20 September 2016

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine, and it became one of the most popular platforms for building web applications. It gets good feedback from the developer community, and, lately, it got legitimized through being used by large companies, like Walmart Labs, Yahoo, LinkedIn, or PayPal.

Some years ago, JavaScript was used mainly by web designers, for less important tasks, like creating snippets. However, lately, programmers started to use it too, as web applications needed more substantial client-side interactivity. Here is where Node.js came to their aid: it unifies front-end and back-end methodologies, simplifying developers’ work.

Using Node.js in an enterprise setting, as well as a freelancer has many advantages. Here are the most important ones.

Reason no. 1 – The big players love Node.js for web applications

Whether you’re a fan of Node.js or not, you might as well have to use it, as more and more enterprises see its potential of improving teams and products. GoDaddy, PayPal, Netflix, they all increased the developer productivity, enhanced innovation, and created a richer user experience.

Developers at Dow Jones, for example, started using Node.js back in 2011 in a first experimental project. The Facebook reader app they developed was such a success, with its excellent performance and short development time, that a year after, Node became the primary technology at Dow Jones.

Uber is yet another big name that’s using Node.js. Actually, most of Uber was written as server-side Node.js.
More than 30% of the Netflix team is working on Node in production. PayPal started using it in 2012, when they scaled Node.js to the global organization, incorporating the open source model and enhancing global collaboration, with multiple teams working on the same project.

GoDaddy waited a little bit longer, but, in 2013, they were also ready to make the shift towards Node.js. They increased their hosting capabilities, revamping their entire backend to a Node.js-based infrastructure.

Reason no. 2 – Node.js is the new black in the web application development world

Node.js community is growing fast, benefiting from the active support of large software companies as well. Sustained by Node.js Foundation, the open source community of developers and companies is spread globally and online, through forums, events, and in the IT corporate world. New modules and packages for different types of applications development are created all the time and you can access them for free.

Whether you want to learn how to do various tasks in Node.js, to learn fundamental concepts or to access tips on writing more effective code, there are plenty of community supported blogs, online and offline events, YouTube channels you can go to.

Passionate developers also have the opportunity to bring their own contribution to developing Node.js in various open source projects. It’s not only the largest ecosystem of open source libraries in the world, but it’s also glamorous, popular, hip.

Reason no 3. Node.js is good for your business, and it’s good for your career

There’s no doubt in developer’s community these days that the time of #C and Java are coming to an end. Many companies are hiring Node.js professionals now, while, from an HR perspective, the Node.js market is booming. Many computer professionals seized the Node.js momentum, and there is now easier to find talent willing to work with Node.js than with statically typed languages.

There is also a remarkable ascension of Node.js at the corporate level. As technology executives from younger generations will require culture shifts, and will pose as evangelists of newer technologies, we can expect to see whole teams move from well-established ecosystems to leaner environments, ready for production use for companies of any size.

So what do you choose for your next web application? What is your experience with using Node.js?

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