Degradation Instead of Downtime: Node.js Under Peak Loads and DDoS

High-load Node.js services do not always fail simply because there is “too much traffic.” Quite often, they fail because they keep trying to operate at full capacity even when there are no longer enough resources.

In this talk, I will cover graceful degradation techniques that help a Node.js application survive peak loads and minimize service downtime - in other words, keep working instead of falling over.

We will discuss:

• rate limiting as the first layer of protection;
• emergency switches for disabling heavy operations at runtime;
• detecting aborted requests and stopping unnecessary work early.