Quick Overview: Cloud-native is a trend that will dominate the cloud technology landscape in 2024, according to a report by Eviden. It is an approach that uses modern tools and techniques to build and run applications on the cloud, taking advantage of its features such as flexibility, scalability, and reliability. Some of the benefits of cloud-native development are increased efficiency, reduced cost, and enhanced availability.
According to a report by Eviden, with the title “Cloud Technology Trends and Predictions 2024”, cloud-native methodology is one of many trends that will happen this year. Because Cloud native is becoming a standard for modern applications. This is to make it easier for businesses to integrate one independent application with other services. Also cloud-native are designed to take advantage of the cloud’s features, such as flexibility, scalability, and reliability.
Based on data presented by VMware, 96% of organizations are adopting cloud-native applications. So how to implement cloud-native in your application? In this article, we will explain how cloud-native development can help you build applications that can grow with your business, work without interruption, and protect your data and customers.
What is cloud-native?
Cloud-native is an approach that uses modern tools and techniques to build and run applications on the cloud. Cloud-native technology is known for fast and frequent changes to applications without impacting service delivery, providing adopters with an innovative, competitive advantage.
Many startups and companies want to build highly scalable, flexible, and resilient applications that they can update quickly from feedback that customers give. To carry out fast updates like that, cloud-native technology is needed that inherently supports application development.
What are the benefits of a cloud-native approach?
By adopting a cloud-native approach, businesses can enjoy several benefits, such as:
Increased efficiency
Enables faster and more frequent changes to applications, resulting in shorter time-to-market and higher customer satisfaction. Developers can use automated tools, cloud services, and modern design culture to build scalable applications rapidly. They can also leverage the cloud’s elasticity and availability to handle varying workloads and demands.
Reduced cost
Reduce the need for investing in and maintaining costly physical infrastructure. Businesses can pay only for the resources they use and optimize their spending with the cloud’s pay-as-you-go model. The cost savings of building cloud-native solutions might also benefit the clients, as they can enjoy lower prices and better quality.
Enhanced availability
Designed to be resilient and highly available. They can withstand failures, recover quickly, and provide seamless service delivery. They can also scale up or down automatically according to the traffic and performance needs, ensuring optimal user experience.
How does cloud-native architecture work?
Cloud-native architecture is a way of creating and running applications that can adapt to user needs. These applications consist of small parts called software components. In addition, components can communicate with each other, be replaced, or be added according to the situation.
These are examples of architecture that can be used, such as immutable infrastructure, microservices, declarative APIs, containers, and service meshes as the technological blocks of cloud-native architecture.
Immutable infrastructure
Immutable infrastructure means that you don’t change anything after you set it up. If you want to update something, you make a new one and replace the old one. This way, you avoid messing things up by mistake or letting hackers in.
Microservices
Microservices are like Lego pieces that you can put together to make different things. Each piece does one thing well, and they can talk to each other. This makes it easier to build, test, and change things, and also to handle more traffic and problems.
Declarative APIs
Declarative APIs are like wish lists that you give to a system or a thing. You tell it what you want, not how to do it. The system or the thing then figures out how to make it happen. This makes it simpler for you to use and control it, and also to automate and repeat things.
Containers
Containers are like boxes that you can put your stuff in so that you can move it around easily and safely. Keep your stuff separate from the place where you put it, and they work the same way everywhere. This makes it easier to use and manage your stuff in different places.
Service meshes
Service meshes are like traffic cops that help the Lego pieces talk to each other. They do things like balance the load, find the right piece, choose the best route, lock the communication, check the identity, allow or deny access, watch and report what’s going on, and fix things when they go wrong.
What is cloud-native application development?
Cloud-native applications are software programs that run on the internet, instead of on your computer or phone. To make these applications, developers need to change the way they work and use some special tools and methods. This helps them create and update the applications faster and better, according to what the users want. Here are some examples of how developers do cloud-native development.
CI and CD
Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) are ways of making, testing and updating software code automatically. CI/CD helps to deliver software updates faster and more often, as well as making sure they work well and don’t have problems.
DevOps
DevOps is a way of working together and sharing ideas between the people who make the software and the people who run it. Also helps to improve communication, cooperation, and automation throughout the software process, resulting in faster feedback and better performance.
Serverless
Serverless is a way of using the cloud without worrying about the servers, machines, and resources that run the app. Allow the developers to focus on writing code and what the app does, while the cloud provider takes care of the rest. Serverless apps can change and grow automatically and pay only for what they use.
How do cloud-native applications differ from traditional enterprise applications?
Traditional enterprise applications were built using less flexible software development methods. Developers typically worked on a large batch of software functionalities before releasing them for testing. As such, traditional enterprise applications took longer to deploy and were not scalable. They also required custom-built operating systems, middleware, and language stacks for each application, creating close dependencies and increasing complexity.
On the other hand, cloud-native applications make the most of modern infrastructure’s dynamic, distributed nature to achieve greater speed, agility, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency. Cloud-native applications are typically built using open-source frameworks and languages, such as Java, Python, Node.js, and Spring Boot, that are compatible with various cloud platforms. They also use standardized and reusable components, such as APIs, libraries, and containers, that simplify the development and deployment process.
How to adopt a cloud-native approach?
To adopt a cloud-native approach, businesses need to embrace a cultural and organizational shift, as well as a technical one. Cloud-native development requires a collaborative and iterative mindset, where developers, operations, and business stakeholders work together to deliver value to the customers. Cloud-native development also requires a learning and experimentation culture, where teams can test new ideas, learn from feedback, and iterate quickly.
On the technical side, businesses need to choose the right cloud platform, tools, and services that suit their needs and goals. There are various cloud providers and solutions available in the market, each with its features and benefits. Businesses need to evaluate their options and select the ones that offer the best performance, security, scalability, and compatibility for their applications.
Conclusion
Cloud-native development is a modern and innovative way of creating software applications that can run on any cloud platform and environment. By using cloud-native architecture, such as microservices, containers, Declarative APIs, Immutable infrastructure, and Service meshes, you can build applications that can grow with your business, work without interruption, and protect your data and customers. If you want to learn more about application development, you can check out the following resources:
