Transitioning to cloud technology has become imperative for companies wishing to maintain their competitive edge. Cloud Native plays a pivotal role in this transition, enabling businesses to develop, deploy, and manage applications more efficiently. With cloud native technology, companies can innovate more quickly, scale easily, and enhance their resilience against failures.
So, how does cloud native operate and how can companies effectively implement this solution? Learn more in this article.
What is Cloud Native?
Cloud Native refers to a set of practices and tools used to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. It leverages the power of cloud computing to provide flexibility, resilience, and rapid deployment, enabling organizations to innovate faster and adapt to changing market demands.
4 Main Characteristics of Cloud Native
To fully grasp the concept of cloud-native, it’s essential to understand its core characteristics.
1. Microservices Architecture
Microservices architecture is a hallmark of cloud-native applications. This design approach breaks down applications into small, independent services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled separately. Each microservice focuses on a specific business function, allowing for rapid updates and innovation.
2. Containers
Containers package applications and their dependencies, ensuring consistent execution across different environments. Containers are lightweight and can be quickly started or stopped, making them ideal for dynamic and scalable cloud-native applications.
3. API
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) enable communication between microservices and other components. APIs facilitate seamless integration and data exchange, ensuring that cloud-native applications can interact effectively with various services and platforms.
4. DevOps
DevOps practices integrate development and operations teams to streamline the application lifecycle. This collaboration enhances efficiency and reduces the time needed to deploy new features or updates, ensuring that cloud-native applications can rapidly adapt to changing requirements.
What is a Cloud-Native Application?
A cloud-native application is a type of cloud software developed using cloud-based technologies, designed to exist in the cloud, and takes full advantage of the cloud’s benefits. These applications are typically composed of loosely connected microservices housed in containers, making it possible to accelerate application development and scale easily.
3 Main Benefits of Cloud-Native Application Development
Cloud-native development offers several advantages that can significantly impact an organization’s agility and efficiency.
1. Faster Development
Developers use cloud-native approaches to reduce development time and improve application quality. By building containerized applications ready for deployment with DevOps practices, developers can quickly respond to changes and deliver frequent updates without downtime.
2. Platform Independence
Building and deploying applications in the cloud ensures consistency and reliability in the operating environment. Developers don’t need to worry about hardware incompatibilities, allowing them to focus on delivering value through the application.
3. Cost Efficiency
You only pay for the resources your application uses. If user traffic spikes at certain times of the year, you only incur additional costs during those periods, avoiding the need to provision extra resources that remain unused for most of the year.
Prospects of Cloud-Native Application Development
The promise of cloud-native applications lies in their ability to drive innovation and exceptional customer experiences, which are crucial in the digital economy.
Accelerated development
With applications built on microservices and integrated testing systems, development teams can update, fix, and release apps faster, keeping up with market demands.
Protection against failure
Containers are isolated, a failure within one container won’t affect others, making a cloud-native application inherently more reliable.
Easy scalability
A cloud-native app can auto-scale to handle future business needs, ensuring that it can grow with the organization.
Open technologies
Cloud-native applications typically leverage open-source technologies, emphasizing transparency and interoperability, which fosters innovation and collaboration.
3 Main Challenges of Cloud-Native
Despite the numerous benefits, there are challenges that organizations must address when adopting cloud-native technologies.
1. Skills in Service Integration
Adopting cloud-native technologies requires personnel skilled in managing microservices, containers, APIs, and other cloud-native components. Organizations need to invest in training and development to bridge this skills gap.
2. Continuous Data Storage
Continuous data storage in cloud-native infrastructures requires significant storage capacity and management, potentially leading to increased costs.
3. Service Management Complexity
Managing cloud-native technologies involves handling complex operations and monitoring. Effective problem-solving skills are essential for maintaining server security, data availability, and application performance.
These challenges can be effectively addressed by leveraging solutions from Dell, Red Hat, and Palo Alto Networks, which offer integrated and comprehensive cloud-native protection.
Simplifying and Securing Your Cloud-Native Application
To create the “ultimate” cloud-native environment, integrating solutions that support each other is key. Dell Technologies, Red Hat, and Palo Alto Networks offer complementary products that collectively provide a robust, scalable, and secure foundation for cloud-native applications. Here is an overview of each solution.
Dell Technologies – PowerFlex
Delivers a highly flexible, scalable, and high-performance software-defined storage solution. It adapts to the evolving needs of modern data centers, providing agility, resilience, and efficiency required for digital transformation.
Red Hat – Hyperconverged OpenShift
Provides a seamless, integrated, and scalable solution for deploying and managing containerized applications on hyperconverged infrastructure. It helps organizations modernize their IT infrastructure, accelerate innovation, and drive business growth in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
Palo Alto Networks – Prisma Cloud
Offers comprehensive, integrated, and scalable cloud security solutions. It addresses the evolving needs of modern organizations, enabling secure cloud usage, speeding up digital transformation, and ensuring compliance while minimizing security risks.
Benefits of Dell Technologies, Red Hat, and Palo Alto Networks Solutions
Dell Technologies – PowerFlex:
– Flexible and dynamic architecture
– Shared platform for heterogeneous workloads
– Extensive automation for predictability and simpler workflows
– Broad ecosystem of workload solutions
Red Hat – Hyperconverged OpenShift:
– Scalability
– Flexibility
– Open-source standards
– Container portability
Palo Alto Networks – Prisma Cloud:
– Enhanced security and compliance
– Streamlined operational efficiency and time savings
– Business outcomes—productivity improvements and cost savings
– Best practices for customers
Key Featured of Dell Technologies PowerFlex, Red Hat Hyperconverged OpenShift, and Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud
Dell Technologies – PowerFlex:
– Integrated scalable network architecture
– Complete flexibility in designing the system
– Supports 10 GbE, 25 GbE or 100 GbE port bandwidth for backend connectivity
– Scale beyond 1000 nodes with a leaf-spine network design
– Engineered system with end-to-end lifecycle management with Power Flex Manager
Red Hat – Hyperconverged OpenShift:
– Persistent Storage
– Virtual Machines orchestration IaaS
– Container orchestration (cloud native apps) PaaS
– Multi cluster management
– Advanced security and compliance
Palo Alto Networks – Prisma Cloud:
– Integration Support for Cortex XSOAR Version 8.0
– Share Views with Ease
– Prisma Cloud Service in Indonesia
– Identity Access RQL Attributes Added
– Update Compliance Trend Widget
– Update IAM Permission Query Results
– Azure IAM Identity Inventory
Integrating Dell Technologies, Red Hat, and Palo Alto Networks Solutions
Combining the strengths of Dell Technologies, Red Hat, and Palo Alto Networks provides organizations with a robust and comprehensive cloud-native protection strategy. These integrated solutions offer unparalleled scalability, flexibility, and security, addressing the diverse needs of modern IT environments. By leveraging these combined solutions, organizations can ensure the resilience and reliability of their cloud-native applications, driving innovation and growth.
Get Your Cloud-Native Solution at Virtus
As an authorized distributor of Dell Technologies, Red Hat, and Palo Alto Networks, Virtus Indonesia offers professional and certified support to help you from consultation to after-sales, ensuring seamless integration of your cloud-native applications. Contact Virtus Indonesia now through this link to get efficient and reliable solutions for your business needs.
Author: Danurdhara Suluh Prasasta
CTI Group Content Writer Intern