What is Cloud Native?

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), an open-source foundation that promotes cloud-based application building and deployment, defines it as a “technology that empowers organizations to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. Containers, service meshes, microservices, immutable infrastructure, and declarative APIs exemplify this approach.”

Cloud native is about speed and agility. Organizations using this approach respond faster to market shifts, release new features continuously, and scale resources on demand without lengthy planning cycles or infrastructure constraints.

By embracing automation, containerization, and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes, cloud-native environments promote resilience, flexibility, and consistency across deployment pipelines. Teams can continuously integrate and deliver new features, improving overall reliability.

Key components of cloud-native architecture

Cloud-native architecture relies on several interconnected components that work together to achieve high performance, low latency, and resilient operations.

1. Microservices

Microservices form the foundation of cloud-native design. Instead of monolithic applications with tightly coupled functionality, cloud native platforms break functionality into small and independent services. Each microservice handles a specific task and communicates via application programming interfaces (APIs). This makes it easier to update, scale, or replace individual components without affecting the entire system.

2. Containerization

Containerization packages an application and all its dependencies, including libraries, configuration files, and runtime components, into a single, lightweight, and portable unit. This ensures that an application runs consistently across different environments, following the “build once, run anywhere” approach.

3. Orchestration

Orchestration manages container lifecycles from deployment, scaling, networking, and recovery. If a container fails, it detects the issue and spins up a replacement. If traffic increases, it provisions additional resources. When demand drops, it scales resources back down to optimize efficiency.

4. API-first design

This type of design ensures every component communicates through standardized interfaces, making it easier to integrate with cloud services and third-party tools. Rather than building new integrations from scratch, API-first architecture streamlines connections between an intranet and HR systems, project management tools, or business intelligence platforms while unifying AI capabilities.

Simpplr’s APIs are purpose-built to work with your existing workflows and processes. You can utilize 200+ out-of-the-box integrations and APIs to pull in search results across all of the various applications that your company utilizes.

5. Continuous delivery

Continuous delivery automates the path from code changes to production. Cloud-native platforms use automated testing, security scanning, and deployment processes to release updates frequently and safely. This automation reduces the risk of human error and allows organizations to respond quickly to user feedback or security vulnerabilities.

6. Infrastructure as code

Infrastructure as code treats server configuration as software that can be versioned, tested, and deployed consistently. Instead of manually configuring servers, infrastructure definitions live in code repositories alongside application code. This eliminates configuration drift, simplifies disaster recovery, and allows teams to re-create entire environments with a single command.

Cloud native vs. cloud hosted vs. traditional applications

Many platforms market themselves as cloud-native solutions, but their underlying architectures vary widely. Understanding distinctions between them helps organizations make informed decisions about intranet investments, as the architecture directly impacts performance, scalability, maintenance costs, and user experience.

What are cloud-native applications?

Cloud-native applications are purpose-built for the cloud from the ground up. They’re designed to fully leverage the elasticity, scalability, and distributed nature of cloud infrastructure. Rather than relying on fixed servers, cloud-native systems use a microservices architecture, where each component performs a specific function and communicates with others via APIs.

They use modern DevOps and CI/CD practices that promote automation, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. They’re deployed in containers and orchestrated using platforms like Kubernetes, allowing for rapid scaling based on demand and fault isolation when issues arise.

Because they’re inherently flexible, cloud-native applications can adapt to workload changes seamlessly. For example, Simpplr, a purpose-built intranet platform, integrates with modern SaaS tools like Slack and Zoom, exemplifying cloud-native design. It delivers frequent updates, maintains high availability, and scales globally without disrupting user experiences.

What are cloud-hosted applications?

Cloud-hosted applications, often referred to as “lift-and-shift” deployments, represent a transitional stage in the cloud journey. Instead of redesigning software for the cloud, existing legacy applications are simply migrated to virtual machines or cloud servers.

While this approach shifts workloads away from physical, on-premises data centers, it retains the original architecture and design constraints. These applications are not optimized to take advantage of cloud-native benefits like elasticity or distributed scalability. As a result, performance gains are often limited, and costs can remain high due to inefficient resource usage.

For instance, traditional HR or ERP systems hosted on AWS or Azure often rely on manual updates, rigid scaling policies, or experience downtime during maintenance — issues that cloud-native apps can avoid. Cloud-hosted setups are typically used by organizations taking their first steps toward modernization, as they offer a faster migration path without the immediate investment required to refactor or rebuild applications.

What are traditional on-premises applications?

Before the cloud era, most organizations relied on traditional on-premises applications, such as monolithic systems installed and maintained within local data centers. These applications typically have a single, unified codebase that handles all business logic, making updates and scaling complex.

On-premises environments are tightly coupled with specific hardware, operating systems, and network configurations, creating infrastructure dependencies and limitations. Scaling these systems often requires purchasing and provisioning new servers, which can take weeks or even months.

Maintenance is also resource-intensive, requiring dedicated IT teams to manage patches, security, and performance manually. Downtime is often unavoidable during upgrades or capacity expansions.

Benefits of cloud-native architecture

Cloud-native architecture solves common intranet challenges — from accessibility and maintenance to scaling and integration — that frustrate IT leaders.

• Accessibility from anywhere: Employees work from offices, remotely, client sites, and airports. Distributed infrastructure ensures consistent performance, whether people connect via mobile devices, laptops, or desktop computers. The architecture treats every connection point equally, eliminating the VPN bottlenecks and network dependencies.

• Modern user experience: Updates deploy frequently without downtime, bringing interface improvements, new features, and performance optimizations directly to your users. Applications stay current and relevant rather than feeling outdated months after implementation, maintaining employee adoption and satisfaction over time.

• Dynamic scalability: Organizations grow, launch new products, and expand into new markets. The platform scales automatically to handle increased demand without capacity assessments, hardware procurement, or service disruptions, then contracts during quieter periods to reduce costs and eliminate the waste of maintaining idle infrastructure.

• Seamless integration capabilities: Traditional integrations take months. API-first design eliminates this burden through standardized connections that allow data to flow between systems with minimal configuration, turning six-month integration projects into days of setup.

• Real-time collaboration: Teams collaborating across different time zones, departments, and geographies need easy access to documents and information. Cloud-native architecture supports simultaneous editing, instant updates, and live notifications without synchronization issues. Changes appear immediately for all users.

• Automated continuous delivery: DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines deploy updates safely and frequently, with automated testing catching issues before they reach production. Rolling deployments gradually introduce changes while monitoring for problems. If issues arise, automated rollbacks restore previous versions within minutes, replacing risky releases with steady improvements.

• Powerful analytics and insights: Detailed employee engagement metrics reveal how employees actually use the platform — which content resonates, where people get stuck, and which departments remain disconnected. These insights help communicators refine communication strategies, fix broken processes, and prove value to executives who demand measurable returns.

• Improved security: Every request is authenticated and authorized, with data encrypted in transit and at rest by default. Security updates deploy continuously rather than through scheduled maintenance windows. Compliance features, including audit logs, data residency controls, and access governance, are built in rather than added later.

“Simpplr’s AI governance prioritizes transparency, safety, and trust, using safeguards like NVIDIA’s NeMo Guardrails and Langfuse for consistent behavior and real-time monitoring. It manages multivendor LLMs with LiteLLM and MLflow for performance and flexibility.” — 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions

• Reduced IT dependency: Modern cloud-native platforms offer intuitive administrative interfaces that let business users publish content, manage permissions, and configure features without technical expertise. IT teams can then focus on strategic initiatives and innovation rather than routine support tasks.

“Simpplr’s product is built for buyers that want prebuilt functionality while providing common options for customization. Gartner clients often recognize how Simpplr’s prepackaged approach reduces dependency on IT support, enabling rapid deployment.” — 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions

Why enterprises need cloud-native solutions

The advantages of cloud-native architecture are clear: scalability, agility, reliability, and security that traditional systems can’t match. But these benefits matter most when applied to the platforms employees use every day. 

While many organizations modernized their customer-facing applications years ago, intranets frequently remain stuck on outdated infrastructure — either hosted on aging on-premises servers or simply lifted and shifted to the cloud without architectural improvements. This creates a disconnect between the modern digital experiences companies promise externally and the clunky internal platforms employees actually use.

Simpplr is a cloud-native employee experience platform that delivers scalability, speed, and reliability enterprises need to connect, engage, and empower their global workforce. Unlike traditional intranets that struggle with performance and maintenance overhead, Simpplr’s microservices-based architecture and containerized infrastructure ensure high availability, automatic scaling, and zero-downtime updates.

Being cloud native means Simpplr is always evolving with continuous innovation, faster feature rollouts, and seamless integrations with the tools employees rely on a daily basis.

Here’s what makes Simpplr different from other cloud-native platforms:

• AI-powered personalization that delivers relevant content, news, and updates to every employee
• Seamless integrations with enterprise tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, and Salesforce
• Enterprise-grade security with SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, TRUSTe verification, and GDPR compliance
• Built-in scalability and resilience through its cloud-native architecture, ensuring consistent uptime and performance
• Mobile-first experience for anywhere, anytime access to information and collaboration
• Advanced analytics to gauge employee sentiment, engagement, and communication effectiveness
• Low IT dependency with intuitive administration and configuration options for non-technical users
• Built-in customizable rewards in the form of digital badges to appreciate peers and leadership

With Simpplr, enterprises no longer have to compromise between innovation, security, and simplicity. Its cloud-native foundation delivers the agility, intelligence, and resilience needed to keep pace with change. By transforming the intranet into a dynamic, AI-powered employee experience, Simpplr empowers organizations to build stronger connections, drive engagement, and shape the workplace of the future.

Ready to see how Simpplr can help your enterprise stay connected, agile, and future-ready? Request a demo today.