Technology never stands still, and smart companies have their ears to the ground to determine the next big thing and what they need to do to get ready for it. The Internet of Things is that next big thing, and Node.js will play a key role in ensuring that companies are ready and able to fully leverage it.
This is important because the Internet of Things, or IoT, will usher in significant challenges. Scalability, for one thing, will present a whole new hurdle. The sky is no longer the limit–data growth is essentially limitless. And when anything and everything begins to acquire intelligence and require data management, network control, and design will need to change.
Indeed, the technologies involved in creating intelligent, connected systems are expansive, and it can be tough to know where to begin or what solution is best for a particular need. Most IoT products do not provide a unified experience between the business systems they need to communicate with and the embedded devices themselves.
Here Node.js comes into the picture. It can be observed that when it comes to the “IoT application development”, most systems failed to provide a uniform experience across the devices and real-time reflection through embedded systems.
Node.js: Gaining In Popularity to Address the Needs of IoT
Why Node Js and IoT
– Devices like sensors, beacons, transmitters, motors have a tendency of generating a large volume of data thereby generating a large number of request, Node.js is well equipped to handle this request through streams. Streams offer both readable and writable channels which help in piping the request to destination without temporary storing the data. Streams are basically Unix pipe and can directly connect to the destination.
– The key feature of any IoT driven application is collecting data, communicating, analyzing and acting. Node js makes a perfect partner for all the above features.
– Sockets and MQTT protocol are well suited in Node js which are generally used for continuous data transmission in IoT application.
– IoT-application cable boards, such as Intel Edison, BeagleBone Black, and Raspberry Pi, can easily install Node js as a programming environment. Node js comes with NPM packages manager which contains many useful IoT modules, which can be used for rapid and robust application development.
– Node js is known for its speed, scalability, and efficiency making it the key player for data-intensive real-time application. This makes Node js well suited for IoT which relies on data-intensive real-time traffic.
– IoT devices command is generally written in low-level languages like C and C++ which itself are difficult to learn, Node js comes with the power of JavaScript which is pretty easy to learn and understand.
– Node js open source community NPM (Node package manager) contains more than 80 for Arduino controllers, raspberry pi, Intel IoT Edison. It contains more than 30 packages for different sensors and Bluetooth devices. These modules make application development fast and easy.
How Node.js Fulfills the IoT Objectives into Applications?
Node.js is the ideal choice for building the Internet of Things applications. Here’s how:
Recently, there has been a lot more talk about the combination of IoT and Node.js platform. Built on Google’s V8 open source JavaScript engine, Node.js is considered as the best platform for building modern, data-centric, real-time applications.
When the talk comes to IoT, there must be programmable devices such as sensors, beacons, wearable, and microsystems. Apparently, IoT devices generate a big number of requests as it handles interaction across the devices.
It is important to note that, Node.js is very fast, making the request-response flow smoother and faster. With the perfect background of an IoT community, the Node Packaged Modules (NPM) is equipped with more advanced repositories to fulfill the IoT needs.
The main advantage of using Node.js in IoT application is the faster and real-time execution. On the server side, it also occupies less memory and results in smoother performance. Indeed, with the great support of APIs and low-resource requirements of Node.js, developers can create scalable, modern, and efficient applications.
In order to gain a competitive edge for IoT applications, Node.js can build apps with high scalability, attractive UI/UX structure, and connective, integrated functions. Whether it is a consumer or a developer, Node.js is the perfect fit for API-based IoT applications.
Why is Node.js Perfect for IoT?
Node.js is built on Google’s V8 open source JavaScript engine and widely known for its impressive scalability and efficiency. Thus, it’s well-suited for real-time applications that are highly data-intensive. Since IoT applications too are data-intensive and work in a real-time environment, they are a natural fit for this technology.
The following are some of the ways how Node.js can greatly help in building IoT applications:
· A large number of IoT applications use MQTT protocol and the standard Sockets which have great support in Node.js.
· The executable codes for many IoT devices are written in low-level languages like C++, etc. which could be challenging to work with. However, Node.js is simple and easy to understand for even the inexperienced software developers.
· The Node Package Manager (NPM) comes with several useful IoT modules. It contains more than 80 packages for Intel IoT Edison, Rasberry Pi, and Arduino Controllers. It also contains more than 30 packages for a variety of Bluetooth devices and sensors. These greatly help to speed up and simplify the application development process.
· Since the IoT devices viz. sensors, motors, transmitters, etc. generate large volumes of data and a large number of requests, Node.js is apt for handling these. This is because it has excellent support for streams which offer readable and writeable channels for request management, as well as temporary storage of data.
IoT is one of the fastest growing technologies we have today. Since Node.js allows you to make the most of it easily without compromising on the results, it definitely pays to invest your time and energy into it.
If you want to leverage Node.js app development into your existing system to make it scalable and feature-rich, or building new applications from scratch, we can help you to drive maximum ROI for your business.