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Cloud-native, a key driving trend in the software industry, has redefined the way modern businesses are run. With flexibility, scalability, and resilience being central to them, cloud-native technologies empower organisations to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. Cloud-native technologies also enable agility and hence are the most obvious choice for nimble-footed businesses focused on gaining competitive advantage in the quickest time possible.

The roundtable virtual discussion ‘Building internet scale architecture’, co-presented by Microsoft and YourStory, brought under the spotlight some key perspectives with respect to cloud-native technologies, particularly in the context of how they enable new businesses to stay competitive .

The speaker line-up included Dahnesh Dilkhush, CTO, Microsoft Azure, India; Mrugendra Shintre, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Cleartrip; Amit Gupta, Co-founder and CTO, Truly Madly; Sujeeth Ravindran, CTO, iD Fresh Food (India); Lalit Chandnani, CTO/ VP of Technology, Urban Ladder; and Amit Dixit, CTO, Zolo.

Default way of business functions

The discussion began on how companies could keep pace with the multidimensional changes brought in by cloud-native app development and how they could adapt to them.

Talking about how the cloud had always been a way of operations for iD Fresh Food right from day 1, Sujeeth said, “We don’t have a single server in our office; we don’t have a data centre, and we don’t have any of those old IT trappings,” pointing out how the entire IT function of the organisation was just focused on making sure the business end of the activities runs smoothly.

Truly Madly’s Amit highlighted the ease of managing business using cloud-native technologies and how they had played a crucial role in empowering the Indian tech startup ecosystem.

Solving problems, tapping markets

Industry players were unanimous in their assessment of the advantages offered by cloud computing. “Cost optimisation, faster time to market, and a huge improvement in developer productivity are the biggest advantages of cloud computing. It actually helps us in breaking down the infrastructure cost, at least by two thirds,” said Amit Dixit of Zolo.

Dahnesh further listed out the aspects to consider in the context of cloud-native. “The first is the cost economics or the business objectives. The second is architecture – whether it’s cloud native or it’s core infrastructure. This is important because you have to design for scale, resiliency, and security. And the third is around the process and ensuring developer productivity,” he explained.

Cloud computing helps businesses address specific challenges or meet new goals. Talking about how cloud-native computing had benefited travel companies in particular, Cleartrip’s Mrugendra shared how it helped the company align technology and deployments with specific business processes and problems they were trying to solve, besides enabling them in scaling up and down without impacting other aspects of the business.

Amit of Truly Madly, which is making fast inroads into India’s Tier II and III cities, further reiterated how cloud-native had helped the company penetrate deeper into ‘Bharat’ with multilingual apps.

Offering experiential edge

One of the most important objectives of any consumer facing business is to enhance the customer experience and this is where cloud computing-backed digital technologies play a major role.

Sujeeth went on to highlight how digital technologies helped enhance customer experience, both in terms of the front end and back end processes. Lalit of Urban Ladder agreed that cloud-native had helped cut down costs, while being able to adapt based on changing customer needs and demand for differentiated experiences.

Zolo’s Amit , while admitting how the co-living industry was among the worst affected by the pandemic, emphasised how cloud-enabled technologies played a huge role in enhancing the digital experience, while optimising costs and offering valuable data-driven, business influencing insights.

“You match your best tech talent with a great user experience, supported by a very strong architecture. And then magic happens. I think that’s where cloud-native really comes into play,” said Dahnesh.

Essentially, cloud-native takes a huge load off entrepreneurs, leaving them free to focus on their core business areas.