From Cloud Computing to Cloud Native, a Cultural Change

Interest in the use of cloud-native computing has significantly increased due to the popularity of Kubernetes, which is an open-source manager for containers, also known as self-contained operating software environments. Some experts believe that the popularity of containers and app portability has covered the greater advantages of cloud-native functions, such as automation, interoperability, and scalability. Businesses that fail to go the container route can still use cloud-native features, without having to do significant restructuring to their current portfolios.

Many believe that cloud-native development is an innovative concept that transcends specific technology. Instead, it’s a new way to build software by optimizing technology for the cloud. The phrase “cloud-native” became popular with the use of Kubernetes and the creation of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation in 2015. While containers and Kubernetes remain important for cloud-native applications, they aren’t critical to building software. Applications can also deliver significant benefits without being fully cloud-native.

Cloud-native computing is all about being laser-focused to address and solve business pain points, as companies often struggle with getting new services or products into the market.

The industry is still not decided on the definition of cloud-native development, as organizations need to quickly adapt to changing work culture to remain competitive. Cloud-native applications are scalable that can operate in dynamic environments, whether it’s the private, public, or hybrid cloud environment. 

The easiest way to understand cloud-native architecture is the ability to do something new that wasn’t previously possible due to cloud computing solutions. Now is the time for the industry to take advantage of cloud-native applications, as many companies now realize their initial experience with cloud computing technology only resulted in limited returns.

Many early adopters of the public cloud migrated existing on-premise apps to virtual machines on the cloud, only to realize that the advantages were minimal or even worse. Nearly no company creates an initial plan for a hybrid approach until they realize that following a full cloud migration strategy is much more difficult.

What Is Cloud-Native?

Defining cloud-native computing includes both cultural and technical dimensions. From a tech perspective, it’s creating applications focused on cloud-specific principles. 

For example, software-defined infrastructure uses automation to transition as many hardware capabilities as possible into software. Horizontal scalability is another example, as processing power is improved by merging commodity servers with each other, which is much more cost-effective than adding more processors, memory, and storage to an already existing server.

Cloud-native applications are constructed with multiple components instead of being vertically integrated. This approach minimizes hard-coded dependencies and makes the process of modification much easier.

APIs are also a critical element to a cloud-native architecture. The use of APIs provides stable access to services and data without causing any problems with the underlying code. APIs also make it possible for applications to be safely changed or integrated with other types of software.

One of the debates is whether cloud-native applications must use microservices and containers. The main benefit of containers is that it allows for application portability, while microservices typically require a restructuring of an application, which often has a less than stellar return on investment.

Businesses adopting containers for portability benefits may lose some of the advantages of cloud-native architecture by making various tradeoffs that make them unable to utilize underlying platforms. You are always sacrificing depth anytime you utilize a more generic approach. Minimizing lock-in will also decrease your cloud-nativeness. Organizations need to understand that there is often more upside to using a single platform’s native capabilities.

 

Changing Organizational Culture

The majority of experts believe that it’s a mistake to solely think of cloud-native computing in tech terms. Instead, it’s a shift in mindset that superior technology is available on the cloud instead of an organization’s data center. 

The primary focus is to minimize the time between creating a business idea and putting it into production. Cloud-based computing gives you the flexibility to choose which areas of your application to abstract or which part to send to your engineering resources to focus on core differentiators.

Among the many benefits is that applications are now better designed to manage more changes and they are also better designed for horizontal scaling and business challenges. 

Cloud-native architecture works better if workloads are unpredictable or only temporary. Cloud-native development makes a lot of sense if you only need access to resources for a brief period of time.

Zymergen is a company that focuses on investing in new materials with the help of biotechnology by using scientific applications on cloud-native platforms to experience the advantages of rapid scalability. Cloud-native makes it possible for Zymergen to evolve from a simple app to more than hundreds of apps without the need to lease any data center space. Zymergen also manages all of this infrastructure with five engineers, which offers a level of efficiency that wouldn’t be possible with convention systems.

 

Cloud-Native Development Isn’t for Everyone

It’s also important to remember that not every application is worth reconstructing. For example, scaled applications that operate with consistent workloads with minimal change aren’t worth the time to transform. One of the main reasons legacy applications are being transitioned from the cloud is that they didn’t initially belong there. Redeploying the same application for on-prem IT infrastructure is often very limited on a cloud-native solution.

 Many early adopters on the cloud learned that redeploying applications from a local virtual machine to the cloud only offers marginal value. Unless you fully modernize and take advantage of the cloud, you will probably spend a lot more time and money with only a minimal amount of improvement.

One of the factors that can make restructuring efforts challenging is that hardware depends on various functions, such as storage and processing, while also relying upon specific databases. IT companies need to consider if test suites and source code still exist before restructuring, as application elements are either interdependent or modular, while traffic patterns can cause financial penalties that would make the transition process impractical.

 

Step by Step Process

Luckily, cloud-native isn’t an all-or-nothing process. Businesses can focus on a staged approach by focusing on pieces of an application and using containers to encapsulate them or use microservices to rewrite it. While this process requires investment, the flexibility is nearly always worth the effort.

Cloud-native applications are community-driven, which means there is excellent developer support that’s available. You can also choose your choice of deployment, whether it’s cloud, on-premise, multi-cloud, or hybrid.

However, it’s also possible to only remain partially cloud-native, as some elements are much more flexible while others remain associated with legacy aspects. Although it’s important to realize that partial cloud-nativeness isn’t a good position in the long-term, as it can result in an impedance mismatch that can hurt your business.

Many experts recommend focusing on a partial cloud migration process, which is a step-by-step process. Components operating in the cloud need to communicate with applications that run on-premise, as these approaches are best used only sparingly during a transition process.

Using a hybrid strategy allows a business to take advantage of multiple cloud providers without using an expensive approach that’s only cloud-based.

Choosing to separate data from applications while enabling the database to be scaled independently makes it possible to accelerate the process. Over time, you can change your applications to create services to coordinate and eventually create a microservices architecture.

Developers can use legacy services in a standard API to make it possible for applications to communicate with each other. For example, you can use a desktop software program written in Python to communicate with microservices operating within containers. Ultimately, cloud-native technology is highly powerful, even under unusual conditions.

However, reconstructing an application with microservices is more complex, and it also requires a thorough review. Being cloud-native doesn’t have to be the primary goal, as there isn’t anything wrong with running legacy applications. The main reason to rebuild an app around cloud-native principles is if it makes sense for your business.

There is also agreement that cloud-native isn’t only a development tactic, but it’s also a way of thinking. Ultimately, it means doing things in a way that would be used during legacy development.

Cloud-native principles are transforming the traditional way of building applications, as it’s focused on adapting to the delivered process instead of changing the method.