Yesterday I attended a meetup event at the "Nokia Fortress" in New Providence, NJ. I have to admit, at the beginning of the day I had no idea what strongloop or loopback even were (I really just went because I was interested in all things node.js, haha). This post is about briefly explaining what these two things are, and then at the end I'll talk about why I can easily see companies using this is real life to save money.
Loopback
Github repo: https://github.com/strongloop/loopback/
Loopback is a an npm package and open-source library that runs on node,js and uses express. It allows you to expose api's to client side applications for CRUD operations (create, remove, update, delete) that allow you to store data (eg. a database). Sure, that's not that special. But the awesome part about loopback is that you can plug in almost any data source and it works fine! This means that your whole application architecture doesn't care whether you're using MongoDB, Cassandra, MySQL, Postgress, RDS, etc. Relational or object-based; it doesn't matter! Wow!
Strongloop
Strongloop site: https://strongloop.com/https://strongloop.com/
Strongloop was a company itself. It was recently bought by IBM, and now refers to this product that you can pay a subscription to use. During the demo, the presenter showed how he used strongloop to create all of the REST api's for modifying and updating records. You could also go in and see them all displayed out nicely by visiting the /explorer page. Strongloop also provides monitoring and performance applications for node.js which can be nice to have since, after all, it's running 24/7 on a server somewhere when it's in production. Strongloop has various levels of "membership" for additional features and support, but there is a free version.
Why is this a great business decision?
Loopback's database "plugability" means that you can also switch to whatever database or vendor is currently cheapest, fastest, handles load the best, whatever you care about. Forecasting the cost of data storage can be tricky since it depends on how much data you're talking about, the volume of queries coming in, and other factors. But with loopback you don't even need to care about that during development.You can have developers think in terms of javascript objects (or whatever they prefer), and create the application in MongoDB (or whatever they prefer). Then once your user base grows to the point where you have some data and can see how you app is being used, you might find that Mongo is too expensive. But if you developed using loopback you can switch to AWS Redshift, RDS, or some other database that is cheaper. The point is that you won't need to rewrite any code. Loopback just loops all the data back to their store and has a way of mapping that model to the various databases.
Concerns
Although I do plan to start using loopback and strongloop, here are some concerns I have about the too-good-too-be-true hype surrounding loopback and strongloop:
- Loopback uses a very (at first) strange looking querying syntax. This and things like setting up relationships can require specific loopback expertise. This is a curse and a blessing. It is yet another "sql" to learn, but it does replace all the other sql's (and it gives developers who do know it a competitive advantage).
- Is there any added latency when requests are sent through loopback? Is it in many ways a "middleware" software, and I'm curious if this added step has any impact on performance.
- Should I worry about security? Very similar to my worries about loopback in terms of speed, I'm fearful that the added layer could be a security vulnerability that could be exploited.
- Strongloop is a subscription service, and while it can be nice to have their comfortable tools I'd rather not pay money for a account higher than the free level unless there are premium-only features that are critical to my business.
I do wonder about these things, and if you're a wise loopbacker who knows the truth about these wonders please share the knowledge in the comments below. :)
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