How Leadnomics uses Node.js to build its scalable lead software

Developed just four short years ago, software platform Node.js is gaining a foothold in some of the top tech firms around the nation and more specifically, right here in our backyard.

The rapid growth in popularity is evidenced by Node Philly, the area’s best and only place to get on the bandwagon of the growing Node community. Their upcoming Hack and Hops at Manyayunk Brewery is going to be great place to get started.

RSVP for the Nov. 20 Hack and Hops event here.

Based on widespread programming language JavaScript, Node is growing so fast: it is already the second most popular project on GitHub averaging more than 35K downloads per day, having exploded in popularity in 2011.

Few things bring a tech stack to its knees like traffic it’s not prepared to handle, and that was the challenge University City-based online marketing and lead generation firm Leadnomics faced when they turned to Node.js.

In one day, the company shifted from a few massive servers buckling under the weight of PHP to a set of small servers running lean and mean on Node, for half the cost. Functioning on a service-oriented architecture, Leadnomics now has many Node-powered services to handle all its I/O-heavy tasks.

What does an established technology company’s Node install look like as its scaling its use?

• Running solidly on Amazon Web Services, Leadnomics’ implementation of Node federates API calls from load balancers to MySQL, Redshift, DynamoDB, S3, and other applications within the stack.
• Due to industry standards for how sales leads are offered to service providers, each new lead may require an HTTP connection to open and remain open for a minute or more.
• This can be difficult to scale, at burst levels of 50 new leads per second capable of having 6000 incoming and outgoing connections open at any given moment, each generating a plethora of logs and other data to be analyzed and warehoused in real time.
• While many other languages and frameworks would crush a server with threads or process forks, Node stays nimble and addresses the events as they come, with minimal threading.

Node.js now makes up over 70 percent of the Leadnomics code base and has enabled the company to quickly branch into new sales verticals without ever having to ask if the platform can handle the scale.

Node was developed to easily build fast, scalable network programs and applications. And, according to its passionate user-base, it does just that.

If you’re interested in learning more about using Node or would like to get active in the growing community, make sure to sign up for Node Philly’s second annual Hack and Hops event coming up on Nov. 20 at Manayunk Brewery.

The event will feature talks by Bryan Paluch (Comcast Labs), Tom Shawver (Leadnomics), Glen Lougheed (StrongLoop) and Jarrett Cruger (Nodejitsu) and will focus on the benefits of using Node in a production environment. This event is always in high demand, so be sure to register now and reserve your seat before it sells out. For more details on the event and to purchase tickets, visit Node.ph