We’ve been broadcasting live from Joyent’s first 2012 NodeSummit in San Francisco, and our own John Furrier and Alex Williams caught up with company founder and CTO Jason Hoffman to discuss everything Node.js.

The interview went into second gear after Hoffman provided a quick run-down of his company’s eight-year history. They started out as what he referred to as an infrastructure system software firm, and today they’re among the oldest and biggest players in this market, trailing just behind Amazon. The competition is still intense, and Hoffman thinks Joyent got the lead thanks to the support it gives to its community and the visibility that’s built into the language.

The most recent milestone for the Joyent is the massive $85 million round of funding announced just this week, which was naturally brought up several times throughout the 20-minute chat on theCube.

Later, Hoffman summarized where he thinks Node.js stands in the industry, and where it fits in with all the cloud buzzing going on today. Web-based apps are seeing more adoption in both the consumer and enterprise segments, and server-client apps are turning into real-time “small data” sync peers.  Mobile is becoming an even bigger driver, Joyent’s founder added, and demand from mobile workers will drive demand for easily accessible cloud applications.

All these new end points have transformed many networks into a back point/abstraction layer, and this is where Node.js comes in the picture. Hoffman described the open-source programming language his firm is sponsoring as the new platform that runs on top of that layer and helps developers address the market’s demands.

The discussion was then extended to the Node.js ecosystem. It’s constantly expanding thanks to new startups that offer products and service designed for and/or based on the language. Among them is The Node Firm, and, as one Twitter user highlighted, a whole lineup of DevOps tools providers.


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