Back-end development is one of the most important components of website development. Without which you simply can not power your website. Therefore your team of software developers should understand the fundamentals/basics of backend development to deliver a functional and logical system. Before you jump onto the question that how to make a backend for the website, you need to know about its architecture and all the important components involved.
Web development, in general, is getting a lot of traction in recent years. With that, more and more companies/ businesses are realizing its true importance for generating/capturing leads, and for building a robust online presence for brand awareness. Therefore, they need talented designers and developers to develop top-performing websites based on the latest tech stack and market trends.
Front-end developers sure do code for an immersive user experience but backend developers are the hidden architects who make the functionality possible without a hint.
In this article, you will learn everything you need about backend development such as how to make backend for website, how does it work, backend structure and skills needed to become a backend developer.
What is the Backend in Web Development?
In simpler terms, backend system development is everything that happens ‘behind the scenes’. As the name suggests, backend developers are responsible for ensuring the scalability and functionality of the website irrespective of the traffic volume.
Apart from that, they work in complete harmony with front-end developers, programmers, UX/UI experts, and full-stack developers to build innovative solutions to fulfill various business needs and requirements.
Back-end development experts are not only responsible for building and maintaining websites but they are also to assess the speed and efficiency of web applications, writing higher quality code, troubleshooting, debugging, managing the hosting environment, and most of all keep on top of the latest technologies in the market.
Backend is just like the admin panel, where you can easily access, edit and see the world behind the curtain and make sure everything functions as it should without issues or interruptions whatsoever.
Backend Tools’ List and Architecture
Traditionally, the backend includes server-side, APIs (Application Programming Interface), databases, frameworks, and operating systems.
Frameworks
Right software frameworks are the foundation that makes applications/ websites faster. They are considered an essential aspect of web development projects since they provide much-needed interactivity for web applications. As backend facilitates the website to function therefore frameworks are server-side programming languages that ease out the server configuration.
APIs
You must be very well familiar with the fact that an application’s server-side or backend operations include (and are not limited to) user logins, managing payments, customer support, order management, etc. Therefore, any action performed at the front end is managed, sent, and retrieved by the database in the backend.
For interactions as such, developers need suitable APIs because they connect websites, databases, and services together effortlessly. Firebase, Backendless API, Wix API, StackAPI REST API, etc. are some of the common APIs used in backend development.
Databases
Databases help the admins to store, manage, update and delete any or all data on the server. In simpler terms, a database is a repository that stores all the data input at the frontend such as user names, email addresses, passwords, orders, etc.
Different types of databases are used for specific use cases. For example, relational databases are well suited for applications with well-structured data whereas document-oriented databases aid software with unstructured/semi-structured data, so on and so forth.
Servers
They are computer hardware or software that receives incoming requests from clients or service requesters. Servers provide resources, data, services, or programs to clients, over a network. Any device providing or sharing resources to ‘clients’ can become a server.
Middleware
As the name suggests, middleware connects the front end to its backend. It enables communication between your application and the server-side. It is also sometimes termed as plumbing.
