Cloud Native has become a trend for companies who run their applications on Cloud. A survey from O’Reilly in 2021 shows that most of the respondent has developed their Cloud Native software (30%) or is planning to run the Cloud Native platform (37%).
Only 30% of the respondents did not have a plan to migrate. This survey involved 2.834 respondents. Gartner predicts that the Cloud Native Platform will be adopted widely in 2025. They also foresee, that 95% of respondents will deploy new digital workloads this year on the Cloud Native platform.
According to IDC (2019), from a business-wise, the catalysator of the Cloud Native-based applications is the need to deploy applications promptly without having to compromise the quality and security. Companies are also demanded by the need to innovate faster to not lag with the competitors.
The Characteristics of Cloud Native-based Applications
Cloud Native-based applications are born and designed for Cloud Computing infrastructures (either public, private, or hybrid). Using Cloud infrastructures does not make an application become a Cloud Native because it could be that the application was originally designed for on-premises installation. As the name implies, Cloud Native-based applications are designed to take full advantage of the Cloud.
Cloud Native Computing Foundation defines Cloud Native-based application as “an application that exploits the innovation of Cloud Computing”. This application solves problems previously found in the application that is not yet designed to leverage the Cloud. For example, a traditional application that requires manual intervention is not scalable, or cannot be restarted if they fail.
1. Microservice Architectures
One of the thews of Cloud Native-based applications is the use of microservice architectures. In these particular architectures, an application consists of separate components and is called a microservice. Each of these components has its functions and is independent, also can be handled by different developers.
These architectures have multiple benefits. Microservice allows changes, renewals, and adds features swiftly. This will help to innovate faster to respond to the market needs.
Moreover, microservice architectures will also allow gradual and more optimized upgrades or reductions because changes can be limited to only the components that are needed. This is different from scaling up/down on a monolithic application, which must be done on the entire application.
On the other side, microservice architectures are more complicated than monolithic applications. The development and assessment can also be more challenging without the help of automation, and CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous deployment) method.
2. Container
The container is another must-have technology for Cloud Native-based applications. The development with the microservice architecture, for example, can be implemented with a virtual machine (VM), however, the container will run faster and efficiently.
The container is lighter, with a size of only dozens of megabytes. The container can contain the environment and library needed by an application. This is different from a VM which must virtualize the machine and load the entire operating system. Because of this, containers can be launched and removed faster.
3. Orchestration
The use of container orchestration is inevitable for a Cloud Native-based application. An application that uses a container can be deployed and removed dozens, or even thousands, of containers simultaneously.
This happens due to the characteristics of the containers that are lighter and more cohesive. But this also means that the container management is impossible to be implemented manually. This is where the container orchestration equipment comes into play.
Container orchestration will come in handy to automate multiple tasks of the container process. This includes the creation, deployment, removal, and monitor the container. A few examples of container orchestration solutions that can be widely found are OpenShift, Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and the list goes on.
4. DevOps
Traditionally, there is a separation between the application developer (or dev) and the infrastructure/operational (or ops) team. This separation is time-consuming to push an application from the development process to release (operational). This approach is no longer suitable for today’s business environment, which requires companies to be more responsive to market and customer demands.
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DevOps is a practice that accelerates the process of bringing ideas (e.g., new features, bug fixes) into development and to the final release of a finished product. This approach breaks the wall that previously existed between development and operations teams, and demands that the two work closely together. This is possible because of the automation tools, containers, and CI/CD methods.
The container allows the developer team to work in the standard environment or similar to the production team. Thus, the development process can work with the application by using a laptop, assess and release to the next production process without the hassle of customizing.
Meanwhile, the automation tools allow integration, testing, and release process to be carried out quickly after developers make changes or add new features.
The Benefit of Cloud Native-based Application
Due to its design, Cloud Native-based application can optimize the benefit of Cloud and has several advantages compared to any other Cloud-based. To name a few, see below:
- Cost-effective. The use of computing resources can be increased or decreased more efficiently than traditional applications running on the Cloud.
- Designed for scalability. Thanks to microservice architectures, each component of the application is isolated, separated, and able to change the use of resources (scale up/down) one at a time.
- Portable. By using container technology, Cloud Native-based applications can be transferred easily from private Cloud to public Cloud or from one Cloud service to another if necessary.
- More reliable. If glitches occur in one of the microservices, it will not affect other microservices because it is isolated from one another.
Migrate to Cloud Native
Not every application can run on Cloud-based that must be designed and deployed as Cloud Native-based applications. The development of Cloud Native-based applications definitely can be taken into consideration when planning to develop new applications. How about the existing application?
Monolithic traditional applications that previously is deployed in the on-premises installation can be migrated to another Cloud easily by using IaaS services. However, your company can consider redesigning the application into Cloud Native-based.
Please do consider migrating your old applications to Cloud Native if the below deets occur:
- The program code has developed in such a way that it takes a long time to release the latest version. This can make the company slow to react to market demands or customer needs.
- The application components have different scalability requirements.
- A new technology emerges, which is found to be easier to add as part of a Cloud Native-based application than a monolithic application.
Lintasarta Deka Harbor and Deka DBaaS
From the details shown above, we can conclude that container technology plays an important role to handle Cloud Native-based applications. To be able to better develop and handle Cloud Native-based applications, your company can take advantage of Container as a Service (CaaS) services, such as Lintasarta Deka Harbor. Deka Harbor solution helps application developers optimize the upload, configuration, and management of Cloud Native-based application that is packaged as a container.
Moreover, Database as a Service (DBaaS) or is also called Deka DBaaS allows you to monitor, managed access, and perform a backup via a special-built dashboard without having to worry about the hassle of managing infrastructure and databases, because everything will be managed by the Cloudeka team. Some of the advantages of Deka DBaaS are as follows:
- Single configuration and cluster node in only 1 click
- Equipped with database backup feature that can be implemented automatically
- Manage access to the database service for users who have access
For more information about Deka Harbor and Deka DBaaS, please contact us!
