As reliance on Node.js to build applications in the enterprise has skyrocketed in recent years, the challenges with managing these applications have been manifold, because most existing tools don’t provide much visibility into Node.js applications. To help address that issue, NodeSource has revamped a development framework based on Node.js to make it easier to manage deployments of Node.js applications at scale.
NodeSource CEO Joe McCann says N|Solid 3.0 includes a revamped user interface and enhanced dashboard through which thousands of processes can be monitored. DevOps teams now can choose from more than 50 metrics to explore relationships between application data. In addition, all of the snapshot and profile assets can be downloaded, sorted, deleted or marked as favorite. Previously, the dashboard could only monitor up to 250 processes.
The latest edition of NodeSource also provides support for alerts that can be used to trigger notifications in the event certain thresholds are exceeded.
Fresh off raising an additional $17.5 million in funding, NodeSource has been making the case for an enterprise-class implementation of Node.js for several years. It counts Citadel, Comcast, Condé Nast, Delta Airlines, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and PayPal among the organizations using its platform.
NodeSource captures application metrics using agent software written in C++. The idea is to replace an open source implementation of Node.js with the version developed by NodeSource that is integrated with that agent software.
As a variant of JavaScript, Node.js is essentially delivering on one of the original core promises of Java by making it easier for developers to build applications that can run on both clients and servers. Variants of JavaScript may not be as robust a framework for building applications as Java, but as programming environments go, JavaScript variants are much more accessible. According to the Node.js Foundation, the arm of the Linux Foundation that oversees the Node.js framework, there are more than 15 million downloads of Node.js per month.
Most of the Node.js use is driven by developers who don’t always appreciate operational management issues. Many IT organizations have been hesitant to more broadly employ Node.js because they lack the tools needed to manage Node.js applications at scale. NodeSource is now trying to address that issue by embedding management tools in its core platform.
By embedding many of the management tools needed to manage Node.js at scale, NodeSource is hoping senior-level IT managers will adopt its platform as a corporate standard instead of continuing to allow developers to pick whatever flavor of Node.js they find. Naturally, increased usage of Node.js is drawing interest across a broad spectrum to DevOps tool providers, so the issue many IT organizations must evaluate is the degree to which they can rely on existing DevOps tools to manage Node.js applications. NodeSource recently integrated its platform with the application performance management tools provided by AppDynamics. Because developers are now being held more accountable for the performance of their applications, NodeSource is betting that the metrics it provides will also appeal to enterprise developers.
The degree to which Node.js will become a de facto enterprise standard remains to be seen. Contention between various programming language camps is fierce. But at the very least it’s already apparent that Node.js applications in the enterprise are here to stay.