Cloud-native architecture

As explained in Effective Platform Engineering

Cloud-native technology is software designed to exploit elastic, distributed, and automated cloud computing capabilities.

Cloud-native architecture uses elastic, distributed, and automated cloud capabilities through APIs to build, release, and operate software. Its practical value lies in consuming standardized infrastructure rather than treating infrastructure operations as a strategic differentiator. section 2.3.5

A cloud-native platform exposes infrastructure through API-first, self-service interfaces. Cloud vendors can provide many distributed-service capabilities on demand, reducing maintenance work, accelerating experimentation, and recovering time for strategically valuable work. section 2.3.5

Apply the pattern by:

• Starting capabilities from APIs so teams can try them before committing to long-term operation. section 2.3.5
• Using Kubernetes where standardization is needed for distributed-service compute orchestration and extensibility. section 2.3.5
• Shifting undifferentiated infrastructure maintenance to capable cloud vendors when doing so protects strategic capacity. section 2.3.5

Figure 2.15 The components of a Kubernetes Cluster (Courtesy of https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/components/)

Use the Kubernetes cluster component diagram to inspect the standardized control-plane building blocks behind cloud-native platform operations. section 2.3.5

How Effective Platform Engineering covers it

How deep it goes

Explains API-first consumption, vendor delegation, experimentation, and Kubernetes standardization without detailing complete cluster internals.

Examples

Uses cloud-vendor APIs and Kubernetes as concrete examples of on-demand infrastructure and standardized distributed-service orchestration.

What you can do after

Apply it via cloud-vendor APIs and Kubernetes to experiment quickly, standardize orchestration, and preserve strategic engineering capacity.

How it connects

Connects cloud-native architecture to engineering platforms, API-first self-service, distributed service architecture, and Kubernetes.

liveBookmanning.com

Read Effective Platform Engineering on liveBook Get the book at manning.com

Also explained in

• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Platform Engineering on KubernetesA cloud-native application is software designed to run using cloud-oriented infrastructure and operational practices, commonly with independently deployable services.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Think Like a CTOA cloud-native project is a software project architected to exploit the elasticity and managed capabilities of cloud computing platforms.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Go in Practice, Second EditionA cloud-native application is software designed to exploit programmatic cloud infrastructure for on-demand scaling, failure recovery, and composition from distributed services.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWSA cloud-native architecture is a system design that builds on cloud services, elastic resource management, and independently deployable application components.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  gRPC Microservices in GoA cloud-native application is an application designed to run using distributed, elastic, and container-oriented cloud infrastructure.

Compare how 6 books explain cloud-native architecture →

Related concepts

• cloud-native network functionincludes · A cloud-native network function (CNF) is a telecommunications network function designed to run as modular, containerized software on cloud-native infrastructure.
• distributed systemkind of · A distributed system is a computing system whose components run across multiple networked processes or machines and coordinate through communication.
• eventual consistencyuses · Eventual consistency is a distributed-data consistency model that allows replicas to differ temporarily but guarantees they converge to a consistent state after updates propagate, typically when no further updates occur.
• monolithic architecturecontrasts with · Monolithic architecture is a software architecture in which an application's major functionality is organized and deployed as a single integrated unit.
• observabilityuses · Observability is the ability to infer a system’s internal state and behavior from its externally available outputs, such as logs, metrics, and traces.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Effective Platform Engineering. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.