Introduction

In modern web applications, efficiently managing load balancing, data persistence, and frontend performance is critical. At ShitOps, we have developed a novel architecture that integrates advanced load balancing techniques in Angular applications by leveraging a polyglot Object-Relational Mapping layer, running on a highly orchestrated Kubernetes mesh network.

Our solution tackles the challenges of scaling Angular frontends with real-time data synchronization and dynamic resource allocation between backends, all while abstracting the data access with multiple ORMs tailored to each microservice. This approach optimally combines the best of modern frontend frameworks and next-gen backend infrastructure.

Problem Statement

Traditional single-database ORM patterns and simple load balancers fall short when an Angular app demands high availability, data consistency across heterogeneous databases, and smart routing of requests.

Specifically, we identified three bottlenecks:

  1. Angular's single-threaded nature complicates balancing load for concurrent data-heavy requests.

  2. Standard ORMs are not flexible enough to handle complex polyglot persistence environments.

  3. Simple load balancers lack awareness of microservice dependencies and data locality.

Hence, an innovative solution was required.

Our Solution Architecture

The core of our architecture marries an advanced Kubernetes service mesh with a polyglot ORM layer, orchestrated through Angular's stateful services and a Kubernetes-native load balancer.

Polyglot ORM Layer

Each microservice uses a dedicated ORM suited to its database:

These are unified under a custom adapter layer that Angular services consume asynchronously.

Advanced Load Balancing

We deploy Istio as our service mesh on Kubernetes, which handles dynamic routing and load balancing with awareness of the ORM types and service health.

Angular Integration

Angular services interact with the backend through a custom RxJS-based gateway that dynamically selects endpoints based on real-time load and ORM status.

Workflow Diagram

sequenceDiagram participant Angular participant RxJSGateway participant IstioMesh participant ORMAdapter participant PostgreSQL participant MongoDB participant Neo4j Angular->>RxJSGateway: Request data RxJSGateway->>IstioMesh: Route request IstioMesh->>ORMAdapter: Forward based on load ORMAdapter->>PostgreSQL: Query (if Postgres needed) ORMAdapter->>MongoDB: Query (if MongoDB needed) ORMAdapter->>Neo4j: Query (if Neo4j needed) PostgreSQL-->>ORMAdapter: Response MongoDB-->>ORMAdapter: Response Neo4j-->>ORMAdapter: Response ORMAdapter-->>IstioMesh: Aggregated data IstioMesh-->>RxJSGateway: Return data RxJSGateway-->>Angular: Stream data

Implementation Details

Kubernetes Mesh Deployment

We configured Istio to enable smart routing rules to allocate requests based on ORM adapter health and service response times. This required a custom Envoy filter that monitors ORM metrics and reports to Istio control plane.

ORM Adapter Framework

Our custom ORM adapter exposes a unified asynchronous API, abstracting over Sequelize, TypeORM, and Neo4j-OGM. Angular services make use of this API to perform reactive data queries.

Angular Side

Angular’s services were refactored to use this new RxJS gateway that employs a dynamic load-aware request strategy, dynamically updating endpoints as Istio provides load feedback.

Benefits

Conclusion

This architecture provides a future-proof scalable ecosystem for Angular applications demanding heterogeneous data persistence and high-availability load balancing. While complex, it leverages best-in-class technology stacks harmonized into a single optimized flow.

We encourage other teams to explore polyglot persistence combined with Kubernetes service mesh for their next big Angular application challenges!