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Node.js at GoDaddy

The GoDaddy stack has always been very eclectic because their focus is very divided, they have different types of features for their clients, unlike other companies who focus just on one thing. As such, they had to use different types of technologies to satisfy each feature that they had. One of these technologies was and is Node.js, a technology that ended up taking over a lot in GoDaddy. As Charlie Robbins, Director of Engineering at GoDaddy puts it: they went from proof of concept to production and proliferation. Node.js is a big deal at GoDaddy right now.

GoDaddy was using Node.js even before Nodejitsu stept in the picture (more on that later on) using it in one of their first major products. It became a part of GoDaddy as early as 2013.

Now it’s an essential part of their infrastructure, improving their performance significantly, over 4x and reducing costs more than 10x. GoDaddy is a hosting business with many intricates when it comes to software and Node is a huge part of that. In February 2015 Nodejitsu, Charlie Robbins company joined GoDaddy, a huge step in a node.js takeover.

“GoDaddy is doubling-down on its commitment to Node.js as we continue to use Node and Javascript as important elements of our products and platforms. We’re ecstatic to have the incredibly talented team at Nodejitsu join GoDaddy. They will prove invaluable in our efforts to push Node.js forward and contribute back to the community.”

Raj Mukherjee, senior vice president of Product at GoDaddy

The dedication that GoDaddy has in node.js is also sustained through their involvement in the Node.js Foundation. GoDaddy is a gold member of the foundation, involved in the continuous development and adoption of Node.

In 2013 GoDaddy started a complete overhaul of its technological stack, an overhaul that started with Node.js. On the front end side they used JavaScript but on the back end they relied on a legacy .NET stack. With the addition of Nodejitsu and Charlie Robbins to GoDaddy, the company went into Node overdrive, as the team at Nodejitsu has been involvement in node since 2009, being active supporters of it and the community.

“JavaScript is key to any organization’s success, and Node.js expanded that importance beyond the browser onto the server,”

Charlie Robbins, Nodejitsu founder and CEO

To simplify and increase its capabilities Godaddy went from .NET to a node.js infrastructure, all open source. Nodejitsu helped design the he scalability, multi-data center support and asynchronous transport logging of GoDaddy’s PaaS and improve its open source contributions. The addition of Nodejitsu is what really propelled them as a Node,js user and community contributor.  They replaced their entire infrastructure with one made in Node.js. Making GoDaddy the largest domain-hosting company that uses Node on this level.

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