Cloud-native presents a transformative approach to building and running web-scale applications. When done right, this approach gives developers and organizations the power to build applications that are more reliable, scalable, and resilient in a short amount of time.
Like any other app development approach, cloud-native has its limitations. However, by implementing the best practices, developers and organizations alike can fully leverage the power of cloud computing without the drawbacks.
This article will cover the best development practices you can implement for cloud-native applications to help developers and organizations get the best out of them. But first, what constitutes cloud-native application development?
What is cloud-native application development?
Cloud-native app development refers to a specialized approach to building and running applications specifically designed for the cloud [1]. It’s not just about lifting and shifting existing applications to the cloud but building apps from the ground up to leverage the unique strengths of cloud computing.
Source: Tech Target
The term cloud-native emerged around 2013 when Netflix disclosed its web-scale architecture during the AWS reInvent global learning conference [2]. Since then, this term has lacked a concise definition, but the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) [3] states that for an application to be considered cloud native, it should rest on the following pillars.
Microservice architecture
Cloud-native applications are often built using a microservice architecture, where an application is composed of multiple small interdependent services.
Microservices architecture | Source: Microsoft Learn
Microservices are loosely coupled and communicate with each other via well-defined APIs. For instance, you can have an ecommerce app with a shopping cart, inventory, and payment as separate services.
Traditionally, developers build applications using a monolithic architecture. In this type of architecture, an app is built and executed as a single unit. As opposed to microservices, a monolithic application is difficult to scale and maintain. Also, it is less fault-tolerant as a failure in one part of the application can bring the whole thing down.
- Containers and container orchestration
These microservices are packaged into containers. These are lightweight components that contain everything needed to execute a microservice in any environment or platform.
Container orchestration manages the number of containers for large-scale cloud-native apps to keep these apps running smoothly. Developers use Docker to containerize their apps and orchestrate the containers using Kubernetes.
- Employ DevOps principles
Microservices are developed, deployed, and scaled independently, requiring a high level of collaboration between development and operations teams. This is where DevOps comes in; a set of practices that promote collaboration between software development and IT operations teams [8]. DevOps ensures that these teams can seamlessly work together to deliver cloud-native applications quickly and reliably.
You can have applications running on the cloud that are not necessarily cloud-native. For example, a traditional monolithic application that has been migrated to the cloud intact, without any changes to its architecture. An application that stands on the aforementioned pillars is considered cloud native.
Why build cloud-native applications?
Cloud-native apps are designed to take full advantage of cloud computing. When done right, cloud-native app development promises the following benefits.
Agility in integrating new app features
DevOps teams work simultaneously to ship new features to individual services without compromising on the availability of the entire application. This makes it easier to respond to customer demands.
Cloud-native apps are highly scalable
Container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes dynamically adjust resources based on traffic and the performance of the application (auto-scaling). In addition, major cloud providers like Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have a global infrastructure that allows these apps to be easily deployed and accessed worldwide.
Due to this, CNCF reports that over 44% of organizations use containers for production applications and business segments [4].
Proportion of organizations using containers, 2022 | Source: CNCF annual report
Fault tolerance
Microservices operate independently and failure in one microservice does not bring down the entire application.
Portability
Cloud-native applications are easily portable, thanks to containerization with Docker and Kubernetes. Containerization packages microservices with their dependencies and runtime environments. This ensures that they can be executed across different cloud platforms and operating systems.
Cost-effectiveness
Organizations will only pay for the resources that the app uses. There is no need to invest in infrastructure upfront. Kubernetes supports this by optimizing resource allocation depending on the needs of the application.
As a product of these benefits, more organizations are adopting cloud-native principles when building applications – and this number is expected to keep rising. In fact, Gartner reports that 85% of organizations are expected to adopt this approach to app development by the year 2025 [5].
That said, to reap these benefits fully without the pitfalls, developers and organizations need to implement the best development practices for cloud-native applications.
The best development practices for cloud-native applications
When it comes to cloud-native apps, the better the development process, the more efficient and reliable the application will be. Here are some best development practices to create high-quality, reliable, and scalable cloud-native applications.
1: Avoid vendor lock-in with the cloud provider
When building and or running a cloud-native application, some amount of software or computing infrastructure will be outsourced to the cloud vendor. Vendor lock-in refers to when a developer or organization is stuck with a specific cloud vendor because switching away from the vendor is too expensive or impractical [6].
Vendor lock-in example | Source: Geeks for geeks
Vendor lock-in is a critical issue since you will be stuck with the cloud vendor even when the quality of their service drops, they impose higher charges, or go out of business altogether. This is something you will want to avoid as you build cloud-native apps because research shows that cloud outages are on the rise.
Fortunately, there are several ways to avoid vendor lock-in:
Avoid services or platforms that are specific to a cloud vendor.
Employ a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud strategy. This strategy spreads out a cloud-native app’s dependency across multiple cloud providers and or an organization’s on-premise data center.
Implement data management strategies that enable easy export and migration of your data to avoid lock-in with the vendor’s storage solutions.
Avoiding vendor lock-in is key to maintaining the portability of cloud-native applications.
2: Employ a serverless architecture
A serverless architecture outsources infrastructure provisioning, scaling, and maintenance to cloud providers. It is one of the most popular cloud computing practices and rightly so.
According to a 2023 Datadog report on the state of serverless, over 70% of AWS, 60% of Google Cloud, and 49% of Azure customers currently use one or more serverless solutions [7].
A serverless architecture relieves developers from the hassle of infrastructure provisioning, allowing them to focus on creating valuable features instead. As a result, it improves developer experience and productivity.
Serverless architecture | Source: Kofi Group
Moreover, this type of architecture facilitates saving on infrastructure costs. It employs a pay-per-use model where organizations are charged based on the actual compute resources consumed during the execution of the cloud-native app.
3: Selecting the right design pattern for the cloud-native app
There are different design patterns for cloud-native applications with different purposes. These patterns are not mutually exclusive and can be used concurrently. The design pattern chosen should also reflect the organization’s priorities apart from the purpose of the applications.
Depending on the purpose, here are some popular design patterns for cloud-native applications.
Sidecar – The main app operates as a single set of services while supplementary functionality like monitoring tools runs alongside it. This is perfect when the developer wants to add functionalities to the app without altering the code.
Sidecar design pattern | Source: DZone
Event-driven – When the application is intended to operate in response to specific events and not continuously. For example, a real-time analytics dashboard.
Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) – Ideal for apps that require high data availability, like healthcare information systems.
Gatekeeper – It limits an app’s exposure to the internet and maximizes its security.
These are simply a few examples, there are many more design patterns that can be implemented for different cloud-native apps.
4: Automate the release pipeline
Embrace DevOps best practices like CI/CD to automate the release pipeline of the application. CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) plays a key role in creating and managing agile cloud-native applications.
Source: Analytics Vidhya
By implementing CI/CD, developers can create pipelines to automate each step of the development and deployment process. This includes:
Automatically detecting code changes pushed to the version control system and initiating build processes.
Automatically running unit tests, integration, and end-to-end tests to see if the code works as intended. Providing feedback if any errors occur.
Deploying apps automatically after the tests have been passed.
Setting up a staging environment and running staging tests.
And more.
Integrating CI/CD into the cloud-native app development workflow enables organizations and developers to realize the full benefits of an agile application running on the potent cloud infrastructure.
5: Secure the application from the ground up
Securing a cloud-native application is not as straightforward. Developers need to implement comprehensive security measures to protect the application, its data and dependencies, and the underlying infrastructure. Here are some measures developers can take to secure a cloud-native app.
Identity management – Leverage Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions to manage who gets access to the app and its data and under which conditions they get to do so.
Data encryption – Any data in transit should be encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS) to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
Container security – Regularly scan containers for vulnerabilities and implement strong security measures like firewalls and runtime monitoring to secure the runtime environments for the app’s containers.
API security – Implement rate limiting on APIs to prevent common attacks such as Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Security should not be treated as an afterthought but be a part of the workflow throughout the software development lifecycle, from design, coding, and testing, to deployment.
6: Use service meshes to manage microservices
Securing the microservices of web-scale cloud-native apps and managing how they communicate can be complicated. Developers have to implement mutual TLS in each communication path. Also, they will have to dynamically configure how these microservices connect. For instance, how much traffic a microservice sends to different versions of another microservice and under what conditions.
Doing this for a web-scale app is time-consuming and will only slow down the development cycle. This is where service meshes like Istio and Google Anthos Service Mesh come in.
Service mesh illustration | Source: Bouyant
A service mesh will install a proxy that runs alongside each microservice (similar to the sidecar design pattern mentioned earlier) [9]. These proxies secure the microservice, applying predefined security policies when microservices need to communicate. They also help to control the microservices that are allowed to talk to each other.
A service mesh also improves the observability of the application by providing its end-to-end overview of how traffic is flowing through it. Overall, a service mesh is a must-have when building large-scale cloud-native applications.
Key Takeaways
Cloud-native is the best approach to building applications that run on the cloud. To get the best out of this development approach, developers need to implement the best practices like the ones discussed in this article. In doing so, they will be able to build high-quality, reliable, and scalable cloud-native applications with a fraction of the effort.
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