Cloud Native explained easy

The term Cloud Native refers to an approach to application development and execution that fully exploits the advantages of Cloud computing, in a native manner, to ensure speed, agility, reliability and cost-efficiency.

According to research we promoted as Tinext Cloud, with the support of SUPSI researchers, released in December 2024, migration to the Cloud is a central theme in the digital transition of enterprises, in general, and in Ticino in particular. The data indicate that by 2025, spending on Cloud adoption will increase from 56.6% to 58.6%, while spending on on-premises solutions will decrease. Among digitally mature companies, 68 per cent of spending will be on the Cloud. Satisfaction with the migration process is encouraging, although as many as 23% of companies have not yet started or planned a Cloud migration programme.

Modern businesses should increasingly focus on leveraging highly scalable, flexible and resilient applications that can be quickly upgraded for both efficiency and security needs.

Let us look in detail at what is meant by Cloud Native solutions and what are the advantages of a paradigm based on scalability, containerisation and automated system optimisation, also thanks to Kubernetes technology. 

A Cloud Native app is a type of application designed specifically to take advantage of the benefits offered by Cloud Computing: instead of being designed to operate in traditional infrastructures, such as on-premises physical servers, it is created for distributed, scalable and flexible Cloud environments.

To better understand the power of these solutions, just imagine the application as a set of smaller, independent components, called microservices. These microservices can be developed, managed and scaled separately, making the application more agile and maintainable. Each is then ‘packaged’ in a container, a standardised software unit that includes everything needed to run the code. This ensures that the application can run consistently on different platforms, in an interoperable manner, and that the application can be easily enhanced to handle variations in workload, adding or removing resources according to demand.

Another key aspect is automation. The entire application lifecycle, from development to release, is automated through practices such as DevOps and CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery): this allows updates and new functionalities to be released quickly and safely.

Also essential are the concepts of orchestration, i.e. automated container lifecycle management, and automatic scalability, the ability to optimise resources according to workload: this is where technological tools such as Kubernetes come into play. These are ‘container orchestrators’, i.e. systems that automate the deployment, load balancing, scalability and management of containers in a cluster. 

Adopting a Cloud Native approach therefore offers numerous benefits to businesses, ranging from the more technical aspects to those related to flexibility and ecosystem security. 

We have identified 5 main benefits of using Cloud Native applications: 

• Cost reduction - Companies do not have to invest in the costly maintenance of physical hardware. The Cloud enables resource sharing and on-demand usage, significantly reducing operational costs;
• Scalability and efficiency - These applications can be scaled to each individual micro-service, without acting on the whole as is the case with so-called ‘monolithic’ software. Developers can use automated tools and a modern design culture to quickly create scalable applications;
• Resilience - A Cloud native app, if well designed, is able to continue to function even in the event of infrastructure unavailability. Functionality upgrades do not cause downtime and companies can increase resources during peak seasons to provide a consistently positive customer experience;
• Business agility and automation - These solutions allow flexible deployment options across the network and are smaller than traditional applications, which simplifies the development, deployment and ongoing implementation of software changes;
• Portability and interoperability - Cloud Native apps are designed to run almost anywhere, allowing them to be easily moved from one environment to another without making major changes. The Kubernetes tool, which allows them to be managed efficiently, is also defined as cloud-agnostic, meaning that they run on all types of clouds, regardless of provider.

Tinext Cloud has partnered with Clastix to offer a fully managed Kubernetes service that simplifies Cloud adoption for customers, without any lock-in issues. Kubernetes, as mentioned, is in fact an open source platform that enables the management of clusters of containerised applications and services, so much so that it is often described as the ‘operating system for the Cloud’.

Clastix helps independent CSPs (Cloud Service Providers) and MSPs (Managed Service Providers) unlock the power of modern Cloud computing, without complexity. Thanks to this partnership, Tinext Cloud is able to deploy a managed, modern Kubernetes service on its infrastructure. The result? Frictionless integration, with minimal operational resources and customers benefiting from an agile and resilient framework.