How do you get from a large audience to an... actively engaged large audience? How do you turn that massive volume of traffic that you've striven to attract into... actual sales? It's simple: you incorporate interactive website features into your site.
For it's elements like built-in feedback system, chatbots, or interactive photos that would get that large audience of yours involved on your website.
A fast, visually stunning, and mobile-friendly website won't grant you more leads. Instead, a website that retains and connects with its visitors will...
But let's dive right into these (not so) “mysterious” website design interactive features that will help you boost user engagement on your site:
1. What Is an “Interactive” Website?
But first, let's see what an interactive website is NOT:
It's not a site that simply displays... content.
Instead, an interactive website IS, in fact:
A site that gets visitors to interact with its displayed content. Instead of merely “consuming” it...
A website that drives users to communicate with its interface by filling in popping-up forms, typing in comments, or clicking on the on-screen image of a product...
2. Why Does Your Website Need to Be Interactive?
In other words: why would you care about adding this level, as well, to the user experience delivered on your website?
I mean, your website's already super fast, visually striking, and conveniently responsive. It should be more than enough to... engage visitors, right?
Well, not really. Here are the strongest reasons why you should consider making your website strategically interactive, as well:
it cuts down your bounce rate: users tend to spend more time on a website that interacts with them than on a static one that reduces them to... mere content consumers
it builds long-term relationships: engaged visitors are much more likely to turn into... returning visitors
it boosts your brand awareness: interactive user experience is always a high impact one, that clings to visitors' memories, making your brand... memorable
it boosts user engagement (duh!): strategically placed interactive website features trigger more action than a mere display of content
3. What Are the Best Interactive Website Features to Consider? Top 7
Disclaimer: there's no such thing as “universally best” interactive website elements.
There are, though, the “most suitable” interactive features for your own industry sector and business goals.
For instance: is it financial services that you provide? Then an interest calculator is the “best” interactive feature to incorporate into your company website. Relevance is key here...
Now, let's dig out the interactive website features with the biggest impact on user engagement metrics.
3.1. Simple Interactive Tools
Simple yet... highly effective, these tools range from short games to quizzes, to ad ROI calculators, to budgeting tools, to... math tools.
Needless to add that their selection depends entirely on your business goals.
3.2. User-Generated Content
And this must be one of the most powerful interactive website features that you could integrate into your site.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Empower users to create and upload content on your website:
product/services reviews
pictures of them wearing/using your products
guest posts
comments
It's a highly effective means to connect with your website users.
… to make them feel that they have the power to influence the user experience delivered on your website, to make them spend more time there, and even attract other potential customers with their reviews.
3.3. Wisely Used Interface Animations
Animations should be on anyone's list of interactive features on a website.
Word of caution: mind you use animations sparingly and with the sole purpose of enhancing your website's usability.
If instead you use them to visually “wow” your visitors, you'll only risk making your website look amateurish and untrustworthy.
Not to mention that a site crammed with animations would make your content difficult to read, as well.
Still, when used wisely, scrolls-triggered animations and dynamic hover states on images or links, for instance, will engage users.
3.4. Social Media Apps
Image by ijmaki from Pixabay
The handiest way to “inject” interactivity into your website: social media apps.
And this “too” common functionality of enabling users to share your content and to follow your brand on social media is, still, one of the most effective ways to boost user engagement.
So, mind you don't underestimate the power of these buttons...
3.5. Live Chats or Chatbots
Assisting users throughout their visit on your website, being ready to anticipate and to promptly answer their questions... There's hardly a better way of connecting with and retaining website visitors.
Take live chats and chatbots as a too powerful mix of stellar customer service and “excuse” for users to stay on your website for a longer period of time.
3.6. An Interactive Feedback System
A built-in online survey tool or a contact form are other great ways of injecting a high level of interactivity into your website.
Take, for instance, the contact form: you get to reach 2 major goals with one shot.
you enrich your database of leads
you convey a “We Care” message to your online customers
3.7. Interactive Images and Videos
Let's try a little empathy exercise: get into the shoes of your eCommerce website user!
Now, answer this question:
“How convinced are you that you're making the right choice when you buy a product displayed in an on-site picture?”
Don't you struggle with the doubt that you might not make the best decision?
An interactive photo or video revealing certain features of that product in detail or showing it in action, in the real world, would have a dramatic impact on your customer journey, don't you think?
The END!
These are the 7 high impact interactive website features to put on your shortlist when you plan to make your site more engaging.
Which of these elements are you already making the most of on your website?
Main image by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash
Silviu Serdaru / Oct 04'2019
Chatbots, wearable apps, immersive apps, progressive web apps, conversational apps... It's a fact: applications as we know them are growing into... multiexperience apps. So you should consider powering your own app infrastructure with a multiexperience development platform.
But first, you may want to reflect on the limitations of your current app development platform: it supports web and mobile applications only...
By comparison, a MXDP would adjust the digital user experiences that you create to a multitude of interaction modalities — touch, gesture, voice — and devices: web browsers, smartwatches, smartphones, voice-driven devices...
And it's complete experiences that users expect these days...
1. But First: What Is a “Multiexperience” in the Digital Realm?
The term “multiexperience” incorporates:
all the different ways users interact with a brand (touch, audio, gesture)
the multitude of physical devices delivering the user experiences resulting from those interactions
Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash
“And what is multiexperience development” you might further ask yourself.
Take it as the process where, using a plethora of different technologies, you create multiple fit-for-purpose applications. Apps perfectly tailored to suit different touchpoint-specific modalities (voice, audio, gesture...).
2. Multiexperience Development: Future-Proof Your App Development
According to Gartner Inc's research, organizations face an increasing challenge to create digital user experiences that go beyond those delivered through web and mobile apps.
For data is becoming extremely accessible and being “consumed” in an overwhelming no. of ways: hands-free, mobile, voice, etc. While convenience and personalization are now the key elements of great user experience...
So, you should consider switching from mobile-focused app development to a multiexperience (app) development strategy.
You should consider future-proofing your applications by “injecting” them with multi experiences.
From wearable apps to conversational apps (chatbots and voice assistants), to progressive web apps, and immersive apps... there's a wide range of apps of the future that incorporate and deliver multiple experiences.
But how could you possibly develop apps perfectly adjusted to each channel, each user interaction modality? Apps adapted to the given customer contexts...
You opt for an all-technologies-in-one multiexperience development platform...
"What are they more precisely?" Keep on reading...
3. MXDPs: What Are They? How Are They Different from MAPDs?
A multiexperience development platform is... the mobile app development platform of the future. It enables you to develop one app and then deploy it across a whole variety of devices and platforms.
From AR to wearable, to chat and voices, an MXDP speeds up the development of a plethora of targeted, seamless and highly scalable digital user experiences...
4. Why Shift to a Multiexperience Development Platform? 4 Reasons
Now, let's talk... clear benefits. Are they strong enough so you take the leap from your already familiar mobile app development platform?
Well, judge for yourself. Here are the 4 strongest reasons to move to an MXDP:
4.1. It Speeds Up the Deployment Process
How long does it take you now to deploy an app to Amazon Web Services or to any other cloud services provider?
Now, imagine sending your data straight to your AWS account...
Moreover, when using a multiexperience development platorm you get a full-distributed environment. And that can only translate into better control over your own deployment.
Add this convenience, as well, to the whole cloud-based deployment process and... try to anticipate how much time you'd save.
4.2. It Increases Operational Efficiency Within Your Organization
Faster day-to-day operations...
How does an MXDP help you achieve this goal? It's quite obvious:
A central, interconnected system incorporates and thus streamlines all your internal processes.
As opposed to struggling to orchestrate a heavy network of various different programs, one for each type of day-to-day internal task.
4.3. It Cuts Down Time to Market for Your App
And there are 2 main “culprits” behind this benefit of using a multiexperience development platform:
reusable code
accelerated design processes
Furthermore, if you release faster, you get user feedback faster so... you can apply the needed improvements... faster.
4.4. It Removes the Security Risk of Shadow IT
Have you ever tried to count the apps, IT systems, devices, services, and infrastructure that are being used across your organization? Is it even possible to keep track of them all?
Well, that's one of the strongest benefits of using an MXDP: you get a bird's eye view over your software asset.
This way, you can remove the risk that shadow IT poses.
The END!
Quite curious now: are all these predictions regarding the multi-experiences apps and reasons for switching to an MXDP strong enough for you to... take the leap?
Main Image by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
Adriana Cacoveanu / Oct 03'2019
Just imagine: a world where you upload a piece of content on one dashboard and it goes live on all your... 300 websites instantly! A world where you can create a new website with just one click... That's the Acquia Cloud Site Factory-governed reality.
And now, back to your day-to-day-reality where:
you lose huge amounts of money with every minute that just one of your... thousands of websites is down
you struggle with the challenge of delivering a unified user experience across multiple websites, legacy systems, geographic regions, languages
you need to have brand new websites/different digital experiences added to the network on the fly, yet you're dealing with huge delays
your development team is... tangled up in mundane editing tasks
your marketing team is fully dependent on the IT department for every single new campaign or website that they might need to spin up
your developers deal with spotty access to your multisite network, so if one of them needs to tackle an emergency issue on one of the websites, another one could be unavailable
And remember: Dries Buytaert's made this prediction back in... 2005.
1. Your Current Situation
Let us guess:
you're a franchise
you're a university managing an entire infrastructure of microsites, in a variety of different designs, content, structures, and features
you're a multinational company about to enter new markets, thus planning to build different new websites for each one of those markets
you're a real estate company planning to create a new website for every property in your portfolio
Or, let's try a more generic profile:
You're an... organization that delivers digital experiences across hundreds or even thousands of different websites.
2. The Main Challenge(s) You're Facing
Now, let us "guess" some of the struggles that you're dealing with while trying to efficiently "joggle" with your multitude of websites:
2.1. Delivering a Personalized Experience on Each and Every Website
We can empathize with that:
Managing multilingual regional websites does translate into major challenges from a personalization and customization standpoint.
For instance: what if you need to integrate a specific payment gateway to just one of your hundreds of websites?
Or you need to incorporate any other functionality specific to an individual market that you're targeting?
With Acquia Cloud Site Factory you can have your regional microsites up and running in no time. Moreover, you can address various issues, like new market-specific features to be implemented, without fearing that you leave other websites in your "cluster" exposed.
With a simple central dashboard at your disposal, adding, creating and delivering a new fully personalized digital experience gets dramatically streamlined. With zero risks of duplication...
2.2. Granting Your Development Team a Unified Access to All Your Websites
Here's a real-life situation:
Your website visitors signal an issue, so one of your developers tries to address the problem. This means that another one would be unable, due to spotty access to the system.
But what if all your developers could get simultaneous access? Wouldn't unified access for your entire development team streamline the whole "issues tackling" process?
2.3. Providing a Unified Experience to Your Content Authors
And you can't possibly provide a unified experience across your multi-site network neither to your editors or to your visitors when you have:
n different branding styles
n different levels of responsiveness
n different codebases with to be maintained individually
n different themes
2.4. Updating The Entire Infrastructure in Real-Time
Let's say that you need to implement a set of regulations at the network level (GDPR, for instance). And we're talking about... thousands of websites.
A "mission impossible" for your current situation, when you have hundreds of databases to update individually, right?
Luckily, the Acquia Cloud Site Factory provides you with a unique database for all your websites. A single source for your entire infrastructure.
Update once and roll out that change across your entire multi-site network.
2.5. Empowering the Marketing Team to Create New Brand Experiences on the Run
Your digital marketers are currently pretty dependent on their colleagues from the IT department for every:
new banner that they'd want to revamp
microsite that they might need to create and align with your marketing strategy
landing page that they might want to put together and distribute
But what if you give them so much freedom that they could spin up new highly branded, media-rich websites based on pre-configured templates?
With Aquia's Site Factory you empower the marketing team to create and deploy new digital experiences... on the fly. Agility at its best.
2.6. Maintaining Brand Consistency Across Your Network
And this must be one of the biggest challenges you're facing: how do you keep and boost brand consistency over an entire network of websites? Especially if we're talking about a global presence.
With your brand experiences delivered in different languages, with the help of multiple distributed teams, across different legacy platforms, with multiple stakeholders involved...
The Acquia Cloud Site Factory platform helps you ensure brand consistency through:
templates that content managers can use to create/duplicate websites
a single source of update (a unique database)
3. Entering: Acquia Cloud Site Factory
It's a multi-site management platform that provides you with:
one central, simple dashboard
a centralized database
a feature-packed site-building environment
powerful workflow tools that give your developers more control over the enterprise digital experience
... and your marketing team more freedom and flexibility
In short: a digital platform where you can build, deploy, update, centralize and manage a huge number of different websites fast and at scale.
And we're talking here about highly branded, content-rich, dynamic websites...
4. But How Would It Benefit Your Own Multi-Site Network?
Why would you move to a single platform?
What are the benefits that you'd "reap" from running your complex infrastructure on the Acquia Cloud Site Factory?
Image source: Acquia.com
4.1. You'd Minimize Site Development and Maintenance Costs
With:
a single database for pushing all your updates to
a whole team of digital marketers free to spin up new websites by simply filling in pre-built templates
... you cut down costs significantly.
4.2. You'd boost brand consistency across all your websites
Fast and consistent updates...That's the "beauty" of having just one database as a single source for pushing changes distributed throughout your entire network.
4.3. You'd Accelerate Time to Market
Launching landing pages and spinning up brand new microsites with just one click reduces time to market dramatically.
4.7. You'd Orchestrate Thousands of Websites Centrally
One dashboard for an entire network of websites...
Now, just think of the resources you'd save and the security threats you'd prevent by centralizing all your multi-site management tasks carried out across multiple:
regions
marketing and design systems
legacy CMSs
products...
4.2. You'd Simplify and Automate All Multi-Site Management Operations
The Acquia Cloud Site Factory platform streamlines all your multi-site management efforts. No more manual work, no more duplicates...
The platform provides developers with a robust set of workflow tools that enable them to grant role-based permissions to the content team.
4.4. You'd Update Faster
And it goes without saying: with one central database you get to easily mass-update your entire network.
4.5. You'd Deliver a Coherent Experience to Your Content Authors and Users
A centralized way of managing your large "cluster" of websites removes the risk of delivering a... disjointed experience to your content managers and website visitors.
4.6. You'd Scale Your Brand... Globally
Acquia Cloud Site Factory is built with above-the-average scalability needs in mind, that's for sure.
Image by Megan Rexazin from Pixabay
4.8. You'd Free Your Developers for More Complex Projects
By taking the marketing team "off their back" you'd lift some of the burden hanging on your developers' shoulders. And allow them to focus on more strategic tasks instead...
Also, the workflow tools that the platform ships with grant them more control over the enterprise digital experiences delivered across your network...
4.9. You'd Grant Your Marketing Team More Flexibility to Innovate
Power to the (marketing) people...
By enabling them to set up new websites and other brand experiences on the fly, you allow them to seize every great opportunity that they might be currently missing. Since updating content and launching new digital experiences is now so discouragingly cumbersome.
The END!
Is it a bit clearer to you now how moving your multi-site infrastructure to Acquia Cloud Site Factory would benefit you?
Main image by Bethany Drouin from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Sep 27'2019
They're both widely used, subsets of JavaScripts, high performing and yet... they're technically different. But different in what way, more precisely? In a “React.js vs Node.js” comparison, which framework would turn out to be the best choice for building your web application with?
And why?
Some might say that comparing the 2 JavaScript frameworks would be like outlining the differences between a high-speed train and a... sports car. They're completely different things.
And yet, since both Node.js and ReacJS are temptingly advanced and equally popular among web developers, you can't help asking yourself:
“Which one should I use for my next JavaScript project?”
And the answer must be hiding in precisely those key differences that set apart the 2 equally efficient and equally tempting frameworks.
So, let's dig in for these differences so that you can set them against your own project's:
various parameters
size
dependency ecosystem
maturity
… and against your specific business needs, as well, so you can identify for yourself which one's the best choice for your custom web app:
1. React.js: What Is It Used For?
But let's start with what React.js is before we dig into its use cases:
It's an open-source JavaScript library (rather than a “conventional” web framework) that one can use with the web browser.
One used mainly for:
building web browser apps (and not for executing them, like it's the case with Node.js)
building high-performing, dynamic libraries
building great user interfaces perfectly equipped to render large datasets
2. Why Would YOU Use React.js? Why Choose It Over Node.js?
Let's fast forward to that moment where you will have already made your “React.js vs Node.js” comparison.
Now, after seeing each JavaScript framework's pros and cons, why would you opt for React?
The benefits of React boil down to... 3 essential ones:
2.1. It's SEO-Friendly
And it's pretty predictable that ReactJS is SEO-effective if you come to think of it:
Compared to other JavaScript frameworks, ReactJS renders code from the server right to the browser, as a regular web page.
So, we can no longer be talking about Google (or other browsers) struggling to read your JavaScript-heavy web app.
2.2. It Performs Better
No wonder: it creates its own virtual DOM, after all.
How does this impact your React web app's performance?
DOM loads only a part of the web page (compared to the traditional full-refresh model)
React handles all the regular updates in the DOM
2.3. It Embraces a Component-Based Architecture
Another one of React's biggest “selling points” is its fully component-based architecture:
You get to create your own components and display, combine, reuse, import and integrate them into your core content as needed.
And there's more. More key reasons why you'd want to choose React.js over Node.js:
with React you can reuse code
it ships with smooth interface designs
it updates faster
it is view oriented
it provides support both for the client-side and the server-side
it's easier for you to write UI test cases
it allows you to write less code
3. And Why Would You Be Skeptical of Using React.js?
For React.js must have its own limitations and shortcomings that might discourage you from using it in your project. And determine you to go with one of its “rivaling” JS frameworks instead...
Here are some of its off-putting disadvantages:
a steep learning curve
Flux architecture
a discouragingly sophisticated view layer
it uses JSX, a mix of JavaScript and HTML
it's a JavaScript library, not a framework
you might still be required to perform some configurations if you need to incorporate it into an MVC framework
4. What Is Node.js?
“Is React the same as Node?” you might ask yourself.
But to answer that you first need to define Node.js, right?
It's a lightweight and efficient JavaScript runtime environment on the server side, powered by the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, that uses a non-blocking I/O model.
Its event-driven model enables you to create fast and scalable network applications.
In this respect, the callback concept that it uses enables Node.js to tap into an event-driven single-threaded server and to execute JS on the server-side.
5. React.js vs Node.js: Main Reasons Why You Would Want to Use Node.js
What are the key benefits of using Node.js for developing your web application?
Again, as in the case of React.js, I'll boil them down to 3 major reasons why you'd be tempted to choose Node.js:
3.1. It Ships with Its Own Package Manager
And this benefit becomes even more significant if you think of Node.js's ecosystem of thousands of package modules.
Having a dedicated CLI at your disposal, to access and install all the packages that you might need during your app's development process, is a true time-saving tool.
3.2. It Can Be Used as a Server-Side Proxy
Try to imagine these 2 common scenarios:
You need to retreive data from various multiple sources or to proxy multiple services with different response times.
How do you do that? You simply use Node.js as a server-side proxy.
This way, your web application's equipped to handle multiple, simultaneous connections efficiently.
3.3. It Manages Large Streams of Data
Being designed to read really large datasets is one of Node's major advantages over React.js.
And of particular importance to you if that networking application that you're building is expected to handle wmassive loads of data and files in real-time.
In this respect, Node.js “joggles with” streams of data:
It treats HTTP requests and responses as data streams (instead of isolated events, like in the buffering model).
This way, it calls multiple data sources simultaneously. A great feature for real-time video streaming, for instance, where your app would be challenged to stream really large files.
And these are not all the reasons why you might consider it to be the right choice for your JavaScript project:
it shares the same code on the client and on the server-side
it's highly extensible
it enables you to write real-time, server-side applications in JavaScript
6. Node.js: Limitations and Drawbacks
And it would be only fair to outline some of Node.js's shortcomings, as well, right?
So, what could be the main reasons why you might not find it suitable for your next web application project?
its nested callbacks
it's doesn't handle CPU-intensive tasks efficiently enough
new and new APIs get released, so you need to be on a constant alert for backward-incompatible changes
it's suited for web servers only
it challenges you to troubleshoot relational database issues
The END!
Now, what's the verdict? In a React.js vs Node.js confrontation, which JavaScript “framework” checks off most of the goals on your project's list?
Image by Andrew Becks from Pixabay
RADU SIMILEANU / Aug 01'2019
What are some powerful Google Site Search alternatives? On-site search solutions that should be:
flexible
effective
versatile (easy to use on any CMS)
quick to set up
easy to configure
cloud-based
AI-powered
… and to provide you with actionable insights on your visitors' search behavior.
How about... Cludo, an internal search engine, and insights generator?
Now, you might want to keep your “feature wishlist” at hand as you evaluate this competitor to Google's custom search solution.
1. But What Is Cludo?
It's a robust on-site search tool that you can easily set up on your website, no matter what CMS you're using.
This way, you add a search interface where you can pull relevant data on your visitor's search behavior.
Its greatest strength? Its ease of use:
It empowers you, irrespective of your technical level, to set it up and to further optimize the content it delivers, quick and easy.
Unlike other Google site search alternatives, with Cludo you get easy access to actionable analytics. With a simple to use dashboard, you can pull powerful data and use it to constantly improve users' site search experience without having to be a... data analyst expert.
2. What Makes Cludo One of the Best Google Site Search Alternatives?
And still:
“Which are those unique features that Cludo provides?”
For there must be other key reasons why it's now rivaling Google's own custom site search solution...
Well, let me highlight just some of its most powerful features:
customizable index: you get to customize the criteria so that certain pages get pushed forward; you even get to specify what type of content should and shouldn't be searchable
machine learning-based autocomplete: it provides users with robust suggestions and corrects their misspellings in real-time
actionable search insights: it provides you with key data on who your website visitors are and what precisely they're searching for; you can tap into this information to deliver engaging and relevant content, to further optimize users' site search experience
an easy-to-use interface: Cludo's UI is designed so that even if you're not a technical user you should still be able to configure your on-site search solution quick and easy
semantic search: it delivers accurate and relevant results even if your website visitors type in words that are totally different from your anticipated search terms; Cludo taps into intelligent semantics, uses bigrams and synonyms to deliver the most comprehensive search results
3. Cludo vs Google Custom Site Search Engine
What if we confronted the two powerful site search solutions?
Which would be the Google limitations that we would see exploited and counterbalanced by robust Cludo features?
3.1. Google Custom Search Engine
Its functionality is pretty straightforward: thanks to the search bar added to your website, your visitors can look for specific content quickly.
Now, when it comes to its limitations, there are a few:
fewer customization options
it doesn't provide you with the tools (e.g. actionable analytics) needed to constantly improve and customize the site search experience delivered on your website
3.2. Cludo
Now, when it comes to Cludo, it does ship with some unique features that come to “exploit” Google Site Search's lack of them:
first of all, it's equipped with all the features you need for customizing the site experience: you get an easy to use dashboard where you can pull relevant analytics on your users' behavior and specific needs
… this way, you can tailor the delivered content accordingly and provide them a fully customized site experience
it ships with a banner analytics feature: you can add banners to your results page for... upcoming events, key search terms, etc.
The END!
Summing up now:
If, when evaluating some of the Google Site Search alternatives, you value particularly those features that enable you to customize the user experience, then Cludo might just be the solution you're looking for.
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jul 29'2019
What is a cloud-native application in the context of cloud computing? Does “cloud-based” and “cloud-native” refer to the very same type of architecture?
Does cloud-native development mean using a specific set of methodologies and tools or simply hosting, running and managing your app in a specific environment?
Let's try to define, in plain English:
what cloud-native apps are
the key principles of the cloud-native development process
… and to bust some of the myths and confusions around cloud-native technologies and the cloud-native type of app architecture.
1. “Cloud-Native”: What It Means & Key Patterns
A cloud-native technology enables you to build and to run your scalable app in a dynamic environment: a public, private or hybrid cloud.
To give you just a few examples of specific techniques supporting the “cloud-native” approach: immutable infrastructure, containers, service meshes, declarative APIs.
What they do precisely is enable loosely coupled systems. This way, you get to ship new features faster, with less effort, more predictably and with zero impact on the end user's experience.
2. What Is a Cloud-Native Application in Plain Words?
The most concise definition possible would be:
It's an application developped using cloud-based technologies, fully hosted and managed in the cloud.
Do you sense the underlying difference between a “cloud-based” and a “cloud-native” application?
While the first one might be an older app re-architected to run properly on a cloud operating system, the second one has been hosted in the cloud from the very beginning.
It runs in cloud end-to-end...
Meaning that it has been written, tested and deployed in the cloud, using technologies and services that are cloud-based and not just rehosted, subsequently, to a cloud computing environment. That opposed to the (just) cloud application.
Now, if we were to highlight the traits that set them apart from traditional applications, I would sum them up to 3:
they're built with agility and high flexibility in mind, which translates into better security, top performance, and improved customer experience
… and into the high speed at which you can run new features, apply changes and, overall, customize your app
there's no monolithic software codebase that they depend on; instead, they're built in a modular manner, leveraging multiple infrastructures and cloud computing frameworks
3. 3 Defining Characteristics of a Cloud-Native App
“What is a cloud-native application?” is a question that calls for another one:
“What are its definining features?”
In other words, how can you identify a cloud-native application?
Let me trim down the long list of traits to the most specific ones:
they're not limited to certain public cloud infrastructures
they scale better since they tap into the cloud platform's elasticity
they're built using a set of cloud-specific DevOps methodologies, technologies, and architectural approaches: lightweight container environments, infrastructure as code, microservices, orchestration
4. Why Would You Develop a Cloud-Native App? 7 Main Reasons
If you think that the above-mentioned characteristics don't stand as strong enough reasons for you to opt for cloud-native development, here are some more convincing ones:
4.1. Managing Your Infrastructure Gets Easier
Let the serverless handle it for you!
With serverless platforms like AWS Lambda and Azure Functions, operations like configuring your networking, provisioning cloud instances and making sure there's enough storage will get automatically taken care of.
All there's left for you to do is upload your code as functions...
4.2. Cloud-Native Apps Are Resilient to Failures
“What is a cloud-native application?” It's that “ideal” app that ships with built-in self-healing.
Therefore, expect it to handle outages automatically, to be inherently fault-tolerant. If trouble strikes, you cloud-native app processing will move from one data center to another promptly and discreetly.
In short: the end user's experience won't get affected and you don't need to worry about downtime costs.
4.3. You Can Release Your Apps Faster
Since it supports DevOps processes — streamlining key operations like build, test, deployment automation and collaboration — your cloud-native app will speed up the whole software delivery process.
4.4. Lower Costs
And the 4 key reasons behind the inevitable reduction of costs are:
containers: containerizing your app will enable you to manage it easier and safer
cloud-native tools, which lead to a certain standardization of the tooling
the open-source model
the serverless computing, which supports a pay-per-use model and enhances flexibility in pricing
4.5. Your App Scales Automatically to Accommodate Your Growing Needs
One of the main attributes of a cloud-native app's architecture is auto-scaling.
Basically, your app will scale, by default, to handle your future business needs. And this reflects in the costs, as well: you'll get charged only for the computing resources that you'll use.
4.6. You App Supports Auto-Provisioning
Just imagine: your business-critical app will run non-eventful, using an on-demand allocation of services right from the app.
It will automatically tap into self-service and programmatic provisioning, so you don't need to manually provide them with the resources they need to run smoothly.
4.7. You'll Provide a Better Customer Experience
And it's quite predictable since the cloud-native principles revolve around a fast shipment of new features and continuous iteration.
The END!
Is my answer to your “What is a cloud-native application” question clear enough? And what about the above-listed reasons to opt for this type of app development architecture?
Are they relevant enough for your own scenario?
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
RADU SIMILEANU / Jul 22'2019
Just imagine: you update content on one of your Drupal websites and it gets automatically synchronized across your whole network! That's Drupal on Blockchain in just a few words...
Say you manage a national library's infrastructure of Drupal websites. One for each one of its local branches.
Now, here's how moving all the user data stored in there from your centralized database onto a decentralized blockchain system would benefit you:
readers get to validate their own user data since there's no central entity having full (and exclusive) control over it
once they've updated their user data on one of the library's websites, it'll get synchronized across the entire network
the well-known vulnerability to errors of centralized multi-site structures gets eliminated; there's no longer a centralized database acting as a single point of failure
the decentralized architecture speeds up any operation that gets performed across the network
you'd avoid scenarios where the same reader enters his login credentials on one of the library's websites and gets asked to enter them, once again, when accessing the website of another library branch
And I would also add: increased transparency, lower transaction costs...
But I'd better dive into more details on how Blockchain and Drupal can work together and how you can benefit from the decentralized architecture that they'd put together:
1. Blockchain: What You Need to Know About Its Potential
But first, here's Blockchain in plain words:
A decentralized shared system where multiple participants store their data, interact directly with each other, manage and keep record of their transactions.
How is it different from the “old” way of managing transactions across a network?
there's no more a centralized database for storing data and transactions; participants (nodes) store it among themselves
… this grants them total control over their own data/created content
users involved in a blockchain network get to interact with one another freely, with no need of a third-party as an intermediary
it establishes a system of rule-based transactions
each transaction — editing, deleting content, etc. — gets documented
it enhances communication between nodes/participants
transactions get carried out at higher speed and, implicitly, with fewer costs
with no central entity as a unique storage source, there's no single source of failure anymore
enhanced transparency
In short: blockchain enables you to set up a secure and immutable architecture for your network.
2. Blockchain and a New Content Distribution Model
“Transparency” is the keyword here. Decentralizing a content distribution platform would benefit both content creators and content consumers:
digital publishers become the only ones allowed to update or delete their own content
consumers pay producers directly for the content they consume (written content, songs, videos, etc.)
This way: content creators get full control over their own content — there's no platform owner who could remove it to his/her liking — and get paid fairly and in real-time, for each piece of content that gets “consumed”.
3. Drupal on Blockchain: Why, How, and With What Costs?
Why would you want to decentralize your CMS — in this case, Drupal — and store your data on Blockchain?
To answer your question, let me highlight just a few of the inconveniences of managing your content on a centralized Drupal database:
each transaction is explicit and irreversible
it poses a higher vulnerability to errors
multiple-user functionality can turn out to be a serious dread
the centralized database acts as a single point of failure: if something crashes in there, the whole system is at risk
updating content in your database doesn't automatically update it across your entire network of Drupal websites...
And how would the 2 technologies work together? Considering the fundamental differences between them:
Drupal uses a centralized architecture to manage content
Blockchain uses a decentralized, middleman-free workflow based on a verification element
Before I try to answer your legitimate question, let me ask you this:
Do you seize any similarity between Drupal's “open data” phylosophy and Blockchain's “decentralized data” principle?
Now, here's how your hypothetical “Drupal on Blockchain” architecture would look like:
it'd be a much more secure, decentralized structure (you'd remove the single point of failure, remember?)
since a blockchain workflow would use an immutable validation of data, it'll act as a guarantee that no content can get modified by other than its creator/distributor
user data/content would be easily accessible across the entire infrastructure (take the example of an enterprise-level business, running a multi-site Drupal network)
… and it'd synchronize in real-time across all your Drupal instances, as well...
transactions performed within this architecture would be rule-based: every single content update or removal will get documented
“But at what costs?” you might ask. What compromises would you need to make to run Drupal on Blockchain?
What challenges should you get prepared for?
Here are 2 potential “dares” to ponder upon:
first of all, integrating your current Drupal data into a blockchain system won't be quite a “piece of cake”
secondly, getting the consensus of all the participants (say users whose data would be easily accessible network-wide) is also a serious issue to consider
4. Drupal Development Efforts in this Direction: The Blockchain Module
This duo — Drupal and Blockchain — has generated quite a lot of talk these years. And quite a handful of promising initiatives and even prototypes have been presented (integrations with Etherium and bitcoin...)
From all these initiatives of the Drupal community, I've decided to put the spotlight onto the Blockchain module (not yet covered by Drupal's privacy policy).
Take it as a “scaffolding” to support your future “Drupal on Blockchain” architectures. It provides the functionality you need to:
set up your Drupal installations as blockchain nodes; ”nodes” that are independent, meaning they can get configured independently
ensure that your newly set up nodes are compatible with each other
The END!
This is the “why, how and at what costs” of this topic. One which has been on the lips (and on the Drupalcon slides) of members of the Drupal community for quite a while now.
What do you think?
Would such a decentralized Drupal on Blockchain architecture suit your own project's needs and constraints? Would you trade your central point of storage for the convenience of automated content synchronization?
Photo by Clint Adair on Unsplash
RADU SIMILEANU / Jun 28'2019
"What are some of the biggest companies using Node.js?" Some Node.js applications trafficked by... millions of users, on a daily basis, processing huge loads of data in record time...
Those globally-known projects that are currently leveraging this JavaScript runtime's most powerful advantages: top performance and unmatched scalability...
A legitimate question to ask yourself if you're toying with the thought of creating your own project on Node.js these days.
In this respect, here are 4 such global players who've switched over to Node.js to get inspired by:
1. LinkedIn
The business-oriented social network, with over +450 million members, has been one of the first global players to feature a mobile app backend built entirely on Node.js.
Why Node.js?
because it scales like no other
because it outshines Ruby on Rails, the technology that the company switched from, from a performance standpoint
because it's the best for calling other services; and it was critical that their app should communicate seamlessly with their database and the platform API
Main benefits for using Node.js:
they doubled their traffic capacity
they speeded up the development process: both front-end and back-end mobile developers can now tap into their JavaScript skills and merge into one single team
they've freed their resources, reducing the number of servers from 15 to... 4
they've boosted their app's performance on the client-side; it now runs up to 10 times faster
2. Paypal
200 million users, transactions in +100 currencies...
Now, that says something about Node.js's built-in capabilities to withstand huge amounts of traffic and to overcome major data processing challenges.
No wonder that this globally-known online payment service is now featuring a client-facing side web app on Node.js.
Why Node.js?
because it enables development teams to use the same language, JavaScript, for both the browser and the server
… and this speeds up the development lifecycle dramatically (removing the need to use Java, on one hand, and JS, HTML, CSS, on the other hand)
Main benefits for using Node.js:
they've built their application 2 times faster
it's one of those Node.js applications that's got significantly lighter; it now includes 40% fewer files and 30% less code
the “new” network app now serves twice as many requests per second
3. Netflix, One of the Highest Traffic Node.js Applications
Netflix's user interface is the perfect example of how Node.js's built to cope with massive loads of traffic and data-intensive streaming scenarios...
In short: you have a global streaming service, a heavy network infrastructure of 130 million users, with its server-side rendering powered by Node.js.
Why Node.js?
because it simplifies and streamlines the whole development process: developers now get to use JavaScript for both client-side and server-side coding
because it ships with a rich collection of modules for any functionality they might need to implement
because it's just... fast; speed and load time sure are some critical aspects to consider in case of a high traffic video content provider like Netflix
Main benefits for using Node.js:
a modular, lightweight and fast application: load time has been reduced by 70%
they've cut down their build times dramatically (with JavaScript now being the only language used for both the back-end and the front-end of their app)
user customization is now possible
Note: Netflix's UI is, no doubt, one of the most successful Node.js projects out there and it's not just their app's skyrocketing popularity that confirms it, but the company's own intention to move their data access layers to Node.js, as well.
4. Uber
Connecting drivers and passengers worldwide, the ever-growing online transportation network dependeds on a system with outstanding data processing capabilities.
And Node.js excels at I/O-intensive tasks...
Why Node.js?
because it scales like no other, coping with an increasing demand for mobile taxi services
because it's designed to support distributed systems sending a heavy load of network requests
because it gets constantly and continuously upgraded by its dedicated open source community
because it's built to process massive amounts of data in record time, risk-free
because it provides quick error analysis and almost instant code deployment; programs get scanned through and new code deployed in... no time
Main benefits for using Node.js:
Uber is one of those Node.js applications processing +2 million remote procedure calls within one second; even when challenged to withstand high spikes of traffic...
The END!
Are these heavy-weight names convincing enough? Are these 4 large scale and top performant Node.js projects inspiring enough for you?
Photo by Marianne Krohn on Unsplash
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jun 25'2019
What does Drupal 8 do that Laravel does not? What key functionalities, that Drupal ships with, do you need to build from scratch in Laravel? And how would opting for Laravel benefit your specific type of project? In short: Laravel or Drupal 8?
“It's like comparing apples to oranges” some might say since one's a framework and the other one a CMS.
Even so, if it's unclear to you what are their particular use cases and their built-in features, you won't know whether it's a CMS or a framework that best suits your project type, right? That best serves your project-specific needs:
to be super fast
to leverage a solid, off-the-shelf content management system for publishing different pieces of content on the website
to feature an easy to scale database
to support multisite
to tap into robust user and content management features that are already implemented
to be built on top of a solid framework acting as a reliable back-end application
to leverage a highly intuitive admin user interface
to be 101% secure
to leverage a mixture of server and client-side logic
Now, keep your list of project requirements and constraints at hand to evaluate these 2 technologies' pros and cons against it:
1. Drupal 8: Top Benefits, Main Drawbacks, and Specific Use Cases
If a robust user and content management system is critical for your project, then Drupal 8 makes the smartest choice. It's that “thing” that Drupal excels at that, which would take you a whole lot more time to do in Laravel.
And it's not just its robustness that might “lure you in”, but the level of convenience that it provides: a lot of the essential features and functionalities that you might need are already built-in.
Moreover, you can easily manage them and custom-tune them via your admin interface...
By comparison, you'd need to build these functionalities, from the ground up, if you chose to go with Laravel.
Top benefits:
you can rest assured that your website runs on a particularly robust, Symfony-based CMS
there's a huge, dedicated community backing it up
you get to create various content types, for different parts of your website, assigned with different roles; unlike basic CMSs, that enable you to write... posts and to create new web pages
you can set up different editorial workflows and assign specific user roles, with fine-grained access control
you can always further extend its CMS-specific functionalities: extensibility is one of the strongest Drupal 8 benefits
Main drawbacks:
you do need a team of Drupal experts (senior-level preferably) to keep an eye on your Drupal 8 website/app and keep everything properly maintained
you can't get away with a “get it up and running and... move on” type of philosophy; Drupal 8 is a more of a long-term commitment: there's always a newly launched promising module to consider adding on, a new update to run...
Specific Use Cases for Drupal 8:
large-scale projects that depend on a robust and reliable content management system; one that withstands an intense, ongoing process of creating, editing and publishing lots of fresh content
Laravel or Drupal 8? Definitely the later if it's a multi-site, multi-language web project that you plan to develop; not only that it streamlines content publishing across your whole network, but it significantly speeds up localization thanks to its server-side caching capabilities
It means that no matter the place on the globe where that your users might be located, they get to access your web pages and have them loaded... instantly.
2. Laravel: Pros, Cons, and Project Types that It's Best Suited For
Laravel stands out as a highly reputed, powerful PHP framework.
If:
maintainability is one of your biggest concerns
you're looking for a robust framework
you need to carry out your project fast enough
you need a framework that ships with all the latest functionalities
... then Laravel is what you need.
Top Benefits:
a fast-growing, devoted community
you can easily integrate LDAP authentication
it leverages the Model-View-Controller architecture
it's just... fast
provides you with a great admin user interfaces
it “spoils” you with intiutive, beautifully written code
it ships with a heavy “toolbox”: scan through and pick the most suitable one(s) for your project
in-built code for social login and sending out emails
everything you might need to set up during the development process is right there, already integrated into your code: cron jobs, database queries, routes...
Main drawbacks:
more often than not identifying performance issues isn't that straightforward
upgrading to the latest version of Laravel can turn out to be quite a challenge: be prepared for “buggy scenarios” and for the need to rewrite code
you can't just jump straight to Laravel: learning the basics of OOPS first things first is a must
Specific Use Cases:
your project needs a back-end application (rather than an off-the-shelf CMS)
when the benefits of the MVC architecture (faster development process, suitable for large-scale projects, multiple views, etc.) are critical for the given project
whenever you need to mix client-side with server logic
whenever time is the main concern for you: you just need your project developed super fast
3. So... Laravel or Drupal 8?
Now, I'm sure that you already anticipate my answer:
The choice depends strictly on your project requirement and objectives.
On your own hierarchy of priorities in terms of features and functionalities.
And depending on these key aspects, that should be clearly defined, one technology will benefit you over the other.
So... what type of project are you looking to build?
Photo by Raquel Martínez on Unsplash
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jun 20'2019