PaaS fever, container fever, Kubernetes fever, microservices fever, DevOps fever, all of these come together to form the cloud native application fever. The cloud native application craze is different from many previous technology booms in that it is driven by business needs. It is the first chemical reaction between information technology and business, and a disruptive top-down change from top applications to bottom infrastructure.
Top-down change
“Two of a trade disagree”, this has been the same business rule for many years. But today, disruption often does not come from within an industry, and peers are not necessarily the most direct competitors. Banks fear Internet finance, the hotel industry is being cannibalized by Airbnb, and bike-sharing is essential for travel…
Traditional enterprises are eager to think like Internet companies, adopt Internet architecture to realize rapid iteration of applications, and pay as much attention to application experience when serving B-end customers as c-end customers. Traditional enterprises compete with Internet enterprises, and non-cloud native applications compete with cloud native applications, which is why more and more enterprise users are choosing cloud native applications.
Whether an enterprise does cloud native applications or not depends on the business. And how to realize cloud native, you can choose different technical route according to the actual situation of the enterprise. Enterprise users need to think carefully about whether the application should go to the cloud first and then do architecture transformation, or adopt the new cloud native architecture in one step.
“– Zuo Yue, CEO of Lark Cloud
“The rise of cloud native apps is in sync with the pace of digital transformation, starting at the application level. “Cloud native applications wouldn’t be growing as fast as they are today if the business wasn’t driving it.” “Said Zuo Yue, founder and CEO of Sparrow Cloud.
In the last two to three years, pressure from the business side has driven the rapid development and transformation of the industry, including fintech, the Internet of cars, and new retail. To be or not to be? That’s not a choice question today. Without a decoupled distributed architecture, without a new DevOps development process, and without 200 iterations a day as Internet companies do, and with semi-annual or annual app updates, the enterprise is doomed to fail. From physical machines to virtualization to containerization, microservices and DevOps, more flexible IT architectures and more convenient and efficient development processes are called cloud native, and there is no insurmountable gap.
Zuo Yue believes that the relationship between cloud native architecture and traditional IT architecture is an alternative, and cloud native architecture is the next development trend of traditional IT architecture. The transition from traditional IT architecture to cloud-native architecture can take a long time, and there are many ways to make the transition, from a more radical approach to a more gradual one. For example, companies rewriting applications based on cloud-native architectures for business competition is a more radical approach. In this way, enterprises must be determined, and need to invest a lot of manpower and material resources. This is a bit like cutting your wrist, but the advantage is that you can leapfrog to the cloud native model in one step, making it easier to develop and apply later.
However, for most enterprises, it is not possible to interrupt their existing business and devote all their energy to building cloud native applications, so they can adopt a relatively conservative transition approach, such as migrating traditional applications to the cloud first, and then choosing the right time to convert to cloud native applications.
Cloud on application and cloud native application are two different concepts. “It’s up to the business whether an enterprise does cloud native applications or not. And how to realize cloud native, you can choose different technical route according to the actual situation of the enterprise. “Enterprise users need to think carefully about going to the cloud first and then reinventing the architecture, or going straight to the new cloud-native architecture.” Yue Zuo said.
From a technical point of view, the adoption of containers, microservices, and DevOps can be called cloud native applications, which may sound simple, but in fact covers the entire spectrum of enterprise IT from R&D to business processes to operations. The concept of cloud native has a development process from embryonic to mature and recognized by the entire industry. In the beginning, enterprise users may simply want to speed up the development process by adopting containers, DevOps, and so on, bringing applications online and iterating quickly. By the time the whole industry was talking about the concept of cloud native, many enterprise users realized that they were doing cloud native apps.
Zuo Yue told reporters that in the government, petrochemical and other industries, some of the head customers are preparing to build a comprehensive cloud native application in the unit, the scale of the application of the depth of some of their expectations. Nowadays, more and more Chinese enterprise users have a strong demand for cloud native applications, but there may still be confusion or obstacles in the actual implementation and implementation process. This is also the next step for cloud native apps vendors to break through.
Accelerate the adoption of cloud native applications
Zuo Yue shared his observation on the global cloud native market: In terms of time, China and foreign countries almost started at the same time, there is not much difference. However, in terms of popularity, there is still a difference between China and the United States market. For example, two years ago, Kubernetes was not widely used by American enterprises, but now more than 90% of enterprises are using it. Although China’s top customers in various industries are also considering cloud native applications, they are just beginning and still need a transformation process.
The Cloud Native Technology Practice Alliance (CNBPA) is on fire
From the perspective of users, China’s cloud native market still needs education and guidance; From the perspective of manufacturers, we need a platform to communicate and exchange ideas, technology and application innovation should be constantly improved. The Cloud Native Technology Practice Alliance (CNBPA) initiated by Lingquyun was formally established recently, with China Merchants Bank, petrochina, State Grid, Shugen Internet, Zhongke Soft, Donghua Software, Beiming Software, Tencent Cloud, Lingquyun, F5 and others becoming the first founding members.
Zuo yue told reporters, “The alliance is not a commercial activity, nor is it to establish norms or standards, but simply to create a cross-industry communication platform for enterprises engaged in cloud native applications and their peers. Manufacturers can learn from each other, manufacturers from users, and users from users. “Forward-thinking and forward-acting users can serve as role models, while vendors with different business priorities can complement each other to create a fully tested, mature, and complete cloud-native solution.” After the establishment of the alliance, many enterprise users took the initiative to ask manufacturers for their contact information, and the atmosphere of communication and discussion was very enthusiastic.
After all, cloud native is still a new thing in China. In the process of implementation, there are not only certain technical thresholds, but also problems in management. If you stick to the old IT architecture and don’t change the old development process or organizational structure, Then DevOps is a dead end. Most domestic companies have become accustomed to outsourcing or relying on third-party ISVs. Therefore, it is also very important to promote the popularity of cloud native applications in China and ignite the enthusiasm of ISVs and outsourcing service companies. The CNBPA has absorbed many of the industry’s best-known ISVs.
Zuo yue said that since this year, many ISVs in China have made positive changes in cloud native applications, on the one hand due to pressure from users, on the other hand, ISVs themselves have the need to transform. Previously, ISVs could reduce costs by reducing manpower. Now they must reduce costs by improving technology, processes, and tools. The first members of THE CNBPA — Zhongke Soft, Donghua Software and Beiming Software — have all made efforts in cloud native. After only one or two months of contact, Linchwein reached a cooperation with Beiming Software, and both sides will take cloud native as the first choice in the solution level in the future.
Digital transformation is a must for all enterprises. The so-called prophet of spring River, those industry users who stand at the forefront of the industry and face great competitive pressure, such as financial, automotive, aviation and other industries, are particularly active in cloud native applications.
Cloud native call platform vendors
As an advocate and practitioner of cloud native applications, Lingqiyun helps enterprise users quickly realize digital transformation through the way of “platform + ecology”, while also seeking its own breakthrough.
At the founding conference of CNBPA, Alauda Cloud Released Alauda Container Platform(ACP), Alauda Cloud Enterprise(ACE), a one-stop Platform for enabling Cloud native applications. And cloud-native Machine Learning enabling platform Alauda Machine Learning (AML). If enterprise digital transformation is divided into application modernization and data modernization, ACP and ACE are the solid foundation of application modernization, while AML is a beneficial attempt of data modernization.
Zuo yue explained that ACP is an enabling tool for cloud native applications, and any enterprise needs such a tool. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises with few nodes, it is very convenient to quickly build and use cloud native applications on such a standardized platform. ACE is an all-encompassing cloud platform where all of a large customer’s business can be done. It supports enterprises to establish a private cloud platform that covers all aspects of the enterprise and the organizational structure, with multi-tenant and multi-cluster features.
One of Lark’s goals is to make all of the functionality on the public cloud available in container, open source form to enterprise customers, and machine learning is one of them. AML integrates tools commonly used by data scientists to create distributed environments and conduct experiments. AML can also be interlinked with ACP to automate the process from model development, training, validation, release to retraining. Through the integration of AML and ACP product lines, a complete closed loop of continuous model training, optimization and verification can be realized.
“We will work with our partners to build more tools like AML to drive data modernization.” Zuo yue said, “In the future, we will develop more products, and the base and core of these products are ACP and ACE, to better support cloud native applications and large group customers.”
There are more and more participants in the cloud native field, who have different business priorities. Some focus on vertical industries and fields, while others focus on building a universal platform. Lark cloud is the latter, and it has been focusing on building and perfecting its cloud-native private cloud platform, as well as supporting hybrid and multi-cloud. Although the current volume is not large, but committed to becoming a platform enterprise has never wavered. In terms of market awareness, advanced technology and customer base, In the field of PaaS cloud platform, Ringfinch cloud has taken the lead in private cloud.
Ringfinch has many large customers in finance, government, petrochemical and other industries. These customers are usually very careful when choosing suppliers, and finally they didn’t choose the so-called big players, but such growth companies and spirit finches cloud cooperation, on the one hand, for those big players is not yet mature cloud native products and services, on the other hand also because spirit finches cloud with excellent products and solutions, and the rapid growth of their business, volume increases, There are also many industry influential big customer endorsements. Let Zuo Yue feel proud and confident is that Spirit sparrow cloud currently has a cloud native professional R & D team of more than 100 people, this scale is second to none in the industry.
The day before this year’s National Day holiday, that is, on September 30, when the reporter visited Zuo Yue in the Spirit Sparrow Cloud company, it had been more than 12 o ‘clock at noon, many employees were still sticking to their posts, and all the company’s meeting rooms were having a meeting. Without this fighting spirit, sparrow cloud would not have grown as fast as it does today. As the reporter understands, Spirit sparrow cloud is already planning to move towards the international market.
There is no shortage of App development enterprises in China, while in the field of enterprise-level application development delivery and management, large core platform manufacturers are always blank. Zuo yue is confident she can make the first move. The disruptive cloud native gives linsparrow clouds just that. Early intervention, deep accumulation, practical and willing to work hard, willing to invest and stick to it for a long time. Although there are many difficulties, Lingqiyun is willing to try and challenge.