Choosing the Right Backend Technology

Choosing among a plethora of backend technologies is an important and hectic task. Choosing a backend technology must include criteria like reliability, security, speed and scalability. The company’s and the project’s requirements are also to be considered rather than the latest trends. Following is a step-by-step guide to help make a decision about your backend technology to be chosen:

1. Project Requirements

Defining your project requirements and understanding your project is very crucial. Understand and define the following for your project.

• Functionality– Defining what the application does and its features, functions and operations.
• Scalability– Defining the potential growth of the application. How will the application grow among users?
• Performance– Assessing the performance and responsive parameters of the application.

2. Understanding Backend Technologies

The developer should know about the various backend technologies available in the market. A brief discussion on this topic is done earlier in the article.

3. Team’s Expertise

Your team’s development skills and expertise play an important role in deciding among various technologies. Consider the following:

• Skills– Assess the skills and experience of your team for various languages and frameworks.
• Training– The team’s willingness to learn is important. The technology that is being considered to be used should have a smooth learning curve too.

Considering this aspect helps increase speed and quality and reduce the development time.

4. Performance and Scalability

Evaluation of performance and scalability is an important aspect as it impacts the responsiveness and reliability of the application to handle demands.

• Load Handling– Choosing a technology that can handle various levels of traffic without fail is a plus point.
• Caching– Technologies using caching techniques improve performance and scalability.

5. Security

Security is the top requirement for any application and the technology used makes a great impact on that.

• Data Security– The technology used should ensure data security and protect user data at all costs.
• Authentication and Authorization– The technology must ensure only permitted users and prevent any breach.
• Backups and Recovery– Backups are necessary in case of failures or breaches to ensure data security.

6. Cost

The financial aspect of the project is an important part to look into. The technologies to be chosen must lie within your budget. Many financial considerations like licensing fees, hosting and infrastructure costs, operational costs and scalability costs are to be looked into.

7. Trends and Industry Standards

Going with the trends and industry standards is essential for your project to remain competitive, secure and interoperable with other systems.

Final Decision

After considering all the factors mentioned above it’s time to make the final decision. Weight the pros and cons, consult an expert, conduct a cost-benefit analysis, document the decision and lay the plan out.

Have you ever wondered how all your profile data, your friends and connections, and new recommendations to you are done so efficiently by social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram? Whenever you make a transaction from your bank account, the change is instantly reflected in your bank balance. How do you get connected to the closest ride to you whenever you book on Uber or Ola? How many players from various geographical locations can play together and compete with each other in online games? All this is possible due to the backend systems that are essential for a wide range of applications.

Backend refers to that part of the application where all the major operations that keep the application working take place. It is responsible for accessing and managing data, implementing the business logic, and maintaining the desired overall functionality of the application. Users of the application cannot access or interact with this part directly as it is possible for the front end of the application. It comprises all the databases, authentication tools, application programming interfaces (APIs) and other server-side functionalities like routing, logic and interfaces. Backend being the backbone of the application, choosing the right backend technology is important according to your use case. In this article, we’ll discuss the various backend technologies available in the market and how to choose among them.