Cloud native refers to a modern approach to designing, building, and deploying applications that leverages the capabilities of cloud computing and takes full advantage of the cloud environment. It is an architectural paradigm that emphasizes scalability, agility, resilience, and automation.
Here are some key characteristics and principles associated with cloud native:
- Containerization: Cloud native applications are typically packaged and deployed in containers, such as Docker containers. Containers provide a lightweight and isolated runtime environment, enabling applications to be easily deployed and run consistently across different computing environments.
- Microservices: Cloud native applications are often built using a microservices architecture, where an application is decomposed into small, loosely coupled services. Each service focuses on a specific business capability and can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. This approach promotes modularity, flexibility, and easier maintenance.
- Dynamic Orchestration: Cloud native applications are managed and orchestrated using container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes. These platforms automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across a cluster of machines or cloud instances. They enable seamless scaling, fault tolerance, and efficient resource utilization.
- DevOps Practices: Cloud native development embraces DevOps principles, emphasizing collaboration, automation, and continuous delivery. Developers and operations teams work closely together to streamline the application lifecycle, automate deployment processes, and ensure faster iteration and delivery.
- Elasticity and Scalability: Cloud native applications are designed to scale horizontally, meaning they can handle increased traffic or workload by adding more instances of services rather than scaling up individual servers. This enables applications to adapt to fluctuating demand and optimize resource utilization.
- Resilience and Fault Tolerance: Cloud native applications are engineered to be resilient and fault-tolerant. They leverage the inherent capabilities of cloud platforms to handle failures and ensure high availability. By distributing services across multiple instances and regions, they can withstand component failures without causing significant disruptions.
- Infrastructure as Code: Cloud native development leverages infrastructure-as-code (IaC) principles, where infrastructure configuration and management are automated using code. This approach enables consistent, repeatable deployments and simplifies infrastructure management.
The goal of cloud native architecture is to maximize the benefits of cloud computing, including scalability, flexibility, efficiency, and resilience. It enables organizations to build and operate applications in a more agile and cost-effective manner, taking advantage of cloud-native services and technologies.
