What are the key benefits of cloud servers? How are cloud-ready applications different from cloud-native ones?
Cloud servers can be configured to provide levels of performance, security and control similar to those of a dedicated server. However, instead of physical hardware owned by you (or your company) the servers reside on either a shared, or private, “virtualized” environment that is managed by a cloud hosting provider rather than an in-house staff.
Whether using a shared cloud or a private environment, there are many benefits such as the economies of scale by sharing hardware space with other customers and reducing out-of-pocket costs. You can also see the benefits of this almost immediately by only paying for the exact amount of server space used. Cloud servers also allow you to scale your resources as needed, depending on demand. Pay for the amount of infrastructure that you need as you need it.
When choosing software that is compatible with your cloud hosted infrastructure, you might hear 2 options – “Cloud-Ready” and “CloudNative.” What are the differences between Cloud-Ready vs. Cloud-Native applications?
Cloud-Ready Applications
- Originally designed either for use on a single machine or an on-site server.
- Features were originally built for static environments.
- The original coding and formatting has been updated and made compatible with the dynamic abilities of the cloud.
- Typically have APIs built into the software as needed that work to collaborate with other programs and services.
Cloud-Native Applications
- Services are packaged as lightweight containers – independent and autonomous services that, unlike virtual machines, can scale-out and scale-in rapidly.
- Developed with the languages, run-times, and frameworks native to the cloud service it was designed for.
- Created using lightweight APIs based on protocols such as representational state transfer (REST), Google’s open source remote procedure call (gRPC) or NATS. REST is used as the lowest common denominator to expose APIs over hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).
This is similar to the way that License Asset Manager with Usage Monitoring allows you to track the actual, real-time, usage of your engineering software applications and shows you where you are able to scale down and where you need to, if anywhere, scale up. Using both allow you to scale your CAD, CAE, CAM, EDA, and PLM services, licenses, and infrastructure to your company’s needs on demand. You can learn more by reading our White Paper LAMUM for the Cloud.