How to build a Cloud-native Application?

Today in this fast-paced digital landscape, businesses are constantly seeking new ways to innovate and stay ahead of the competition. With the rise of cloud computing, building cloud-native applications is becoming the latest trend in the world of software development.

A cloud-native application is an application that is designed to run in the cloud environment and utilizes cloud-native services to enable better scalability, flexibility, and resiliency.

Building cloud-native apps requires the incorporation of several tools for successful deployment and a set of well-determined practices and methods to ensure it is leveraging the cloud resources to their fullest.

From defining the application’s architecture to implementing Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) and utilizing cloud-native services, there are several phases in developing a successful cloud-native application.

In this article, we will take you through all these procedures, step-by-step. We will also explore the key components of cloud-native apps, the required tools and technologies, and the best practices for building one.

So, let’s begin:

Cloud-native Applications:

Cloud-native Applications are software programs composed of small, autonomous units called microservices. Traditionally, programmers use a monolithic approach to build apps, that comprises a block structure including all the functionalities.

With cloud-native development, these functionalities can be broken down into smaller microservices. This makes cloud-native apps become more flexible as microservices run independently and require the least computing resources.

In the recent timeframe, cloud-native applications have seen increased use and are foretold to be the future of software development. According to the Cloud-Native Computing Foundation, there were at least 6.5 million cloud-native developers in 2020 compared to 4.7 million in 2019.

The Basic Building Blocks of a Cloud-native Application:

Before learning how to create a cloud-native app, it is essential that we fully understand its basic features and the modern tools required in assembling them.

Microservices:

As mentioned above applications broken down into smaller, independent services are called microservices. This allows for greater scalability, reliability, and flexibility in deploying and updating different parts of the application independently.

Containerization:

Containerization is the process of packaging microservices into containers, which can be easily deployed and managed across different cloud environments. Containers provide a lightweight, portable way to package and run applications and help to ensure consistency and reliability across different environments.

Orchestration:

Containers are managed and orchestrated using container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes, which provide automation and scaling capabilities, ensuring that the application can run reliably and efficiently across multiple nodes and clusters.

DevOps and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD):

Cloud-native applications require a high degree of automation and collaboration between development and operations teams.

CI/CD pipelines automate the process of building, testing, and deploying applications, allowing for faster and more consistent delivery of new features and updates.

Cloud-native data storage:

Cloud-native applications leverage cloud-based data storage services such as object storage, NoSQL databases, and data lakes to provide scalable and highly available data storage solutions that can be easily integrated into the application architecture.

Monitoring and logging:

As cloud-native applications generate a large amount of data, they require robust monitoring and logging to help diagnose and resolve issues quickly.

Cloud-native monitoring and logging tools provide real-time visibility into the performance and health of the application and its underlying infrastructure.

Benefits of building a Cloud Native Application:

There are numerous advantages to building a cloud-native app for your business, some of which are:

• Scalability: Cloud-native apps are designed to scale easily to handle increased traffic and demand, without the need for extensive hardware upgrades.
• Resilience: These applications are designed to be resilient to failures, with built-in redundancies and failover mechanisms.
• Agility: Cloud-native apps are designed to be updated and released quickly, allowing developers to iterate and improve them rapidly.
• Cost efficiency: Cloud-native apps can be run on a pay-as-you-go basis, allowing businesses to save money on hardware and infrastructure costs.
• Security: Cloud-native apps can take advantage of the advanced security features provided by cloud providers, such as data encryption and access controls.

Building a Cloud-native App:

Step 1: Define the Application’s Architecture:

The first step in building a cloud-native application is to define the application’s architecture. A well-defined architecture is crucial to building an app that can leverage cloud resources to its fullest potential.

A cloud-native application is based on a microservices architecture. Since microservices can be broken into smaller components, they are easier to deploy and scale. Each service is responsible for a separate task and they can communicate with each other through well-defined APIs.

Image source: Microsoft.com

Defining the architecture also involves choosing your app’s tools and technologies. Open-source tools such as Kubernetes, Docker, and Istio, are some cloud-native technologies that facilitate containerization, self-discovery, and traffic management essential for microservices architecture.

It is also crucial to consider your application’s personal requirements, such as its objective, performance, and goals. The architecture should be designed to meet these requirements and enable the app to perform immaculately in the cloud environment.

Step 2: Containerize the Application

The next step is to containerize the application. Containerization involves packaging the application and its dependencies into a container, which can be deployed and run in any environment that supports containers.

Docker being the most popular containerization tool in the cloud-native ecosystem provides an easy way for developers to manage and deploy containers using Docker Compose and Docker
Swarm.

After the program has been containerized, it can be installed on a platform for container orchestration like Kubernetes. Kubernetes being an open-source container orchestration framework offers functions including autonomous scaling, service discovery, and self-healing.

Step 3: Implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

The third step in building a cloud-native application is to devise Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD).

Developers can create, test, and deploy their applications rapidly and accurately with the help of the CI/CD set of techniques. Automation of the software development pipeline, from code modifications to deployment to production, is accomplished using CI/CD.

Image source: OpenKruise

Several tools and technologies are used in CI/CD, including Git, Jenkins, and Ansible. Git is a version control system that allows programmers to keep track of their code changes and cooperate with one another. Jenkins is a popular automation server that enables programmers to automatically create and test their applications. While Ansible is a configuration management tool that allows programmers to manage infrastructure and deploy their applications to production.

By implementing CI/CD developers can detect and fix bugs, reduce manual errors early in the software development phase, and increase the speed of software delivery.  And automating the software development process would let developers focus better on writing codes, adding more value to the app.

Step 4: Utilize Cloud-Native Services

Exploiting the power of the cloud is the fourth stage in creating a cloud-native application. This involves utilizing cloud-native services specially designed to operate in the cloud environment and provide numerous benefits to your application such as flexibility, agility, and stability.

Databases, caching, message queues, and load balancers are all examples of cloud-native services. These services give developers the ability to create scalable, uptime-free applications that can withstand heavy traffic.

Cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) provide a wide range of cloud-native services that developers can use to build their applications. These services include Amazon RDS for databases, Amazon SQS for message queues, and Google Cloud Load Balancing for load balancing.

Step 5: Monitor and Troubleshoot the Application

The final step in developing a cloud-native application is to monitor and optimize the application. Monitoring and troubleshooting the application is essential to ensure your app is performing well in the cloud environment.

For this, there are several tools and technologies available. Some of the most efficient and popular ones are Prometheus and Grafana, and APM (Application Performance Management) tools such as New Relic and Datadog.

Image source: New Relic

Monitoring enables developers to identify performance blocks and take proactive measures to speed up the app’s performance. It is done by tracking the application’s performance metrics, such as response time, error rate, and resource utilization.

Optimization further tunes and polishes the application’s configuration to improve performance and boost resource allocation.

To navigate the intricate process of cloud-native application development, many businesses opt to software developer. These professionals specialize in creating cloud-native applications, ensuring that all the tools, practices, and services are seamlessly integrated.”

Conclusion:

Building a cloud-native application is indeed a complex process involving several best practices and methodologies. By following these procedures, developers can build applications that are optimized for the cloud environment and provide value to their customers.

And, if you are tired of dealing with slow, unresponsive applications and want to build highly scalable, and adaptable software to satisfy user demands, a cloud-native app is your ultimate solution.