What is a cloud-native application?
Cloud-native application is software that utilizes the flexibility, scalability, and resilience of cloud computing. The cloud-native is a modern approach that benefits from tools and techniques popular among software developers to create applications for the cloud environments, unlike traditional architectures suited to on-premise solutions. Cloud Native Computing Foundation defines cloud-native technologies as solutions that empower organizations to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. According to the definition, cloud-native app development includes containers, service meshes, microservices, immutable infrastructure, and declarative APIs.
Cloud-native applications have a modular form and operate independently on a common host and cloud operating system. It uses cloud computing frameworks and infrastructures, which makes them flexible and highly efficient. Cloud-native applications are mostly backed by open-source software projects and packaged and deployed within container environments. Cloud-native apps are generally written in web-centric programming languages, such as HTML, CSS, Java, JavaScript, .NET, Go, Node.js, PHP, Python, and Ruby. The cloud-native approach also makes applications highly available- resilient, and regularly updatable. It can also benefit from the flexibility of cloud computing allowing the user to flex the consumption depending on the demand.
What are cloud application platform?
Cloud application platform is a service that provides the relevant infrastructure including the dependencies such as frameworks, libraries or any other components to the developer to run the applications properly. Examples of cloud application platforms are Heroku, Back4app, Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine, Firebase, Engine Yard, Open Shift, Netfly.
What is cloud application integration?
Cloud application integration is bringing different aspects of various cloud and local resources together to create a single environment that allows administrators to access and manage applications, data, services, and systems easily. Cloud application integration allows organizations to employ resources and services with cloud computing. It is a time-consuming process and raises the risk of error. However, cloud integration platforms are helping organizations to overcome the integration process. Some of the most popular cloud application integration platforms are, JitterBit, Operational Hub, SaaS, SAP, SAC, and Zapier. There are two methods for integration direct integration and mediated integration.
What is cloud application security?
Cloud application security refers to securing data information across the cloud environment. As big organizations migrate their data into the cloud infrastructure, cloud application security became a top priority in recent years. Cloud application security includes application-level policies, tools, technologies, and rules to maintain visibility, protect applications against attacks, and limit access to authorized users only. It includes three components; Cloud security posture management (CSPM) that focuses on misconfigurations, compliance and governance, and securing the control plane, Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP), which oversees runtime protection and continuous vulnerability management of cloud containers, and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) that focuses on improving visibility across endpoints to see who accesses the data and how it is used.
What is cloud app policy?
A cloud application or a cloud app deployed in a cloud environment requires some policy depending on corporate security plans and regulatory needs. It consists of a set of rules and procedures. They can vary from organization to organization. Therefore, the cloud app policies can range from minimal restrictions to highly restrictive, blocking almost all cloud app usage. These policies are regulated for the cloud applications that are using by employees. These policies cover maintenance and management of cloud app control, cloud access control, and policy enforcement.
What are cloud application categories?
There are three types of cloud applications.
Software-as-a-Service
SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), is the most popular form of cloud computing. SaaS includes the web application, the underlying IT infrastructure, and the platform. It also comes with full support for the system and the application. SaaS is ideal for organizations that don’t want to take responsibility for handling the maintenance of infrastructure, platforms, or software. It eliminates the need to purchase anything permanently and reduces the upfront costs for the users. The most popular examples of SaaS are Google G Suite, which includes Google Workspace, Gmail, and Google Drive, or Microsoft Office 365.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), solutions only provide the IT infrastructure and infrastructure support in the cloud, allowing the user to handle the middleware, which includes the software adding features to the operating system to enable and simplify programming, the applications, and the application support. The infrastructure includes storage, virtualization, network, and servers. IaaS allows users to access the infrastructure via an API or a dashboard. The most popular examples of IaaS are Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute Engine, a sub-product of the Google Cloud Platform.
Platform-as-a-Service
PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service), is similar to IaaS, but in PaaS, the vendor also provides the operating system and the middleware, allowing the user to focus only on developing, running, and managing the application. The vendor is responsible for the infrastructure and the software they provide, which eliminates the need for its users to hire more professionals to handle these tasks. The most popular PaaS solutions are Google App Engine, which is also a sub-product of Google Cloud Platform and RingCentral, a full business phone solution through the cloud.