Going back to 2012, there was plenty of discussion in technology circles about Node.js, a JavaScript runtime based on Chrome’s V8 engine. It held tremendous promise as a lightweight, efficient, non-blocking development framework that was made to order for the Web. The problem was that no one was using it.

Fast forward to 2017, and the picture has changed dramatically. Node.js now has a broad diversity of applications inside the enterprise, and a foundation report shows that three in four Node users plan to increase usage over the coming year. It is also currently described as having the largest package ecosystem of open-source libraries in the world.

The expanding interest in Node.js has pleased Charles Beeler (pictured), general partner at Rally Ventures, who produces the Node Summit conference series. “It’s not just Internet companies. You look at Capital One, and some of the big banks and true enterprise companies that are using this; it’s been fun to watch,” Beeler said.

During Node Summit 2017 in San Francisco, California, Beeler spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, reflecting on how the Node community is dealing with its own growing pains. His insight spans the developer’s role in applying Node.js to markets across the Internet of Things and cloud deployments, as well as the technology’s changing landscape for cybersecurity. (* Disclosure below.)

This week theCUBE features Charles Beeler as our Guest of the Week.

Open-source community helps growing pains

When a technology gains wider acceptance quickly, there are bound to be growing pains. An example of this inside the Node.js community has involved issues with debugging applications, cited as the top pain point among developers in a recent survey by Node.js consultancy RisingStack. Problems with memory and upscaling were called out as other major challenges for Node.js developers.

A diverse, open-source community will help resolve many of the issues with Node.js, according to Beeler. “It starts with encouraging a broad, diverse group of people to be interested in this business. Almost any open-source community could benefit from looking not just at how they’ve done it, but who the people are and how they have driven it,” he said.

A significant area of growth for Node.js is IoT. Surveys show that more than 90 percent of IoT developers are using JavaScript and Node.js frameworks in development. This kind of developer interest feeds on itself in building even more enthusiasm for the technology, Beeler stated. “The next question is: ‘This worked, but what else can we be doing?’” he added.

Node.js is also attracting the attention of large firms in the cloud services space. “When we first started, Google was nowhere to be found. Node for both IBM and Google is now the most deployed stack in terms of what they’re seeing on their cloud,” Beeler said.

Asked about major technology areas of interest for his firm, Beeler singled out security as a prime topic. He noted that five security companies were Node Summit sponsors (including Twistlock, a container security company, and Bugcrowd, which enables crowdsourced security testing for the enterprise).

Chief information security executives are looking for tools that protect the enterprise while reducing time, energy and money, according to Beeler. “The question is: ‘What will you allow me to replace so that the net cost to add your solution is actually neutral or negative?’” Beeler said. “When you ask that of every company who’s at Black Hat or RSA [conferences], there’s not very many of the companies who can answer that in a concise way.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Node Summit 2017.

Photo: SiliconANGLE