What is a cloud-native application?

A cloud-native application is specifically designed to run and leverage cloud environments, utilizing the benefits afforded by cloud computing, such as scalability, resilience, and flexibility. These applications are built to take full advantage of cloud infrastructure, meaning they can easily scale up or down based on demand, integrate seamlessly with cloud services, and often employ microservices architecture.

Cloud-native applications typically make use of containers, orchestration, and other cloud-specific services that enhance their performance, manageability, and agility. This contrasts sharply with applications that are intended for on-premises environments, which are built considering the constraints and limitations of traditional IT setups, such as fixed hardware resources and specific operating systems.

By focusing on constructing and optimizing applications expressly for cloud platforms, organizations can achieve higher resource efficiency, reduced operational costs, and faster time to market for new features and updates.