What Does Cloud Native Mean?

Cloud-native computing is cloud-based and refers to the overall infrastructure of cloud computing. It has more to do with the organization of applications in the cloud than where the applications are deployed. Cloud-native computing is an approach where all relevant components are assembled together for maximum possible cloud environment optimisation. Suppose a business is considering going cloud-native for critical business systems. In that case, they have to be more involved in the entire design, implementation and operation of the cloud applications. For a more in-depth understanding of the cloud-native approach, one would do well to consider the definition offered by the Linux Foundation: “Cloud native computing uses an open-source software stack to deploy applications as microservices, packaging each part into its own container and dynamically orchestrating those containers to optimize resource utilization.”

To put it simply, cloud-native applications are designed to not just operate in the cloud but to ‘embody’ the cloud in the way they are intended. By implementing the cloud as a part of the design process for these applications, the solutions are genuinely optimized from the ground up to leverage the cloud environment. This shift in approach is necessary because the conventional practice of moving on-premise IT infrastructure to the cloud can often lead to less than desirable results. While it is certainly possible to adopt a solution that is essentially designed to run in a conventional data centre to the cloud, it often results in mixed success. It turns out to be of limited merit, as you probably end up making it more complicated. To know more about Cloud Native Architecture and Cloud-Native Development, feel free to refer to Cloud Computing Houston.

Essential features of cloud-native IoT

The promise of IoT is to build a connected world where devices and applications are all interconnected. One of the primary benefits of IoT is the high degree of automation it can accommodate. To some extent, the ability of IoT to truly transform enterprises and industries is dependent on digital transformation and automation. We are integrating more connected devices and applications into current business processes. But IoT is not being deployed for cost efficiencies where automation clearly gives companies an upper hand but also for building and innovating new streams of revenue that are made possible through applications and services and monetizing all the data related to them. This is where cloud-native IoT has a crucial role in businesses irrespective of whether they were ‘born in the cloud’ or have a long legacy of being operational in a traditional enterprise setting.

The ability to scale horizontally

One of the most significant benefits of Cloud Native Technologies in IoT is its ability to support load balancing. Put simply, it has very few limitations regarding an increase in the volume of supported devices or gateways. This excludes the number of computing instances that the cloud infrastructure can support. Cloud-Native Solutions in IoT follows set administrator policies to automatically scale up computing and storage capacity. The intent is to cope with sudden changes in generated IoT data volumes. IT Support Houston can help your business with Cloud Native Development.

Low latency

Low latency is essential for many IoT applications, including autonomous vehicles and industrial automation. Data processing in real-time is a central component of autonomous decision-making capabilities that these industries rely on extensively. Edge computing is also helping this trend flourish. It also helps to lower latency and enables data processing closer to the network's edges or at/ near the data generation points. Despite all of this, there is no ‘cure-all’ to drive lower latency, and these technologies must be supported by system architecture designs that can help low latency.

No single point of failure

Microservices are essential tasks performed for specific purposes that use the optimized software components of an IoT server. These microservices interact with each other using message brokers. Both the microservices and brokers run on virtual machines or containers. The containers are lightweight software environments capable of hosting individual processes. An array of microservices and brokers make up the IoT network, and their design, orchestration and administration must be fashioned to avoid all probabilities of having single points of failure. If any point in the given network fails to perform up to specification, it should not jeopardize the functioning of the entire network. Open-source container orchestration systems such as Kubernetes or Docker Swarm can play a critical role here. Kubernetes, for instance, can monitor the entirety of the Cloud Native IoT network and its ability to recover from failures independently of the cloud infrastructure. Essentially, all of this goes to reaffirm the resilience of the IoT network, as even sudden hardware and software malfunction in parts of the network will not impact the entire network or jeopardize its functioning. To know more about Cloud Native Principles, please refer to IT Consulting Houston.

About Scott Young:
Scott Young is the president of PennComp LLC, a Managed IT Services Houston company. Being a CPA, Six Sigma Master Blackbelt, Change Management Certified, and Myers Briggs Qualified, Scott's expertise is reflected in PennComp as a leading IT company for computer services and network integration. PennComp utilizes Six Sigma methodologies and practices in its service delivery and offers its clients state-of-the-art monitoring and management tools.