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As the market for Node.js continues to pick up, companies such as NodeSource and Modulus are stepping in to meet the needs of a growing number of developers seeking tools and support.
NodeSource, a provider of Node.js tools, integration and support for the enterprise, announced it is doubling the size of its leadership team with four key executive hires.
The company, which recently announced Node.js support services for enterprise customers, also promoted two of its top-level engineers, furthering the company’s commitment to help enterprises that want to leverage the capabilities of Node.js in their technology stack.
Node.js is a development platform built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. It is an open source, cross-platform runtime environment for server-side and networking applications. Node.js applications are written in JavaScript and can be run within the Node.js runtime on OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, NonStop, IBM AIX, IBM System z and IBM i.
Joining the NodeSource executive team are Mark Piening, Dave Lutz, Chip Ray and Kevin Stewart. Mark Piening is the company’s chief operating officer and brings more than 20 years in enterprise software and systems experience to NodeSource, including stints at VERITAS and Symantec. Dave Lutz is vice president of customer success, where he will focus on service, training, and support for NodeSource clients including Uber, NASA and PayPal. Lutz has more than 25 years of enterprise software experience to NodeSource, including having worked at IBM and Oracle. As vice president of product, Chip Ray will drive product strategy and manage NodeSource products. And Kevin Stewart is the company’s vice president of product engineering. He is a 10-year veteran from Adobe where he worked on Adobe Creative Cloud and helped Adobe migrate systems from Ruby to Node. Piening, Lutz and Ray join NodeSource at its Austin, Texas location and Stewart will be based in Seattle.
NodeSource CEO, Joe McCann, credits the company’s “Distributed by Design” architecture as a key factor in attracting top talent to NodeSource in such a short amount of time. The new hires not only illustrate the growing demand for Node.js expertise to keep pace with the rapid adoption of enterprise JavaScript, but also reflect the benefits of the company’s decentralized structure, he said. NodeSource’s location-agnostic, employee-centric culture allows the company to hire top talent anywhere in the world without the disruptive relocation process often associated with recruitment, McCann added. In keeping with the modular architecture of Node.js applications, employees are provided with perks such as Airbnb stipends, which enable them to work from anywhere in the world, but also to cluster in a single location when needed.
“Mark, Dave, Chip, and Kevin bring tremendous experience in enterprise software and services,” McCann said in a statement. “But they also represent a team that believes deeply in the benefits of a globally distributed company, and the unparalleled scalability and access to talent that this architecture offers. This leadership team will help NodeSource grow our product portfolio, client base, service offerings, and company. From the jump we have built a foundation that relies on self-starting, top-tier individuals in their respective fields.”
NodeSource also announced the promotions of Rod Vagg, based in Sydney, Australia, to chief Node officer, and Bryce Baril, based in Portland, Ore., to senior Node engineer.
“At NodeSource, we do things a little bit differently,” McCann said in a blog post from June 2014. “We are Distributed by Design, meaning, our team is globally distributed from the beginning. We have no central office. This enables our teammates to spend more time with their families and their friends. It empowers them to travel and get out and see the world.”
Modulus, NodeSource Push Enterprise Node.js Adoption
Meanwhile, Modulus, which offers a platform for hosting Node.js applications, announced it is now supporting Python and MongoDB 3.0. The startup began as company focused on providing a platform for hosting Node.js and MongoDB, and now it offers a polyglot platform for application developers using Docker.
In a December blog post, Paul Nashawaty, director of product and solutions marketing strategy at Progress Software, which acquired Modulus last year, said Modulus had doubled its customer base in the last six months and is working with companies like Citrix and Fitbit. Nashawaty also said he believes the popularity of JavaScript is “due, in no small part, to the growing popularity of Node.js.”
He noted that JavaScript is a ubiquitous language, well known by millions of developers.
“When using Node.js, JavaScript becomes a fully functional server-side programming language that is well suited for making real-time business apps and APIs,” Nashawaty said. “Node.js increases the number of apps a company can run because of Node.js’ modularity. Companies can replace their large monolithic applications into small, modular components that developer productivity. Server-side functionality is critical for IoT, wearables and other emerging devices. Node.js is made for the mobile functionality permeating every facet of business today. By using the Modulus platform, companies have a way to manage, monitor and scale the growth of their Node.js applications.”
Modulus announced it now supports both Python and MongoDB 3.0. With the addition of Python, this means that Modulus users will now be able to easily host Django apps. Django is a popular python-based Web application framework. To deploy a Python Web application, a Modulus user only needs to add a simple command –modulus deploy, the company said.
Despite its support for Python and MongoDB, Modulus will continue to focus most of its resources on Node. “Node will continue to be a major focus as our company was founded in the Node.js space and we believe that it has a great future,” Modulus co-founder Charlie Key told eWEEK. “We believe that adding new technologies based on customer feedback is important as well and has led us to adding Python, PHP and Java. We have always supported some version of MongoDB and will continue to push to support the latest features and versions in order to give the best customer experience possible.”
For MongoDB 3.0, Modulus is now offering users access to it and the ability to provision MongoDB instances in its Joyent Amsterdam region. The current MongoDB deployment regions are now AWS us-east-1a, Joyent us-east-1, and Joyent eu-ams-1. As with previous versions of Modulus’ MongoDB instances, oplog access is available on dedicated plans.
“With the addition of both Python and Mongo DB 3.0, it is further proof that we can continue to not only add new technologies, but also offer the continued support that Modulus users have come to expect,” Key said in a statement. “By using Docker as our underlying platform, it will enable Modulus to continue and rapidly add support for new language additions, which in turn will allow Modulus clients new ways to leverage the platform for their entire enterprise.”