Key characteristics of a cloud native applications

Let's break down what cloud-native application development means and what characteristics cloud-native applications have

We bet you already do, plan, or at least think of сloud adoption either by migrating some of your apps to the cloud or embracing the cloud-first strategy and building apps right in the cloud. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2022, 90% of all organizations will be adopting cloud services. 

Cloud-native vs Cloud-based vs Cloud-enabled

It’s been a while since Cloud has gone mainstream and there are a lot of "cloud" terms today - cloud-native, cloud-based, cloud-enabled…. Let's take a closer look at the difference between these terms to distinguish them.

Cloud-Native

Cloud-native is born in the Cloud. Cloud-native applications are designed from scratch to operate in a public cloud such as Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft Azure, or using cloud technologies. These cloud technologies provide availability and scalability and enable developers to deliver new services faster and easier. 

Eventually, it's about how applications are built and deployed. Cloud-native apps support DevOps, which plays a critical role in the rapid creation, testing, and deployment of software. 

Cloud-Enabled

Cloud-enabled applications generally refer to those developed traditionally and then moved to the Cloud. These applications were originally built as monoliths and rely on local resources and hardware. When a monolith is moved to the cloud, it is refactored to apply virtual resources, but the underlying architecture stays the same. The system cannot utilize shared services or resource pools and, ultimately, it is difficult to achieve the scalability and resiliency of other cloud applications.

Cloud-Based

Cloud-based applications are a hybrid - the best balance between cloud-native and cloud-enabled apps. Cloud-bases apps do not need infrastructure upgrades, but they also do not perform at full capacity like a cloud-native app. 

If you want to take advantage of some of the features of the cloud, such as flexible scalability, but do not want to completely refactor your application to use cloud computing, this approach might be worth considering. 

When talking about new application development it makes sense to consider making it сloud-native ( or at least cloud-friendly) right from the start.  Essentially, cloud-native applications can be defined as applications running in a virtualized environment, where absolutely every operation such as coding, testing, deploying, further running, and optimization is performed within the cloud. Cloud-friendly applications can be usually deployed as microservices, delivered through a DevOps pipeline, and easily scaled horizontally. 

Leveraging the cloud architecture in app development and operation can help organizations easily adapt to technology changes, respond faster to customer demands, and enjoy the following benefits:

• Resilience and greater fault tolerance 
• Integration with modern technologies
• Greater flexibility
• Automatic scalability to accommodate your growing needs
• Reduced infrastructure maintenance costs 

• Faster time-to-market 

The key characteristics of cloud-native applications

Companies are starting to favor cloud-native solutions over traditional on-premises monoliths. The driving force behind this change is a desire to improve scalability, reliability, customer experience, and business speed.Here are five main attributes of these applications:

Lightweight containers

A сloud-native application is composed of independent and autonomous services that are packaged into lightweight containers. Containers allow development teams to concentrate on their applications while operations teams concentrate on the infrastructure. Thanks to this, containers can improve portability between different environments. 

Unlike standard virtual machines (VMs), containers can scale in and out quickly, providing both efficiency and speed. Modern business operations require agility & scalability, and cloud-native applications are the best way to reach these goals.

A programming language diversity

Each application within the IT ecosystem usually utilized different programming languages, technologies and environments that are best suited for the given functionality. Here, applications are developed in a multilingual environment where software engineers can select a programming language that meets specific business requirements best.

For instance, software engineers may develop an application using WebSockets, while choosing Python for exposing the API from the backend. In such a case, each part of the system would be 100% compatible with another part and will operate smoothly with no issues.

Microservices-based architecture

The microservices-based architecture is used in cloud-native applications development to decouple large components into multiple, self-sufficient, and deployable functional entities grouped by purpose. All services around the application are independent. This way, when one service falls for whatever reason, the other services within the bundle will continue running smoothly on their own.

Thanks to this decoupling, each microservice functions as a completely independent component. This allows software developers to concentrate on the core functionality of each microservice and monitor the whole application lifecycle. Each service is maintained on its own, and each development team has ownership of the services they work with. Therefore, you get a great opportunity to build a microservices-based architecture, as Netflix, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Etsy eBay do ;)

CI/CD pipeline

Сontinuous integration (CI) and deployment (CD) are an integral part of cloud-native application development and help accelerate all phases from coding to deployment through automation. 

CI enables you to seamlessly integrate your code into a single shared repository. CD enables you to take code stored in a repository and continually deliver it to production. CI/CD provides superior code quality, accelerated release cycle, faster MTTR (mean time to resolution), and easy maintenance & updates. In addition, it offers greater testability, streamlined communication, enhanced performance, and cost reduction.

Infrastructure automation

One of the major benefits of cloud-native applications is that they’re designed for 99% automation. Cloud-native applications are controlled by APIs and have highly automated infrastructure described with code (IaC).

As opposed to physical infrastructure configuration, cloud infrastructure automation is the process of provisioning servers and computer data centers through config files by creating templates. IaC is all about infrastructure management through automation, source control, and the agile build process. 

Summary

All in all, there are many reasons to consider a cloud-native approach for your application development. Cloud-native applications deliver enhanced scalability, increased resiliency, faster deployment, better flexibility, and lower costs. Compliance with these characteristics will allow you to succeed with your cloud-native application strategy.

 However, the cloud isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Each organization has a unique infrastructure with its set of applications, systems, and platforms to drive its operations. In case your company already has an application and is planning a cloud migration, we recommend checking whether your app is cloud-friendly.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)