2020 posed a new challenge for businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and companies had to adopt remote working models? A whopping 43% of companies even closed temporarily. The ones that did survive, 78% of them took solace in cloud-native models and Kubernetes environments. This can be judged because the cloud-native market saw average spending of $2.3 Billion in 2019.
With a CAGR rate of 25.68%, the cloud-native market size is expected to reach a value of $9.2 Billion by 2025. While they sound similar, cloud-native is the practice of working entirely on the cloud instead of building a data center and then migrating the data to the cloud, which is the cloud hosting methodology. So, what exactly is the difference, and why is cloud-native the superior option? Find out.
Reasons to Adopt Cloud-Native
While cloud hosting is the conventional method of hosting enterprise data, cloud-native is the new normal of data access and storage, just as COVID-19 has changed things. The following are the reasons why businesses of all sizes should adopt cloud-native:
Cloud Native is Better than Having On-Premises Servers
While many would argue that an on-premise server is an excellent investment due to the control it provides, there are concerns as well. For example, backups are less effective with on-premise servers, and in case of a cyber-attack or a natural calamity, all of it may be lost.
Cloud-native allows you to create backups and store them in several locations so that the data can be restored when the services of the cloud resume. Therefore, on-premise server installations have dropped by 6% to $89 billion globally.
Standard Data Center Hosting Consumes Space and is Less Scalable
As an organization grows, the challenges of expanding the operations also become extensive. While building data centers at all-new locations may seem easy, the original server is not expandable itself. As a result, data centers are not scalable and consume a lot of space and resources. According to a QTS report, there are 13 vulnerabilities that a data center poses. With cloud-native, the user has the flexibility to access the data in a more secure manner that is also easily scalable.
Reduces the Time to Hit the Markets
With data centers, the size, and resources of the service increase as the app or website development scales up. This can cost around $5-6 million, which is separate from the costs of development. Cloud-native allows you to develop the app/website in distributed systems and then bring it together when the need arises. This reduces the time to hit the market post-development, which is significantly longer with traditional development practice.
Furthermore, the additional resources are automatically decommissioned when the usage is complete, making the app/website light to operate and maintain in the long term. Add the adaptiveness with the Kubernetes environment, and cloud-native automatically becomes the go-to option for development.
Cloud-Native Enhances Security
Many data center migrations to the cloud do not come with security measures that are fully adaptive for cloud applications. This means that the pre-existing security measures with data centers are not as effective. This is solved with cloud-native; wherein all security measures are created directly only for the cloud. Furthermore, all the security measures with cloud-native are compliance and regulation friendly, and hence can be deployed almost immediately.
Standard Data Center Hosting is Costlier
Most companies choose to build a data center when their data is too sensitive to be stored on a cloud-managed by somebody else. On average, it costs about $1,000 per square foot of area. And to top it off, they consume an enormous amount of power to work. An average data center costs $10-12 million per megawatt for an enterprise. With cloud-native, these costs can be reduced by up to 70%, with prices starting as low as $100,000.
Cloud-Native vs. Cloud Hosting of Traditional Enterprise Apps?
Cloud-native had seen its fair share of challenges since the cloud hosting model arrived before and was implemented at a broader scale, with 31% of public enterprises stating it imperative. However, in 2021, cloud hosting is becoming outdated due to infrastructure requirements and maintenance costs. The following are the broad differences between cloud-native and cloud hosting:
Conclusion: Why Should you Migrate to Cloud-Native?
With 70% of US companies already adopting cloud-native architecture and a complete transformation by 2025, it is only a matter of time. Cloud-native packs all the features of its predecessors like higher uptime, lower carbon footprints and adds the benefits of reduced overhead costs and faster implementation.
To top it off, it is seamlessly accessible through remote locations for COVID-19 working models and yet manages to adhere to all security measures to prevent data breaches. It is thus worthwhile to migrate to cloud-native.