The Latest Cloud Computing Terms in 2024: What’s New?

In today’s world, getting your applications out to users as quickly as possible is vital if you want to stay afloat. This has become a high-priority goal for software vendors and any business. The development and delivery process that companies have used for years takes too long and needs to update. As a result, you are bound to transform to survive in the competition.

It’s crucial to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in technology and development. With more software companies developing, it’s vital to understand the opportunities involved in this shift. When your customers have to transform, SUSE solutions can offer a lucrative market to harvest.

But before you chase these opportunities, you will need to understand the world of the cloud, DevOps, containers, open source, and Kubernetes. Learning the terminology is a good place to start.!

Concepts

🔸 Cloud Native

Cloud Native technologies allow you to create applications that can grow and change quickly in any environment, whether public, private, or a hybrid of the two. Containers, service meshes, immutable infrastructure, and declarative APIs help to make this possible.

These techniques are popular as the different parts of the system are not too reliant on each other, which makes the system more resilient. They also make it easier to manage and understand the functionality of your system or application. Paired with robust automation, cloud-native technologies allow engineers to make changes frequently and predictably without much effort.

When it comes to stating the characteristics of cloud-native, they can be as follows;

1. Most cloud natives can be “delivered as a service.”
2. They are scalable and elastic.
3. Provides pay-as-per-use features for the users.
4. Cloud natives can be nurtured as architecture, infrastructure, applications, or operations.

Your users can either be using the legacy apps and moving to cloud deployments or developing the apps from the start to be cloud-native.

🔸 Copyright/ Copyleft

➡️ Copyright is a kind of intellectual property that grants the creator of a work exclusive rights to make copies and derivative works, usually for a limited period.

➡️ Copyleft is a type of licensing that allows for the free distribution and modification of intellectual property with the condition that the same rights be granted to derivative works. This ensures that anyone who uses or redistributes the property can do so freely.

🔸 Delivering Applications

Any development team mainly aims to deliver applications to clients or users. There are various ways to achieve this, and today’s digital marketplace goal is to do it quickly and efficiently. The most important aspect of application delivery is ensuring that the quality of the product is not compromised in the name of speed.

Businesses often develop applications to help them succeed in various ways for their potential users. Yet, at the same time, some applications are only used internally to accommodate the demands of users.

🔸 DevOps

In the traditional application-delivery process, the development and production environments are separate. As a result, apps created in one domain don’t run well in the other. This disconnect contributes to launch failures that waste time as dev, test, and production try to reconcile whatever causes the app to fail in production.

DevOps is the integration of development and operations teams to streamline software delivery. This collaboration between teams allows for communication and integration, with the end goal being a more efficient software delivery.

Related read: Top DevOps Trends and Statistics You Need to Know in 2024

🔸 Elasticity

The ability to change is known as elasticity. It is the strength to adapt to workload changes by autonomously allocating resources. This means there are enough resources to match the current demand at any given point. Therefore, having elasticity is crucial for any business.

🔸 Freeware

It typically refers to software you can use without paying any fees. However, while you can use it at no cost, you generally can’t make any changes or redistribute it. Freeware is often shared without its source code being included- which is different from open-source or free software.

🔸 Indemnification

The indemnity clause in open-source software licenses ensures that users are not held liable for any intellectual property claims made by other contributors to the software code.

🔸 Idempotence

Idempotence is the property of particular operations whereby they can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application. The concept of idempotence arises in several places in abstract functional programming.

🔸 Launch Failure

Developers use technologies like containers to make deployment easy because they are independent.

Applications launched without these technologies are not independent and rely on the technology stacks they are built on, such as:

• Platform
• Operating system
• Runtimes
• Drivers, etc.

🔸 Monolithic Applications

It is a software application that is self-contained and independent of other computing applications. It is a single-tiered application in which the UI and data access code are paired into a single program from a single platform.

Check out this video where we delve into the three primary serverless architecture approaches: Monolithic, microservices, and function as a service (FaaS). We provide an in-depth analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and then guide you in selecting the most suitable one for your project.⬇️

🔸 Open Source

Software that’s distributed with its source code publicly available for anyone to use, study, change, and distribute as they wish open source. Many open source projects are worked on in collaboration to contribute their time and skills to improve the software.

🔸 Pipeline

A CI/CD pipeline is key to a successful DevOps environment. It connects the development and operations teams by automating the building, testing, and deploying of applications. When developers commit code, it is automatically pushed through the pipeline, where it is processed, built, and tested.

🔸 Refactoring

Many people refer to refactoring in various ways, but they all refer to the same thing in the end. For example, when customers look at their application portfolio and decide which ones they want to port to the cloud first, that’s refactoring. Likewise, development is about optimizing code to run more efficiently.

🔸 Service Level Agreement

An SLA is a formal and legally binding contract between a customer and their IT, operations, managed service, or cloud service provider that defines and sets expectations for the level of service, availability, and performance guaranteed by the provider.

A provider must uphold the terms specified in the agreement to avoid losing the customers that keep them in business.

🔸 Velocity

Velocity is a measured speed in a specific direction- in this case, forward. So when customers talk about “speed to market,” they mean improving their velocity. To compete in today’s digital economy and decrease the time between effort and value, your customers have to increase the velocity of their deployments.

🔸 Virtualization

Through virtualization, you can run multiple operating systems on a single computer. This technology is so named because it is one level higher than a supervisory program, allowing multiple instances of various operating systems to share virtualization hardware resources.

🔸 Edge Computing

With the continuous growth of IoT, edge computing is gaining more relevance in the field of cloud computing. The concept of edge computing involves processing data near its source rather than relying on a centralized cloud-based system. By doing so, it significantly reduces latency, enhances data privacy, and conserves bandwidth.

🔸 Serverless Computing

Serverless computing is a vital component of modern cloud technologies. It empowers developers to focus on writing and deploying code without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure. With serverless computing, the burden of provisioning, scaling, and managing the necessary infrastructure is automatically taken care of by the cloud provider.

This allows developers to streamline their workflow and concentrate their efforts on coding tasks, resulting in improved efficiency and productivity.

Related read: Serverless Architecture: A Game-Changer for Healthcare Industry

🔸 Hybrid Cloud and Multi-cloud Strategies

As organizations increasingly rely on multiple cloud service providers, the terms hybrid cloud and multi-cloud have become more important. Hybrid cloud includes using a combination of on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud services. On the other hand, multi-cloud refers to utilizing multiple cloud computing and storage services within a single network architect.

🔸 Cloud Security

Cloud security encompasses a range of protocols and technologies that are specifically designed to protect businesses from both external and internal threats. With the increasing adoption of cloud computing tools and services as part of their digital transformation strategy, organizations must prioritize security to protect their infrastructure.

🔸 AI and ML in Cloud

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have become integral parts of cloud computing, playing crucial roles in various such as data analysis, predictive analytics, automation, and improving customer experiences. The combination of AI, ML, and cloud computing has revolutionized various industries, including healthcare, finance, e-commerce, and more, by driving innovation and enhancing the decision-making process.

🔸 Blockchain and Cloud

The integration of blockchain technology with cloud computing has revolutionized the way we store and handle data. The combination offers a decentralized and highly secure environment that enhances data security and provides improved traceability and transparency.

The potential of this emerging field in cloud technology is vast, and there is much more to explore and explain about the capabilities and benefits.

🔸 Cloud Interoperability and Portability

Interoperability and portability enable businesses to seamlessly move data and applications between different cloud environments, ensuring flexibility and avoiding dependency on a single vendor. Embracing cloud portability and interoperability provides the freedom to choose the most suitable solutions for your requirements and future-proof businesses against potential limitations imposed by the provider.

🔸 Sustainability in Cloud Computing

Many cloud service providers are embracing sustainable computing to reduce the environmental footprint of their data centers. This is a crucial aspect worth exploring, as it determines the commitment towards responsible business practices and contributes to minimizing overall ecological impact.

🔸 Quantum Computing

Although the integration of quantum computing into cloud services is still in its infancy, it has the potential to be truly revolutionary. Cloud providers have already started offering quantum computing services, showcasing the growing interest and excitement around this emerging technology.

As more advancements are made and companies are exploring their capabilities, we can expect quantum computing to transform the approach to complex computational problems in the future.

Technologies

🔹 API

An API is an interface that allows different applications to communicate with each other and share data. It allows limited access to the functionality of another program. APIs are used so that various programs can share functionality. We can take a few examples of API;

1. The Facebook share button allows users to share content from your website on their page.
2. Yelp uses Google Maps to display nearby restaurants, making it easy for users to find what they’re looking for.
3. Programmers can integrate YouTube videos and functionality into websites or applications, making them more engaging and user-friendly.

Giving developers access to product selection and discovery functionality to advertise Amazon products can monetize a website.

🔹 Cloud Foundry

Cloud Foundry is an open-source project that allows users to avoid vendor lock-in risks. It is highly adaptable and will withstand changes in technology. It is compatible with existing workflows and tools and can be used with new tools, languages, and platforms as they are developed. This adaptability provides future-proofing, enabling developers to adopt new technologies with no vendor lock-in.

🔹 Container

Using containers, businesses can benefit from the feature of multiple isolated user-space instances. They don’t need to run a full-down OS image for each instance. Instead, containers are abstracted from the OS and can run separate instances of an application within a single shared OS. This makes it easy to test the applications in multiple environments.

🔹 Cloud Native Computing Foundation

The CNCF is a Linux Foundation project that was founded in 2015. It helps advance container technology and align the tech industry around its evolution.

Cloud-native technologies allow businesses to create in-house software, keep up with competitors, and deliver better customer service. In addition, CNCF technologies enable cloud portability without vendor lock-in.

🔹 Daemon

There’s no need to do it yourself- let the daemon do it! A daemon is a program that operates in the background rather than being under the direct control of a user. Daemons are set up to be activated by the occurrence of an event or condition and are usually used for tasks to be carried out repeatedly.

🔹 GitHub

GitHub is a hosting platform for the development and version control of software. It provides the distributed version control and source code management functionality of Git, plus its features. Millions of developers and companies are using it to build, ship, and maintain their software.

🔹 GitOps

It is nothing but a philosophy or a set of best practices that allow developers to do things that usually fall under the responsibility of IT operations. GitOps needs development teams to describe and monitor systems that make everything run smoothly.

🔹 GNU

The GNU Linux project was established to develop a Unix-like operating system with source code that can be copied, modified, and redistributed.

It’s an extensive collection of free software that can be utilized as an operating system or in parts with other operating systems. Completed GNU tools established as the family of operating systems known as Linux.

🔹 Helm

The Kubernetes package manager helps you manage Kubernetes applications. Helm charts help you define, install, and upgrade even the most complex applications. They are easy to create, version, share, and publish. Helmn is an essential tool for anyone using Kubernetes.

🔹 Immutable Infrastructure

Some infrastructures are designed to be flexible, but for the cloud, some things must stay the same to keep those systems running into complete configuration chaos. So, for example, when you update an application, the system doesn’t just change the app- it recreates a whole new application instance, replacing the old model. This is called immutable infrastructure, one that doesn’t change but is replaced, which prevents it from drifting out of configuration.

🔹 Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open-source platform for automating application development, scaling, and management. In addition, it is portable and extensible, making it a great choice for managing containerized workloads and services.

Related read: The Future of Kubernetes and How It’s Revolutionizing Container Orchestration

🔹 Linux

The family of open-source Unix-like operating systems that are based on Linux kernel. These operating systems are typically packaged in a Linux distribution.

🔹 Microservices

Applications are usually made up of many different, unconnected components. For example, web UI, management functions, billing, etc. This can make it difficult to make even small changes as they often have to open the entire app, which can crash. Microservices offer a different approach that completely changes this paradigm.

Developers depend on microservices to create single applications. They can access these microservices from anywhere, and each can be updated and managed individually.

Related read: How-We-Created-Scalable-and-Secure-Microservices-based-Architecture-for-a-Finance-Application

🔹 Open-Source Community

Many loosely organized communities of online contributors share a common interest in meeting a need, whether a minor project or something larger. This community uses a collaborative environment that allows for the organizational scheme and processes to develop.

🔹 Source Code

The collection of code used to create a software program. It is written in a human-readable programming language and typically exists in plain text. The source code is then compiled or assembled into binary machine code, which a computer can execute.

In open-source software, users can manipulate the source code as they see fit to change the software program.

🔹 Terraform

Provisioning any system is a lot of work and can take time. That’s where Terraform integrations come in. Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-a-code software tool that enables users to quickly and easily define and provision a data center infrastructure. It’s perfect for operators who frequently need to set up and tear down systems.

🔹 XaaS

X as a service is a catch-all term that refers to the delivery of services over the Internet. This includes everything from software to storage to infrastructure. It’s a way for vendors to provide access to their products and tools without having to install them locally on users’ computers. Every aspect of XaaS abstracts depends on who manages them- the user or the cloud provider.

🔹 SaaS

Software as a service is software that runs on a subscription basis allowing users to access and use the software from a remote location instead of having to install it on their machines.

With SaaS, any changes or updates to the software are automatically rolled out across the entire service, so access the software via a secure connection. SaaS providers typically operate on a pay-as-you-go-basis, charging a small monthly fee that’s easy on the budget.

Related read: How to Develop a SaaS Product? Best Practices and Process

🔹 PaaS

It provides developers with a quick and easy environment to write and deploy the code without worrying about the underlying operating system. This is beneficial because developers don’t have to spend time configuring or updating anything; they can focus on writing code.

🔹IaaS

A type of cloud service that allows users to rent infrastructure from a provider instead of buying and maintaining their hardware. This can include servers, network appliances, and data storage. IaaS providers take care of all the physical hardware and maintenance for their data centers and rent out those services to consumers.