4 CLOUD NATIVE FOUNDATIONS

Cloud computing is based on host virtualization. Host virtualization technology takes two forms: virtual machines and containers. We discussed the former in detail in the introduction to the book. Here we consider the latter. Yet a more important reason for this chapter is that containers form an integral part of cloud native technologies. A formal definition of cloud native technologies is given by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF): Cloud-native technologies empower 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.