Cloud Native Principles and the CNCF Definition

"Cloud native" is one of those terms that gets used so loosely it barely means anything. Run a container on AWS? Cloud native. Stick a YAML file in a Git repo? Cloud native. But the CNCF, the organization that governs Kubernetes and hundreds of other projects, published an actual definition. It says something more specific and more useful than "runs in the cloud."

The Cloud Native Architecture domain accounts for 12% of the KCNA exam. The questions test whether you understand the properties that make a system cloud native, not just whether you can name the technologies. This article dissects the official CNCF definition, then grounds each principle in real Kubernetes source code: declarative APIs, reconciliation loops, immutable infrastructure, and service meshes.