<strong>Going Cloud Native, and What “Portability” Really Means</strong>

Although cloud computing is requisite for almost all businesses today, we can draw some clear distinctions between developing in a cloud-native environment and relying on some cloud vendors’ platform-centric tools.

What kind of cloud computing do you do?

Just because you have applications and workloads in the cloud doesn’t mean you are a cloud-native company. Cloud-native applications can run across various cloud providers and even on-premises in a hybrid model.

This cloud-agnostic approach enables flexibility throughout the development process. It prevents vendor lock-in, not in more common contractual terms, but by enabling the ability to move workloads and hire developers with transferable skills across cloud providers. You can design your applications and workloads to be built and deployed across any cloud because they are no longer dependent upon proprietary tools or designed for a single provider’s platform. You can also move applications among clouds without limiting functionality.

A cloud-native approach enables portability

Being cloud native means your apps and workloads become more portable. Portability is achieved using open-source tools to build apps and workloads that run on any cloud. Taking a cloud-native approach is what enables portability.

Why portability matters

When your apps and workloads don't get locked into cloud service or proprietary tools, it gives your business the power and flexibility to get the most out of any cloud provider and get the most from your cloud spend. Five other business benefits include:

1. Optimized ROI: Moving workloads to clouds that offer the most for your cloud budget
2. Predictable scaling: Spinning up compute resources as you need them, and spinning them down when you don't
3. Improved performance: Matching workloads to the clouds that will run them most efficiently
4. Increased resilience: Becoming less susceptible to failures because you can redeploy to other clouds
5. Happier developers: Adopting a cloud-native approach that frees your developers from restrictive proprietary tools and lets them build what you need when you need it

Written By - Jay Jenkins, CTO - Cloud Computing, Akamai Technologies