What is Node.js?
Node.js is an open-source runtime environment to run JavaScript on server-side. JavaScript serves as the base for Node.js development, thereby enabling the developers to effectively write new modules and was used at the backend for web development as well as app development. As a result, the technology found many takers due to the ease of development for reliable, faster server tools.

Bingo! With constant evolutions, the Node.js technology has become a silver bullet for the developers and businesses as it filled the need by leveraging single-threaded event loop model to support concurrent requests, stimulated code sharing, enable module reuse with inbuilt NPM, served as a proxy server, enabled real-time two-way communication, and pretty more.

A quick glance at the leading players that have banked on the Node.js technology to engineer the world-class application:
Netflix stands first in switching the architecture to Node.js as it brought superior performance to the company that has significantly diminished architecture cost and development cost.
Walmart relied on Node.js to effectively handle concurrent requests.
Uber evolve the technology stack with Node.js to scale up the resources and accommodate the rising demands of the services.
PayPal transitioned the backend development to Node.js to let the teams work unified by ending up the skill-set silos team.
NASA hops onto the Node.js bandwagon to store the data on a single cloud database that dramatically reduces the data access timelines.
Groupon rebuilt the website with Node.js to efficiently manage the different stacks and unify the development across all platforms.
But, what does Node.js as an event-driven model have in the bucket that it becomes the foremost choice of the industry leaders. Excited to know?

Here are the 9 reasons unveiling the facts why the Node.js technology which was once just an easy solution to development problems has now become a full-fledged solution and its adoption is at scale:
Performance
Node.js that’s executed by Google chrome V8 engine is written in C++ language, which compiles JavaScript into native machine code and makes the execution faster. The Node.js event loop executes in an asynchronous way wherein no additional thread is created for the new request thereby less RAM is used to process the request. The callback for I/O operations and event loop enables the execution of millions of concurrent requests with zero downtime.

Besides, the continuous updates for security patches, and performance optimizations, and support for the JavaScript features make the apps built using Node.js platform perform speedily and efficiently.

Realizing the significance of performance that Node.js development offers, Walmart has moved its mobile traffic on Black Friday through Node.js application where the server’s CPU utilization didn’t cross even 1% for millions of online users.

Scalability
From the beginning, scalability is baked into the core of Node.js platform. All the node processes run on every CPU core of the production machines and all the requests are load balanced. Node features a built-in module termed as Cluster module, which utilizing the complete CPU power of the machine, load balance the increasing number of requests, and additionally enables restarting the application with zero downtime.

With increasing workloads, the Node.js applications can be scaled successfully by implementing three strategies- cloning, decomposing, and splitting. There are web or mobile app development space with Node.js.other tools available that can be leveraged to easily scale the applications.

Real-time app development
Node.js development shines when it comes to building real-time applications such as chat apps, live-tracking apps, or gaming apps. The event-based servers and non-blocking driven servers enable the handling of a large number of requests in the real-time. The single codebase for server and client allow the sharing of the data between server and browser in the real-time.

Also, the JSON (a uniform data serialization format) stored data format doesn’t require the Node.js apps to convert the data format to binary models and vice-versa, which prevent multiple conversions of data across server, database, and client side, thus the data from object database can be exposed in a couple of seconds.

Single Codebase
The game-changing technology wins with its capability to bridge real-time applications the front-end and back-end development through a single programming language- JavaScript. Since a long time, different programming languages are used to build the back-end and front-end, which is hindering developers’ productivity as the coders need to have an understanding of separate languages.

Node.js resolved the issue by enabling the developers to write codes for back-end and front-end using JavaScript. By learning a single language, it has become easier for the developers to interact with any layer of web development, and send and synchronize the data between two sides. The business benefits include reduced development time, resources, and cost to nearly half.

Data streaming
Unlike other frameworks, Node.js treat HTTPS requests and responses as streams where, in the meantime, when the data is read from the source and written to the destination, it can be processed. While working on I/O operations in Node.js, the data streams can work wonders in creating outstanding functionalities.
For instance, the audio or video files while uploading, they can be processed during streaming and even proxy between separate data sources.