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Tag: CloudNativeDay

  • CloudNativeDay: WASM to Drive Next IT Epoch

    CloudNativeDay: WASM to Drive Next IT Epoch

    WebAssembly (WASM) is poised to drive the next era of development of cloud-native applications that can truly run anywhere.

    Liam Randall, CEO of Cosmonic, a provider of a platform for building and deploying WASM applications, told attendees at a virtual CloudNativeDay event that WASM will be at the core of a new IT epoch that will enable organizations to more quickly build highly portable applications that are not tied to any IT infrastructure platform and more secure.

    WASM, at its core, is a portable binary instruction format for building software that describes a memory-safe, sandboxed execution environment. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) drove the development of WASM as part of an effort to create a common format for browsers executing JavaScript code. Wasm is now being extended beyond browsers and JavaScript to enable developers to create a set of universal binaries that could work on any platform without modification.

    That approach replaces the current predominant method for building software that relies on the aggregation of software components that tend to lack distinct boundaries between them. One of the issues of that approach is that it becomes relatively simple for malware to infect all the components of an application.

    The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) is now trying to advance the adoption of a Cosmonic’s WASM runtime that makes it possible to run WASM applications on any platform versus being constricted to building applications that can only run, for example, on Windows or Linux.

    That level of portability will prove crucial as more organizations look to drive application deployments on a wide range of edge computing platforms, noted Randall.

    It may be some time before WASM becomes the preferred artifact for building applications, but it’s clear the walls that have separated one IT platform from another are finally starting to crumble. Once applications become much more portable, the longstanding goal of writing an application once and then deploying it anywhere may finally be achieved. That’s not only critical in terms of overall application developer productivity, it has major implications in terms of streamlining the management of DevOps workflows as it becomes easier to both initially deploy applications and continuously update them.

    In the meantime, as organizations continue to review their application development practices to better secure software supply chains, it’s become clearer that legacy approaches to building applications are fundamentally flawed. Rather than attempting to reengineer processes to encourage developers to better secure applications, it may be more effective to change the way applications are built. After all, considering all the processes required to secure legacy approaches to application development, it may be cheaper and easier to adopt a new app development method.

    The challenge, of course, is, as always, taking that first initial step away from the inertia of legacy application development approaches.

  • Learn Something New Every (Cloud-Native) Day

    Learn Something New Every (Cloud-Native) Day

    Being the new guy at Techstrong Group, the first couple of weeks was spent trying to find things. Like the bathroom when I’m at HQ in Boca Raton or the login to the SurveyMonkey account so I could check on the status of our various in-flight research projects. 

    I also realize I have to learn the vernacular, especially around DevOps and this cloud-native stuff. To be clear, I’ve been researching DevOps and how to integrate security into the process (yes, DevSecOps) for a while. But this cloud-native terminology is something I need to learn more about.

    You’re probably a bit confused about why I’m perplexed by the term ‘cloud-native.’ My work in cloud security for the past 10 years gave me some opinions about vernacular. When I say “cloud-native,” I’m typically referring to the native services you use in your cloud provider. Like AWS Fargate or Azure Container Registry. Those services are “native to the cloud (provider).” 

    But I’m realizing that native cloud services are only a portion of the larger cloud-native revolution. Like DevOps, cloud-native is a state of mind, not a service you buy from a cloud provider. It’s about openness. It’s about portability. It’s about agility. It’s also humbling as I realize I have a lot more to learn.

    That’s why I’m looking forward to our CloudNativeDay event on August 10, 2022. I get an opportunity to dig in and learn about some topics germane to my new coverage areas. For instance, the session on cloud-native challenges in traditional enterprises caught my eye. I’ve been involved in born-in-the-cloud companies, so we didn’t have any installed base to consider. But how would you embrace new and disruptive technology when your company has extensive legacy infrastructure? I can’t wait to hear about those more traditional enterprises’ opinions and experiences.

    Observability is also high on my list of things to learn more about. I’ve been working with customers on advanced security monitoring strategies for decades, but looking at the application layer and associated infrastructure is a different animal. I suspect there will be some technical similarities (collect data, analyze data, alert on data, etc.), but the use cases are fundamentally different. 

    I’m also excited for the last keynote of the day. However, I’m a little biased since it involves an excellent conversation Mitch Ashley and I had with Donald Lutz of Taos (an IBM company), where we dug into some of the enterprise migration challenges he’s seen in the field. 

    They say that when you’re young, you know everything. But as you get older, you realize you don’t know anything. I’m definitely in the latter camp, which is why I’m not going to squander a great opportunity to learn—and neither should you. Register and check out the event. I’ll see you there.