What Is a Tech Stack
A tech stack is the foundation of your technology infrastructure. It consists of all the software and hardware you use to run your business.
For example, the technology stack of a web app, mobile application, or website is the set of technologies that make up a web app, mobile app, or website ecosystem.
Also called a solutions stack, a tech stack is a “stack” because software developers may build one layer of technology upon the next.
There are several factors to consider when building or optimizing your tech stack. This blog post will discuss what goes into a tech stack. So read on to learn how to build and optimize your tech stack for your business!
What is a Tech Stack: A Guide to Building and Optimizing Your Technology Infrastructure
A tech stack combines software and hardware that a company uses to run its business. It includes everything from the operating system on your server-side to the database that stores your customer data.
Your tech stack gives your product team the tools it needs to build and maintain your product and make sure it continues to meet customer needs. So, investing in your tech stack is crucial to finding success for your company.
Different Tech Stacks
Before widespread SaaS solutions and services, Tech stacks were much more basic.
There were several competing standards for developing PHP-based web applications. The most common one was LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP), which predated the open-source movement by approximately two decades.
There were also non-open source alternatives like WAMP (for those who preferred Windows to Linux).
However, today, many solutions are available to product teams and engineers that allow them to develop and maintain the ideal product for their market segment.
A tech stack has two divisions: the front-end and the back-end.
- Front End Development
- Back End Development
Front End Development
The front-end tech stack is what your users interact with, such as your website or app. Front-end development or client-side programming allows it to display in an internet browser. It is in charge of how users interact with the web application.
Front end development for web apps consists of the following technologies:
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a markup language used to structure the content on a web page.
- HTML CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): This determines the presentation style of a website’s content, such as colors, typefaces, layouts, etc.
- JavaScript is a language that allows you to add interactivity and animation to your web application. It also enables you to add varied animated and interactive components to a web page to be more user-friendly.
Back End Development
The back-end is the infrastructure that powers the front-end, such as your servers, databases, and APIs.
There are many different technologies that you can use for each layer of your tech stack. The most important thing is to choose the right tool for the job.
For example, if you need a database that can handle millions of records, you want to use a relational database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL.
But if you need a database that is easy to set up and use, you might want to use a NoSQL database such as MongoDB.
The same goes for choosing the right programming language. For example, if you need a language that is easy to learn and has a large community of developers, you might want to use Python or Ruby.
But if you need a language that is more powerful and faster, you might want to use Java or C++.
No matter what technologies you choose for your tech stack, there are a few things to consider.
Operating Systems & Programming Languages
You’ll pick these based on your preferred environment for programming and the sort of app you’d want to optimize. So, depending on how you want to build the back-end and user experience and the devices you’re creating, you may wind up with many. The most popular operating systems and languages are:
- Android
- iOS
- Java
- Javascript
- Linux
- Python
- Ruby
- Swift
Backend Frameworks
A framework is a collection of programming languages, libraries, and tools that allows developers to create applications.
For most apps, a framework contains minimal functionality that you’ll need to construct an app and provide the structure for organizing and communicating with your database, handling user requests, and sending out registration or password reset emails.
Some developers opt to create everything from the ground up, while others believe it is more difficult and time-consuming to use a framework.
Popular frameworks are:
- Django
- .NET
- Laravel
- Spring
Data Storage & Stack Query
The data storage and querying stack consists of relational and non-relational databases, data warehouses, and data pipelines that allow you to store and query all of your real-time and historical information. These components are critical for keeping track of what happens within your application and how users use it. You may search for this data later and use it to improve your product.
Some well-known data infrastructures are:
- Azure SQL Synapse
- Fivetran
- MongoDB
- MySQL
- PostgresSQL
- Redshift
- Snowflake
- Splunk
- Talend
Server Stack & Load Balancing Algorithms
This tech stack lets your applications send and receive requests, run smoothly, and scale capacity. These include web servers, content distribution networks, routing, and caching services.
The larger services, like Amazon’s and Google’s, generally provide the same components as their smaller counterparts. Despite this, they frequently allow you to buy each service as a separate item so that you can mix and match based on your product needs and preferred pricing structure.
Common services include:
- Apache
- AWS
- Azure
- Cloudflare
- Fastly
- Google Cloud
- Nginx
How To Choose a Tech Stack
Here are the factors to consider in choosing a tech stack:
Tech Stack Security
Choose technologies with a good security track record.
Tech Stack Scalability
As your business grows, your tech stack should be able to handle more users and more data.
Tech Stack Flexibility
As your business changes, you should be able to change your tech stack without too much difficulty.
Building a tech stack is an important part of starting a business. You can build a solid foundation for your business by choosing the right technologies. Use this guide to help you choose the right technologies for your business, and remember to keep security, scalability, and flexibility in mind!
Time to Market
Startups must consider the time to market component since the shorter the period from idea to implementation, the more time they have to learn from customer opinions.
Make sure your desired technology stack allows you to integrate third-party components and take your product to the next level.
Make sure you have a competent crew working with you for an extended amount of time and that they keep up to date on new technology developments.
You’ll be able to effortlessly correct errors and modify features using your chosen technology stack. Furthermore, certain tech stacks will reuse code segments and decrease development time, allowing you to get an app developed quickly and MEAN an excellent choice for this purpose.
Check out this video to learn more on How to OVER Engineer a Website and What is a Tech Stack:
From start to finish, the product development process starts with an idea and continues with careful study and the creation of the technology stack and development approach to assure success.
But, of course, not every firm can create and scale each concept into a successful product.
Our team of seasoned software engineers and web developers will help you take your ideas to market-leading web and mobile applications. Reach out to our development team if you’re looking for a full-service provider that can provide end-to-end Agile development methods and end-to-end Agile delivery.
