Monoliths can be deployed in the cloud as cloud-based applications but can be converted to leverage a microservices architecture as cloud-native applications Cloud-based applications leverage cloud platforms; however, they do not take full advantage of the inherent characteristics of the cloud like cloud-native applications.

Components were used before in older architectures such as web service components and SOA. Features of cloud-native applications include they are microservices-based, container-based, API-based, and are dynamically orchestrated to scale and optimize the use of computing resources

cloud-native application — uses microservices architecture that takes full advantage of the benefits of the cloud, such as scalability and on-demand services. web service — unit of software that is available as a resource over the Internet. monolith — application that conforms to a monolithic architecture. Backend as a Service (BaaS) — third-party service that can be integrated with an application where the BaaS code does not need to be managed, and there are no servers.