Being the most popular programming language, JavaScript is also one of a universal software development technologies. Traditionally used as a web frontend development tool, it has also become a major cross-platform mobile development tool as a basic technology for a large number of platforms, such as Apache Cordova/PhoneGap, React Native, NativeScript, Appcelerator Titanium.
But the areas of application for JavaScript do not end here. Lately, there has been a lot of buzz around the use of JavaScript for server-side programming. One of the tools that indicated this shift in web development was Node.js.
The Rise of Node.js
The so-called Node.js web app development framework is actually not a framework or a library, but a runtime environment, based on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine.
The technology was first introduced back in 2009 by Ryan Dahl at the annual European JSConf and was immediately recognized as “the most exciting single piece of software in the current JavaScript universe”.
As an open-source project, Node.js was sponsored by Joyent, a cloud computing and hosting solutions provider. The company invested in a number of other technologies, such as Ruby on Rails framework, and provided hosting services to Twitter and LinkedIn. The latter also became one of the first companies to use Node.js for its mobile application backend. The technology was later adopted by a number technology leaders, such as Uber, eBay, Walmart, and Netflix, to name a few.
However, it wasn’t until recently that a wide adoption of Node.js started. The interest in this technology peaked in 2014, as per Google Trends, and remains high.
Being the subject of a heated discussion, server-side JavaScript with Node.js has its strengths and weaknesses. To set the record straight, we have analyzed both – Node.js pros and cons – in an attempt to find out what projects can benefit from this technology choice.
1) Node.js Possess Great Speed
Businesses admire the speed of Node.js. It uses the V8 engine developed by Google which compiles JavaScript into native machine code and runs at lightning speed. Node.js does not jumble up with creating separate threads involving locking headache but it rather has single thread i.e. the event loop which is responsible for all the asynchronous I/O operations.
Common tasks in web applications like reading or writing to the database, reading and writing to network connections and reading or writing to the file system can be executed speedily using Node.js. Node.js helps enterprises build fast, scalable network applications that can handle concurrent connections with high throughput. Node.js does not slow down anything; developers just need to write the code and Node.js applications take the right step.
WalmartLabs launched with Node.js in 2013, where the entire mobile traffic on site was toured through Node.js applications on Black Friday (busiest shopping period of the year). With Node.js in action at Walmart Labs on Black Friday, the CPU utilization did not exceed 1% and the team successfully deployed approximately 200,000,000 online users.
LinkedIn shifted to Node.js from Ruby on Rails for handling the mobile traffic which resulted in reducing the number of servers from 30 to 3. Also the new Node.js applications were 20 times faster.
PayPal has reported 35% reduce in their response time with double the number of requests received per second after deploying Node.js applications.
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2) Node.js Codes are Ubiquitous
JavaScript now has a home in the browser and also on the server, all thanks to Node.js. Node.js code written for either the browser or server runs in a similar manner on both. If a company insists on changing the logic built for the browser to be moved on to the server, it can easily take over Node.js code migration.
3) Node.js wins with Data Streaming
In legacy web platforms, HTTP request and response are considered as isolated events, in reality, they are actually data streams. This feature can be leveraged to complete advantage with Node.js to develop some great features like- processing files while the upload is in progress(helps in reducing the overall processing time) because data comes in the form of streams. This can also be implemented for real-time video or audio encoding.
4) Node.js wins with Database Queries
The database queries for new NoSQL databases like MongoDB, CouchDB are written in JavaScript. Developers need no gear-shifting in remembering the syntax differences when combining Node.js and NoSQL databases. Node.js shines with real-time web apps as the JSON stored data format allows it to function without any hindrances in data conversion and mismatches unlike Ruby on Rails which requires conversion from JSON to binary models.
5) Real Time web applications are a walk in the park with Node.js
Developers need not worry about low-level sockets and protocols as Node.js helps them build comet-driven real-time web applications in the same time as they would take to bake a birthday cake with a ready-made mix or create a simple blog in PHP. Node.js excels at multi-user real-time web apps like games and chat applications. The multi-user requirement is taken care of the event loop through web socket protocol which runs on TCP, avoiding the overhead of HTTP for web development.
6) Node.js– a single codebase for real-time web applications
Node.js lets developers write JavaScript both on the server and client, thereby making it easy to send data between the server and the client to synchronize the data automatically. Meteor a web app framework built on top of Node.js executes the same codebase on both client and the server. The data changes on the server immediately reflect in the client and the web page that displays this data automatically updates itself.
Web engineering companyToptal states, “Node.js is not a silver-bullet new platform that will dominate the web development world. Instead, it’s a platform that fills a particular need. Where Node really shines is in building fast, scalable network applications.”
7) Node.js comes to the rescue as Proxy Server
Node.js can be used to proxy different services with varying response times or for gathering data from various sources. For instance, if there is a server-side application that communicates with third party resources, stores videos or images, or collects data from different sources then Node.js can be used as a Proxy if the enterprise does not have an existent infrastructure for proxy or requires local development for this solution.
8) Node.js- Secret to Increased Productivity
All the Node.js programs are developed using JavaScript which implies that the silos that once existed between the frontend and backend developers are completely broken down which has enhanced the efficiency of the web development process at various organizations. Enterprises can merge the frontend and backend teams into a single unit for efficient operation by getting away with the inter-silo dependencies.
PayPal has measures increase in developer productivity by using Node.js. It took half the number of people to deliver applications and it was delivered in less time with double productivity from developers.
9) Node.js –Effective Tooling with NPM
Node.js package manager abbreviated as NPM resembles package managers from other ecosystems but NPM is robust, consistent and super-fast that helps get dependency management right. There are more than 60000 modules available for the users which are increasing at a rapid pace. With increasing interest in Node.js, the node community is growing stronger than ever.Top of Form
10) Service Providers Hosting Node.js Deployments
With increased adoption of Node.js, hosting is also flourishing. PaaS (Platform as a Service) service providers such as Heroku and Modulus are now formally supporting node deployments to a single command.
Wrapping Up:
To sum it up, an organization that uses Node.js can-
— Use ½ the number of programmers to build a new product.
— Make Developers and Customers Happy
— Reduce the page load times by 50%
— Retain employees for longer
— Reduce the number of servers needed to host the application.
With so many business benefits, there could hardly be any enterprises that would be inconsiderate about not considering Node.js in a serious way.
