There’s no shortage of variants of Node.js in the world, but NodeSource is making a DevOps-related case for why IT organizations should standardize on its runtime implementation.
NodeSource released version 2.3 of N|Solid, which adds support for event loop delay notifications that pinpoint precisely where an issue that needs to be addressed has occurred with an application, based on the Node.js variant of JavaScript.
Pravin Halady, product manager for NodeSource, says N|Solid uniquely provides a runtime implementation of Node.js that provides that capability. Coupled with tools to monitor applications based on N|Solid, additional visualization tools and configurable webhooks-based integration to create alerts that can be shared via collaboration platforms such as Slack, N|Solid is the only Node.js runtime specifically optimized for enterprise IT environments, Halady says.
He notes one of the thornier issues organizations that embrace Node.js face is that any long-term synchronous activity blocking the event loop can prevent other incoming requests from reaching the server. Before too long, the application hangs or simply crashes. By providing insights into when an event loop delay is occurring in real time, Halady says IT organizations don’t have to waste time trying to reproduce the problem. The result is a much faster time to resolution of Node.js application issues.
DevOps teams can find themselves dealing with those types of issues at a much higher level of frequency once developers employ Node.js. As adoption of the most widely employed variant of JavaScript increases, IT organizations are managing more applications than ever. In fact, a recent survey published by the Node.js Foundation finds that three out four respondents plan to increase their usage of Node.js over the next 12 months. The primary reasons cited for that additional usage are increased developer productivity (68 percent); improved developer satisfaction (65 percent); reduced development costs (58 percent); and increased application performance (50 percent). Nearly half the respondents (47 percent) working in enterprise IT organizations say they been using Node.js for more than three years. Over half the developers (58 percent), in contrast, report having more than 10 years of experience working with Node.js.
IT organizations generally have very little visibility into what’s occurring inside Node.js applications, which makes it difficult to apply DevOps processes. In fact, most DevOps processes in place today are wrapped around applications written in more mature languages such as Java. Developers employing JavaScript tend to not be as well-versed in the role programmers ideally play within the context of an integrated set of DevOps processes.
In the absence of those processes, having the tools needed to debug an application in real time becomes more important to an IT operations teams that needs to inform a developer about the root cause of a specific issue. Otherwise, the developer ends up running one test after another in the hopes of replicating the problem. Unfortunately, the probability of accomplishing that goal inside most organizations is often relatively low. Because of that issue alone, an event loop delay notification made in real time is likely to pay for itself in a matter of hours.
