CHOOSING THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY STACK FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Think about building a house when you think about choosing the right technology
stack for your business.
The strength and longevity of architecture is determined by the building
materials used. Similarly, when it
comes to developing your digital business, the technology stack acts as a
building block. Your selection of
the technology stack can influence the performance and scalability of your
application, the pace of software
development, the appointment of the right software developers, and, ultimately,
the cost of the support and
maintenance of the project.
In layman’s terms, a technical stack is a combination of different technologies
like JavaScript, Ruby, WordPress, Python, and PostgreSQL. It helps create an
operating system, databases, web frameworks, a mobile application, backend
servers, or something that caters to the needs of millions of users. It
influences the user interaction and accessibility of your digital product. It
defines the nature of the application and determines what it can be in
future.
To understand the role of the technology stack in your business, you should know
its two equally
essential sides: the front end or client side and the back end or server side.
Front-end deals with the
user experience. That means linking technology and design for the end-users.
Everything a user clicks,
swipes, drags or drops on a website or a mobile application comes under the
client side. Front-end developers
deploy technologies like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), JavaScript (JS) or
Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS) to enhance the user experience, convenience, and accessibility.
The backend developers focus on programming languages, frameworks, servers, and
databases. The backend side,
which is strictly a developer’s area that is invisible to the users, is where
customization of business logic and building of
software structure take place. During the early stages of a project, the
selection of the right backend stack is very crucial. No one
starts building a house with furnishing and decoration; one should begin with
the foundation and walls.
Some of the top technology stacks include MEAN and Ruby on Rails. MEAN is an
acronym for MongoDB, Express, AngularJS,
and Node.js. MEAN can be used for sophisticated mobile and highly responsive web
applications. Ruby on Rails facilitates efficient
software development, saves time, and makes debugging easy.
Now, let’s look at the benchmarks we should consider when choosing the right
technology stack for your business.
Requirements of your Business
Believe it or not, most software companies are striving to become the next
Google. They overlook the fundamental requirements for their business. Copying
someone’s strategy blindly will not help in this game. Never buy a Ferrari if a
Honda Civic will do the job. Implementing the latest yet high-priced technology
stack in your business project can backfire.
First of all, you should understand your particular business’s complexity, size,
and goals before choosing the right technology stack. You may painfully face
financial loss and poor software performance if you choose the technology stack
without a deep analysis of your business project. Some of the basic things to
look upon before choosing the technology stack include a go-to-market strategy,
UX goals and future scalability.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is categorized into three components. They are
talent costs, license costs and maintenance costs.
Talent costs mainly include the salary of the software developers. There are
many free, open-source technologies out there, but most of them come with a
hidden price tag related to implementation, innovation, and support. It is
better to pay yearly licence costs and benefit from improved security,
round-the-clock support, customized product, greater scalability, and better
performance. Every digital product incurs maintenance costs, including buying
and maintaining servers, payments for time system administrators, and support
service.
Size of the Customer and Developer Community
Considering the size of the customer and developer community, it is probably the
most underrated benchmark.
It helps you to get information regarding the implementation of technology and
the availability of developers.
Websites like LinkedIn, GitHub, or StackOverflow allow you to gauge the strength
of the customer and
developer community behind a specific technology stack or a programming
language.
Scalability
With an increase in workload, a scalable system doesn’t require constant
restructuring to sustain optimal performance. Scalability is all about the
flexibility to modify features and add new developers to your team. It also
includes the ability of software to handle more requests and increase its
capacity without compromising the overall performance.
Security
No technology stack is 100% secure. Thus, security should be the priority for
any digital product. Always go for the one that has a good reputation in
handling breaches and cyberattacks. A few guidelines to follow include solid
authorization if your product stores user data; evaluation of your control over
users’ access; the possibility of an object, feature, and field-level
administration; ability to track the changes and the user who made the changes
and when; and permission of access only to authorized users.
Updates
The frequency of updates determines the efficiency of a technology stack. You
should keep a keen eye on how often a technology stack gets updated and the last
update. The trick is to choose the right technology stack that maintains the
right balance between the frequency of updates. Always go for an actively
developed technology stack that constantly updates with new hotfixes and
patches. Avoid the ones that have not been updated for more than a quarter of
the year.
Versions
The pace of technological advancement is exponential. It demands your attention
towards the version of the technology stack you intend to use for your business
purpose. It is highly recommended that you go for stable versions that are above
or beyond version 1.0. The versions below this level are actively developed and
prone to volatile updates. It is highly possible that if the developers decide
to introduce some path-breaking updates, you have to shell out extra cash to
keep your software updated.