How do you create a cloud-native system?

2 Design for scalability and resilience

The second step is to design your application for scalability and resilience, which are two key characteristics of cloud-native systems. Scalability means that your application can handle increasing or decreasing demand by adding or removing resources dynamically. Resilience means that your application can recover from failures and maintain functionality without affecting the user experience. To achieve scalability and resilience, you can use some design principles and patterns, such as microservices, statelessness, load balancing, circuit breaking, and retrying. Microservices are small, independent, and loosely coupled units of functionality that communicate through APIs. Statelessness means that your application does not store any information about the user or the session on the server, but relies on external services or databases. Load balancing means that your application distributes the incoming requests among multiple instances of your services or resources. Circuit breaking means that your application detects and isolates failures in your dependencies and prevents cascading errors. Retrying means that your application attempts to re-execute a failed operation after a delay or a backoff strategy.

3 Automate your deployment and testing

The third step is to automate your deployment and testing processes, which are essential for ensuring the quality and reliability of your cloud-native system. Deployment is the process of moving your application from one environment to another, such as from development to testing to production. Testing is the process of verifying that your application meets the expected functionality, performance, and security standards. To automate your deployment and testing, you can use some tools and techniques, such as continuous integration, continuous delivery, continuous testing, and infrastructure as code. Continuous integration means that your code is integrated and tested frequently and automatically. Continuous delivery means that your code is ready to be deployed to any environment at any time. Continuous testing means that your code is tested continuously throughout the development lifecycle. Infrastructure as code means that your infrastructure configuration is defined and managed as code, which can be versioned, tested, and deployed automatically.

4 Integrate with other cloud services

The fourth step is to integrate your application with other cloud services that can enhance its functionality, performance, and security. Cloud services are specialized services that are offered by cloud providers or third parties, such as databases, messaging systems, analytics platforms, monitoring tools, or identity providers. By integrating with cloud services, you can leverage their capabilities and benefits, such as scalability, resilience, availability, and cost-effectiveness. To integrate with cloud services, you can use some methods and protocols, such as RESTful APIs, webhooks, events, or service meshes. RESTful APIs are standard interfaces that allow your application to communicate with other services using HTTP methods and JSON formats. Webhooks are callbacks that allow your application to receive notifications from other services when certain events occur. Events are messages that allow your application to publish or subscribe to information from other services using a broker or a bus. Service meshes are frameworks that allow your application to manage the communication between your services using proxies and policies.

5 Monitor and optimize your system

The fifth step is to monitor and optimize your system, which are important for maintaining and improving its performance, availability, and security. Monitoring is the process of collecting and analyzing data about your system's behavior, such as metrics, logs, traces, or alerts. Optimization is the process of adjusting and tuning your system's configuration, resources, or code to achieve better results, such as efficiency, speed, or quality. To monitor and optimize your system, you can use some tools and techniques, such as dashboards, reports, benchmarks, or feedback loops. Dashboards are visual displays that show your system's key performance indicators, such as response time, throughput, or error rate. Reports are documents that summarize your system's performance over a period of time, such as daily, weekly, or monthly. Benchmarks are tests that measure your system's performance against a standard or a goal, such as a baseline, a target, or a competitor. Feedback loops are mechanisms that allow your system to learn from its performance and adjust accordingly, such as by scaling up or down, adding or removing features, or fixing or preventing bugs.