Chapter 1. The Cloud Native Application

The patterns for how we develop software, both in teams and as individuals, are always evolving. The open source software movement has provided the software industry with somewhat of a Cambrian explosion of tools, frameworks, platforms, and operating systems—all with an increasing focus on flexibility and automation. A majority of today’s most popular open source tools focus on features that give software teams the ability to continuously deliver software faster than ever before possible, at every level, from development to operations.

Amazon’s Story

In the span of two decades, starting in the early ’90s, an online bookstore headquartered in Seattle called Amazon.com grew into the world’s largest online retailer. Known today simply as Amazon, the company now sells far more than just books. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States. The most interesting part of Amazon’s story of unparalleled growth can be summarized in one simple question: how did a website that started out as a simple online bookstore transform into one of the largest retailers in the world—without ever opening a single retail location?

It’s not hard to see how the world of commerce has been shifted and reshaped around digital connectivity, catalyzed by ever-increasing access to the internet from every corner of the globe. As personal computers became smaller, morphing into the ubiquitous smartphones, tablets, and watches we use ...

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