A Comprehensive Guide to Developing Scalable Web Applications for Your Business

The capacity to scale a web app is an important aspect of its development. You need to be prepared for the inflow of users and anticipate the system to handle it, regardless of the kind of project you want to launch. You should be extra careful because there may come a time when your system isn’t flexible enough to handle a lot of work. Before the development step begins, it is essential to begin working on application scalability to prevent this.

This article explains how to make scalable web applications that can process a huge stream of data without going down unexpectedly. Therefore, let’s learn more about this procedure and the guide to building a scalable web application.

How Do You Make a Web App That Scales Up with Your Business?

Let’s go over the steps involved in creating scalable web applications.

STEP #1: Manage Stakeholder Anticipations Regarding Web Application Scaling

If your web application is already scaling in accordance with your business plan, it is meeting your company’s growth needs. Avoid attempting to increase scalability when you don’t have to. You must carry out the following:

· Collect data to confirm that your web app’s scalability supports your business strategy.

· Make it clear to the stakeholders in your company that projects that expand and the contract can be costly.

· Make it clear to the stakeholders that such projects can make the system more complicated and make it harder to add features in the future.

· Set the expectations of your business stakeholders so that you don’t take on projects just because everyone else is talking about scalable web apps.

Step #2: Metrics to Determine Your Web Application’s Scalability Problem

Let’s move on and assume that your web application is indeed experiencing scalability issues. You must use the appropriate metrics to define your specific scalability issue. There are four scalability metrics to examine at a high level:

· Utilization of memory

· CPU usage, which typically indicates poor app performance when it is high

· Network I/O

· I/O Disk

STEP #3: Make Use of The Right Tools to Keep an Eye on Your Web App’s Scalability

Now that you know which metrics to focus on, you should keep an eye on how your app performs in relation to those metrics on a regular basis. A good Application Performance Monitoring (APM) solution is necessary if you manage your own infrastructure.

· The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Beanstalk comes with its own built-in monitoring system.

· Another well-known PaaS is Heroku, and its own New Relic add-on is used for monitoring.

· As part of its catalog of services, IBM Cloud PaaS offers its monitoring service.

· Additionally, Microsoft Azure PaaS offers a monitoring solution.

Typically, monitoring solutions offer useful insights. These should assist you in determining your areas of focus.

Step #4: Use the Right Infrastructure Options for Scalability

Employ a PaaS (Platform as a Service) provider for your custom web application development because it makes a lot of sense for entrepreneurs. PaaS is a model of cloud computing in which a managed cloud services provider handles many aspects, such as:

· Infrastructure

· Networking

· Servers

· Storage

· Middleware

· OS, or operating system

· Environment for the game

· Database

· The capacity to easily integrate with third-party service providers.

Step #5: Choose the Right Architecture Pattern for Scalability

When developing a scalable web application, a crucial consideration is the architecture of the large-scale web application. Scalability can be significantly impacted by architectural issues. I have previously discussed numerous architecture patterns in “Large enterprise Java projects architecture.”

The following example will demonstrate the significance of the architectural pattern:

Consider the scenario in which you are developing a web app tool with a likely large user base. Because of the tool’s nature, certain functions are frequently utilized by all users. Other functions, on the other hand, may not be utilized as frequently by users. It would be wise to bundle the routine tasks together and offer plugins for everything else. Utilizing the microkernel architecture pattern will be advantageous in this instance.

Step #6: Use the Right Database to Achieve Scaling

After addressing the infrastructure and architecture aspects, the database is an obvious focus for scaling. When it comes to databases, keep in mind that there are no “one-size-fits-all” recommendations. You must carry out the following:

· Detail your web app’s requirements. Think about the types of data you will store will only relational data be included? Do you also need to keep “disconnected” data, which is data that doesn’t have any relationships with transactions? Do you store both types of data?

· Your relational data will require a relational database management system (RDBMS). High scalability RDBMS options include PostgreSQL and MySQL.

· Your “disconnected” data will require NoSQL databases. NoSQL database MongoDB is highly scalable.” The best NoSQL database options for your business requirements” provides additional examples.

· Finally, you will need to incorporate the chosen database into your app. It will be simple for you to use a reputable PaaS provider, as we suggested, as most of them provide excellent documentation to guide you.

Step #7: Select A Framework That Aids Scalability

It’s time we focus on the development framework since it has a noticeable impact on scalability. Depending on your choice of the development language, you have quite a few options, as follows:

· If you prefer Java, then you can consider the tried-and-tested “Spring” framework. There is excellent documentation, moreover, your development team might already know this. You can check out other options in “The 10 best Java web frameworks”.

· Ruby on Rails is an excellent option. Note that Heroku, one of the PaaS options I have mentioned has a high degree of capability with it.

· If you like Node.js, then is a great option.

Final Word

Whether you want to build a simple website or a complex app for your business, you should always consider scalability. Even though you are just getting started and your website most probably doesn’t get a lot of traffic, however, it will get more visitors as your project progresses. With stable performance and a hassle-free on-site experience, scalable web applications can easily handle the increased workload. From the very beginning, prepare your web application’s server.

Keep in mind that developing scalable web applications requires a significant investment of time, practice, and money. Before making any final decisions, estimate your resources with the help of Golpik. Contact us to discuss your web app project requirements.