Defining cloud native architecture

The first thing to understand is that cloud native is a set of capabilities and practices. That’s right, cloud native isn’t about running on the public cloud, it’s a set of capabilities and practices.

Cloud native capabilities include applications and infrastructure that is resilient, scalable, observable, highly automated, and easily updated. Cloud native practices is about building teams and processes that encourage co-operation, integration, and open governance. The end result is an environment that delivers high-quality applications that meet and respond to modern business demands.

Most cloud native apps are also microservices apps. As explained in the previous chapter, microservices is an architecture where every application feature is developed and deployed as a small independent application. As a simple example, an application with a web front-end and a database back-end will have two microservices – one for the...