Executive Guide to #NodeInteractive 2017

4 min readOct 2, 2017

As the Node.js community heads to Vancouver this week for the annual Node.js Interactive conference organized by the Node.js Foundation, I thought I’d take a minute to orient folks on the current state of the Node.js Ecosystem and point you toward the key partners to connect with while you’re at our marquee event.

Node.js in the Cloud

Node.js dominates cloud workflows and is the clear leader in the new #serverless space. IBM, Microsoft and Google are major cloud players with a deep commitment to both the end-user story and are active contributors to the platform.

“I get the clear impression, especially from cloud vendors, that Node.js is one of most important workloads running on everyone’s cloud.” — Todd Moore, IBM (@tmmoore_1) in What’s your prediction for the future of Node.js?

IBM is a clear leader in the enterprise space where it can bring cloud, services and a deep commitment to open source to any project. IBM has a unique leadership position with Cloud Foundry, so if you’re looking to invest in Cloud Foundry managed services, head straight to the IBM booth. IBM Cloud also fully supports other CloudNative approaches, including robust support for Kubernetes. Last but not least, if your business depends on mainframe workflows, Node.js is supported across a broad spectrum of IBM platforms including IBM z/OS.

Microsoft has been quietly building one of the most incredible teams in Open Source. They’ve become a destination for thought leaders and innovators. Under the incredible leadership of their CEO, Satya Nadella, the company truly has #HitRefresh. Gaurav Seth, is the Principal PM for Node.js and Azure and a Director to the Node.js Foundation, where he has translated this commitment to the Azure Cloud platform. You choose Microsoft for Cloud because you’re looking for a partner that understands the importance of reliability and stability over time. Azure offers a full spectrum of services from Serverless with Azure Functions, to easy to deploy PAAS and sophisticated Cloud Native, orchestrated deployments with Kubernetes on Azure Container Service.

Last, but certainly not least, is developer power-user favorite, Google Cloud. Google has been creating easy to deploy cloud services since before we referred to on demand compute as cloud. ☁️ Today’s App Engine fully supports Node.js. (It was a long-time coming.) If you’ve embraced the Borg like the rest of the world and are looking for a platform that fully supports Kubernetes, then Google Container Engine is a great option. Finally, Google Cloud Functions is how you do #serverless on Google Cloud where Google goes all in on Node.js. Better yet, the first 2 million invocations are free.

Hybrid Cloud Made Easy

If you’re trying to bridge the complex world of owning your own data while taking advantage of cost saving cloud infrastructure, Joyent Triton can help. Triton compute enables use cases from managed VMs, containers, even bare metal deployments for the most demanding workflows.

Easy PAAS, Enterprise PAAS

When you’re looking for an easy, low-cost platform to deploy Node.js application to, look no further than Heroku. This is the Platform (as-a-service) that sparked much of what we rely on in today’s Cloud Native landscape. Heroku’s support for Node.js is legendary and incredibly simple to use. Now that Heroku has been elevated as a key part of the SalesForce platform, they’ve really ramped up on their enterprise capabilities. Be sure to stop by their booth.

Enterprise Products and Support for Node.js

Whether you need 24x7 comprehensive Node.js support or you need the tooling to manage and secure your Node.js deployment, then you need to connect with NodeSource. Top companies globally choose NodeSource including Condé Nast, GoPro, PayPal and MasterCard. You should too.

Services, Coaching and Innovation Acceleration

nearForm is well known for their friendly team and delightful events. (See you at NodeConf.eu.) nearForm is slightly less known for the incredible work they do helping accelerate and empower top companies like McKinsey and EY. If you’re looking to build out a new Node.js practice or prototype new services, look no further. The nearForm team follows a rapid, iterative, design-led process which can fold into existing teams or build out ahead of market requirements with prototyping. Be sure to book time with nearForm.

Security out of Stealth

A new player arrives on the security scene this year at Node.js Interactive: Intrinsic. Intrinsic builds on the results of five years of DARPA-, DoD-, Google-, and Mozilla-funded research conducted by part of its team at Stanford University. And they are launching on the Node.js platform first.

Intrinsic provides security for Node.js against malicious code and day-to-day developer errors (like the Equifax debacle where a coding mistake turned into a massive data breach). It assumes all the application code is untrusted — both its own code and third-party modules — and takes control of the runtime to alert of undesired application behavior (monitor mode) and/or strictly prevent the behavior from happening (enforcement mode). As a vaccine inoculates against disease, Intrinsic halts infiltration by not allowing it to take root.

Quick Links

Disclosure

I have investments and consulting agreements with some of the companies mentioned in this post. I was not compensated for this post. They’re good companies Brent.

I enable leaders and empower teams through strategic consulting. Get in touch. Stay up-to-date with dshaw — A List.