Cloud computing has revolutionized how businesses develop, deploy and manage applications. Nowadays, with the rise of cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, cloud services have become mainstream. While traditional software was designed to be deployed on-premises, cloud native software takes advantage of the scalability, flexibility and inherent technical architecture of the cloud to deliver high performing, resilient and modern applications.


What is Cloud Native Software?
Cloud Native Software refers to applications that are purpose-built for cloud environments and leverage the massive scalability, rapid and frequent deployment abilities of the cloud. Cloud native applications are designed to take full advantage of cloud architecture by being highly modular, easily extensible and built with built-in resiliency and security from the ground up.

Key characteristics of cloud native software include:

- Containers and Microservices Architecture: Cloud native applications are decomposed into small, independent pieces called microservices which are packaged in lightweight containers like Docker. This makes the applications highly scalable and easy to update.

- Scalable and Elastic: Cloud native software can handle varying workloads by dynamically scaling to use more or less cloud resources based on demand. For example, a sudden spike in traffic can trigger the app to provision more containers to handle more load.

- Serverless Computing: Certain parts of the application leverage serverless cloud services like AWS Lambda which handles all server management, enabling developers to focus only on their business logic.

- Observability: Cloud native apps have monitoring and logging capabilities built-in so their operation can be constantly observed to quickly identify and resolve issues. This includes gathering metrics, tracing requests and logging errors.

- Automated Deployments: Continuous delivery and deployment practices allow cloud native applications to be updated frequently and reliably through fully automated processes like Git branching and container deployment pipelines.

- Adaptive Security: Built-in authentication, authorization and data encryption provide security without compromising on scalability and performance. Security is runtime adaptable based on actual usage rather than predetermined.

- Availability without Single Point of Failure: Applications are resilient to failures through replication, auto-recovery and auto-scaling capabilities. Microservices architecture allows repairing one part without disruption.

Business Benefits of Cloud Native Applications

Faster Time to Market
Cloud native development enables businesses to go-to-market much faster. Cloud native principles like containers, microservices and automation streamline the whole software lifecycle from development to production. Changes can be tested and deployed continuously without slowing down innovation.

Reduced Costs
Moving to the cloud and cloud native applications optimizes resource usage so companies only pay for what they use. Dynamic scaling avoids under-utilizing or over-provisioning infrastructure. Serverless services remove server management overhead. Ongoing maintenance is simplified through automated operations.

Enhanced Customer Experience
Customers benefit from highly responsive, resilient and personalized digital experiences delivered through modern cloud native applications. Scaling in real-time tackles flash crowds. Monitoring ensures issues are addressed proactively without outages. Functions enable new experiences simply.

Encourage Innovation
Serverless computing and microservices empower businesses to experiment freely. Developers enjoy flexibility, freedom and immediate feedback to build innovative features. Changes have minimal risk allowing non-stop enhancement of core offerings. Overall agility accelerates creative problem solving.

Avoid Technical Debt
Cloud native design scales without debt. Well-defined interfaces prevent fragile dependencies. Decentralized data means no migration headaches. Containers facilitate constant modernization. Together this future-proofs applications as the cloud evolves rather than burdening them with outdated approaches.

Organizations Adopting Cloud Native Strategies

Progressive companies across every industry are adopting cloud native approaches and reaping huge benefits. Here are a few examples:

- Netflix developed an event-driven microservices based platform from the start leading to its dominance in the media streaming sector. It has grown to support 200 petabytes of data with high scalability and personalized experiences.

- Grab, the largest ride-hailing company in Southeast Asia, leverages containerization, serverless computing and monitoring tools in their cloud native platform to support millions of daily rides across 8 countries. This helped Grab scale rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

- Starling Bank, the UK challenger bank, implemented a cloud native architecture from the ground up allowing them to launch new features and services in days instead of months compared to traditional banks. Their cost per customer is 70% lower.

- Unilever is migrating its supply chain systems to the cloud natively,decomposing monoliths into microservices and functions. This will deliver real-time insights into the movement of raw materials to optimize operations and reduce waste.

- Anthropic is a startup developing self-driving technologies and AI safety. By using a microservices model in the cloud with AWS, Azure and GCP, they achieve continuous integration and development at scale with versions of their system at all times.

Cloud native software design has become a necessity for businesses seeking to thrive in today's digital economy. Organizations that embrace these principles gain exponential agility to rapidly address changing market conditions through continuous experimentation. The future of application development undoubtedly lies in building cloud native to take full advantage of cloud scalability, innovation and cost optimization.

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