Why Should Enterprises Adopt Cloud Native Architecture?

With its ability to reliably and scalably accelerate software development and deployment, cloud-native architecture has surged in popularity. In fact, a 2024 study found that 52% of stakeholders globally have chosen to build or manage a cloud-native application platform. And many more are in the process of shifting from simply “cloud hosted” to fully “cloud native.”

There are many benefits to making this change. Cloud-native applications offer greater resilience and responsiveness. They enable businesses to innovate rapidly and adapt to market trends with greater agility. Using cloud-native architecture, enterprises can build, test and deploy software more efficiently. And the integration of Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) practices can further accelerates their processes, reducing app development timelines from months to just hours.

Why Cloud Native Architecture is the Way Forward for Businesses

Cloud-native technologies enable organizations to build and run scalable applications in advanced environments – including public, private and hybrid clouds. Features like containers, service meshes, microservices and APIs form the foundation of the cloud-native approach. While this kind of architecture was initially adopted by startups, it’s now widely embraced by large enterprises. This shift allows businesses to unlock the full potential of their IT infrastructure, enabling greater agility, scalability and innovation. In the long term, cloud-native architecture can contribute significantly to efficiency and growth.

There are many specific benefits that contribute to cloud-native architecture’s value.

1.       Improved Application Performance and Management

Research shows clear real-word benefits to cloud-native development – including an average 60% increase in deployment frequency. By adopting cloud-native practices such as microservices, containerization and CI/CD pipelines, organizations can accelerate and automate their release cycles and respond swiftly to market demands. This approach improves operational efficiency, increases scalability and optimizes resource usage.

Individual microservices – one of the foundational components of cloud-native development – help apply incremental changes to your application. Microservices are independent of other services within your application, so updates can be made in the live environment without impacting existing functionality or services. New features and improvements can be added continuously without disrupting performance. Agile development and DevOps practices can also make managing applications easier and simplify ongoing improvements.

Implementing microservices can significantly reduce effort and costs. For instance, a global e-commerce company adopted a cloud-native architecture to handle peak traffic during seasonal sales. By using microservices and Kubernetes, they scaled smoothly, minimized downtime and improved customer satisfaction. The results included a 40% reduction in operational costs and a 25% increase in deployment speed compared to their previous monolithic system.

2.        Reduced Costs Through Containerization

Microservices are deployed inside containers that are flexible, portable and lightweight. Containers simplify the application management process and offer a stable deployment and management experience across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes reduce manual effort by automating container deployment and management at scale. The open-source nature and community support enjoyed by container management platforms like Kubernetes, Docker and Jenkins add even greater value to microservices containerization. A robust, containerized cloud native architecture also drives down costs by offering flexible pricing (pay-per-use pricing), infrastructure standardization and seamless management of dynamic workloads.

3.       Enhanced Competency and Productivity

Cloud-native architecture drives business growth by enabling enterprises to adapt quickly to market changes. It enables businesses to efficiently add new features, scale resources to meet demand and enhance overall development processes – all of which positions them for sustained growth.

Rapid application development and faster roll-out of features and enhancements improve developers’ productivity and frees them to focus on core business functions. This shift in developer priorities drives innovation, improves efficiency and creates a tangible competitive advantage.

4.       Greater Access to Data-Focused Technologies

Enterprise applications that extensively use databases, different data models, AI services, analytics and business intelligence are typically built using the cloud native development model. Over half of cloud-native applications today use advanced cloud services powered by technologies like IoT, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Cloud native architecture empowers organizations to unlock the full potential of the services that the cloud provides. These include technologies like Kubernetes, Docker, APIs, Kafka and serverless functions that promote rapid application development and deployment.

5.       Reduced Vendor Lock-in

The widespread adoption of open-source tools and frameworks, as well as the proliferation of hybrid and multi-cloud technologies, has increased the interoperability and workload portability of cloud-based applications. With the cloud native approach, you get plenty of tools to choose from.

Open-source containerization technologies such as Kubernetes and Docker reduce the impact of vendor lock-in. Another example is Amazon Lambda. This serverless, event-driven service allows its users to run code for any type of application or backend service without provisioning or managing servers. It can be triggered from over 200 AWS services and SaaS applications.

6.     Greater Resilience

Traditional enterprise security involves complex security configurations that are difficult to maintain and update. Cloud native architecture offers immutable infrastructure and automation that improve threat mitigation and malware detection. Cloud native systems are more proactive than reactive, which helps prevent malware from creeping in.

Cloud-native security architecture is built on three core principles, often referred to as the “three Rs” of security.

Repair. Weak software, unprotected application stacks and vulnerable operating systems should be repaired often, within hours of update and patch availability.

Repave. Regularly repave applications and servers from a known-good state. Patch the whole stack and use rolling deployments to reduce downtimes.

Rotate. Rotate datacenter credentials such as access tokens, passwords and certificates every few minutes so that they only provide access for short durations.

Following the CI/CD approach, cloud native architecture makes it easy to adopt the three Rs of security. As a part of DevSecOps, the three Rs of cloud-native security address concerns at every stage of workflow development. This gives cyber-attackers zero time to sneak in and understand your system.

Real-Life Examples of Cloud-Native Architecture

A leading EMEA travel company struggled with outdated systems. Their slow, resource-intensive infrastructure caused performance bottlenecks during traffic surges. To address this, Material developed a cloud-native strategy, migrating systems to AWS, implementing Amazon EKS for container orchestration, and automating deployments with a CI/CD pipeline on Spinnaker.

The impact was transformative. Infrastructure provisioning became 40% faster, latency dropped by up to 80%, and dynamic load balancing ensured seamless traffic management. With faster feature releases and real-time diagnostics, the company is now equipped to meet customer expectations and deliver exceptional travel experiences. Learn More.

Cloud is on the Horizon

Cloud-native architecture represents a significant shift from traditional monolithic applications. Its microservices approach, combined with automated platform provisioning and deployment, helps you develop apps that are highly dynamic, resilient, manageable and agile.

If you’re interested in shifting to a cloud-native approach, Material’s experts can help. Reach out today and let’s start the conversation.