1. Different concepts of “Cloud Native” in the web industry and the telecommunication industry
For about the past ten years, the telecommunication industry has been advancing the virtualization of networks, known as Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Initially, NFV mainly involved Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) which provided software-based network functions in virtual machines. However, with the recent rise in popularity of container technology, Cloud-native Network Functions (CNFs) are becoming more common. It is said that with the introduction of Service Based Architecture in 5G Standalone (SA) technology, cloud-native network functions (NFs) are now realized, centered around microservices and container orchestrators, represented by Kubernetes.
It is important to note that the term “cloud-native” originally signifies “the ability to build and run scalable applications by fully utilizing the functionality of the cloud in system construction and operation”, and does not necessarily mean the adoption or non-adoption of specific technologies [1]. In other words, just because technologies like containers, Kubernetes, or Service Based Architecture are adopted, does not necessarily mean that the entire application is cloud-native.
Looking back at the concept of cloud-native within the telecommunications industry, it’s often interpreted as “building and operating Network Functions (NFs) using a collection of technologies referred to as cloud-native”. In other words, there’s a tendency to label Core Networks, constructed by NFs that employ technologies like containers and Kubernetes, as being cloud-native. However, this interpretation simply involves altering the technologies used to implement NFs – it does not necessarily guarantee the attainment of the scalability and robustness that CNs originally aimed for. Of course, by adopting containers and Kubernetes, certain advantages such as speed and flexibility in CN construction can be achieved, but this does not necessarily mean these networks exhibit all the characteristics originally associated with being “cloud-native”. It could be argued that truly cloud-native systems – those that can fully harness the inherent scalability and robustness of the cloud – can only be achieved when the overall development, construction, and operating experience of a CN application is aligned to meet the requirements characteristically pursued by cloud-native approaches.
On the other hand, modern web applications implemented on today’s public clouds are actively utilizing an approach called “serverless” to ensure not just higher scalability and robustness, but also cost-effectiveness and elasticity. Serverless is a computing model where cloud service providers manage the resources needed for an application, dynamically allocating resources required by the smallest unit of the application, the function. The billing model in serverless is not based on the amount of resources pre-allocated, but rather the amount of resources actually used. As a result, modern web applications that have adopted serverless can be said to have realized the original “cloud-native” system.
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