Not so long back, in 2009, when Ryan Dahl at the annual European JSConf introduced Node.js, he had no idea that the piece of solution would bring the next big revolution in the web and mobile application development space in near future. He put more emphasis on building the superior solution that yields speed, reliability, concurrency, intensive data sharing, and push functionality.
Due to the rising popularity of Node.js, many entrepreneurs think about hiring a Node.js development company for their projects. If you are one of those entrepreneurs, then these 9 reasons will help you to take the decision to hire Node.js developers for your next project.
What is Node.js?
Node.js is an open-source runtime environment to run JavaScript on server-side. JavaScript serves as the base for Node.js development, thereby enabling the developers to effectively write new modules and was used at the backend for web development as well as app development. As a result, the technology found many takers due to the ease of development for reliable, faster server tools.
Bingo! With constant evolutions, the Node.js technology has become a silver bullet for the developers and businesses as it filled the need by leveraging single-threaded event loop model to support concurrent requests, stimulated code sharing, enable module reuse with inbuilt NPM, served as a proxy server, enabled real-time two-way communication, and pretty more.
The statistical data also affirm the fact that Node.js is true bliss to the developers:
43% of the developers in a survey stated that they use Node.js for enterprise app development due to the bundle of features and benefits it offers. The positive impact continues to increase its popularity.
Web and application development using Node.js as the backend has become a standard and now even high-profile companies are migrating to Node.js development due to the enormous benefits it offers.
Top examples of successful Node.js Development
A quick glance at the leading players that have banked on the Node.js technology to engineer the world-class application:
Netflix stands first in switching the architecture to Node.js as it brought superior performance to the company that has significantly diminished architecture cost and development cost.
Walmart relied on Node.js to effectively handle concurrent requests.
Uber evolve the technology stack with Node.js to scale up the resources and accommodate the rising demands of the services.
PayPal transitioned the backend development to Node.js to let the teams work unified by ending up the skill-set silos team.
NASA hops onto the Node.js bandwagon to store the data on a single cloud database that dramatically reduces the data access timelines.
Groupon rebuilt the website with Node.js to efficiently manage the different stacks and unify the development across all platforms.
But, what does Node.js as an event-driven model have in the bucket that it becomes the foremost choice of the industry leaders. Excited to know?
Top reasons how Node.js event-driven model improves the performance
Here are the 9 reasons unveiling the facts why the Node.js technology which was once just an easy solution to development problems has now become a full-fledged solution and its adoption is at scale.
Performance
Node.js that’s executed by Google chrome V8 engine is written in C++ language, which compiles JavaScript into native machine code and makes the execution faster. The Node.js event loop executes in an asynchronous way wherein no additional thread is created for the new request thereby less RAM is used to process the request. The callback for I/O operations and event loop enables the execution of millions of concurrent requests with zero downtime.
Besides, the continuous updates for security patches, and performance optimizations, and support for the JavaScript features make the apps built using Node.js platform perform speedily and efficiently.
Realizing the significance of performance that Node.js development offers, Walmart has moved its mobile traffic on Black Friday through Node.js application where the server’s CPU utilization didn’t cross even 1% for millions of online users.
Scalability
From the beginning, scalability is baked into the core of Node.js platform. All the node processes run on every CPU core of the production machines and all the requests are load balanced. Node features a built-in module termed as Cluster module, which utilizing the complete CPU power of the machine, load balance the increasing number of requests, and additionally enables restarting the application with zero downtime.
With increasing workloads, the Node.js applications can be scaled successfully by implementing three strategies- cloning, decomposing, and splitting. There are web or mobile app development space with Node.js.other tools available that can be leveraged to easily scale the applications.
Real-time app development
Node.js development shines when it comes to building real-time applications such as chat apps, live-tracking apps, or gaming apps. The event-based servers and non-blocking driven servers enable the handling of a large number of requests in the real-time. The single codebase for server and client allow the sharing of the data between server and browser in the real-time.
Also, the JSON (a uniform data serialization format) stored data format doesn’t require the Node.js apps to convert the data format to binary models and vice-versa, which prevent multiple conversions of data across server, database, and client side, thus the data from object database can be exposed in a couple of seconds.
Single Codebase
The game-changing technology wins with its capability to bridge real-time applications the front-end and back-end development through a single programming language- JavaScript. Since a long time, different programming languages are used to build the back-end and front-end, which is hindering developers’ productivity as the coders need to have an understanding of separate languages.
Node.js resolved the issue by enabling the developers to write codes for back-end and front-end using JavaScript. By learning a single language, it has become easier for the developers to interact with any layer of web development, and send and synchronize the data between two sides. The business benefits include reduced development time, resources, and cost to nearly half.
Data streaming
Unlike other frameworks, Node.js treat HTTPS requests and responses as streams where, in the meantime, when the data is read from the source and written to the destination, it can be processed. While working on I/O operations in Node.js, the data streams can work wonders in creating outstanding functionalities.
For instance, the audio or video files while uploading, they can be processed during streaming and even proxy between separate data sources.
NPM
The Node.js community is getting bigger day by day with a large number of code packages and modules that can be used by the developers without building them from scratch and avoiding the layers of complexities. The reusable components can be used and assembled in accordance with the project development and designing requirements, which encourage sharing and make app development a breeze.
Presently, Node.js is a storehouse of 50,000 NPM (Node Package Manager) that are publicly available modules which can be easily accessed or installed through an online repository. The module ecosystem is open nature, where any developer can publish their module that’s listed in the NPM repository.
The enterprise version of the package manager is released to address the data security and privacy concerns that enterprises were facing for the data stored in the cloud because the NPM Enterprise allows the enterprises to run the NPM behind the enterprise firewall. In this way, the enterprise has access to a private registry with security controls that enables controlled access to the code, find out malware attacks, and replace the unsafe code robotically.
Easy learning curve
It’s impossible to escape from the gravitational pull of JavaScript as the libraries and framework it offers has become integral to develop and design the web or mobile app development space with Node.js.interfaces. JavaScript is one of the languages that has made its way to the world from the inception of web development and that’s why most of the developers are well-versed in JavaScript coding.
Node.js is also the not-so-old kid of JavaScript. It indicates jumping onto the Node.js bandwagon don’t require the developers to learn an additional language while working on the client-side and server-side application.
Also, the developers won’t say- “This ain’t my job,” and agility and innovation can be encouraged among the team members as they work as full-stack developers. Moreover, the cross-functional team won’t be in trouble when any new developer steps in to pick up the slack. The Node.js development team will be representatives of various functions contrary to skill-set silos and work towards the same goal.
Hosting server
Node.js handles a large number of concurrent transactions in a non-blocking way by working as a server-side proxy. It’s well-known for gathering data from multiple resources and adding a proxy to various services with different response times.
This feature work as a panacea for the enterprises that are not having proxy infrastructure as the dedicated proxy servers provided by Node.js enable the enterprises to build the client-side application with Node.js development servers and the interactions such as pulling data from different resources and storing the data on third-party cloud services can be handled by dedicated proxy services.
The long-term support
In the dynamic age, new technologies come and go, and only a few technologies survive. When the app is engineered with an outdated language, it becomes difficult to maintain the app as the frequently released updates makes it difficult to plan the implementation of the updates. This is not the case with Node.js technology where new versions and transition to maintenance mode lasts for the defined schedule, and no new features other than security updates are merged to the latest version.
The continuous updates in the technology have proved that Node.js applications are future-proof and allow developers to embrace the new version that’s actively maintained for the period of 18 months from the date it’s released. Additionally, the transition of a major release to maintenance mode remains another 12 months so that developers can devise the development strategy according to the timeline.
Node.js technology is a great deal with compelling use cases from the enterprises leveraging the framework to enjoy the perks that impressive possibilities and opportunities it’s offering. When you are in need of CPU intensive operations, I/O scaling requirement, handling simultaneous transactions, blocking resources, and capable app that performs in the real-time, then Node.js is the best pick for you.
You need not look any further to meet the revolutionary requirements of your web or mobile app development space with Node.js. All that you need to do is just tap the potential of Node.js technology and mould it as per your requirements to get the best results.
Purvi
Technology, the heart of the new age business, is her interest. Her association with technology and business is well balanced to offer solutions that will lead organizations towards success. She likes to explore technical feasibilities that will functionalize business requirements productively. She likes to visit tech forums, to answer developer queries, to find new ways and write about technologies that will mobilize businesses.
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