Cloud-native App Development

Cloud native applications—or native cloud applications (NCAs)—are programs designed for a cloud computing architecture. They have many benefits.

To keep with the competition, businesses today have to work hard to innovate and increase efficiency in business processes. A key to innovation and efficiency is the adoption of cloud-native apps. Cloud-native app development can provide businesses with the speed, security, and reliability to effectively run applications thereby, increasing customer satisfaction.

Let's Talk

What is cloud-native app development?

A native app is software that has been developed for use in a specific device or platform. So, a cloud-native app is a software that has been designed specifically for cloud computing architecture. Cloud-native apps include all the techniques and tools used by developers to create apps for the public cloud. These apps are built from scratch on the cloud itself, unlike on-premise software. Cloud-native apps make the best use of the inherent resilience, flexibility, and scalability of cloud computing.

What are the key characteristics of cloud-native apps?

Scalability:

Cloud-native apps are scalable; they can be scaled up and down according to requirements. The apps can be dynamically managed to ensure that the resources are efficiently utilised.

Microservices:

Every cloud-native app can be broken down into microservices. These are a core component of the architecture of cloud-native apps. Each microservice is a self-sufficient mini-program that has its own application logic and data store, all created to carry out a sole business function. The microservices are built to co-operate with each other and are accessed as a single application to the end customer.

Resiliency:

These apps are resilient; if there are failures and outages, these apps can survive them. These apps can exploit the Disaster recovery mechanisms and automated failover of the cloud.

Developed using the best-of-breed framework and language:

Every service that a cloud-native app offers is developed with the framework and language that is best suited for its functionality. Services may use various runtimes, frameworks, and languages. 

Use of APIs:

Cloud-native apps are centered on lightweight APIs (application programming interface) based on representational state transfer (REST) protocols and the like, which exposes their functionality. APIs are critical in cloud-native app development as they help secure endpoints and furnish a layer of ecosystem management.

Composability:

With the help of APIs, cloud-native apps can be consumed by other applications with ease.

What are the benefits of cloud-native app development for businesses?

Faster deployment:

In today’s economy, it is increasingly important to have faster delivery pipelines and software development. With cloud-native apps, businesses can build, deploy, and manage apps in the cloud with faster development and deployment timelines.

Reduced costs:

Cloud-native apps provide the benefit of automation thus, saving businesses costs related to the manual management of operational processes.

Augmented systems reliability:

Cloud-native app architecture makes it resilient, fault-tolerant, and self-healing. The microservices can be independently deployed and scaled and even actions such as updates can be automated. The architecture of cloud-native apps helps augment the reliability of systems, reducing downtime, and enhancing customer experience.

Enhanced customer satisfaction:

Cloud-native apps allow businesses to add and change features to applications. It allows businesses to seamlessly connect enterprise data stores and front-end apps, thus, enhancing customer experience and satisfaction.

Portability:

The use of containers allows microservices to be ported between the infrastructure of different vendors, thus, avoiding vendor lock-in.

Effortless management:

With the benefit of automated processes and tasks, businesses can focus on non-IT related activities and processes that drive up business growth.

What principles should be followed for cloud-native app development?

When developers are developing a cloud-native app or modernising an already-existing one, there are three basic principles that should be followed:

Stick to the microservices architectural method

This method allows for an automated, incremental, and uninterrupted improvement of the application without the need for downtime. Each microservice runs its own processes and communicates with each other using protocols such as HTTP. The microservices are constructed around business capabilities and can be independently deployed.

Rely on containers

In cloud-native apps, containers package the software with all the code, configurations, and dependencies in a single place, which allows the software to run anywhere. Containers offer the benefits of maximum scalability and flexibility.

Embrace agile methods

Agile methods help to expedite the development and improvement process, allowing developers to make updates quickly based on valuable user feedback. This allows the application to work as closely as possible to user expectations.

CI and CD

Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) are important principles in cloud-native app development. They enable developers to deliver changes in codes reliably and more regularly.

What tools are used in the process of cloud-native app development?

A development stack is a set of various software tools used in the cloud-native app development process. The software tools are as follows:

Docker is an open-source platform that creates, deploys, and manages application containers. It uses a common operating system (OS) and isolates resources, which allows multiple containers to use the same OS without a problem.

Kubernetes is an open-source platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerised apps.

Terraform is open-source software. It is an infrastructure management tool that allows for the modular configuration of infrastructure. It can run clusters of low and high-level component modules at the same time.

Node.js. is used to create real-time applications such as newsfeeds, chat, and other such microservices. 

GitLab CI/CD is software for continuous integration/development which allows users to automate software deployment and testing. It is used for static analysis, unit tests, and security analysis.

The future of cloud-native apps

Businesses adopting cloud-native app development have witnessed a significant increase in productivity, scalability, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. It is no wonder that the number of cloud-native apps and app developers have been increasing each year. According to a survey by Volterra, 86% of organisations have adopted cloud-native apps. It is clear that cloud-native app development is now a crucial part of digital transformation and innovation in the world today.