Managing Cloud-Native Applications

The cloud-native application topic center helps IT operations and SysOps professionals manage apps that are designed to use loosely coupled cloud compute and storage rather than monolithic resources. Experts explain how to capacity plan and optimize performance for native cloud applications, including redundancy and scalability considerations.

Top Stories

Conference Coverage 20 Apr 2023
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 2023 news coverage

Trying to keep up with the latest news out of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon? Use this comprehensive guide to stay updated and informed on both the European and North American events. Continue Reading
News 15 Feb 2022
F5 distributed cloud security services strike a trendy chord

As talk of multi-cloud management gives way to distributed cloud, which also ties in edge computing, F5 bundles application security services to expand its appeal to enterprises. Continue Reading

News 06 Mar 2020

Istio service mesh revamp may ease use, or sow confusion

Istio 1.5 reworks a microservices-based control plane into a monolith as the service mesh project seeks to simplify management and improve performance. Continue Reading
News 05 Mar 2020

Biometrics firm fights monitoring overload with log analytics

Log analytics tools have become more popular as enterprise IT pros contend with complex, continuous microservices application deployments at scale. Continue Reading
News 25 Feb 2020

Mirantis marshals reinforcements for Kubernetes management

Mirantis adds engineering staff and revives Docker Swarm as it plans to do battle in container orchestration against Red Hat, Pivotal and Docker itself. Continue Reading
News 12 Feb 2020

Grafana Loki users reap log data savings, with tradeoffs

Grafana Loki won't replace advanced log analytics tools, but it may be a boon for shops that want to collect massive amounts of log data for troubleshooting applications. Continue Reading
News 07 Feb 2020

Retail software firm takes broad view of Kubernetes security

Kubernetes platform security has supplanted container-level security for enterprises such as retail software vendor Aptos as they deploy microservices in production. Continue Reading
News 16 Jan 2020

SaltStack infrastructure-as-code tools seek cloud-native niche

SaltStack, like other infrastructure-as-code tools, must reinvent itself as cloud-native IT automation approaches such as containers, serverless and Kubernetes Operators grow. Continue Reading
Feature 20 Dec 2019

Optimize application deployments with this expert advice from 2019

As the year comes to a close, review SearchITOperations' most popular tips on app deployment and support, covering topics such as DevOps automation, SLAs and tool tutorials. Continue Reading
Tutorial 18 Dec 2019

Use this Kubernetes and Helm tutorial to simplify app deployments

Helm charts are a helpful tool to deploy applications onto Kubernetes clusters. Follow this tutorial, which also features Windows and Chocolatey, to get started with the package manager. Continue Reading
Opinion 11 Dec 2019

Emphasize app modernization in 2020 IT budget plans

IT budgeting can be stressful and complicated, but it doesn't have to be. Communicate with business leaders and users to identify -- and capitalize on -- the right opportunities. Continue Reading
Feature 27 Nov 2019

Decipher real-world AIOps use cases from the hype

There are many AIOps use cases that apply to enterprise IT, but make sure you are familiar with what exactly the technology can -- and can't -- do before adoption. Continue Reading
News 22 Nov 2019

Kubernetes release gets little fanfare as IT looks toward GitOps

Kubernetes is considered stable enough to be boring. The latest beta release was barely mentioned at KubeCon, where IT pros focused on advanced uses such as GitOps and other cloud-native projects. Continue Reading
News 21 Nov 2019

Linkerd vs. Istio battle heats up as service mesh gains steam

Service mesh has gone from a relatively unknown entity to a mainstream topic in 2019, but it's too early to declare a TKO in the Linkerd vs. Istio prizefight. Continue Reading
News 20 Nov 2019

Kubernetes security opens a new frontier: Multi-tenancy

Enterprises have grown used to managing Kubernetes in production for some of their workloads, but broadening those deployments can bring multi-tenant security challenges. Continue Reading
News 15 Nov 2019

D2iQ latest to seek Kubernetes management niche

D2iQ's CTO says it will use its enterprise experience with Apache Mesos container orchestration and big data apps such as Kafka to compete in a crowded market for Kubernetes management. Continue Reading
News 13 Nov 2019

Docker Enterprise spun off to Mirantis, company restructures

In an unexpected move, Docker sells off its Docker Enterprise business -- including customer support -- to Mirantis and refocuses on Docker Hub and Docker Desktop. Continue Reading
News 12 Nov 2019

Aqua Security buys CloudSploit, expands into cloud security

Amid consolidation and chaos in the cloud security market, Aqua snaps up CloudSploit and sets the stage for increased competition with traditional IT security vendors. Continue Reading
Tip 12 Nov 2019

A GitOps workflow won't benefit every IT organization

A move to GitOps is a major transition for an IT team and offers a wealth of perks, but it also carries significant challenges and a steep learning curve. Continue Reading
News 08 Nov 2019

Microservices security calls for zero-trust, data classification

Sanity in a zero-trust world for microservices security calls for IT teams to prioritize the assets they must protect, and that starts with data classification. Continue Reading
News 04 Nov 2019

JASK buy may boost security analytics in Sumo Logic SIEM

Sumo Logic has acquired JASK, an automated SOC that will be most useful for security analytics and alert reduction features within Sumo Logic's SIEM. Continue Reading
Tip 04 Nov 2019

When to use Jenkins vs. Jenkins X for pipeline automation

Three primary factors -- flexibility, Kubernetes adoption and the need for a GUI -- should shape an organization's decision between Jenkins and Jenkins X as a pipeline automation tool. Continue Reading
News 01 Nov 2019

New Relic catches up in serverless monitoring with IOpipe

IOpipe's IP and expertise will help New Relic catch up with the latest serverless monitoring trends, such as AWS Lambda Layers support and event-driven frameworks. Continue Reading
News 28 Oct 2019

DevOps security shifts left, but miles to go to pass hackers

DevSecOps has gone mainstream as companies bake security automation into app development, but experts say the toughest cybersecurity challenges remain unsolved. Continue Reading
Tip 25 Oct 2019

Prevent man-in-the-middle attacks on apps, CI/CD toolchains

Man-in-the-middle attacks pose a serious threat to both CI/CD tools and the apps those tools support. Learn how these attacks typically occur -- and how to stop them -- to do DevOps securely. Continue Reading
Feature 25 Oct 2019

Enterprise IT weighs pros and cons of multi-cloud management

IT ops pros are getting used to multi-cloud management, especially for disaster recovery, but moving from cloud to cloud via container portability is still rare. Continue Reading
News 18 Oct 2019

Red Hat OpenShift Tekton pipelines reflect strategic platform focus

OpenShift and its competitors now offer enterprises soup-to-nuts DevOps platforms, rather than simple Kubernetes management tools, that are based on different points of strategic lock-in. Continue Reading
News 11 Oct 2019

Ticketmaster unifies DevOps monitoring with Confluent Kafka

Ticketmaster troubleshoots and secures distributed applications using Kafka stream processing as a central hub for data collection. Continue Reading
News 08 Oct 2019

Google sparks open source unrest over Knative, Istio

Google is keeping its Knative and Istio projects close to the vest, which could limit their reach long term, early adopters say. Continue Reading
News 07 Oct 2019

Docker Desktop asset, fiscal stress prompt acquisition buzz

Docker has tried to differentiate itself as a Kubernetes competitor, but amid reports of financial headwinds, it should return to its roots in the developer desktop, analysts say. Continue Reading
Tip 03 Oct 2019

Heed these cloud security considerations for SaaS, PaaS

A move to the cloud lessens IT's workload responsibility, but SaaS and PaaS models each require a targeted cloud security strategy to protect applications. Continue Reading
News 02 Oct 2019

Chef outage fuels technology ethics debate

Software companies have been embroiled in high-profile ethical controversies in the past two years, driving industry debate about just how extensively politics should influence tech. Continue Reading
News 19 Sep 2019

AIOps tools mature as cloud infrastructure grows

DevOps monitoring tools gain refined features as IT complexity soars, but their advanced AIOps automation hasn't yet gone mainstream. Continue Reading
Tip 16 Sep 2019

What IT admins need to know about cloud application patching

When they host apps in a SaaS or PaaS environment, IT teams offload some patching duties to cloud providers. But other responsibilities become even more important. Continue Reading
News 11 Sep 2019

HashiCorp Consul plays to multi-platform strength with Azure

HashiCorp's Consul service mesh will be offered as a hosted service on Microsoft Azure, where it can link container clusters along with VMs in multiple regions. Continue Reading
Tip 05 Sep 2019

Consider the when, why and how of a Mesos-to-Kubernetes migration

Before choosing to migrate to Kubernetes, Mesos users should carefully prepare for the complexity of the move -- and first consider using the two technologies side by side. Continue Reading
Tip 03 Sep 2019

Embrace an app-centric approach to monitoring in the cloud

Cloud computing minimizes the need for IT teams to worry about infrastructure hardware -- which means their monitoring strategies can, and should, hone in on apps and the user experience. Continue Reading
News 28 Aug 2019

Knative serverless Kubernetes bypasses FaaS to revive PaaS

Knative's emerging claim to fame is that it can turn Kubernetes into a next-gen platform as a service with both a Heroku-like developer experience and deep infrastructure control. Continue Reading
Tip 26 Aug 2019

Simplify SaaS integration with an IT service aggregator

SaaS management can cause as many headaches as SaaS apps prevent. Poor integrations between disparate tools can create bottlenecks and failures, but aggregators can help. Continue Reading
News 22 Aug 2019

Istio service mesh hits OpenShift GA, but upgrades are slow

Istio service mesh, Kiali and Jaeger are generally available for Red Hat OpenShift 4, but it will be some time before users are ready for the latest version of the platform. Continue Reading
News 22 Aug 2019

Splunk pricing worries some users amid SignalFx monitoring buy

Splunk wants to collect more data via SignalFx, but some users wonder how much it will cost to keep up with the proliferation of logs and metrics in the age of cloud monitoring. Continue Reading
Tutorial 22 Aug 2019

Follow this Terraform and AWS tutorial to create a VPC

As an infrastructure-as-code tool, Terraform simplifies and streamlines resource deployments. Follow along with this example, which features Amazon VPCs, to get started. Continue Reading
Quiz 20 Aug 2019

Test your knowledge of CNCF projects and tools

From Kubernetes to Envoy, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation has ushered in many leading open source technologies for the IT enterprise. So, how well do you know them? Continue Reading
News 15 Aug 2019

Jenkins X gears up for SaaS version, GitOps standards

With key maturity milestones behind them, the maintainers of Jenkins X prepare a SaaS version, and plan to collaborate with Google's Tekton and Netflix's Spinnaker. Continue Reading
Tip 08 Aug 2019

Cloud adoption questions every IT admin should ask

For all of a cloud service's benefits, there are limitations, such as restricted access to infrastructure, that cause IT teams to be leery of adoption. Continue Reading
Feature 29 Jul 2019

Compare Linkerd vs. Istio for service mesh technology

To decide between Istio and Linkerd for a service mesh platform, consider everything from performance and ease of use to support from major public cloud providers. Continue Reading
News 25 Jul 2019

Kubernetes authentication project wrestles with migration problems

GKE users like the Workload Identity feature for Kubernetes authentication with GCP services, but similar improvements to core cluster security present a potential market-wide migration headache. Continue Reading
News 24 Jul 2019

Compliance-as-code tool hits DevSecOps sweet spot for MSP

There are almost as many tools to assist with DevSecOps as there are definitions for the term – how one managed service provider that serves federal agencies chose a compliance-as-code vendor. Continue Reading
News 19 Jul 2019

Kubernetes policy project takes enterprise IT by storm

A Kubernetes-friendly compliance as code project hosted by the CNCF has caught on among large enterprises in the first half of 2019, largely through word of mouth. Continue Reading
Tip 09 Jul 2019

Don't neglect your IT architect skills in public cloud projects

Public cloud infrastructure is beyond the veil for IT admins: unknown and untouchable. But depending on the deployment -- and the cloud -- admins still have architecture to manage. Continue Reading
News 02 Jul 2019

Kubernetes security tool gives IT a leg up on DevSecOps

An emerging real estate firm tasked with DevSecOps sought an assist from startup Alcide, which bakes Kubernetes security best practices into its software. Continue Reading
News 26 Jun 2019

LogicMonitor wades into AIOps with anomaly detection

Another country heard from in AIOps: LogicMonitor rolls out anomaly detection and alert dependency correlation, but can it rise above the noise? Continue Reading
News 20 Jun 2019

IT pros brace for wave of M&A in microservices security

Microservices and DevOps have made IT security a shared responsibility among enterprise stakeholders, and experts expect this shift to prompt mass consolidation among vendors. Continue Reading
News 20 Jun 2019

Alaska Airlines charts course for DevOps security

As Alaska Airlines plots a flight path to a hybrid cloud infrastructure, it will navigate with an automated DevOps security tool that spans multiple IT environments. Continue Reading
News 13 Jun 2019

AIOps tools beef up insights, but long-term scope unclear

AIOps tools present a way to cope with IT infrastructure sprawl and complexity, but how far they can go with hands-off automation features is still a topic for debate. Continue Reading
News 12 Jun 2019

AIOps early adopters tackle data quality issues

AIOps is new in many ways, but early adopters must also heed a time-honored IT maxim: garbage in, garbage out. Continue Reading
Tip 05 Jun 2019

Automate declarative configuration management for IT ops success

AWS CloudFormation is one of the top options for configuration management -- but it isn't without flaws. Compare AWS to other tools to pick the best option for your organization. Continue Reading
News 31 May 2019

Palo Alto Networks buys Twistlock, PureSec for container security

Palo Alto Networks snaps up Twistlock and PureSec to broaden its cloud security portfolio and give enterprise IT shops more options for container and serverless security. Continue Reading
News 22 May 2019

DevSecOps evolution changes the game for IT ops

A DevSecOps shift and a move to public cloud have precipitated a sea change in what's expected of IT ops pros at a mobile video on-demand company. Continue Reading
News 21 May 2019

GKE, Azure roll out Windows Kubernetes support

Cloud service providers rolled out Windows Kubernetes support this week, which may take some of the burden of Linux container management requirements out of the hands of Microsoft-only shops. Continue Reading
Tip 20 May 2019

DevOps for networking hits chokepoints, tangled communications

NetOps complements DevOps in enterprises that need to scale application delivery efforts up and out. Networking tools -- and teams -- need to advance to find their place in CI/CD pipelines. Continue Reading
News 17 May 2019

Former Chef Software CTO talks IT automation, open source

Chef Software's founder, Adam Jacob, built widely used IT automation software for the enterprise. Now that he's no longer CTO, he's taking a break and pondering what comes next. Continue Reading
Tip 13 May 2019

Change your application support process to juggle cloud and legacy IT

Legacy IT and cloud app architectures demand different application maintenance and support activities, but with some abstraction and automation, they coexist. Continue Reading
News 10 May 2019

OpenShift shops chart a course for advanced IT automation

IT teams tackled containerization, developer self-service platforms and infrastructure provisioning automation in 2018. So, what's next? Continue Reading
Tip 02 May 2019

Combine containers and serverless to optimize app environments

Rather than pick a side in the debate around containers vs. serverless computing, DevOps shops would benefit from putting both of these complementary technologies to use. Continue Reading
Tip 23 Apr 2019

Adjust IT operations roles and responsibilities for cloud

More organizations migrate to the cloud with each passing day. Learn how embracing soft skills can smooth the transition of dedicated ops staff to cloud industry roles. Continue Reading
Quiz 19 Apr 2019

Test your Kubernetes terminology expertise with this quiz

Can you ace this quiz on Kubernetes architecture and component terminology? Assess your knowledge of these terms and whether you need to hit the books -- or online documentation. Continue Reading
News 10 Apr 2019

Cloud Foundry PaaS undergoes seismic shifts as IT evolves

Cloud Foundry undergoes drastic changes as infrastructure automation technology develops, to the point where some industry experts see more erosion than evolution. Continue Reading
News 08 Apr 2019

Users forge ahead with Cloud Foundry-Kubernetes integration

Complementary roles for Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes are clear to IT pros, and the community plans to knit the two more closely together with the Eirini project. Continue Reading
Guide 01 Apr 2019

Bookmark this expansive guide to DevOps for Windows

Native Windows DevOps tools and Azure DevOps services enable Microsoft shops to keep pace with Linux setups. Continue Reading
News 01 Apr 2019

Google SREs test the limits of infrastructure automation

Google SRE veterans spoke publicly about infrastructure automation work, its future and its limitations. Continue Reading
News 27 Mar 2019

Monitoring distributed systems means first, do no harm

SRE veterans who work with large, complex, latency-sensitive infrastructures say some monitoring tools can hurt the systems they're meant to help. Continue Reading
Tip 14 Mar 2019

Use the Ballerina language to ease into cloud microservices

With native integration features, Ballerina promises to take care of lower-level technological considerations, while developers focus on building features. Continue Reading
News 13 Mar 2019

F5-Nginx deal reflects mainstream trend toward microservices

F5 snaps up Nginx for cloud-native app support, and analysts predict a microservices gold rush as modern application architectures catch on in enterprise IT shops. Continue Reading
News 12 Mar 2019

F5-NGINX acquisition removes open source rival

F5 Networks plans to buy NGINX for $670 million. The F5-NGINX acquisition removes from the market a business founded on open source software used in 375 million websites. Continue Reading
News 08 Mar 2019

Release automation tools link legacy, modern app management

Release automation tools will evolve in 2019 to embrace advanced application development and infrastructure automation techniques. Continue Reading
News 05 Mar 2019

Container security tools turn heads with expansion to hosts

Vendors that sell container security tools now face off against traditional security tool providers, as both vie for the attention of IT pros who look to fortify their cloud-native infrastructure. Continue Reading
News 28 Feb 2019

Istio security drives Auto Trader UK move to GKE

The U.K.'s largest online automotive marketplace put Istio security features in place before it adopted containers and GKE, rather than the other way around. Continue Reading
Tip 20 Feb 2019

Determine the cost of app customization in the cloud

Cloud applications are like icebergs: There's a lot users don't see below the surface. One apparently small change could have a massive ripple effect on operations. Continue Reading
News 14 Feb 2019

Container security tools pitch service mesh integrations

Container defense in depth is a hot topic, and some IT pros approach it with a combination of third-party container security tools and service mesh security features. Continue Reading
News 14 Feb 2019

Linkerd vs. Istio fray dominates service mesh battle

Linkerd's maintainers admit it has a narrower range of features than buzz machine Istio. But after failed attempts to set up Istio, some early adopters believe less is more. Continue Reading
Tip 12 Feb 2019

Adjust IT team dynamics for a cloud-native approach

As enterprises set their cloud-native strategy, they'll need to navigate major changes -- both from a technical standpoint and in terms of IT team structure and management style. Continue Reading
Tip 07 Feb 2019

Evaluate the Mesos architecture for massive container deployments

In addition to supporting large-scale IT deployments, Mesos takes a unique approach to data center and cloud resource pools that can benefit both containerized and noncontainerized apps. Continue Reading
News 21 Jan 2019

VMware-Heptio roadmap to refine enterprise Kubernetes

Heptio founder Craig McLuckie, now VP of R&D at VMware following a 2018 merger, anticipates hard work ahead to get enterprises to adopt Kubernetes in their production environments. Continue Reading
Quiz 21 Jan 2019

Pop quiz: Can you identify these top IT trends of 2019?

From serverless and AIOps to a widening tech skills gap, numerous IT trends bring momentum into 2019. See how ready you are for new opportunities and hurdles in IT with this quiz. Continue Reading
News 17 Jan 2019

VMware and Pivotal put NSX spin on Kubernetes security

VMware and Pivotal mix NSX network segmentation into PKS 1.3 to appeal to large, advanced users of vSphere and Kubernetes who manage multi-tenant container clusters. Continue Reading
Opinion 20 Dec 2018

IT organizations anticipate DevOps evolution in 2019

DevOps shifts around like ice cubes skate across water: quickly and always toward its outer limits. Kurt Marko explores some areas where DevOps will go in 2019. Continue Reading
News 14 Dec 2018

Istio service mesh tradeoffs prompt caution among IT pros

Istio can boost the security and observability of Kubernetes environments, but some IT pros question whether the perks are worth a steep learning curve. Continue Reading
News 14 Dec 2018

Knative project stokes interest in event-driven IT ops

The Knative project is nascent, but Kubernetes users said they believe it could facilitate the next generation of IT infrastructure management. Continue Reading
News 11 Dec 2018

Kubernetes security issues raise concerns for enterprise shops

As Kubernetes enters the enterprise mainstream, it has early adopters abuzz about security issues in the platform and the containers it orchestrates. Continue Reading
News 04 Dec 2018

Microsoft and Docker CNAB takes aim at distributed computing

Microsoft and Docker want to push container-like abstraction up the stack with the CNAB open source spec, which has piqued enterprise interest in its early stages. Continue Reading
News 04 Dec 2018

Kubernetes security vulnerability reveals fractured market

Enterprises that pay for Kubernetes support will respond differently to this week's critical security vulnerability than lean DevOps teams that use upstream distributions. Continue Reading
News 30 Nov 2018

Istio service mesh vies for lead in microservices market

Istio's integration into Google Cloud will give it momentum, but service mesh competition remains fierce, as HashiCorp Consul makes strong inroads with early adopters. Continue Reading
Feature 28 Nov 2018

As-a-service at your service: Cloud tools simplify DevOps automation

AWS offers the widest range of cloud-integrated DevOps tools. But Google Cloud has a strategy with more focus on integration, and Azure closely ties in with other Microsoft products. Continue Reading
Opinion 21 Nov 2018

What's next for VMs vs. containers as isolation, performance evolve?

With advances from Docker, Kubernetes and other container technologies, an ecosystem is emerging that threatens the existence -- or at least importance -- of VMs in enterprise IT orgs. Continue Reading
News 20 Nov 2018

Kibana monitoring apps zoom in on Kubernetes infrastructure

A new set of time-series Kubernetes infrastructure monitoring and APM tools in version 6.5 of Elastic Stack take their place among many choices for IT pros. Continue Reading
News 16 Nov 2018

AWS Lambda monitoring goes mainstream with New Relic beta

New Relic users and prospects will investigate AWS Lambda monitoring features released in private beta, as serverless usage filters in to enterprise IT shops. Continue Reading
News 15 Nov 2018

Container security tools push multi-cloud closer to reality

Container security tools, such as StackRox and Aqua Security, offer DevOps shops that want multi-cloud portability a centralized way to reduce the risk of complex infrastructures. Continue Reading
News 07 Nov 2018

Kubernetes on VMware gains a lifeline with Heptio acquisition

VMware's Heptio buy brings it Kubernetes chops that will help it make a multi-cloud bid, but it will struggle to raise its profile in open source container management, industry watchers predict. Continue Reading
News 02 Nov 2018

HashiCorp Vault maturity prompts strategy speculation

HashiCorp is valued at $1.9 billion for its IT management software, such as Vault 1.0, and the IBM-Red Hat merger has set off speculation about the firm's future. Continue Reading
News 30 Oct 2018

IBM Red Hat acquisition roils open source container management

IBM agreed to buy Red Hat with Kubernetes in mind for its multi-cloud management strategy, and it'll have far-reaching implications for the open source container management community, especially Cloud Foundry. Continue Reading
Feature 25 Oct 2018

Cloud and containers rewrite monitoring and management rulebooks

IT performance management is tricky when it stretches as big as the public cloud and scrunches as small as a microservice. IT ops techniques must change to keep up. Continue Reading