Node.js is taking the web development scene by storm, and its popularity continues to grow. Some of the world’s leading companies use Node.js for productive work, such as Microsoft, NASA, Netflix, and Paypal. They use Node.js because it’s fast, lean, and offers a scalable architecture. But what exactly is Node.js?
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment. JavaScript is now the most widely used programming language in the world. The popularity of JavaScript has dramatically changed the nature of web development today. The possibilities on the web when JavaScript with Node.js runs on the server as well as in the browser were hardly imaginable a few years ago or had to be mapped in proprietary environments like Flash or Java Applets.
Of course, every programming language has certain advantages. However, what makes Node.js special is that it achieves low latency and high performance by taking an asynchronous, “non-blocking” approach to serving requests. In other words: Node.js doesn’t waste time or resources waiting for I/O requests to return.
As requests come in to the server, they are processed one at a time. However, if the served code needs to query the database, for example, it sends the call to a queue and the main request continues; it does not wait for a response. Only when the database operation is completed with a response the corresponding call from the queue is processed.
Node.js is therefore often used to build server services that communicate with client-side applications. Such services are called API. A web app and an underlying mobile app can use the same API to store data, send emails, push notifications, or initiate workflows on the server.
Due to its asynchronous nature, Node.js is also very well suited for processing real-time data streaming. It can be used to stream media, distribute files, or for Websockets servers.
By the way, because it’s fast and lean, Node.js can also be used quite nicely to build a microservices infrastructure.
At Netformic, we have been implementing solutions based on this versatile technology for a long time, providing customers from various industries with flexibly scalable, future-oriented applications based on Node.js.