Understanding the role each technology plays in the stack is crucial when moving from LAMP to MEAN for web development. Whether looking for consolidation of technologies or to leverage in-house JavaScript expertise, the MEAN stack can offer a lot to a flexible web development organization. Below I’ll detail the MEAN stack, how it compares to the LAMP stack, and offer a few tips for optimizing your choices.

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Mean vs Lamp,
how do they stack up?
Understanding the role each technology plays in the stack is
crucial when moving from LAMPto MEAN for web development.
Whetherlookingforconsolidationoftechnologiesortoleverage
in-house JavaScript expertise, the MEAN stack can offer a lot
to a flexible web development organization. Below I’ll detail
the MEAN stack, how it compares to the LAMP stack, and offer
a few tips for optimizing your choices.
The Operating System
The first choice in any tech stack is the operating system. While the LAMP
stack locked the operating system to a variant of Linux, the MEAN stack has
no such restrictions. Linux is still a good choice for an app built on MEAN, but
it is by no means the only option; any operating system that can run Node.js
is a viable alternative.
The Web Server
In the MEAN stack,the web server–provided by Apache in LAMP–is provided
by Node.js. This can improve the performance of the application, as Node.
js is entirely non-blocking and event-based, allowing for true concurrency

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among requests. Node.js is lightweight and relatively new, however, which
ultimately means that your organization will be largely on its own when it
comes to non-standard extensions.While there is active plug-in development
for Node.js, the technology is not as matured as Apache. This usually means
that you need to write your own plug-ins to cover the areas where Node.js
is missing functionality. Additionally, choosing Node.js locks all code on your
web server into JavaScript. For new development this isn’t a major concern,
but converting a back-end of significant complexity can be time-consuming.
The Data Store
The MEAN stackreplaces LAMP’s use of MySQL(or another relational database)
with MongoDB (or an equivalent non-relational database). For many web
apps, this will be the most significant change. Translating the data in an
existing SQL database requires a lot of forethought to eliminate redundant/
unnecessary object attributes, and will likely require a custom software suite
to accomplish. However, once this is done the database will be much faster
for data retrieval.
The Code
MEAN makes use of Express.js and Angular.js to drive web page presentation
and control flow, tasks covered by PHP or Python in the LAMP stack. Express.
js serves as the controller layer, directing application flow and marshaling
data for Angular.js, which handles data presentation. The primary benefits
offered by these scripts are a simplified back-end architecture – for example,
Express.js weighs in at only 1,143 lines of code – and a purely client-side
presentation layer in Angular.js that can be easily embedded into any existing
web application. Furthermore, usage of Express.js and Angular.js on top of
Node.js gives your technology stack the added benefit of being entirely in one
language, meaning your front-end developers now have the ability to trace
all the way down the stack without having to learn another programming
language.
Additional Considerations
Probably the biggest choice to be faced when converting from LAMP to MEAN
is the choice of data store. While the MEAN stack is designed to work with a
non-relational database, there are plug-ins for Node.js that allow the stack to
run off of a relational database just as easily.The front end handles everything
in JSON, so the only true consideration is how the data is stored before it is
retrieved,or the difference between Relational and Non-Relational databases.

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Relational databases,with their support for highly complex structured queries,
lend themselves well to performing complex calculations with data. Non-
relational databases excel at managing operational data, such as a list of
objects in a system.The lackof a schema allows for fluid object definitions that
don’t require extensive code changes,and by removing the need for extensive
and complicated queries the system can often operate more efficiently than a
similar architecture build over a relational database.
Conclusion
Converting to the MEAN stack gives your development team a number of
benefits, the three most significant being a single language from top to
bottom, flexibility in deployment platform, and enhanced speed in data
retrieval. However, the switch is not without trade-offs; any existing code will
either need to be rewritten in JavaScript or integrated into the new stack a
non-obvious manner. Ultimately the choice to switch to a MEAN stack from
LAMP will be based in your organization and the priorities for the project
under development.
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Contact Information
Backand Inc.
info@backand.com
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