Netflix Tech Stack: All You Need to Know About It
With the video content digitization, OTT platforms are all the rage these days. And of all the OTT platforms, Netflix enjoys the most popularity courtesy of its amazingly addictive content.
Netflix tech stack serves over 140 million hours of content globally every day. A leading internet television network, Netflix caters to more than 33 million users worldwide.
With a Netflix subscription, members have access to around two billion hours of movies and TV shows including original series. They can watch anything, anywhere and on any kind of internet-connected screen. The hassle is sitting through commercials is blissfully absent as well.
To know more about Netflix, you need to understand about Netflix tech stack.
What is a Tech Stack?
A tech stack is known by different names, like solutions stack, technology infrastructure, and even a data ecosystem. It is basically a list of all the technology services, which are used to build one single application. Developers need to know all about the technology stack. This is where an analytics platform comes in.
Since every language has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, a tech stack puts forward the overall performance of the application.
To build the best tech stack, it is important that developers are clear about the purpose of the application. This helps them to figure out the best technologies to use.
Netflix Tech Stack
The success of any OTT platform, regardless of its quality content, hinders having a robust tech stack. It must ensure complete support and compatibility. Ease of use and user experience is an important factor in the success of the OTT platform.
Netflix believes in uploading the quality of both its streaming technology as well as its content. This includes their relentless efforts to make streaming possible even with lesser network speed and data requirements. Using cutting-edge technology, Netflix stack produces good content to ensure an exceptional user experience.
The Netflix tech stack consists of several programming languages including Java, JavaScript, Python, Kotlin, Swift, etc. Netflix’s tech stack consists of 77 technology products and services, including HTML5, Google Analytics, and jQuery.
Here are some of the technologies that comprise the Netflix stack.
- Python:
The high scalability and security of Netflix are owing to its use of Python. With Python in its kitty, Netflix uses machine learning and artificial intelligence, which make functionalities like user personalization and data-economical encoding possible.
The sophisticated security features of the Netflix stack ensure that members cannot capture moments of their favorite shows.
- Kotlin:
Kotlin is known for its interoperable nature. It can easily interact with multiple technologies. This technology provides tooling support to the application. Netflix tech stack consists of a comprehensive list of libraries that prompts frameworks to act as a spine for the development process.
- UI:
Netflix’s user-friendly interfaces are supported by React JS, the JavaScript UI library. ReactJS uses Node JS as a framework and Win JS simplifies the development process. Netflix’s decision to adopt is influenced by factors like startup speed, runtime performance, and modularity. It forms the foundation for the Netflix experience.
The backend of Tech Stack
To uphold their outstanding performance, the Netflix stack consists of backend technologies and processes to ensure competence and reliability.
Prior to 2008, data centers were used to track customers, maintain inventory and billing. Post-2008, Netflix switched to the Cloud platform because of its obvious advantages. They enlisted the help of Amazon Web Services, which helped Netflix make its mark as an online digital content platform. AWS complimented Netflix in terms of scalability, security, flexibility, and functionality.
Netflix uses Amazon EC2 Servers for cloud hosting and Amazon RDS and Amazon DynamoDB for Database-as-a-service. Besides that, Dynomite acts as a Database Cluster Manager in the Netflix tech stack.
Other backend tools include Kafka which is used to compute user-specific recommendations through complex algorithms.
Furthermore, Netflix’s tech stack comprises DevOps technologies that facilitate frequent code releases in response to business needs.
Conclusion
With an ambitious and innovative team of experts, Netflix continuously focuses on making technological advances that allow it to maintain its position as a leading digital content platform. Not only content, but Netflix is also investing heavily in technology and functionalities to ensure the best user experience for its members.
