Over the last few years, we've seen digital transformation emerge on a rapid scale with the evolution of technologies known as 'cloud native' - namely, the concept of building and running applications that take advantage of the cloud computing model.
Designed and built to exploit the speed, agility and scale that cloud computing offers, cloud native technologies have been instrumental to the success of many digital native companies such as Netflix and Uber. It doesn’t end there. Cloud native technologies are disrupting traditional ways of doing business and have changed the way software development is done today, leading to the adoption of DevOps, Agile practices and other strategies to deliver software that makes money, saves money, creates efficiencies, integrates systems or solves problems. But just how can cloud native technology transform your business and what are its benefits?
1. Cost-effectiveness
Whilst traditional models for software development confined businesses to fixed resources and infrastructure, cloud native technologies are designed to function on the cloud, which reduces running costs and the costs of backup, maintenance, development and usage of resources. And with serverless systems adopting pay-per-use models, costs are driven down considerably by paying based on demand.
2. Flexibility
Cloud native technology removes the restrictions that traditional architecture introduced and offers unlimited capacity that can adapt to service usage peaks. This could be the perfect fit for your business if you don’t know the workload you are expecting or are planning for considerable growth. This approach also gives flexibility to your product roadmap – your users’ needs may change through the product’s lifecycle and being confident that your architecture can adapt to that change will empower you and your team to evolve your product.
3. Speed to market
Time to market has become a key factor in most businesses with the need to conceive, build and launch applications that benefit the business and its customers at the forefront in today’s post-pandemic world. Cloud native technologies enable an element of automation and collaboration which was not possible in the era of server-based software development, drastically increasing speed to market.
4. Focus on development, not infrastructure
With the speed, agility, and power of cloud native technologies, many of the limitations of traditional software development disappear, enabling your business to accelerate or enable innovation and focus on developing applications that can meet shifts in customer demand or reinvent how to develop, deliver and sell products and services. Although cloud native technology might not be the perfect fit for every business problem, it is a good fit for most business needs, particularly as companies look to digitise business critical functions and empower their product owners to deliver business change