Cloud Native IT Transformation - Whitepaper by RapidValue

Cloud-Native IT Transformation:
Building Apps Faster and Better
A Whitepaper by RapidValue Solutions
CLOUD-NATIVE IT TRANSFORMATION:
BUILDING APPS FASTER AND BETTER
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©RapidValue Solutions

Building Apps Faster and BetterIndex
02
04
01
What are Cloud-Native Applications?
Four Tenets of Cloud-Native Application Development
Introduction
06 Cloud-Native Application vs Traditional Application Development
08
10
14
12
13
Critical Success Factors for Building Cloud-Native Apps
Business Benefits - Why Cloud-Native Apps Matter?
About RapidValue
Cloud-Native : The Future of Application Development
Authors
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1. Introduction
There is no doubt that the fundamental nature of IT in this fast evolving digital world is completely changing
from just “supporting the business” to “becoming the business”. This transition is pretty much impacting all
the key underlying areas of software development such as development and operations, building teams with
the right skill sets, technical architectures etc.
Today, the success of a business is determined by the speed with which it can capitalize on new technologies
and adjust IT operations.
At the core of these business transformations, lies an agile and scalable IT platform on cloud, which clearly is
the need of the hour - developing applications at the speed of business. Migrating workloads to the cloud,
adopting agile deployment processes and becoming more responsive to business opportunities are some of
the steps representing a starting point for one of the fastest emerging trends: Cloud-Native IT Transformation.
Sounds like another buzzword? It might just be the breakthrough organizations are looking for to speed up
innovation.
So far cloud strategies have mostly focused on application migration through a “Lift & Shift” approach.
However, high-performing organizations in the new digital economy are those who have unlocked the next
level of cloud benefits in terms of agility, innovation and efficiency. The “cloud-native” mindset which includes
re-engineering processes, workflows and re-organizing people, is becoming the new normal.
In this whitepaper we will deep dive into the world of cloud-native applications, compare it with the traditional
application development, describe the key elements of a cloud-native application and share the secret sauce
to build cloud-native apps.
• Companies like Netflix are deploying thousands of lines of codes every second reducing outages
and improving time-to-market.
• After migrating from waterfall delivery model to DevOps, Nordstrom is now able to do monthly
releases as compared to bi-annual releases.
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2. What are Cloud-Native Applications?
Taking Ideas into Production Quickly and Efficiently.
In cloud-native app development, the development and programming are driven by business requirements.
Listed below are three key underlying principles of cloud-native app development:
Cloud-native apps are born and raised on the cloud. It’s much more than just signing up with a cloud
provider and running your applications on cloud. From designing to implementing to deploying, cloud-native
applications completely change the entire software development lifecycle by leveraging the advantages of
cloud computing models. Cloud-native apps enable building new applications based on cloud principles,
using services and adopting processes optimized for the agility and automation of cloud computing. They
work on a service-based architecture bringing different components into one place, within a container-centric
model. These can be scaled quickly on-demand offering continuous delivery with no interruption to services.
1. Cloud-first Approach – Adopting a cloud-first strategy and making the most of all the cloud services and
features (cloud infrastructure, networking, security, databases, caching, load balancing etc.) is the first and
foremost principle of cloud-native.
2. Delivery Process Automation – The second key aspect of cloud-native development is bringing in Agile and
DevOps enabling continuous integration and delivery. The primary objective of software development should
be to get the minimum viable product to market in the shortest possible time and then quickly deploy
incremental releases to continuously improve the overall product.
3. Scalable Application Architecture – With the growth of software as a service business, scalable development
to support growing user base, managing cost, etc., has become the need of the hour.
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Key Features of an Effective Cloud-Native platform
Mobile-first solutions
Automation powered by
DevOps
Easy access to multiple
languages & frameworks
Containers for packaging
and versioning
End-to-end product development
and app monitoring services
Ability to scale-up/down as
per business demands
API-first approach
Hybrid architecture
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3. Four Tenets of Cloud-Native Application Development
Cloud-native is an approach to building and running applications that leverages the advantages of cloud
computing delivery model. It implies that the apps live in the cloud, as opposed to an on-premise data
center. Cloud-native approach builds applications as microservices and runs them on containerized and
dynamically orchestrated platforms. Cloud-native technology empowers organizations to build and run
scalable applications on public, private and hybrid clouds. These applications are built from scratch, designed
as loosely coupled microservices, optimized for cloud scale and performance, use managed services and
take advantage of continuous delivery to achieve reliability and faster time-to-market. The final objective is to
improve scalability, speed and eventually, margin.
Cloud-native practices comprise 4 main tenets:
Cloud-Native
DevOps
Microservices Containers
Continuous
Delivery
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DevOps – Cloud-native changes how developers work and DevOps is all about people and how they work
together. In DevOps, the goal is to reduce the time taken by developers to write the code and the time taken
for the code to go into production. Cloud-native also has the same goal that is to improve the speed of
delivery. Thus, DevOps is one of the first tenets of cloud-native application development.
Continuous Delivery – Continuous delivery is at the heart of the cloud-native movement. Continuous delivery is
a set of practices and tools that enables rapid development and testing and frequent release of updates. These
architectures typically have many moving services also called Microservices. Each service is independent and
stands on its own. The idea is that an update to a service can be quickly tested with minimal expected impact
on other services. Thus, continuous delivery enables applications to release quickly, reliably and frequently,
with less risk.
Microservices – The microservices approach is a way of breaking down an application into several modules
with well-defined interfaces. Each module performs one business function. These modules are independently
deployed and run on their own, communicating over HTTP APIs. Microservices architectures are well-suited
for cloud-native applications. An application written following the microservices architecture is automatically
cloud-native since this architecture allows the application to be deployed in a distributed manner, which
allows it to be scalable and always available.
Containers – Containers and the cloud go hand in hand in the cloud-native world as containers make cloud-
based applications easier to deploy. Containers provide light-weight virtualization by dynamically dividing
a single server into one or more isolated containers. Containers only contain the code and dependencies
needed to run that specific application, making them smaller and faster to run. Moreover, the same container
can be deployed in any cloud, so containers provide the flexibility of moving to any cloud provider as they
are independent of the underlying infrastructure. Therefore, it helps developers in building cloud-native
applications that can run on any cloud, right out of the box. They don’t have to rewrite code to run and scale
across a range of cloud infrastructures – freeing up the developer's time. As a result, developers can use this
time on improvements and new features.
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4. Cloud-Native Application vs Traditional Application
Development
Cloud-native application architectures are very different from traditional on-premise enterprise applications.
Here is a list of some of the glaring differences:
Difference
Programming
Language
Connected
Resources
Updatability
Multitenancy
Elasticity
Downtime
TRADITIONAL ON-PREMISE ENTERPRISE
APPLICATIONS
CLOUD-NATIVE ENTERPRISE
APPLICATIONS
On-premise software tends to be written in
traditional languages, like C/C++, C# or another
Visual Studio language if deployed on a Windows
Server platform, and enterprise Java. And if it’s on
a mainframe, it’s likely in Cobol.
An on-premise app is considered to be quite rigid
with regards to its connections with the network
resources, such as networks, security, permissions,
and storage. Most of the resources need to be
hard-coded, and they are likely to break if any-
thing is changed.
On-premise apps need updates to be installed
separately every time. There is downtime during
the installation of the update.
Most on-premise apps don’t work well in a virtual
environment and require a non-virtualized space.
On-premise applications do not have the option
of scaling up resources during a spike. If traffic is
higher than the load the app can withstand, the
app will crash.
On-premise apps may have failover ready, but in
most cases if the server goes down, the app goes
down with it.
Cloud-native applications are more likely to be
written in a web-centric language, such as HTML,
CSS, Java, JavaScript, .Net, Go, Node.js, PHP,
Python, and Ruby.
In the cloud, network and storage are completely
different. Cloud allows re-platforming. This
enables accommodating changes in networking,
storage, and even database technologies in an
easy manner.
Cloud-native apps are easy to update and always
available. Downtime is not required to update the
application.
A cloud-native app is able to work in a virtualized
space and can share resources with other apps.
Cloud-native applications have the advantage of
the elasticity of the cloud. During a spike in use,
a cloud-native app can adjust to the increased
resources and scale as needed.
If a cloud providers suffers an outage in one
location, another location will pick up the slack
and ensure the app is always available.
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Modular
Design
App
Management
Statelessness
On-premises apps tend to be monolithic in de-
sign. It is usually one big app with a whole lot of
subroutines.
On-premises apps have to be managed manually.
Most on-premises apps are stateful. They store the
state of the app on the infrastructure on which
the code runs. This allows the app to break when
adding server resources.
Cloud-native apps are much more modular if
compared to the traditional on-premise. Many
functions are broken down into microservices.
This enables them to be shut off when not
needed and for updates to be rolled out to that
one module, rather than the full application.
App management in the cloud is mostly auto-
mated.
Cloud-native apps are not really tied to any
infrastructure which means they are stateless.
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5. Critical Success Factors for Building Native Cloud Apps
Navigating the Cloud-Native Journey Seamlessly.
1. Create a DevOps Culture – The first and foremost step is to have a DevOps mindset and incorporate
an agile approach for building and deploying apps faster. Quality assurance, testing and security
teams need to be involved right from the requirement stage. Implementing DevOps process is
just not about tools and technologies, but also collaborating across teams to create an integrated
approach to developing and delivering applications faster. In a typical cloud-native environment
powered by DevOps, teams leverage open source technologies rapidly, build prototypes and
adopt agile workflows.
2. Provide Access to Automation and All the Tools – One needs to provide accessibility to all the
tools and automation that the developers need. You need to enable them so that you are able to
increase the DevOps capabilities and commence training. This helps in optimizing efficiency and
truly maximizing product velocity.
3. Use Modern Architectures – Instead of using old architecture patterns, you need to make use of
modern architectures which are up to date. Cloud-native essentially, means using microservices
and a reactive type of architecture. Rearchitecting also helps as the organization then, can
take advantage of a cloud-native architecture. When embracing cloud-native, companies need
to realize that it requires a completely different culture to take advantage of the cloud and
automation.
4. De-risk Infrastructure by Stepping to the Cloud – These cloud-native strategies are known to
fundamentally shift infrastructure planning from high to low risk. It also, significantly reduces the
operational load for the company’s technical teams. The transformation provides fast access to
flexible, virtual resources that scale effortlessly at need. By moving the infrastructure to cloud, you
pay only for actual resources consumed and cloud mitigates every major traditional infrastructure-
related risk.
5. Create a More ‘Service-oriented’ Organization – You need to organize your teams around specific
services or capabilities. This particular change needs to be very carefully managed in order to
avoid any kind of resistance. A ‘service-oriented’ enterprise facilitates cloud-native computing
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which further, takes advantage of many modern techniques, including PaaS, Multi-cloud,
Microservices, Agile methodology, Containers, CI/CD, and DevOps.
6. Self-service Agile Infrastructure – Another term for self-service agile infrastructure is platform-
as-a-service. When you use a platform-as-a-service, all you need to do is hand the platform your
application code and it takes care of the rest. The self-service agile infrastructure is responsible
for providing your application with the backing services it needs to run.
7. Choose the Right Tools and Speed Up Existing Application – Cloud-native development
requires choosing the right tool for the right task. The platform must offer the right mix of
frameworks, languages, and architectures to support the chosen development requirements,
hence, it is essential to choose the right tools. Similarly, when embarking on a cloud-native
application journey, organizations should not only focus on new development but also, take
a fast monolith approach by moving the existing monolithic architecture to a more modular,
service-based architecture and API-based communication.
8. Automation for Accelerating Application Delivery – IT automation is essential to accelerating
the delivery of cloud-native applications by elimination of the manual tasks. IT automation
tools create processes, rules, and frameworks that can replace or reduce labor-intensive
human interaction that delay time to market. Automation is key to IT optimization and digital
transformation.
9. Use Application Services to Facilitate Development – Cloud-native applications require one
or more of the application services - Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS),
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or latest paradigm of serverless application, Function-as-a-
Service (FaaS), to help developers accelerate development and get new applications to market
faster. Application services accelerate the development of the cloud-native application.
10. Provide Advanced Deployment Techniques and Accelerate Continuous Delivery – Providing
advanced deployment techniques helps in reducing the risk of software releases and it
builds an environment for experimentation. It is essential for facilitating innovation across an
enterprise. Agile development methods release early, release often. DevOps and continuous
delivery approaches unites developers, operations, quality assurance, and security teams to
improve software delivery processes thereby, accelerating continuous delivery.
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Most enterprises have started building their applications strategies and roadmap on cloud platforms. Cloud-
native is expected to gain more prominence and popularity in the near future. Cloud-native applications
are redefining the way enterprises scale their businesses. Tech-savvy enterprises are ready to deploy game-
changing technology solutions, and cloud-native is able to help them stay ahead of the competition.
Here are some of the major reasons why developing cloud-native applications is advantageous and worth the
time and money:
6. Business Benefits - Why Cloud-Native Apps Matter?
1. Auto-provisioning and Auto-scalability – In case of traditional applications, the resources are
physically provided but cloud-native applications enable automatic provision of resources
and manage resources automatically. They facilitate on-demand, self-service, programmatic
provisioning, and releasing of resources used for compute & storage services. Cloud-native
applications are also enabled with auto-scale feature and hence, can handle continuous business
needs automatically. This feature is essential as it assists organizations to deal with complex
process requirements with the pay-as-you-go model.
2. Minimizing Failure Risks – Cloud-native applications are inherently resilient to failures because of
their auto-redundancy feature. They can automatically, handle the outages and enable corrective
actions and in the event of failure, application processing instantly moves from one data center
to another without interrupting the service. Also, in case of occurrence of a partial outage in any
one data center, the cloud-based applications will still continue running seamlessly.
3. Reduced Cost and Ease of Management – Cloud-native has several options to make infrastructure
management effortless. Serverless computing platforms take care of configuring networking,
provisioning cloud instances and allocation of sufficient storage. Enhanced cloud-native
capabilities such as Serverless enables you to run dynamic workloads and utilize pay-per-use
compute time in milliseconds. Ultimate flexibility in pricing has been enabled by cloud-native.
4. Building More Reliable Systems – With the modern cloud-native approaches, one can easily build
applications which turn out to be fault-tolerant with resilience and self-healing built in. Cloud
-native microservices helps you to achieve higher uptime and thus, improve the user experience.
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5. Decreased Time-to-market and Security – IT operations time is significantly reduced by effectively
transforming the decisions about provisioning, scaling, continuous integration, regression testing,
and zero-downtime deployment into automated tasks. Cloud-native application patterns are
based on loosely coupled microservices, which help in greatly reducing the operational and
security risk of massive failures.
6. Greater Mobility and Reduced Downtime – With a well-orchestrated DevOps mechanism, you
are able to promote better communication and collaboration thereby, maintaining service
stability and minimizing downtime. With an API-first approach, you also, have much greater
mobility and hence, you can emphasize where it is most required- mobile, the web, or extending
off-the-shelf applications.
The advantages of cloud-native applications help enterprises to improve their business processes with
minimized infrastructure overhead, costs, and manual efforts. These applications are highly resilient, scalable,
portable, and can be updated in an hassle-free manner. This is the best time to realize the full potential of the
cloud by re-architecting or rebuilding your applications as cloud-native. Think ‘cloud-native’ and begin your
modernization and transformation journey.
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Cloud-native is currently considered to be one of the biggest trends in the software industry. It has already
changed the way people think about developing, deploying and operating software products. It is a lot more
than mere association with a cloud provider and using it to run your existing applications. It considerably, affects
the design, implementation, deployment, and operation of your applications. Cloud-native technologies and
applications are growing and can play an integral role in how companies transform themselves. The ideas and
concepts of cloud-native computing have introduced a new way to implement complex, scalable systems.
Cloud-native computing is not only a competitive advantage; it is also about keeping up and ultimately
moving ahead of your competitors. This trend will only continue and, as the ecosystem around cloud-native
technologies grows, it will become the competitive differentiator that will keep your company relevant in the
future. To remain competitive and keep ahead of the competition, you must adopt it.
7. Cloud-Native:The Future of Application Development
It’s time to make your move!
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Authors
If you’d like to know more about Cloud
Solutions, please reach out to us at
contactus@rapidvaluesolutions.com
Shuvro S. SarkarAvinash Thakur
Nairita Goswami
Assistant Manager - Marketing,
RapidValue
Global Practice Head -
Digital Business Consulting,
RapidValue
Marcom Specialist,
RapidValue
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A global leader in digital transformation for enterprise providing end-to-end
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experts in consulting, UX design, application development, integration and testing,
along with experience delivering projects worldwide, in mobility and cloud, we
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www.rapidvaluesolutions.com
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www.rapidvaluesolutions.com/blog
contactus@rapidvaluesolutions.com
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©RapidValue Solutions May, 2019

Cloud Native IT Transformation - Whitepaper by RapidValue

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