Service providers are using cloud-native technology to automate and simplify network operations, and thereby reduce OPEX. These cloud-native paradigms, which have been used mainly for very scalable and distributed web applications and services, can also be applied to packet core functions and gateways to achieve scalability, automation, high availability, deployment flexibility and service velocity. This application note describes some of the general principles of cloud-native application architecture and explains how these are applied to the Nokia Cloud Packet Core—enabling a service provider to build a single core that supports 5G, Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and 2G/3G packet switched domains.