Cloud computing today is ubiquitous. A behind the scenes phenomenon that tirelessly continues to power and enhance our many experiences across many devices. And, yet how does it accomplish so many different objectives on such a wide breadth of platforms?
The answer here is not just cloud but something much more specific.
The hero of the story is cloud-native but the common question arises- how something on cloud be native? Let’s get to the meat of the matter, what is cloud-native?
What is Cloud-Native?
The term cloud-native defines an approach to building and running applications that optimally use the advantages provided by the cloud computing delivery model. Cloud-native deals with the building and deployment aspect of applications. Applications using the cloud-native approach are not stored in an on-premises data centre.
The architecture also enables huge improvements across a wide array of factors that directly lead to huge gains in deployment, developer productivity, scalability, and cost savings. Cloud-native applications have several advantages which give them superiority over on-premise solutions. Let’s walk you through few of the key advantages:
Built differently from the ground up
If you are deploying an on-premise application then that application probably will be written in traditional languages, like C/C++, C# or some Visual Studio language if the deployment is to happen on a Windows Server platform, cloud-native applications, on the other hand, are usually built using languages that are much more web-friendly languages like Java, JavaScript, .Net, Go, Node.js, PHP, Python, and more.
Always current and updated
One of the prime benefits of Cloud-native applications is that it’s always current. Cloud-native applications are also available all the time.
On-premises applications, on the other hand, have to deal with downtime when the updates are installed.
Scalable on demand
Cloud-native applications can deal with spikes in a much more effective manner due to their ability to increase the resources at hand instantly. For instance, if your cloud-based application is experiencing a spike, you can allocate extra compute resources until things turn back to normal. This allows cloud-native applications to scale as per the need. The same cannot be said for an on-premises application as it cannot scale dynamically.
Virtualized work space sharing
Cloud-native applications can share resources with other applications due to their ability to work in a virtualized space. On-premise applications cannot handle virtual workspaces with the same amount to efficiency.
Higher redundancy compared to on-premise solutions
If a region of choice from your cloud provider has to deal with an outage, you can be rest assured that it won’t affect your applications on the cloud. This is due to the fact that other regions can pick up exactly where the previous stopped. This enables the cloud-native applications to work with better redundancy compared to on-premise solutions.
With on-premises applications, there is a good chance that any outage will affect your application adversely.
Automation for better performance
If you are deploying your applications on the cloud with cloud-native delivery, then things like application management will be automated for you. The major benefits that cloud-native offers in terms of speed and agility rely heavily on an underlying layer of processes that are reliable proven, and audited. These processes are executed repeatedly using automation tools and require no manual intervention. On-premises applications need to be managed manually which leads to much worse performance.
Modular trumps monolithic design
On-premises applications follow the monolithic design approach. With an on-premise offering what you are getting is one big application that has a lot of different subroutines. Cloud-native applications, on the other hand, are modular. They have many functions which are broken down into different microservices. This allows a more efficient resource allocation as updates are rolled out to one module instead of the whole application.
Loosely-coupled vs Tightly-coupled
With a cloud-native offering, you get the benefit of cloud means applications that are not tied to infrastructure, implying they are stateless. The state of a cloud-native application is stored in a database which allows instances to come and go and it can still track where the application is. The loosely-coupled nature of cloud-native allows the applications to run in a highly distributed manner. With on-premises applications, you get a tightly-coupled system that is stateful. The state of the application is stored on the infrastructure that the code is running on. This can lead to the application breaking down when additional resources are being allocated to the system.
Cloud-native applications are great when it comes to deploying and making use of the best that the cloud sector has to offer. The ideal place to start deploying your cloud-native applications would be with AWS and its host of services that are built from the ground up to support and help you build powerful cloud-native applications. If you are eager to make use of the latest developments and benefits provided by cloud-native or if you want to migrate your existing system to the cloud then an experienced AWS Consulting Partner can offer the right technical assistance to get you started in no time. Get in touch with us to identify and implement the best solution for your particular use case.