You hear this everywhere these days: Build applications that are cloud-native – that is, developed specifically for cloud platforms. The trouble is everyone has his or her own definition of “cloud-native.” As a result, cloud-hosted applications are all over the place in their use of native features. Many are not designed properly, and they’re worse off in the cloud than when they ran in the data center.
What are the fundamentals of being cloud-native? As I see it, being cloud-native is more about the application architecture and design than how you code the thing. Sadly, many people – in IT and at the vendors – are missing the boat on both points.