BrainBlog for WSO2 by Jason Bloomberg
In my recent white paper for WSO2, Rethink the Modern Application: How to Think Like a Cloud-Native Engineer, I make the case that cloud-native computing is a paradigm shift that changes everything we know about how to code, engineer, integrate, architect, run, and secure modern applications.
What, then, is a ‘paradigm shift’? We’ve all heard the term, but in many cases, people bandy it about haphazardly, relegating it to the status of marketing buzzword.
Not so in this case. I’m using the term literally, in conformance with its original meaning, which dates back to 1962.
Understanding what paradigm shifts really are and why they’re so important can only emphasize how significant the cloud-native paradigm shift actually is – and how dangerous.
The Origins of the Paradigm Shift
In his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn coined the term ‘paradigm shift’ to mean a relatively abrupt transition between two bodies of beliefs, techniques, and values that a scientific community shares.
His focus in this book was on the notion of scientific revolutions, consisting of paradigm shifts between one scientific paradigm and another. Important examples of such revolutions are the Copernican Revolution (shift from a geocentric to a heliocentric model of the solar system), the shift from classical to quantum mechanics, and the rise of the theory of evolution.
Over the years, the notion of a paradigm shift expanded well beyond the cloistered realms of science. Today, a paradigm shift is not simply a change in opinion or technique, but an overall transition in how an entire community approaches a general problem space.
