We received a lot of great entries in our recent competition to find the best tip for making the most out of Alibaba Cloud services. It was a fun but challenging task for our judges to pick the winners amongst so many helpful and interesting entries. But alas after fiery deliberations and heated debates they've decided that the second prize of the competition goes to Nhi Nam Ha. His winning tip is a part of a series on serverless app architecture on Alibaba Cloud, and it covers several Alibaba products.

This tutorial will show you how to deploy a MongoDB database on Alibaba Cloud and use Function Compute to develop a back-end API system to interact with the database.

Overview of NoSQL and MongoDB

Relational databases have been selected as the primary system to manage data in software development for a long time. Its ACID principals promote the data persistency, transaction integrity and concurrency control. Over the last few years, NoSQL (Not only SQL) has become popular. This model solves the impedance mismatch between the relational data structures (tables, rows, fields) and the in-memory data structures of the application (objects). Most importantly, NoSQL is designed to scale horizontally which makes it an excellent choice for modern web applications.

NoSQL could be categorized into 4 groups:

• Key-Value
• Document
• Column family
• Graph

MongoDB is the most popular system within the document database group. As defined on mongodb.com,

A record in MongoDB is a document, which is a data structure composed of field and value pairs. MongoDB documents are similar to JSON objects. The values of fields may include other documents, arrays, and arrays of documents.

Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB for MongoDB

MongoDB databases can be deployed on Alibaba Cloud via its ApsaraDB for MongoDB service. Users can select among 3 pricing schemes:

• Subscription (Replica Set)
• PAYG (Pay-As-You-Go) (Replica Set)
• PAYG (Sharding)

Replication and sharding refers to the data distribution models:

• Replication copies data across multiple servers. The same piece of data is stored in different places. ApsaraDB for MongoDB uses a 3-server replica set. Replication may help with horizontal scaling of reads.
• Sharding distributes data across multiple machines so different machine contains different subset of data. This model allows for horizontal scaling of writes.

Create an Instance

In the Alibaba Cloud console, click on Products and you will see ApsaraDB for MongoDB under the ApsaraDB group. Alternatively, you can use the search box to filter the desired service.

Select the pricing scheme, the region, the server specification, and set a password for your database. Alibaba Cloud will tell you how much the service cost you based on what you chose.

More info about the instance parameters is here.

Note: if you are using a free trial account, remember to select a subscription instance. PAYG instances do not include in the trial program.

Set IP Whitelists

To ensure database security Alibaba Cloud automatically block all access to the database. You have to specify IP addresses in the whitelist to gain access to the target instance.

Connection String

After you set your IP whitelist, click on “Database Connection” to see the connection parameters

Use this connection string to connect to the database in your Node.js code.

Function Compute

Function Compute lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. This service prepares computing resources for you and runs your codes on your behalf elastically and reliably. You only pay for resources actually consumed when running the codes. If your code isn’t executed, you don’t pay.

Function Compute runs your code in response to events. When the event source service triggers an event, the associated function is automatically called to process the event.

From the Alibaba Cloud console, select Function Compute and click on the “+” icon to create a new service

In the newly created service, click on the “+” icon to create a new function. You will go through a multi-step wizard to select options for your function.

For Function Template, select “Empty Function”

In the “Configure Triggers” step, select “HTTP Trigger” and give it a name. Other settings are as the image below

In the “Configure Function Settings” step, set a name for your function and select “nodejs6” as runtime

Click “Next” in the last two steps to finish the wizard and create the fucntion.

Program Your Function

Click on the function you have just created and click on the “Code” tab. This is where you provide your code for the function to run

Use the connection string from your MongoDB server.

Also in this screen you can view the HTTP trigger that will invoke your function. You can also run the trigger to test you function here.

Summary

In this tutorial we have learnt about NoSQL database with MongoDB as a popular example. Alibaba Cloud provides its ApsaraDB for MongoDB service to those who want to run MongoDB servers on its cloud. The tutorial then moves to discuss the Function Compute service as a new way to build your application following the emerging Serverless architecture. It shows an example of a Node.js function triggered by an HTTP request to connect to the MongoDB database and perform an “insert” command.

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Here at TMS, we see promising companies with amazing ideas and huge potential on a daily basis. Unfortunately, they often get stuck on technicalities and SOS emails just keep flowing in our direction.

However, that is actually a good thing. If we can help them reach their full potential and get to their goal, it is a win-win situation.

Some of the startups we have seen truly have ideas that could change our world for the better. So rather than seeing them struggle, we are here to help them in any way we can.

And that brings us to the common problem that numerous startups get stuck on; the technical implementation of their SaaS or other web applications. So let's talk a bit more about the TMS solution.

Here Comes the Challenge

It is one thing to talk about it in theory, but things often work out quite differently in practice. To best describe how exactly we help startups deal with their app development, let's take a look at a case study.

Four years ago, we were contacted by a British FinTech company who came to us with a great idea that included a very complex web app development.

From custom design to multiple user roles and complex user flows, we knew this would be a complicated project.

In addition to that, they needed constant maintenance and support since they already had some disappointing experiences in the past. They had to give up several unfinished apps that simply weren't up to their standard and they ended up losing a lot of money.

The TMS Solution

To get things off to a good start, we had to understand what went wrong with their project before they decided to reach us.

We listened carefully to what they had to say to identify the problems that were the root cause of the issues they faced in the past. It appeared that the previous contractors skipped through a lot of basic steps and went straight to development without the proper planning, wireframing, and estimating processes.

It sounded like a good offer; a low hourly rate and less working hours. Unfortunately, it turned out to cost the FinTech startup a lot more down the road.

We explained that we would take an entirely different approach; a systemized, step-by-step process with every developer focusing on their part while having a good grasp on the whole picture, instead of working on multiple components of the project at the same time and feeling no ownership on the delivery.

Since we had a lot of experience with app building, especially with the apps we created for our own company (mostly SaaS), we felt pretty confident about our capabilities to deliver the best product possible.

For us, this project felt like an exciting challenge but was still right up our alley.

Dealing with the Challenges

We have done this numerous times before but the bottom line is that every app is different.

With this one, we were new to the business domain of capital raising, we weren't familiar at all with the FCA classifications and legal regulations etc.

An additional challenge on top of that was trying to untangle the work of the previous development team. We were warned about the confusing UX and the bugs that would appear at the worst moments, especially on demos.

So our first step was to build a proper team led by a Tech Lead and a Product Owner. This would allow us to create the ideal team structure, a good project architecture, and a suitable project delivery strategy.

Forming a reliable team initially takes more time than just engaging a group of random developers – but it always pays off! Not only are the productivity and quality better, but it also results in lower costs over a 12-18 months range.

With every project, the team is formed differently according to the specific project needs and requirements. It sometimes requires just a project manager, a QA engineer, and 2 intermediate full-stack developers. Sometimes, we need additional UI/UX designers, security engineers, front-end engineers etc.

Unique Solution: Introducing our Full-App-Lifecycle Approach

Once the team was formed, we were ready to get started with our own customized approach - the Full-App-Lifecycle approach.

It is based on a simple fact:

Errors are much easier to avoid if the team of developers understands the big picture of the application instead of just focusing on small tasks. From the initial pitch to the final round of feedback, it is important to start every project with a core assessment and a proper analysis.

We always talk with the business' marketing and development team and get answers to the basic questions first: What problem are we solving with this product? Who are the target customers? Who are the competitors? What risks are we facing? What are the budget and the timeline?

All of these questions and more have to be covered in a good analysis, along with Impact Mapping and Story Mapping sessions. At that point, we are able to suggest the best development strategy and product rollout plan.

We need to stay flexible throughout the process to be able to adapt to changes, but we always start with the clear vision on the team structure, software architecture, project phases, features priority, and other little details that we keep in mind.

"TMS worked well with our team, and acted on behalf of our business in various situations. This helped us create a world-class team and grow internationally together."

The FinTech App Development

The best way to start a cooperation is by establishing each other's trust. With the FinTech startup, we knew that it would take some time to earn their trust after their previous experiences.

They agreed to our approach and we decided to start with just 2 developers working on their project in cooperation with the project manager provided by the FinTech startup. Once we were off to a good start, we added other key members to get the prototype done on a tight deadline.

We had a demo ready for them to show to their clients in less than 3 months. At that point, we were ready to start building a fully featured application.

We gradually added more team members including the QA and QA Automation engineers, front-end developers, full-stack developers of different seniority, and more. Then we divided the team into smaller sub-teams, each with their own project manager.

The app was growing together with our team and we knew we were on the right track. All the way, we participated in the overall product development and our clients know that they can count on our full support even today.

Here are some of the most important results that we brought for our client:

• After months of working with us, they fully freed up their time to work on scaling their business and only joining us for Agile sprint reviews.
• Geography of usage expanded from the UK to the rest of Europe, while other markets are "on the waiting list".
• Client range grew from small startups looking for small investments to large companies that need serious investment deals.
• The mature product managed to attract several millions of dollars of investments.

On our side, the product development team dedicated to this project grew from 2 to 25 people and keeps growing.

Why Our Approach Worked

Our Full-App-Lifecycle approach has proven itself quite successful and the main reasons for that are careful planning and management. These were implemented in our every move throughout the process.

When a team is tailored according to a specific product and when every team member works on their specific task, all of them eventually see the product as their own. Not only it helps improving productivity and quality, but it also switches the employees' focus from the fee to the product itself.

In addition to that, the integration with the client's team and industry, the ongoing analysis, and in-depth planning also help increase the quality as well as the delivery pace.

It is important to add that our team is always encouraged to try all the new technologies and follow the latest development trends, to participate in conferences, and to keep up with the industry's highest standards.

The success we achieved with the FinTech project isn't a one-time success story but an example that shows exactly how our approach works.

We are looking for long-term partnerships rather than quick on and off projects and we are happy to join in later phases as well. The point for us is to build teams dedicated to the product and evolve together with it over time.

Conclusion

If you have recognized any of the mentioned problems as your own including the struggle to find a reliable development company, feel free to reach out to us and we will be happy to help you find the right solution.

We have a lot of experience in the field which can be easily proven by the projects that we have successfully completed so far, the 20.000+ paying customers of our own developed products, several millions of end users, and an average annual growth rate of 50% since 2014.