Streamline Cloud-Native App Development Using CDEs

Developing cloud-native applications is inherently challenging, but tools like Minikube, Kind, Skaffold, or Tilt can help make this process more manageable. We can further streamline the process with the advent of Cloud Development Environments (CDEs). In this session, I will share my experience with open-source and managed CDEs, along with the "Development Environments as Code" standards, such as Dev Containers, using a practical example to explore how they streamline the development of cloud-native applications.
In this session, I will discuss the advantages of Cloud Development Environments (CDEs) and Development Environments as Code standards. When used in conjunction with cloud-native application development, CDEs can help developers make development workflows simpler, more manageable, and reproducible.
This session does not focus on theories but also includes a practical example.

Transcript

1. Streamline Cloud-Native App Development Using CDEs Saeed Zarinfam May 2025
2. About Me - Software Engineer - Technology Evangelist - Technical Writer @ Consultant Software Engineer @ Saeed Zarinfam @zarinfam @zarinfam
3. Local machine Cloud infrastructure
4. Have you had any experience using CDEs?
5. Have you had any experience using CDEs? • 📊 My talk poll results
6. Open GitHub repositories in the cloud! • GitHub Codespaces, Gitpod, Coder, DevPod, and more • AssertJ Support for MockMvc in Spring Boot 3.4
7. What happens if we want to open a Cloud-native app using CDEs? • Microservices • Many interconnected services • Multiple repository • Different programming languages
8. A brief history: What is the cloud-native application? • A cloud-native application is built from the ground up to take advantage of cloud infrastructure, services, and scalability.
9. A brief history: What is the cloud-native application? • From 12 factors to 15 factors
10. Inner dev loop and outer dev loop • Outer loop • Deployment pipelines • Inner loop: • Local infra (dev/pro parity) • Development Environment “Developer Experience on Kubernetes”, by Mauricio Salatino and Thomas Vitale
11. Inner dev loop and outer dev loop • Outer loop • Deployment pipelines • Inner loop: • Local infra (dev/pro parity) • Development Environment • Easier to scale (Scalability and Elasticity) - Outer loop in SDP • Faster development – Inner loop in SDP
12. Many tools have been invented to handle the outer loop complexities • CI/CD Platforms (GitHub Actions, Argo CD and …) • Helm • GitOps and Deployment Automation • Observability • IaC and EaaC • Mnaged services (K8s and …) • And more • ✅ Under control
13. We invented more tools to fix , run, and deploy locally • Consequences of Dev/Prod Parity for the inner dev loop
14. We invented more tools to fix , run, and deploy locally • Consequences of Dev/Prod Parity for the inner dev loop • Minikube, kind and more • Skaffold, Tilt, Odo, Okteto and more • And more tools
15. We invented more tools to fix , run, and deploy locally • Consequences of Dev/Prod Parity for the inner dev loop • Minikube, kind and more • Skaffold, Tilt, Odo, Okteto and more • And more tools And again: • More resources need (locally) • More complexity • ❓ Did our development process really get faster?
16. Why not use cloud infrastructure for development? • Inner dev loop on the cloud • Use cloud resource elasticity A Persian proverb says: "The potter drinks from the broken jar" The closest conceptual equivalent in English is: "The cobbler's children go barefoot"
17. What is Cloud Development Environments (CDEs)? • Vagrant and NixOS
18. What is Cloud Development Environments (CDEs)? • Vagrant and NixOS • Remote development • SSH • IDEs • Language servers • IaC • VMs • Containers • Cloud infrastructure • Automation
19. Benefits of CDEs Consistency and Repeatability Flexibility and Scalability Portability (Code From Anywhere) Faster onboarding for new developers Simplified environment management Enhanced security and backup Seamless collaboration Cost
20. CDEs Architecture & Components IDE or a browser as a client JetBrains IDEs (Gateway) VS Code and VS Code-based IDEs (Cursor, Windsurf, and …) … Protocol SSH Remote development tools Language servers Debugger … Remote machine VM Container K8s Hybrid DEaC standards Dev Containers Devfiles Nix Terraform Orchestrator or without an orchestrator K8s Control Plane Runner Agent Client-only
21. CDEs Architecture & Components GitHub Codespaces DevPod
22. Proprietary and open-source CDEs • GitHub Codespaces • DevPod • Gitpod oGitpod classic (deprecated) oGitpod desktop • Coder • Project IDX (Firebase Studio) • JetBrains CodeCanvas • Amazon CodeCatalyst • Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces (based on Eclipse Che) • CodeSandbox
23. Let's see it in practice • polar-devcontainer-springio25 • Polar Bookshop • Java 17, Kind, Tilt and more • Use DevPod on a remote machine • “Cloud Native Spring in Action, With Spring Boot and Kubernetes” by Thomas Vitale
24. Dev Environment as Code • From IaC to EaaC to DEaC
25. Dev Environment as Code • From IaC to EaaC to DEaC • Standards • Devcontainers (Codespaces, DevPods, Gitpod, Coder) • Devfile (Amazon CodeCatalyst, Eclipse Che) • Nix (Project IDX)
26. Dev Containers • It's a Microsoft spec, quickly adopted in CDEs and IDEs. • Codespaces, Devpod, Coder, Gitpod Flex, and CodeSandbox • Run locally on the Docker engine • Nix also supports Devcontainers (devenv) • Devbox • Devcontainer CLI
27. Dev Containers • Base image: • Docker image • Dockerfile • Docker compose • Encapsulation: • Features • Templates
28. Dev Containers • Customizations: • IDE settings • IDE extenstion • Lifecycle hooks: • “postCreateCommand” • And more
29. Multi-repository (service) cloud- native app • 💡 Do NOT restructure your project for a DEaC standard. • One parent dev container file and folder for all services • employee-app
30. Multi-repository (service) cloud- native app • One parent dev container file and folder, and one dev container file in each service
31. Multi-repository (service) cloud- native app • One parent dev container file and folder, with one dev container file for each service in it
32. Multi-repository (service) cloud- native app • Use Docker Compose to share services • docker-in-docker, docker- outside-of-docker, and other templates • Git submodule or a parent repo • Mount the parent folder (repo) • 👾 Bank of Anthos project (my fork) using DevPod
33. Conclusion Benefits • Scalability and shared resources • Preconfigured, reproducible, and isolated dev environment • GitOps practices for development env • Less magic and faster onboarding for complicated microservices • And more Limitations • Network (latency, …) • IDEs limitations • Mobile development • Multi service • Data Privacy and Security Concerns • Costs
34. Q &A