The ongoing pace of the software-linked market is quite fast and effective. Firms must cooperate and adjust themselves to changes in the way they design, build, and use applications.

Cloud-native application is one such approach to build, create, run and improve apps based on well-known techniques and cloud computing.

The word cloud-native consists of two words - “cloud” and “native”. The word “cloud” means that it can be deployed and managed using various cloud architectures like AWS, Azure, etc. On the other hand, the word “native” refers to software that is developed for use on a specific platform or a device.

Cloud-native technologies, as defined by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), enable enterprises to design and execute scalable applications on public, private, and hybrid clouds. Some of the features that best highlight this approach are immutable infrastructure,  service meshes, containers, declarative APIs, and microservices.

The core of cloud-native application architecture is microservices. They're essentially self-contained mini-programs that each have their own data storage and application logic and are designed to perform a specific business function.

The major goal of cloud-native applications is to deliver app users what they want at the pace business needs. So, the prime motto of cloud-native software is fast and effective services.

Here are a few reasons why you can go for opting cloud-native applications:-

• Centered around APIs

APIs are at the heart of cloud-native designs (Application Programming Interfaces). Representational state transfer (REST), Google's open-source remote procedure call (gRPC), and NATS are common protocols used by cloud-native microservices. REST is a popular standard for exposing APIs over the internet (HTTP). gRPC is frequently used for internal communication among microservices.

• Building Incredible customers experience

The most effective way in which a company can provide an incredible customer experience is by providing them with new features regularly and making their products easily accessible. Cloud-native software is also based on API-based integration, which has made it possible for companies to extend their users with the help of mobile and web applications without degrading the experience of their old customers.

• Ease of management

Cloud-native applications have made infrastructure management simpler than ever before. A decade ago, cloud-native software started with PaaS platforms like App Engine and Heroku and now it has extended to serverless platforms like Azure Functions and AWS Lambda. Due to these utilities, you don’t need to worry about network configuration or storage allocation now, and therefore, it's easier to manage everything with full efficiency.

• Flexibility and cost-effectiveness 

Cloud-native applications have provided flexibility in pricing through containers. Containers make it easy to manage and secure apps independent of the infrastructure that supports them.

• High Deployment Speed

With microservices, this process becomes much faster and simpler. Developers just need to worry about the one microservice they're working on, and they only need to test it before sending it to the cloud. With its help, the businesses can come up with new technology based exceptional digital services which are ten times faster than they could with monolithic systems.

Cloud-native applications are here to stay as they offer some crucial advantages like great release speed, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and ease of management for your applications and therefore we have seen an inclination of the market towards these applications.

But one can only leverage the power of cloud-native computing if you know all the features that these applications offer to you.

You can learn the entire features of cloud native applications on - Microsoft​​​​​​​

I hope this guide will help you to have a strong fundamental knowledge of the CNA so that you can enjoy all the advantages that the CNA provides.