Cloud Native Computing refers to an approach to building and running applications that leverages the capabilities of cloud computing to deliver scalable, dynamic, and resilient systems. The term "cloud native" gained popularity with the rise of cloud computing and the need for more efficient and flexible application development and deployment.

Key characteristics of cloud native computing include:

Microservices: Applications are broken down into small, loosely coupled services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. This approach enables faster development, easier maintenance, and better fault isolation.

Containers: Containers provide a lightweight and portable way to package applications and their dependencies. They ensure consistency across different environments and simplify the deployment process.

Orchestration: Cloud native systems often rely on container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Kubernetes, in particular, has become the de facto standard for container orchestration.

Dynamic Scaling: Cloud native applications can automatically scale based on demand. This elasticity ensures efficient resource utilization and responsiveness to varying workloads.

DevOps: Cloud native development encourages collaboration between development and operations teams. The use of automation and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines streamlines the software development lifecycle.

Observability: Cloud native applications emphasize monitoring and logging, providing real-time insights into the system's performance and behavior. This visibility helps detect and resolve issues promptly.

Resilience: Cloud native applications are designed with the assumption of failure. They employ strategies like self-healing, replication, and redundancy to ensure high availability and fault tolerance.

Stateless Architectures: Cloud native applications typically follow the stateless design principle, where no session data is stored on the server. This approach allows for easy horizontal scaling and seamless handling of node failures.

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) is a prominent organization that fosters the adoption of cloud native technologies and practices. It hosts various open-source projects, including Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy, which are widely used in cloud native environments.

Overall, cloud native computing enables organizations to build and deploy applications more efficiently, deliver new features faster, and adapt to changing demands in a dynamic and scalable manner.