The moment we deploy our application code, it begins to degrade. This degradation plays out in several ways. Code dependencies become outdated, requiring consistent version updates to maintain a secure environment. User adoption of our application drives the demand for new features. More features mean more development resources. And as we introduce these features to our code, technical debt begins to accrue over time.
Though small at first, minor version updates turn into major version updates. Introducing backward compatibility breaks. Workflows change while feature requirements and underlying models shift, breaking API integrations. How well we architected our application when it was initially conceived doesn’t matter. The diversity of our application code expands with contributions from multiple developers, each with their unique coding style and background. Once shiny and new, our application displays cracks and signs of wear.
Application Signs of Wear
These signs of wear typically include:
- Longer than estimated development times.
- Long and complex deployment cycles.
- Difficulty integrating with other systems.
- Deployments consistently introduce production bugs.
- System performance issues.
- Some underlying cracks, such as security vulnerabilities, may be flying under the radar but pose significant risks to your organization if exploited.
Reducing Wear and Saving Costs with Modernization Efforts
If you have a legacy application and are experiencing any of the above, it may be time to consider modernizing your application. Application modernization almost always outweighs the ongoing operational costs of maintaining legacy systems.
At the core of all application modernization paths lies the decision of choosing a coding language and framework that will allow the greatest extensibility, maintainability, and ease the transition from a legacy to a modern application.
At Soliant, we fulfill these deliverables with Node.js and the KOA API framework. Let’s look at a few key components of Node.js application development that help to reduce the rate our applications degrade, provide us with extensibility and maintainability, and extend the life of our applications.
Key Components of Node.js Application Development
Rich Ecosystem
Node.js provides a rich ecosystem of libraries to assist developers with API integrations and development. NPM, the Node.js package manager, is the largest ecosystem of open-source libraries in the world.
Horizontal Scaling
At Soliant, we maintain a sophisticated CI/CD Code Pipeline integrated with AWS Fargate to deploy containerized Node.js API applications. This containerized environment provides consistency between local, acceptance testing, and production environments.
AWS Fargate ensures that applications can handle traffic surges without performance degradation by horizontally scaling additional containers, reducing downtime, and providing a smooth experience for end users, even during peak loads.
Microservice Oriented Architecture
Microservices are an architectural style where code functionality is broken down into smaller individual services. These individual services can run independently of other application functionality and be combined to fulfill complex system requirements.
Microservices combined with Node.js provide a more maintainable code base, reducing the rate at which technical debt accrues. This makes applications easier to update and scale, therefore reducing development lifecycles.
Event Driven APIs
Event Driven Architecture provides a decoupled approach to third-party API and data integrations. Decoupling data connections in Node.js allows our applications to function independently of third-party libraries and integrations.
In the event of a data connection issue or integration failure, our Node.js application continues to provide end-user services without interruption.
Application Security
Consider pairing Node.js with an industry-leading, enterprise-ready authentication and authorization service like Auth0 to provide secure access to your application. Allow authorized access from third-party vendors to your API using secure machine-to-machine tokens. Easily integrate data-level access controls by integrating Auth0 with KOA API routing.
Data Integrity
Unexpected data types can wreak havoc on our applications as they traverse the layers of our stack. Production errors caused by data type mismatches are often time-consuming to troubleshoot. TypeScript is a superset of Javascript that allows Node.js applications to enforce data typing, allowing for safer and more maintainable code.
Static Code Analysis
Automate your code review process in Node.js using tools like ESLint. Linters help identify potential errors, security vulnerabilities, and coding standard violations by restricting the code that can be merged into the project.
Object Resource Mapping
Tools like MikroORM provide developers with easy data mapping capabilities, allowing the code base to adapt easily to multiple underlying database technologies. ORMs also play an important role in data security by limiting attack vectors like SQL injection attacks.
Breaking Up Your Modernization Efforts
Taking the application modernization leap from legacy application to modern doesn’t mean it needs to be done in one fell swoop. Large software projects have a much higher rate of failure. Any approach to modernization that limits the initial project size can significantly reduce your cost and timeline exposure. Take care to consider when and if your application can be transitioned in stages.
If possible, consider a microservice-oriented approach by choosing one or two key services to modernize initially. Doing so will allow any underlying dependencies to be exposed early on in development, shorten the feedback cycle, and accrue less technical debt during development.
Create Proper API Documentation
As you wade into the development of your modernization project, take the time to ensure proper API documentation is produced. API documentation will pay untold dividends when onboarding internal and external development resources to your solution.
API documentation can also assist in the acceptance testing phases of your release cycle, reducing quality assurance times. Frameworks like Node.js offer a myriad of auto-generation tools to assist in the API generation process using preexisting code resources such as API and entity definitions.
Working with an Application Modernization Partner
As your applications age, longer development times, painful deployment cycles, and security vulnerabilities become issues you can’t ignore. Our team of application modernization consultants and Node.js developers can help you transform your legacy applications to solve these issues and reduce long-term operational costs. Our team leverages Node.js and the KOA API framework to ensure application extensibility, maintainability, and scalability. Contact our team to talk with one of our experts about how we can help with your application modernization journey.
