Exploring the depths of cloud-native application development

The Industrial Revolution transformed the global economy back then, but today it is the Technological Revolution that has made an even greater impact in the world today. Cloud computing is one of the many and latest technological innovation facets of the Technological Revolution as staying acquainted with the rapidly changing tech world requires understanding cloud-native trends. That can be done through cloud-native application development. Let us explore this concept together. 

Cloud-native defined 

Cloud-native app development is a methodology that leverages cloud computing to pace up business operations. It includes running scalable applications in a systematic manner to achieve greater efficiency. By embracing the cloud-native approach, organizations can enhance their proficiency in creating robust applications and become agile to elevate their business to the forefront of their respective industry. 

Core elements of cloud-native 

Cloud-native applications encompass four core components or elements per se, which are as follows:  

Microservices: The microservices architecture builds distributed applications with the help of containers, that allow each function to operate independently without affecting the productivity of others. This results in seamless updates and architecture operations.  

Containers: Containers are utilized by major infrastructure companies like Google to manage large workloads. They provide isolation for microservices and enable efficient application deployment. 

DevOps: DevOps is a blend of development, operations, and testing to ensure effective organization, wide communication, and continuous delivery of cloud-native applications. It establishes robust methodologies and enterprise systems. 

Continuous delivery: Uninterrupted updates and development of cloud-native applications is heavily dependent on supportive systems and tools, requiring stable development versions for efficient and rapid app delivery.  

Cloud-native vs traditional applications languages 

Traditional applications are commonly written in C/C++ and Java EE while cloud-native apps are developed using a modern network programming language such as Go and Node.js. Let us compare both cloud-native and traditional apps' effectiveness through multiple aspects. 

Update period: Traditional applications are deployed locally and often experience significant downtime during updates. But cloud-native applications are designed to remain continuously updated and support frequent changes through continuous delivery and blue/green deployment, that ensure high availability. 

Feasibility: Traditional applications lack dynamic scaling capabilities and often require redundant resources to handle traffic peaks. On the other hand, cloud-native apps leverage the automatic scaling of the cloud that enables resource sharing, reduces costs, and improves efficiency. 

Resource dependency: Cloud-native apps are flexible in terms of network and storage capacities while traditional apps are not as they have to rely on network resources like IP addresses, ports, or hard-coded configurations.  

Portability: Cloud-native applications stand out in portability as they rely only on abstract infrastructure rather than system contexts. Traditional applications are deployed locally and depend on the underlying system context, which can limit their portability. 

Cost: Pay-per-use models are adopted by cloud-native apps, and they focus on OPEX rather than CAPEX, which makes them more cost-effective.  

Layers of cloud computing 

There are three layers of cloud computing namely: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). All these layers serve as the foundation for cloud-native development, offering technical and directional guidance. The adoption of cloud-native becomes crucial as it enables easier execution of infrastructure and application changes compared to traditional applications. 

To sum it up  

In summary, cloud-native app development has emerged to be a highly acclaimed technological advancement to date. Since its introduction, the businesses have experienced a massive improvement in their performance, cost-effectiveness, feasibility, and responsiveness areas. It is strongly recommended for businesses to transition to cloud-native application development to leverage its benefits and gain a competitive edge. If you own a business and have yet to embrace cloud-native, now is the time to make the switch. 

If you want to know more about cloud-native app development, please connect with our experts here to fast-forward your business growth through disruptive digital solutions.