Jamstack isn’t a new or specific technology, but rather a modern web development architecture or methodology – an innovative way of building apps and websites, delivering a host of benefits.
The ‘Jam’ in Jamstack stands for JavaScript, API and Markup; the core components that are decoupled in this architecture. It’s a static website or application where the pages are already generated and stored in a cloud-based content delivery network (CDN) – rendered and ready to go. This means instant retrieval and lightning-fast load times.
Put simply, a Jamstack site is a combination of modern build tools, Javascript APIS and Markup that gives web projects the flexibility to build processes from static files and cloud services, that match their individual requirements.
Compare this to traditional dynamic sites with heavy content management systems (CMS), requiring backend server involvement, teams of web developers, and limited composability and suddenly it seems rather inefficient, right?
JavaScript – the most useful programming language in today’s web development. JAMStack sites use this powerful yet easy-to-use scripting to create dynamic features and combine static resources with APIs (application program interfaces).
Client side Javacript , unlike server side, can’t change anything in the back-end it only changes the interface. Combine that with serverless function, version control and improved user authentication, security becomes just one of many benefits.
API’s – are simple interfaces that allow your applications to talk with each other, which means you can centralize data storage, authenticate users quickly and develop apps at lightening-fast speeds. They’re quick to set up and easy to integrate into existing systems – freeing up time for more important things!
API’s have been at the heart of the modern web revolution in the global Jamstack community for years, but monolithic software giants often make it difficult to move away from their proprietary platforms. However, with web performance, reusable API’s and Jamstack websites on the rise, the industry is shifting.
Markup – Markup is a style of coding that allows designers and developers to create a semantic structure for a website – one that’s easily understandable without being tied down by over-complex formatting. As the name implies, it’s achieved using simple HTML.
As you can see, each part contributes something different to the overall Jamstack architecture.
A headless CMS is a system that can generate dynamic HTML content without requiring a written line of code. Instead, it uses an API to pull the required information from the database and allows for extremely quick development time.
You don’t have to spend hours or days coding rudimentary functionality when you can simply add in new fields and let the CMS do all the work. Think of this as filling in a form to manage content, thats delivered upon a user request rather than having to be managed with a build tool.
Whether you’re building a large e-commerce site, SaaS application or just a blog, the Jamstack approach serves up some significant advantages.
It’s no longer necessary to engage software giants such as Sitecore to create rich, responsive websites and apps. Their bloated architectural approach is being replaced with Jamstack projects that utilise headless CMS systems that call on UI frameworks and pre-built markup to deploy only what is necessary from the content delivery network.
Good news, as not only does this mean reducing the cost of ownership, but with this tech stack and new tools, your website performance will greatly improve.
As we touched on above, Jamstack makes things faster. Much faster.
Traditional websites with a CMS manage everything in the same system. Content is created, updated and managed from the backend, where developers also handle all of the code and design templates. When someone visits a page, a software layer retrieves the data and the server assembles everything to deliver the content. A single page gets generated each time the server receives a request. This slows things down, needlessly.
When sites are built with the Jamstack architecture the frontend is decoupled from the backend, meaning there’s no need for a database or server and the associated piecemeal data requests. Instead, the frontend can be deployed directly to a CDN and the prerendered pages are delivered at blistering byte speed.
Traditional static site generators render content to the page when requested by the user. This means that if you update or change your site, you’ll need to wait until the server is done rendering everything before users will see it.
Jamstack , on the other hand, returns fully rendered HTML in response to any request for a URL—even after it’s first storing an entire website’s HTML content in a CDN (Conten Delivery Network) – ready to load.
Another benefit of decoupling the frontend from the backend – and therefore not relying on a server and database at all times – is that there are fewer opportunities for attack. By design, Jamstack architecture limits the chances of your site being compromised.
Additionally, less code being executed on each request means fewer runtime errors. Reduce the complexity, reduce the bugs. Simple and secure.
If you’re not relying on heavy server and database processing, you can also avoid the associated limitations and costs when trying to serve more customers. With the Jamstack architecture, it’s easy to scale; all you need is a powerful CDN to serve files in more places, which is much cheaper and faster than upgrading servers.
The Jamstack methodology also circumvents the ongoing software subscriptions and licensing costs associated with the CMS giants, resulting in savings of up to 90%. Not to mention the efficiencies created with simpler developer experience, reusable API’s and an affordable content management system.
This all sounds pretty good, right? Well, it is. I think you’ll agree that the benefits of this approach are clear. It allows more organisations to deliver user-centric experiences at a fraction of the cost—all without sacrificing quality or experience.
If your interested in exploring jamstack projects then reach out today as lets explore how we can make that happen. Batur build embedded, technical teams to implement cutting-edge architecture, such as Jamstack, to help organisations grow fast and securely.
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