Node.js in NoVA!

We recently launched the NovaNode meetup group focusing on the Node.js event-driven JavaScript framework. We have a great set of talks lined up for our inaugural meetup event on March 20, 2012 at 6:30 pm. We’re hosting things at SpanishDict’s offices in Arlington, VA near the Clarendon metro stop.

Nova Node

Our talks are:

  • “Getting Started with Node.js in the Cloud”, which I’ll present.
  • “Everyauth: OAuth for Busy Nerds” by Jason Bond Pratt, Co-founder of Tixelated. OAuth is the standard interface for web services integration for user authentication, and is your starting point for linking an application to Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Jason’s talk will take us through Everyauth’s basic architecture and integration with other data stores like MongoDB.

Getting Started with Node.js in the Cloud

Node.js provides a solid platform for scalable and responsive web applications. Development in Node.js further has a lower learning curve compared to many highly-concurrent / asynchronous frameworks as it uses JavaScript, which is very familiar territory for web developers.

The cloud complements Node.js by providing the means to deploy applications rapidly and scale up with no upfront investment costs. The “big” cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Rackspace easily support an infrastructures for hosting Node.js applications. Moreover, there has been a burst of Platform-as-a-Service contenders that provide even easier Node.js application hosting, including: Heroku, NodeJitsu and even Microsoft’s Azure platform.

In my talk, I’ll walk through a basic Node.js application that we develop, deploy and then scale easily in the cloud. I’ll discuss best practices and what opportunities and pitfalls lie ahead when taking your Node.js applications to the cloud.

Hope to see you at the meetup!