Next-Gen Application Development Using a Cloud-Native Approach

It is expected that the global cloud applications market will be valued at $166 billion by the end of 2024. That’s almost double the market value that was reported four years ago. With more than 6.5 million cloud-native developers worldwide driving next-gen application development, the tremendous growth of the industry is but obvious.

As reported by Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), the open-source container orchestration platform Kubernetes and other serverless architectures are being employed to fuel this arena. Not to mention that the massive adherence to the public cloud and increasing inclination towards the hybrid cloud is only complementing the development and adoption of cloud-native apps.

It’s fundamental that organizations are working towards building highly customer-centric applications. As a result, they are looking to leverage native cloud platforms to achieve optimal performance in terms of scalability, user experience, latency, and cost.

Cloud-Native Approach – An Engine for Business Growth in the New Normal

A cloud-native approach that facilitates greater agility, rapid innovation, enhanced performance, and seamless connectivity with external data sources and real-time events is a solid accelerator for business growth in the ‘new normal.’ It allows organizations to build highly customer-centric applications that can be rapidly deployed and integrated into existing infrastructure. It is this juxtaposition that leads to an upward trajectory for the digital transformation of enterprises.

First off, cloud-native architecture helps developers and architects design systems that stay online and available. Cloud-native applications can be scaled up and down based on the changing needs of customers because the applications are built on the principle of elastic scalability. That means workloads can be balanced and deployed across a large cluster of systems with high availability and auto-scaling capabilities.

Second, cloud-native development makes it possible to run applications on any public or private cloud platform, with the goal of minimizing the time by which organizations must wait for app-ready instances. This is a clear advantage over traditional approaches because it incorporates a multiparty architecture that takes advantage of the shared resources of multiple cloud platforms.

A winning factor is introduced by automating IT Operations and reducing the risk of failure in the cloud. The developers can significantly improve their productivity, save time with automated builds, shipping, and deployment of apps, reduce errors in configurations by testing in a development environment prior to production rollout, and adapt to the latest technology trends in no time.

The above-mentioned abilities collectively pave the way for optimized cross-department functionality. For instance, supply chain and inventory management can be enabled with the help of cloud-native applications that promote real-time collaboration across disparate teams. This equates to effective coordination between departments, thus, advancing the growth of remote digital services for a win-win operationality amidst uncertainties like COVID-19.

Considerations for Next-gen Cloud-Native Application Development

Assessing Cloud Readiness

While it is beneficial for businesses to embark on a cloud-native approach, it is imperative that they first evaluate their own cloud readiness. This involves:

Performing due diligence of current landscape including apps, infrastructure, and SLAs
Aligning the organization’s technology roadmap with the latest trends to ensure cloud-native app development can be integrated seamlessly
Identifying critical elements for application development and migration (if need be)
Comprehending cloud scalability and confirming the availability of resources required for modernization

Making the Adoption Decision

After ascertaining the current cloud readiness, it is time to perform a cost-benefit analysis. There are several factors that affect the decision of moving to the cloud, including flexibility, security, compliance standards, and regulatory adherence. As such, the emphasis should be on:

Choosing the right cloud platform and transforming the monolithic functionality into an event-driven architecture
Investigating the integration of existing applications with cloud-native services
Understanding the end-to-end security framework

Optimizing and Securing

For organizations to achieve optimum levels of performance – cost optimization and security compliance in the cloud, it is essential to:

Fine-tune the service usage and monitor performance to pinpoint specific bottlenecks and take proactive steps to avoid downtimes
Evaluate the network architecture and security controls, configure the access control lists for each app component, and monitor cloud traffic using a hybrid cloud management solution
Re-validate transformation solutions to ensure proper rollbacks, effective security measures, and compliance with regulations
Work towards enabling self-service models that can be accessed by support teams, customers, and partners alike.

What to Expect from Application Modernization Using Cloud-Native?

Agile Development and Competent Deployment: Building cloud-native applications involve faster, easier, and flexible development of software. This means that the required work can be planned, developed, tested, and deployed in less time with the help of modern application development tools.
Cost Optimization: Cloud-native applications are designed to maximize the use of resources, with an eye on optimizing costs. This means that app developers can save time, effort, and money by identifying inefficiencies in the code and restructuring it.
Faster time-to-market: Cloud-native applications are scaled up and down in real-time, thereby eliminating the need to wait for resources to be available. Developers can use this feature to rapidly prototype new products and launch them within days or weeks.
Complexity and Conflict Management: The event-driven architecture of cloud-native apps can be programmed to perform various tasks automatically. This means that developers can embed conflict resolution features to deploy the best possible outcome for their business.

What Does the Future Hold?

The cloud-native movement is a collaborative movement of software practitioners and an opportunity for enterprises to define and implement new business models, acquire new capabilities, and find new markets.

At Sagacity, we are striving to pioneer cloud-native practices and best practices. We believe that it will be imperative for enterprises and IT professionals to create a roadmap and methodology which enables them to adopt these cloud-native practices.

Reach out to us to discuss your next-gen cloud-native endeavors or to learn more about our application modernization services.