A Reference Architecture for Observability and Compliance of Cloud Native Applications

William Pourmajidi, Lei Zhang, John Steinbacher, Tony Erwin, Andriy V. Miranskyy

Abstract: The evolution of Cloud computing led to a novel breed of applications known as Cloud-Native Applications (CNAs). However, observing and monitoring these applications can be challenging, especially if a CNA is bound by compliance requirements. To address this challenge, we explore the characteristics of CNAs and how they affect CNAs' observability and compliance. We then construct a reference architecture for observability and compliance pipelines for CNAs. Furthermore, we sketch instances of this reference architecture for single- and multi-cloud deployments. The proposed architecture embeds observability and compliance into the CNA architecture and adopts a "battery-included" mindset. This architecture can be applied to small and large CNA deployments in regulated and non-regulated industries. It allows Cloud practitioners to focus on what is critical, namely building their products, without being burdened by observability and compliance requirements. This work may also interest academics as it provides a building block for generic CNA architectures.