Hit enter to search or ESC to close
Mindcurv
  • SERVICES & SOLUTIONS
    • B2B Accelerator+
    • Strategy & Innovation
    • Digital Platforms & Experiences
    • Cloud Solutions, IoT & Infrastructure
    • Managed Services
    • Data, Analytics & Insights
    • Optimisation, Scaling & Evolution
    • Marketing, Sales, & Operations with Salesforce
    • Overview
  • PARTNERS
    • MACH Alliance
    • Overview
  • RESOURCES
    • Blog
    • Cases
    • Events
    • Webinars
  • COMPANY
    • About
    • People
    • News
  • CAREERS
    • Why Mindcurv
    • Current Openings
  • CONTACT
  • En
  • De
    Innovating with MACH Part 3 – The Why and How of Going Cloud-Native
    Digital Strategy

    Innovating with MACH Part 3 – The Why and How of Going Cloud-Native

    By Daniel Mueller9th March 2022March 9th, 2023No Comments
     

    Home / Blog / Innovating with MACH Part 3 – The Why and How of Going Cloud-Native

    The previous articles of the ‘Innovating with MACH’ series looked at how business capabilities should determine microservices and the business value of being truly API-first. This brings us to how companies are modernizing through cloud-native technologies. Of course, you would have heard plenty of jargon, but in this article, we’ll try to focus on how you use the cloud and not on the cloud services themselves.

    What is Cloud-Native Development?


    Cloud-native development is agile, behavior-driven development, using cloud services in whichever way that makes sense organizationally and culturally to get you to wherever you need to go. I refer to scalable applications running in modern, dynamic environments using containers and declarative APIs, preferably orchestrated by Kubernetes. The building blocks use a microservice model, a serverless platform, and the DevOps operating model.

    Why should Business Drive Cloud-Native Development?


    We advise our customers to get rid of a purely IT-driven mindset and always bring a business perspective to each phase of going cloud-native, from planning to decision-making. IT may have the best understanding of the technical implementation. But that doesn’t necessarily include an overall picture of the various functions of an organization. Try to get into a mode of “Business-impact first” thinking – because today’s technology virtually has no limits, and almost anything that can be dreamt of can be done with a big enough wallet. But there is always a cost-risk, so the focus should be on the business value. 

    Any cloud solution should be tailored to the organization’s background processes and future plans. You need to keep the end-user’s point of view and the customer experience in mind. The key is to get answers to what you want to achieve and how the business will move forward. This ensures that the cloud-native implementation supports the strategic goals of the organization.

    3 Key Business Benefits of Becoming Cloud-Native


    1

    Better Customer Experience with DevOps

    The “fail fast, fix fast” mantra of DevOps and the short cycles of CI/CD mean that more robust testing can occur before integrating into the whole application. DevOps practices help organizations deliver apps that require frequent updates in a reliable, seamless, and resource-efficient manner. Even if you are not fundamentally a ‘tech’ company, you can spend more time focusing on development and less worrying about what happens after the update goes live.
    2

    Improved Business Continuity with Resilient Cloud Architecture

    Going cloud-native is almost always a sure-fire remedy for the downtime and unavailable services. At Mindcurv, we tell our customers that cloud-native development is about having a competitive advantage and keeping operations lean enough to survive whatever turn the market takes. You don’t have employees, products, or services tied down to physical locations by going the MACH route. With cloud-native, you’re enabling integrated and automated backups, better data security, unifying processes on a single interface, and improving visibility.
    3

    Increased Ability to Meet Shifting Market Demands

    COVID showed us that agility and speed are critical instruments in turbulent or hypercompetitive markets. Businesses that thrived during the COVID period could respond in hours to sudden changes, meet new customer demands, and deliver what they expected. If you spot an opportunity a moment before a competitor, putting you in a position to snag a key market position, you better have a cloud-native system.

    Subscribe to engage x enable – the mindcurv group newsletter

    Subscribe Now

    Where does Kubernetes Fit?


    Kubernetes comes into the picture if you build a solution based on containers at scale. You need to deploy and scale multiple containers, operate numerous services, and scale them up and down. Here, orchestration becomes crucial, and Kubernetes is the tool of choice if you need it. Often, we see that having Kubernetes at the core is already a good starting point for going cloud-native and reaping its fruits. But are you using Kubernetes for the right reasons? Try to answer the following questions to find out:

    • Why are you using Kubernetes? ( “Because everybody else is” is not a good answer!)
    • How does it help you to deliver on your user needs?
    • Is it a good tool, practice, or method to deliver on a particular user’s needs in this solution? (There’s no “one size fits it all!”)

    How to Succeed with Cloud-native?


    If you already have years or decades’ worth of background in traditional IT projects and application development, the transition to the cloud is not going to happen overnight. This needs sweeping change at every level, where you challenge IT and business models and people’s ways of working. DevOps, agile, and end-to-end development should replace traditional development to get the most out of the cloud. You also need to understand how scale affects costs. I have a 4-phase checklist for you to get started:

    Phase 1: Baseline

    Kubernetes, managed databases, and a managed message bus are all you need to get started on your way to becoming cloud-native. The idea would be for your development teams to get used to the environment, CI/CD processes, etc. Remember, old habits don’t change overnight. So we make sure to give your team enough space and elbow room to figure out what methodologies work best for them.

    Phase 2: Self-services via Templates

    We would introduce platform templates managed by a central platform team, for spinning up databases, lambdas, etc., in a self-service model. This will be crucial to scaling quickly in the future. Additionally, you must understand that some teams will always stay in phase one simply because a robust Kubernetes environment is all they need. So phase 2 would also be about providing these phase 1 teams with templates for the future.

    Phase 3: Setting up Landing Zones

    A landing zone is a pre-configured cloud environment – provisioned through code – with a standard set of secured cloud infrastructure, policies, best practices, guidelines, and centrally managed services. A good landing zone would have taken care of security, governance, & compliance, standardized tenancy, identity and access management, and networking. We also set up these landing zones with budgets and access to only certain functionalities, and we would support the infrastructure needs in the initial days. The goal here is to limit responsibilities and ensure a smooth transition to a stage where the teams own the infrastructure and get used to deploying and monitoring.

    Phase 4: Autonomy & Access for Development Teams

    In the final phase of going cloud-native, development teams would have direct access to a defined set of cloud functionalities and have higher budgets, fixed and monitored by the finance team via automated tooling. Just think of the risks for a moment of starting with phase 4 directly, without going through phases 1, 2, and 3: a very high bill, security issues, systems going down frequently.

    Going cloud-native takes niche skills juggling many moving parts without incurring a high bill. Remember, there is an entry barrier to cross, and it’s up to you to give your team the time and resources for it. You will need additional tooling for deployments, observability, management, and security. You don’t have to start from scratch if you use the B2B Accelerator+, with its Kubernetes accelerator to take you to market faster. In the next installment of the ‘MACH Powered Innovation’ series, we’ll take a look at the business benefits of headless architectures.

    Tags Business Model, Cloud, Customer Experience, MACH

    Share Tweet Share

    Author

    Daniel Mueller

    Senior Solutions Architect

    We also recommend reading

    22nd February 2022

    Digital Strategy

    Integrations can Make or Break your B2B Business Transformation


    Integrations majorly impact customer experience but are often seen as a technology-only challenge. This 5-step framework offers a more strategic approach.

    Read More

    8th February 2022

    Digital Strategy

    Innovating with MACH Part 2 – The Business Value of API-First


    Is your organization as innovative as you want it to be? Find out how building your platform and your organization as API-first, sets you up for the future.

    Read more

    Back to Blog
    Love0 Share Tweet Share
     

    Subscribe to engage x enable - the mindcurv group newsletter


    Get regular updates from the mindcurv group right in your inbox. Our content will include interesting information about events and our learnings around digital experience and commerce platforms, strategy, cloud solutions, brand & CX, data, AI and more.

    Subscribe to the Mindcurv Bulletin
    Mr. Mrs. Ms.
    I consent to the Mindcurv Group periodically contacting me about their services and other content that may interest me.
    By submitting this form, I agree to the privacy policy of the Mindcurv Group. Please read our privacy policy to learn more about how we collect, keep, and process your private information, as per the GDPR data protection regulation.

    You’re Almost Subscribed!


    There’s just one final step. You’ll soon get an email from us in your inbox. Click the link in the email to complete your subscription to engage x enable - the mindcurv group newsletter!

    In the meantime, check out our blog and our case studies to learn more about our project experience and expertise.

    Subscribe to the Mindcurv Bulletin
     

    Company

    • About
    • Blog
    • News
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Partners
    • Contact

    SERVICES & SOLUTIONS

    • All Services & Solutions
    • B2B Accelerator+

    DISCLAIMER

    • Imprint
    • Privacy

    FOLLOW US

    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Xing
    • YouTube
    • Flickr

    Mindcurv

    digital platforms, cloud and managed services at the mindcurv group

    • SERVICES & SOLUTIONS
      • B2B Accelerator+
      • Strategy & Innovation
      • Digital Platforms & Experiences
      • Cloud Solutions, IoT & Infrastructure
      • Managed Services
      • Data, Analytics & Insights
      • Optimisation, Scaling & Evolution
      • Marketing, Sales, & Operations with Salesforce
      • Overview
    • PARTNERS
      • MACH Alliance
      • Overview
    • RESOURCES
      • Blog
      • Cases
      • Events
      • Webinars
    • COMPANY
      • About
      • People
      • News
    • CAREERS
      • Why Mindcurv
      • Current Openings
    • CONTACT
    • En
    • De
      This website uses cookies. For more information about this and your rights as a user, see Privacy at the bottom of the page. Click “Accept” to agree to the cookies or click "Cookie settings" to manage your cookie preferences. Cookie settings ACCEPT
      Privacy & Cookies Policy

      Privacy Overview

      This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
      Necessary
      Always Enabled

      Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.

      CookieDurationDescription
      AWSELBThis cookie is associated with Amazon Web Services and is used for managing sticky sessions across production servers.
      JSESSIONIDUsed by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests.
      viewed_cookie_policy1 yearThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
      _GRECAPTCHA5 months 27 daysThis cookie is set by Google. In addition to certain standard Google cookies, reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis.

      Others

      Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.

      CookieDurationDescription
      1e5a17c8abNo description
      355b4a0ae7No description
      3eb9b21c5cNo description
      CONSENT16 years 8 months 23 days 18 hoursNo description
      external_referrer_url1 dayNo description
      internal_navigation_count1 dayNo description
      SF_PHPSESSIDNo description
      ZCAMPAIGN_CSRF_TOKENsessionNo description
      _gat_UA-72377743-11 minuteNo description
      _zcsr_tmpNo description

      Advertisement

      Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.

      CookieDurationDescription
      IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
      test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
      VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE5 months 27 daysThis cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website.

      Analytics

      Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

      CookieDurationDescription
      _ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
      _gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form.

      Performance

      Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

      CookieDurationDescription
      AWSELBCORS2 hoursThis cookie is used for load balancing, inorder to optimize the service. It also stores the information regarding which server cluster is serving the visitor.
      YSCsessionThis cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos.

      Save & Accept
      Powered by