Cloud, Cloud native, and their benefits

As of writing this book, there is a lot of interest in cloud platforms. We currently see big companies moving their IT infrastructure into cloud offerings. But what benefits does the cloud have to offer?.

First of all, we have to be aware that modern environments do not necessarily have to run on top of a cloud platform. All the benefits of container technology and container orchestration frameworks can equally be achieved using company-internal infrastructure. On premise installations of platforms such as Kubernetes or OpenShift at first provide the same advantages for software teams. In fact, one of the biggest benefits of container runtimes is to abstract the environment where the containers are running. Why are cloud platforms interesting for companies then?

As mentioned in the beginning of this book, the software world is moving faster than ever. The key for companies to keep pace with the trends in their business is to embrace agility and velocity...