Advantages and Risks of Cloud-Native Applications

The cloud computing model is a way of providing IT services where resources are delivered as a service over the Internet. This model allows businesses to consume resources on demand without investing in or managing infrastructure. There are three main types of cloud services: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

IaaS provides customers with access to virtual machines, storage systems, and networks. PaaS provides customers with access to an application platform that they can use to develop, deploy, and run applications. SaaS provides customers with access to software applications that they can use over the Internet.

A key advantage of XaaS (anything as a service) is its scalability: since the company only pays for the infrastructure it uses, it can easily scale up or down based on its needs. This makes it ideal for businesses with fluctuating or unpredictable demand and serves as a foundation for lean and agile companies that understand they need to adapt to market requirements.

Thanks to the decentralized nature of cloud solutions, companies can provide employees with data access from anywhere, improving collaboration and communication. Gone are the days when developers had to share office space and code was delivered via storage devices.

Today, we will look at what makes cloud-native applications such a great solution, and also discuss some of the potential risks and pitfalls we face when moving a business to the cloud.

What is a Cloud-Native Application?

A cloud-native application is an application designed to run in the cloud. It uses the cloud computing model and is built using a microservices architecture. Cloud-native applications are scalable, resilient, and easy to deploy. They are often created using open source technologies and run on commodity hardware.

Simply put, cloud-native applications are built on microservices, deployed in containers, and managed with orchestration tools.

Microservices are a set of small, independent services that work together to form a larger application. Each microservice has a specific purpose and can be deployed independently. One microservice might handle user authentication, another might manage product catalogs. Microservices are often built using different programming languages and run on different platforms. They communicate with each other via APIs. The downside of microservices is their increased complexity and the need for closer interaction between services.
Containers are a way to package software that makes it easy and consistent to deploy across different environments. For example, Docker is a popular container platform that allows developers to package their applications into containers and run them on any server that supports Docker.
Orchestration tools are used to manage and automate the deployment of microservices. For example, Kubernetes is an orchestration tool that can be used to manage the deployment of microservices across a cluster of servers. Orchestration tools can also be used to manage the lifecycle of microservices, including starting and stopping services, as well as scaling services in response to changing demand.

The key concept here is decentralization. Each application component works independently and can be scaled up or down as needed without impacting other components. This applies to both hardware and software.

Cloud-native applications are not limited to a single server or operating system. Microservices can be deployed across multiple servers and designed to run on any operating system. The exception is when a specific microservice requires certain capabilities provided by specific hardware. Examples include SSDs or GPUs for compute-intensive tasks.

Traditional applications, on the other hand, are typically monolithic, meaning the entire application is built as a single unit. Additionally, they are harder to update and maintain than cloud-native applications because they require manual updates and deployment.

Examples of cloud-native applications include:

UBank created a cloud-based intelligent assistant called RoboChat using the IBM DevOps toolkit. The application was designed to simplify mortgage applications and increased loan approval rates by 15%.
American Airlines' Dynamic Rebooking application is a customer app that provides detailed route and flight information and simplifies the rebooking process.
Think Research built an application to deliver the latest research and up-to-date medical information to doctors at the point of care using cloud APIs based on microservices. This allowed for rapid deployment without major investments in on-premises IT infrastructure.

How to Build a Cloud-Native Application

When developing a cloud-native application, several factors must be considered, including how to deploy, scale, and monitor. Developers must also choose the right tools and technologies for their application, taking into account both platform capabilities and user needs.

A few general tips:

Use containers and microservices: Containers and microservices are key components of cloud-native applications. By breaking your application into small, self-contained parts, you can make it more scalable and easier to manage.
Automate everything: Automation is another important aspect of cloud-native applications. Automating tasks like deployment and scaling saves time and money.
Adopt a declarative approach: With a declarative approach, you define the desired state and let the system handle the details. This is the opposite of an imperative approach, where you explicitly specify every step to be performed. Declarative approaches are often more resilient and easier to maintain in the long run.
Focus on observability: Cloud-native applications should be designed for monitoring from the start. Ensure you have the ability to observe all aspects of the application's operation so you can quickly identify and resolve issues if they arise.
Deploy applications: Use continuous delivery/continuous deployment (CD/CI) pipelines so that new code versions are automatically pushed to production servers with minimal effort from you or your team.

Building the Application

After designing the application, developers can start building it using various technologies. They use containers to package code and deploy it easily on any cloud platform. Microservices are also used to break the application into smaller, more manageable parts. Finally, they can use serverless computing to run their code without provisioning or managing servers.

Keep the following points in mind:

Cloud-native applications are most often built in Java, PHP, .Net, Python, Golang, Ruby, or JavaScript.
The most popular IDEs are CodePen, JSFiddle, Microsoft Azure Notebooks, Observable, Replit, Codenvy, Google Cloud Shell, and Codeanywhere.
Developers plan the application as a set of services. They will separate data from processing and use microservices. Then they use a service mesh to ensure microservices can communicate with each other and be consumed by other applications.
Tools for building a cloud-native service mesh include Consul, Istio, and Kuma.
Examples of tools for building cloud-native networks include Calico, Cilium, Contiv, and Flannel.

Choosing a Cloud Architecture

The traditional data center can no longer keep pace with business growth, so a new approach is needed. The cloud has become one of the most effective solutions for many organizations because it provides the flexibility and agility needed to respond quickly to changing business conditions.

However, not all clouds are the same. Public clouds are often less secure and more expensive than private clouds, so many organizations are turning to hybrid clouds, which offer the best of both worlds. A hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private clouds integrated into a single platform. This allows organizations to leverage the flexibility and dynamic nature of the public cloud while maintaining control over their data and applications. Choosing a hybrid cloud is also possible in the following situations:

When compliance requirements mandate data storage on-premises.
If you have sensitive data you don't want to entrust to a third party.
If you want to take advantage of features only available in one type of cloud.
If you want to use a combination of on-premises and cloud resources to improve efficiency or reduce costs.

Unlike purely private or public clouds, hybrid clouds are more complex and require more effort to build and maintain. Therefore, it is not surprising that for smaller budgets or fast projects requiring cloud solutions, it is better to stick with a private or public option.

Preparing for Deployment

Before deploying an application, several tasks need to be performed, including file minification, image optimization, CSS preprocessing, JavaScript transpilation, running code through a linter, and executing tests. It may also be necessary to invalidate caches and create/move files.

Finally, the compiled code must be packaged for distribution. Since the application consists of microservices, each service may reside in its own container. The application will likely be divided into logical parts, and each part may be in its own container. For example, the front-end may be in one container, and the back-end in another. This way, depending on the traffic the application receives, new instances can be spun up to handle increased load.

Just before deployment, the application is first built and then deployed to a staging environment. The staging environment is a copy of the production environment where the application is tested for bugs and performance issues. If everything is okay, the application can be deployed to the production environment.

Benefits of Moving to the Cloud

Cloud-native applications offer many advantages, including the following:

Increased agility: Cloud-native applications are designed to be easier to deploy and update than traditional applications, so they help organizations respond more flexibly to market changes and customer needs.
Improved scalability: Cloud-native applications scale more easily than traditional ones, so they handle sudden spikes in demand without overloading resources or causing crashes.
Reduced costs: Because cloud-native applications are designed to use resources more efficiently, they help organizations save on infrastructure and operational expenses.
Enhanced security: Cloud-native applications can leverage security features offered by cloud providers, such as data encryption and user authentication.
Better performance: Cloud-native applications are designed to take advantage of the high-performance computing capabilities of the cloud, so they deliver better performance compared to traditional applications.
Improved collaboration: Cloud applications can be accessed and used by team members from anywhere in the world, improving collaboration among employees.
Environmental benefits: Because cloud applications are designed to use resources more efficiently, they can help reduce carbon emissions.
Access to new features: Cloud applications can take advantage of the latest cloud technologies and services, offering users new features and capabilities not available to traditional applications.
Improved disaster recovery: Cloud applications can be quickly and easily deployed to a new location if the organization's primary data center is damaged or destroyed.

Risks of Moving to Cloud-Native Applications

The risks associated with moving to cloud-native applications are numerous and varied, and can generally be grouped into the following categories:

Technical risks include the possibility of data loss or corruption, service outages, and security breaches.
Organizational risks include the possibility of disruptive changes to business processes.
Cultural risks relate to conflict between traditional and cloud-native organizations, as well as the need for new skills and training.
Financial risks include the possibility of increased costs, reduced profitability, and the need to reinvest in legacy systems.
Regulatory risks include the possibility of new compliance requirements and the need to adapt to new regulations.

Technical risks can be divided into two broad groups: those within the service provider's responsibility and those arising from customer error. In the examples above, service outages are the provider's responsibility, while security breaches due to password leaks are the customer's. Each provider has its own approach to defining responsibility, and it is a good idea to understand who handles what before purchasing their services.

Regarding organizational and cultural risks, sudden changes are disruptive and, if handled poorly, can lead to frustration, non-compliance, and outright rejection. Moving to the cloud is a paradigm shift that comes more easily to those already accustomed to microservices, DevOps, and cloud technologies, but it baffles those stuck in monolithic architectures.

Consider two paths. On one hand, you can always train your current team to learn more about microservices and cloud solutions, perhaps adding a couple of key figures with experience in these areas to help others get up to speed. Conduct workshops and encourage people to take courses and earn certifications.

On the other hand, for a new project or startup with a small IT or engineering team, it might be better to create a new team by hiring software developers who already know and understand all the intricacies of working with such an architecture. It's no wonder cloud technology has become such a sought-after specialty.

As for financial risks, aren't cloud-native applications supposed to reduce costs? Yes, provided you maximize the flexibility that microservices provide. As we mentioned earlier, you might need a GPU for computing power, but that may not be the case for every microservice in your architecture. Some parts of your product may run on metaphorical potatoes and never scale, while others may constantly fluctuate based on demand.

In other words, microservices are more than just writing small programs. You need to truly embrace the idea of a decoupled system where each part does its own thing and workloads are distributed efficiently. In that case, a cloud engineer is the ideal specialist.

Regarding regulatory risks, the need to comply with certain standards is a natural part of the technology industry. And while we believe standards are necessary for safety and reliability, they can also be quite restrictive when working with innovative technologies. Plan ahead and do your research to ensure the solution your team envisions meets current industry standards and the legal framework in which your product will operate.

Cloud-Native Applications Are the Future

You would have to be very stoic not to be excited about the prospects of cloud-native applications. A technology that acts almost like a living organism, changing and adapting to conditions, is something extraordinary. And while monolithic architectures will always have their place, larger products require more flexibility and adaptability in an ever-changing market.

Cloud-native solutions can become a hallmark of your project, providing a more robust system capable of smoothly transitioning between different processing levels. Of course, this depends on preparation from the start and understanding the obstacles that come with using such technology.