The inception of the cloud birthed a new paradigm in designing, implementing, and ongoing maintenance of computer systems. The most commonly used name for this new paradigm is cloud native architectures.

The cloud native concept was first introduced by Matt Stine in 2013 as cloud computing experienced rapid development.  Though the concept has no particular definition due to the fact that it is completely new and also uses new methods to solve business problems that can typically only be achieved at the scale of cloud computing. This fact is similar to that of cloud computing in itself – which is still evolving every day, so the definitions offered a few years ago are quite possibly not to be fully up to date with the current state of the cloud.

What then is Cloud Native Architecture?

Cloud Native is a set of systematized techniques and methodologies adopted in building and deployment of applications that take great advantage of cloud computing services using various cloud computing models.

Cloud-native applications consist of small pieces which include:

  • Containers
  • Immutable infrastructure
  • Microservices
  • Service meshes

These pieces work together – microservices packaged into containers running on cloud computing infrastructure, but they can as well be changing, add or replace without potentially breaking the entire system. They can also be fiddle with independently without taking down the entire system.   

Cloud-Native applications are developed, tested, and deployed in the cloud. Therefore, they run on a private, public, hybrid, or multi-cloud infrastructure.

These Cloud-Native principles and architecture make building Apps faster and better as well as shortens the path to production. It is all about achieving overall speed, scale, agility, and competitive advantage.

The Four Pillars of Cloud Native Architecture

  1. Microservices: a variant of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) structural style that arranges an application as a collection of loosely coupled services.
  2. Container: a running process that is isolated from the host operating system and other processes in the system. Containers are used to encapsulate everything into a single package such as microservices – are packaged into container images and executed on top of a container host.
  3. DevOps: it’s a way of automating the process of platform provisioning and application deployment – a practice where building, testing, and releasing software happens rapidly.
  4. CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery): Being agile, quick, and safe is important when it comes to the delivery of cloud-native applications – CI/CD helps in making frequent releases and speedup the go-to-market process while reducing risk.

Conclusion

It is important to note that cloud-native came as a result of cloud computing. There would not have to be Cloud-native without the development of cloud computing. Therefore, cloud computing is the basis of cloud-native.

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