If you ask five colleagues what Cloud Native means, you’ll likely get five different answers. And that’s a problem. Because in our experience working with companies on their digital transformation, having a clear understanding of what it means to become Cloud Native is a necessary prerequisite (though not sufficient) for the success of projects.
For a company, working with a partner who already has experience and is capable of providing strategic guidance and operational support — not just technical — is essential. So what are the elements to evaluate when choosing a technology partner? In our view, companies should assess four elements when selecting a vendor, which we will analyze below.
1) Is the partner a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation?
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) is an organization established in 2015 within the Linux Foundation with the purpose of promoting and advancing software containerization technologies and providing clear market direction for this sector. It was founded by Google, CoreOS, Mesosphere, Red Hat, Twitter, Huawei, Intel, Cisco, IBM, Docker, Univa, and VMware, and today it includes more than 550 members, among which SparkFabrik.
For a Cloud Native technology provider, being part of the CNCF is important in order to have a seat at the technical tables where the standards for the most important Cloud Native technologies are defined, such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, CoreDNS, and many others.
2) What are their certifications in the Cloud Native field?
While being part of the CNCF is fundamental to competently participating in the digital transformation moving toward Cloud Native, certifications are also needed to concretely apply specific technologies. Let us reference our own to explain what we mean: SparkFabrik is certified as a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider, and our entire Cloud Engineers team is certified as Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD).
Working directly in the cloud requires the ability to manage the foundational technologies behind this new approach. Kubernetes is at its core, because it is the platform that enables the orchestration of container management across complex hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments: being fully proficient with it is critical for developing Cloud Native applications.
More specifically, to use the CNCF’s own words, the Kubernetes Certified Service Provider program includes those vendors (selected and verified) that have proven experience in helping enterprises adopt Kubernetes.
The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) certifications, on the other hand, are personal and were also designed to help companies more quickly select vendors with expertise in this field. Let’s look at them in detail:
- CKA: this is a certification program that allows individuals to demonstrate their practical competence. The purpose is to ensure that those who take this exam have the abilities, knowledge, and skills to successfully perform the role of Kubernetes Administrator.
- CKAD: this exam certifies that a developer is capable of designing, building, configuring, and exposing Cloud Native applications for Kubernetes.
Moving to another area of expertise, equally critical in Cloud Native projects, it is important to mention the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certifications, both issued by the Scrum Alliance. Scrum, which is one of the possible variants of the Agile software development methodology, enables a collaborative, cross-functional approach that involves the client, allowing for rapid and adaptive planning of project development with a maximum focus on value creation, eliminating all waste.
In our view, this methodology is critical because being Cloud Native allows you to move much faster and react more quickly compared to traditional software development approaches. It is therefore better to opt for a partner with proven experience using this working method.
3) Have they already worked on similar projects?
Everyone has to start somewhere, of course, but the speed, complexity, and different articulation of Cloud Native projects are not suited for absolute beginners. It is now even more important for companies to know they have referenced technology partners. SparkFabrik, for example, has delivered many Enterprise-level projects oriented toward Cloud Native: Caleffi and Zambon are just two recent public examples of clients for whom we have built (and continue to build) Cloud Native solutions.
4) Do they work in DevOps mode?
We already explained above regarding the Agile approach: the adoption of Cloud Native applications is not just a change in technology but also in strategy and work culture. This is the reason why DevOps practices were created, aiming to align Software Development and IT Operations to release quality software faster. In our opinion, operating with this approach is fundamental, and all companies should ensure they have technology partners capable of doing so, because this allows you to accelerate the time to market of projects and helps build a DevOps culture within your organization.
Conclusion
The definition we give of ourselves is that of a Cloud Native engineering and DevOps company. We believe that the questions listed so far, which every company should ask a potential partner, are fundamental. So much so that we have built our organization in a way that allows us to always answer positively: we are members of the CNCF, we hold the best certifications for Cloud Native work, and we have demonstrated our ability to excel through our clients’ references. Finally, we work in DevOps mode, following and implementing Agile methodologies such as SCRUM or Kanban depending on the context, and we draw inspiration in every process from the principles of Lean Management.
Whoever the technology partner you choose to rely on, make sure to investigate the four points outlined in this article: after all, transparency and clarity are the foundation of every professional relationship!
