The term "cloud-native" refers to applications specifically designed to operate effectively in cloud environments. Cloud-native applications leverage microservices architecture, containerization, and orchestration to take full advantage of cloud infrastructure's scalability, flexibility, and resilience. This approach allows development teams to build, deploy, and manage applications rapidly while ensuring they are fault-tolerant and easily updatable. By embracing cloud-native principles, organizations can optimize resource usage and respond more quickly to market demands, enabling greater innovation and efficiency in service delivery.