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27th Jun 2022

Deep-Dive of Cloud-Native Application Development

You might have studied about the Industrial Revolution right? It changed the dynamics of the global economy. But do you ever wonder what empowers the world today? The Technological Revolution. The global technology landscape has evolved so much that we often hear about a plethora of technological innovations replacing the former technologies.

Among those latest technological innovations is Cloud-Native Application Development. Not familiar with it yet? Well, this post is about educating you about the latest development in the cloud computing domain. Let’s get started!

Every year, there is a new trend that takes over until the next one comes in. The same is the case for cloud computing. It’s all about cloud-native lately. So, to keep pace with the rapidly changing tech world, it is absolutely indispensable to be acquainted with the recent trends, in our case, we should start with cloud-native.

Cloud-Native Defined

Cloud-native is a way of utilizing cloud computing for business velocity. It is employed to run scalable applications more systematically to achieve greater efficiency. Cloud-native application development gives room for developing greater proficiency in application development. All in all, it gives you the agility to maneuver your business to the top.

Cloud-Native Example

If you want to get an idea what a cloud-native looks like, then you’re in for a surprise. Our most favorite and widely used applications have cloud-native embedded deeply and that is a significant contributor to their success. Our most prominent pick is Netflix.

Netflix has pioneered the cloud-native infrastructures which has helped them integrate in to the netizen market quicker than anyone leaving their competition behind by miles.

If we just rewind ten years back, Netflix has transformed itself from a mail order company to the world’s largest content delivery network. How is this possible in such a little time? With the help of cloud-native application development.

What Makes Cloud-Native Stand Out?

Cloud-native makes application building easier. It is a more convenient platform to scale the applications and ensures a better payoff at the same time. The cloud-based applications had a market value of $133.6 bn in 2021, and it is expected to reach a whopping $168.6 bn in value by 2025. Now that is a solid proof of cloud-native’s popularity.

Cloud-native provides an edge over traditional or outdated IT frameworks. It is a consistently transforming architecture with almost no alarming disadvantage at all.

Core Elements of Cloud Native

There are four main key elements of cloud-native listed below;

● Microservices: Microservices is an application architecture that builds a distributed application with the help of containers. Why are they effective? Because each function of the application under the process of microservices works as an independent component.

The architecture of Microservices allows every independent function of the application to update or without disturbing the operations of the other.

● Containers: Containers are employed to manage a load of large infrastructure companies, for instance, Google. The main purpose of Containers is the implementation of microservices posing as isolating applications.

● DevOps: As the name suggests, it is a combination of “development” as well as “operations”. It is distinguished from development and production as testing is also an integral part of the DevOps process.

DevOps enables a robust methodology that ensures sound institutional communication channels, and an organizational system with the ultimate objective of continuously delivering cloud-native applications.

● Continuous Delivery: Continuous delivery suggests unhindered updates and the development of cloud-native applications. Continuous delivery requires several support systems and tools as continuous delivery makes the pre-existence of stable development versions necessary. All this is done to ensure a quick and unimpeded delivery process of applications.

Let’s move towards the comparison of Cloud-native applications with Traditional applications.

Cloud-Native Vs Traditional Applications

Languages

Traditional local applications are typically written in C/C++ and Java EE, whereas cloud-native applications are written in new network programming languages such as Go and Node.js.

Update Timeframe

Traditional locally deployed applications are subject to high downtime during updates, whereas cloud-native applications are always up to date and require support for frequent changes, continuous delivery, and blue/green deployment.

Hence, cloud-native is more efficient than traditional applications because it ensures one of the most important aspects of operational fluency; timely updates.

Feasibility

Unlike Cloud-native applications, traditional locally deployed applications do not support dynamic scaling and frequently require redundant resources to handle traffic peaks. Whereas cloud-native applications enable resource sharing by leveraging the cloud’s elastic and automatic scaling to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Resource Dependency

Cloud-native applications are not constrained by network or storage constraints. But traditionally deployed applications rely on network resources such as IP, ports, or even hard coding.

Portability

When it comes to portability, cloud-native applications stay ahead here too. Traditional applications deployed locally rely on system context, whereas cloud-native applications rely on abstract infrastructure rather than any system context, resulting in good portability.

Cost

Traditional applications inflict a higher cost on the businesses that operate on them due to the cost extensive maintenance. These heavy duty applications incur a major cost burden on businesses. Cloud-native has solved the issue due to the fact that it is way more economical for businesses to use it.

Cloud-native employs pay-per-use models which rules out the capital expenditure (CAPEX) factor and rather focuses on the operating expenditure (OPEX). It is a huge incentive for businesses as it spares them the capital to be paid upfront to acquire such an efficient resource. There are various advantages that give cloud-native an upper hand over traditional applications but the above-discussed aspects are the most significant ones that need to be recognized when such a discourse of comparison occurs.

Layers of Cloud-Computing

Cloud computing consists of three layers namely; IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. These very layers provide the basis of technical and directional guidance for cloud-native. One of the reasons we need to bid farewell to the sporadic traditional applications is that cloud computing provides a platform, where the changes in the infrastructures and applications are easier to execute through cloud-native.

To Sum It Up

Cloud-native is among the highly praised technological advancements recently. Cloud-native applications have dominated the technological peninsula since their inception and will continue to do so.

Soon after its introduction in the market, cloud-native has surpassed the heavy duty traditional applications in terms of performance, cost, feasibility, and responsiveness and other domains.

It is highly recommended for businesses to shift to cloud-native application development to make use of it and and and of course, to steer clear of their competition. So, if you own a business and you haven’t switched to cloud-native yet, then its time you do that.