The adoption of the cloud computing model invariably leads to changes in an organization's application development process. Changes are due to the cloud service consumer's inability to have any real control over the cloud application's underlying infrastructure. In the traditional software development life cycle, application developers can exert direction and sometimes complete control over the hardware used. When an application is destined for deployment to a CSP, neither control nor even visibility into the underlying infrastructure is possible. Critical aspects of security, including responsibility for executing and monitoring required security controls, is left to the service provider. Data security is the primary reason for adherence to the fundamental design principle for cloud application development.

We will cover the following topics in this chapter:

• Core application characteristics
• Cloud application components
• DevOps
• Microservices and serverless architectures
• Application migration planning