Cloud-Native Applications: Features and Benefits

Cloud-native applications are designed and built specifically to operate in cloud environments, leveraging the benefits of cloud computing, such as scalability, agility, and resilience. These applications are developed with a microservices architecture and are containerized, allowing for easy deployment and management across different cloud platforms. Cloud-native takes advantage of the cloud computing model to create and run applications. They enable organizations to build, develop and run scalable applications in public, private & hybrid cloud models. Not all applications that run on the cloud are necessarily cloud-native, and even applications that have been lifted and shifted to the cloud may not be able to take complete advantage of the cloud infrastructure. When looking for cloud-native applications, there are several features to consider that make them suitable for cloud environments.

Features of Cloud-Native Applications

1. Containers — For an application to be considered cloud native, it must be infrastructure independent and use containers. Containers provide applications libraries, dependencies & lightweight runtime, enabling applications to run as a stand-alone environment. Containers allow applications to move in and out of the cloud, independent of the nuances of cloud providers’ virtual servers or complete instances & increasing mobility between different environments.
2. Microservices — Microservices define a range of solutions used in cloud-native applications. Microservices help break down significant components into many stand-alone deployable parts. It enables developers to consider each service or portion of an application independently. Deployment, upgradation & scaling of each microservice can be done separately. Maintaining services alone helps in efficient lifecycle management for the entire application.
3. Horizontal scaling — Horizontal scaling adds or increases the number of servers to distribute the workload across multiple nodes. Cloud-native applications can be horizontally scaled in and out of the cloud based on the payload size. The scaling is done through Pods and not through physical servers, as in Kubernetes, where a HorizontalPodAutoscaler automatically updates the workload resource by scaling the workload to match the demand.
4. Service Mesh — Applications have to share data with other applications & a service mesh offers a way to control how this is done. It is a dedicated infrastructure layer built into the app and can document the interaction between different application parts. This makes it easier to optimize communication and reduce or avoid downtime. Aleading service mesh open-source project like Istio provides a platform to control how microservices share data.
5. API-Driven — Microservices can grow in complexity when building enterprise-scale applications. Seamless communication is one of the biggest challenges in microservices app architecture. Application Programming Interface or APIs help ensure platform compatibility and simplify complexity. RESTful API is the most common API used in the industry and can seamlessly manage communication in microservices-based apps. gRPC is used for performance and internal communication among services, while REST exposes APIs over HTTP.
6. Language and Frameworks — Cloud-native apps can be written in different languages. The UI of the app can be written using Node js & the API can be written in Java using MicroProfile. Enterprise Java developers can use the MicroProfile framework, while SpringBot can be used by Spring developers. Node js developers can use Express js or LoopBack.
7. Observability — This is a critical feature of cloud-native apps & it is the ability to monitor and measure the performance and health of the app in real-time. Observability is achieved through monitoring, logging, and tracing tools. Monitoring tools are used to monitor the performance and health of the app, while the logging tools help capture and analyze log data. Tracing tools are used to trace the flow of requests through the application and can help identify and diagnose performance issues.
8. Statelessness — Removing states from applications makes them more resilient. The valuable data should not be easily replicated while the applications and tools are disposable. Separating these two protects the information and limits the damage.

Advantages of Cloud-Native Applications

Cloud-native applications are designed and built specifically for cloud infrastructure, and they offer several benefits that traditional applications do not. The key advantages of cloud-native applications include scalability, resilience, agility, cost-effectiveness, and security. These are made possible by leveraging cloud infrastructure capabilities, such as automatic scaling, built-in redundancy, and security features like firewalls, network isolation, and encryption.

1. Scalability: Cloud-native applications are designed to be scalable. As demand for the application grows, it can be easily scaled up to meet the demand. The cloud infrastructure allows for automatic scaling, which means additional resources can be added to ensure the application runs smoothly.
2. Resilience: Cloud-native applications are designed to be resilient. It means they can recover quickly from failures and continue running without interruption. Cloud infrastructure provides built-in redundancy, which means that if one part fails, the application can continue running on another part of the infrastructure.
3. Agility: Cloud-native applications are designed to be agile. They can be quickly and easily deployed, updated, and modified. This agility is essential in a fast-paced business environment where changes must be made promptly to meet evolving business needs.
4. Cost-effectiveness: Cloud-native applications can be more cost-effective than traditional applications. Cloud infrastructure allows for better resource utilization, so resources can be allocated more efficiently, reducing costs. Additionally, cloud-native applications can be deployed and scaled on demand, meaning businesses only pay for the help they need at any given time.
5. Security: Cloud-native applications are designed with safety in mind. Cloud infrastructure provides built-in security features such as firewalls, network isolation, and encryption, which can help protect applications from attacks.

Overall, cloud-native applications are an excellent choice for businesses looking to modernize their applications and leverage the benefits of cloud computing. By leveraging cloud-native applications’ key features and advantages, companies can improve performance, reduce costs, and stay competitive in a rapidly changing business landscape.