes it easier and more secure to manage.
• Cloud-native tools, which lead to some standardization of tooling
• The open source model
• Serverless computing, which supports a pay-per-use model and increases pricing flexibility

Your app automatically scales to meet your growing needs

One of the most important features of a cloud-native app's architecture is that it scales automatically.
Basically, your app scales by default to meet your future business needs. This is also reflected in the cost: you are only charged for the compute resources you actually use.

Your app supports auto-provisioning

Imagine this: Your business-critical app runs uneventfully and uses on-demand service provisioning directly in the app.

It automatically accesses self-service and programmatic provisioning, so you don't have to manually provision the resources needed to keep it running smoothly.

You provide a better customer experience

And it's pretty predictable that you'll provide a better end-user experience, since cloud-native principles revolve around rapid delivery of new features and continuous iteration.

Conclusion

There are many reasons to use and develop cloud-native applications. One of the most notable is speed. Developers can respond to and adapt to specific customer requirements more quickly. This also applies to market changes. In addition, the systems and microservices can be designed to be fail-safe and the applications are independent of the operating system or the respective cloud platform.

Read more -> Cloud-native applications: The fuel of digital transformation