Node.js

compared to traditional
Java EE Application Servers

Niko Köbler

Independent Software-Architect, Developer & Trainer

> niko@n-k.de > www.n-k.de > @dasniko

Why?

> Java app servers are dead!?

> Node.js hipster app!

> Java is slow... (and Node.js is fast?)

But is that all true?

Which one is faster/better/hipster?

Some research...

> Node.js performance +20% vs. Java

...but no async code in Java...!

http://blog.shinetech.com/2013/10/22/performance-comparison-between-node-js-and-java-ee/

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2883328/java/java-vs-nodejs-an-epic-battle-for-developer-mindshare.html

Rock-solid foundation

Cross-compiling from one to the other

Node.js

Java

Topic winning

Remote debugging

Database queries

JSON

Solid engineering

Speed

Threads

Momentum

Ubiquity

Better IDEs

Build process simplified

Libraries

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2883328/java/java-vs-nodejs-an-epic-battle-for-developer-mindshare.html

What was the challenge?

About UseCases and MicroServices

The Customer

> conservative

> anxious, frightened

> standards are 10-15 years behind

> beware of all "new" (tech bubbles)

> "enterprise chief architect"

The UseCase

> key management, use every key only once

> ~10.000.000 keys per day
(avg. 115 req/sec, max. 900 req/sec)

> business analysts advised MongoDB

> no NoSQL database used so far

Create a MicroService!

> bounded (api) context

> independendly deployable

> own datastore (we used Redis key/value store)

> resilience (w/ use of Sentinel)

> scalable

> lightweight

> own process

I'm a JavaScript fanboy!

(server-side, not necessarily front-end!)

Let's use Node.js!

> one, lightweight, independent process

> good and easy-to-use redis/sentinel communication
(also asnychronously)

> few lines of code

> solution was ready after 30mins of coding

No!

Unfortunately, the customer said:

But..!

I tried to convince:

You have to use Java!

> Can I use Vert.x?

> No, only JBoss EAP 6 (Java EE 6 with Java 7)

> But that's a heavy-weighted, old-fashioned application server, and everybody is claiming:

> App Servers are dead!

> Do I really have to use such a rhinoceros for such a small "no-brainer"?

How did we solve it?

Let's have a look into the code...

Repositories:

Node.js:

https://gist.github.com/dasniko/48d65bddb06ad6eaad24

Wildfly:

https://github.com/dasniko/wildfly-async-redis

Thanks to @Suspend!

> Java EE 6 / JAX-RS 1.x doesn't support async requests

> synchronous requests result in many HTTP worker threads

> Resteasy provides @Suspend annotation

> Asynchronous processing becomes true in JAX-RS 1.x

> For the sake of completeness:
use an asynchronous redis connector

Results!

> Node.js: 1 OS thread

> JBoss EAP: 1 JVM thread,

only ~3 http-worker-threads used

> load/stress tests were performed with Gatling.io

50 threads	min	tps
Node.js	1ms	~2.000 req/sec
JBoss EAP	1ms	~2.000 req/sec

Where to next?

Think about...

> using more http-worker-threads

> optimizing your code/infrastructure

> scaling your services

> using Wildfly Swarm (or Spring Boot, Vert.x, whatever) instead of EAP

> ...you name it!

It doesn't matter

which technology you use.

Use it right!

Thank you!

Any Questions?