Node has been rather a game changer in the web application world. One of the reasons for this is the lightweight hardware specifications that are needed to run a Node web server. Node applications can be run on pretty much any hardware, starting from something as small as a Rasberry Pi. This means that the cost of setting up a Node web server is dramatically reduced compared to the cost of a server that runs a .NET or Java web application. In the modern age of cloud computing, this means that a small, low-cost cloud server can easily be used to host a Node application.

Most cloud services, including Azure, Amazon and Google, have taken this concept a step further, and now offer the ability to run code without the need for a server at all. This means that we are provided with a runtime environment that has all of the dependencies we need in order to respond...