Simplifying Cloud Infrastructure Development – Communications of the ACM

While C certainly deserves its place on the programming language Mount Rushmore, it is ill-equipped for growing codebases and multicore chips. As a result, Go came to fruition, mainly as a means of simplifying software development. 

However, as we saw more advancements in cloud tech, Go turned out to be the language that solved many of the issues surrounding modern cloud infrastructure development, from microservices to efficient networking and cross-platform interoperability. 

To showcase this, this post will look into some of the reasons why Go has become such a staple and how it exactly solves some of the biggest cloud-related conundrums.

The Evolution of Go and Its Relevance in Cloud Infrastructure

Go, sometimes also referred as Golang, was born out of a need to manage large codebases while keeping development simple and productive. 

Its design principles prioritize simplicity and productivity, making it a language developers can easily adapt to and work with. In particular, this is because of Golang’s: 

• Minimalistic syntax: Go’s syntax is deliberately simple, reducing the complexity often found in languages like C++ or Java. There are no unnecessary features such as inheritance, method overloading, or generics (though generics were added later, cautiously, to maintain simplicity).
• No implicit behavior: Go avoids implicit behaviors and “magic” (like implicit type conversions or operator overloading), meaning code does what it looks like it does. This prevents unexpected outcomes and keeps things straightforward.
• Built-in concurrency: Go offers first-class support for concurrency with lightweight goroutines and channels, making it easy to write concurrent programs. Unlike traditional threading models, goroutines are lightweight and can be launched without high memory or CPU overhead.

After being created by a trio of Google devs in 2007, Go was publicly announced in 2009, followed by version 1.0 seeing the light of day in 2012. 

While Griesemer, Thompson, and Pike (Go’s designers) intended it to boost programming productivity on a macro level, Go’s mix of advantages made it seem like it was tailor-made for cloud development. Today, Go powers some of the industry’s most significant projects, including:

1. Docker, the revolutionary containerization platform
2. Kubernetes, Google’s open-source container orchestration system
3. InfluxDB, a leading time-series database
4. Etcd, a distributed key-value store used in Kubernetes for storing cluster data
5. Traefik, a popular open-source cloud-native edge router
6. Terraform, HashiCorp’s widely used infrastructure-as-code tool

The Issue of Concurrent Processes 

Concurrency is an important aspect of cloud development, where multiple tasks often need to run simultaneously. 

Traditional programming languages can struggle with the complexity of managing these concurrent processes, leading to challenges in building efficient and scalable systems. 

That’s why Go is so effective when it comes to software that needs to run tasks concurrently. Think of business software—the average app often has to extract data from invoices, add different rules to datasets, compile databases adequately, and more—all while the end user expects near-instantaneous output. 

Oftentimes, this means devs have to decide between efficiency and feature-richness, which doesn’t bode well for programming productivity, either. 

Achieving Concurrency with Goroutines

Here Golang enters the fold—at the heart of Go’s concurrency model are goroutines, which are lightweight threads managed by the Go runtime. Unlike traditional threads, goroutines are incredibly efficient, allowing you to spin up thousands of them without overwhelming system resources. 

They work in tandem with channels, which are used to communicate between goroutines, enabling multiple tasks to run concurrently without the usual overhead of locking mechanisms or complex thread management.

In real-world cloud applications, goroutines make it possible to handle thousands of concurrent processes smoothly. For example, in Kubernetes, goroutines are used extensively to manage and orchestrate containers at scale, making sure that tasks are performed efficiently across distributed systems. 

As a result, apps built with Go are ideal for running on dedicated GPU servers and having the ability to scale up when necessary. It makes Go a strong choice for hosting environments that require high-performance computing and scalability, especially in scenarios like machine learning or big data processing where workloads can expand rapidly.

Efficient Memory Management through Garbage Collection

In cloud infrastructure, efficient memory management is essential to make sure that resources are used wisely and applications run smoothly—which is where Go’s garbage collection can help.

It automatically manages memory by cleaning up unused resources, freeing developers from manual memory management tasks common in other languages.

Go’s garbage collector is designed to be nonintrusive, operating with low latency to minimize any negative impact on application performance. 

Go’s automatic memory management significantly reduces developers’ daily workload, allowing them to focus more on building features rather than worrying about memory leaks or performance bottlenecks. 

Its efficient garbage collection is important for cloud-based services because it ensures that applications remain responsive and stable, even under heavy load, helping to prevent performance degradation and system crashes. 

Streamlined Syntax and Readability for Developers

Go was designed with simplicity and clarity in mind. Drawing inspiration from C, Go’s syntax is clean and easy to read, but it avoids much of the unnecessary complexity found in other languages. 

For instance, Go deliberately omits features like inheritance, opting instead for composition in its system. This decision keeps the language more approachable and helps prevent the kind of tangled codebases that can make large projects difficult to maintain. 

Devs massively appreciate this—Go’s simplicity translates to reduced cognitive load. With fewer intricate language features to keep track of, it becomes easier to write, review, and maintain code. 

Having this type of streamlined approach is especially beneficial for large teams, where clear, readable code can minimize miscommunications and reduce the likelihood of bugs. As a result, development cycles are faster, and codebases are easier to scale.

Reliability through Static Typing and Strong Tooling

Static typing is a key feature in Go that helps developers catch errors early in the development process. With static typing, the type of each variable is known at compile time, allowing the compiler to catch potential issues before the code even runs. 

It guarantees that type mismatches and other common errors are resolved quickly, reducing the likelihood of runtime errors in production environments—where a high degree of reliability is essential. Go’s integrated tooling ecosystem further enhances its reliability, with the following being the most notable:  

• go test allows you to easily write and run unit tests. 
• In contrast, go fmt automatically formats your code to keep it consistent. 
• go vet is another essential tool that scans code for common mistakes and potential bugs. 

Together, these tools help maintain code quality and prevent issues from slipping through the cracks.

In this regard, they also help software development or when extracting large amounts of data, and lets people efficiently pull, process, and manage large datasets. 

The best example of this quality is how InfluxDB, a time-series database written in Go, handles vast amounts of time-stamped data. It allows developers to easily extract valuable insights from IoT systems and other real-time data sources, showcasing Go’s capability in data-driven cloud applications.

Goland in Cloud Development: What’s Next 

Go’s adoption in cloud infrastructure continues to grow, thanks to its robust feature set, simplicity, and an active community that drives innovation. Ongoing development efforts and the evolving ecosystem ensure that Go stays relevant and capable of meeting the demands of modern cloud environments.

However, Go faces challenges, such as competition from other languages like Rust and its unique syntax, as well as other evolving technologies in the cloud space. 

But with opportunities in areas like microservices, serverless computing, and edge computing, Go is well-positioned to push further innovation and efficiency in these fields. 

Of course, we can’t stress enough the importance of Go’s accessibility, either. It can serve as a valuable entry point, even if it doesn’t eclipse the popularity of Python, JS, and other giants. 

Conclusion

Incorporating Go into your organization’s cloud infrastructure can significantly enhance the efficiency and scalability of your systems. 

With its streamlined concurrency model, efficient memory management, and simple yet powerful syntax, Go provides the tools needed to build reliable and scalable solutions for modern needs and demands. 

Despite not topping the popularity charts, strong community support and ongoing innovation surrounding Go keep it at the forefront of cloud development, making it a valuable asset for your practice. 

Alex Williams is a seasoned full-stack developer and the former owner of Hosting Data U.K. After graduating from the University of London with a Masters Degree in IT, Alex worked as a developer, leading various projects for clients from all over the world for almost 10 years. He recently switched to being an independent IT consultant and started his technical copywriting career.