Cloud native apps can give a further boost to business, allowing you to take full advantage of the flexibility and speed characteristics of new IT environments. The cloud has definitively established itself as the preferred architectural choice for the digital enterprise.
The winning model of cloud computing
According to the Politecnico of Milano (Cloud Transformation Observatory), 11% of large Italian companies declare that the cloud represents the only way to support digital initiatives. 42% of the sample is still convinced that the as-a-service model is the preferable way over traditional IT.
In short, the cloud computing paradigm is gaining popularity, especially because of economic savings (resources are "rented", based on actual consumption) and architectural elasticity. In fact, the infrastructure is made up of many elementary "bricks" used as a service and can be dynamically modulated according to business needs. The IT assets provided by the various providers are in fact recalled, scaled and managed very quickly, in an integrated and flexible multicloud environment. It is clear that the cloud model lends itself to supporting the variable and often unpredictable flows of the new digital business, offering a solid and secure basis (guaranteed by the reliability of the supplier and through Service Level Agreements).
What are cloud native apps
In this context of extreme agility, a further "boost" to the business is given by the adoption of cloud native applications that allow them to fully exploit the potential of the cloud, ensuring the same functionality and performance regardless of the environment in which they run and underlying hardware. They therefore lend themselves to being moved from one cloud to another (public or private), seamlessly.
Cloud native apps follow the same principle of "modularity" as the cloud, as they are designed by combining individual functional units represented by "microservices". Typically, microservices run inside containers (virtual instances of runtime environments), ensuring operation regardless of the underlying hardware. Each microservice can be compiled and implemented absolutely independently, without affecting or compromising the others. The integration and communication between the various functions takes place via API (Application Programming Interface).
The modular structure encourages the adoption of DevOps methodologies for software development and management: each basic function can be assigned to different teams and modified according to business needs, without affecting the overall functioning of the app. This creates a virtuous circle of collaboration between developers and Operations, which significantly accelerates the design, release and correction of any flaws.
The benefits of cloud native apps
In summary, cloud native apps can bring significant benefits to the company, for example:
- agility and speed of time-to-market: each microservice is managed by a specific and small development team, able to work more quickly and accelerate software management cycles;
- scalability: since they are small in size, microservices can be quickly deployed and updated within the infrastructures;
- code reuse: the same code of a function can be used in different applications;
- resilience: the modular structure preserves the functioning of the application in case a component is defective (something that traditional applications, with a monolithic structure, could not guarantee).
Adopting cloud native applications therefore means being faster in responding to changing business needs, rapidly implementing new digital services with the freedom to choose the underlying infrastructure and development tools.
Cloud native apps: three requirements to look for in a technology partner
If the use of the cloud and cloud-native apps is an essential way for any digital company, the roadmap to move to the new models is not so obvious. An experienced partner can help successfully target migration projects, guiding the company towards the optimal solutions. But what are the requirements that a valid partner must have?
First of all, it is necessary to rely on a partner capable of supporting companies in various aspects. For example, in the integration of clouds and in the construction of a hybrid and heterogeneous IT environment, where, however, corporate data is managed continuously and adequately protected.
The company must then be able to offer application development & maintenance services, aimed at creating and updating software solutions in line with business needs and based on the most advanced technologies. The goal must be to build an effective and customized application management model based on the type and needs of the organization.
Finally, the Agile and DevOps approach must be part of the practices commonly adopted by the expert partner, in order to accelerate the application development and release processes, meeting the business demands and the requirements of new multicloud infrastructures.