Solution stack

In computing, a solution stack or software stack is a set of software subsystems or components needed to create a complete platform such that no additional software is needed to support applications. Applications are said to "run on" or "run on top of" the resulting platform.

For example, to develop a web application, the architect defines the stack as the target operating system, web server, database, and programming language. Another version of a software stack is operating system, middleware, database, and applications. Regularly, the components of a software stack are developed by different developers independently from one another.

Some components/subsystems of an overall system are chosen together often enough that the particular set is referred to by a name representing the whole, rather than by naming the parts. Typically, the name is an acronym representing the individual components.

The term "solution stack" has, historically, occasionally included hardware components as part of a final product, mixing both the hardware and software in layers of support.

A full-stack developer is expected to be able to work in all the layers of the application (front-end and back-end). A full-stack developer can be defined as a developer or an engineer who works with both the front and back end development of a website, web application or desktop application. This means they can lead platform builds that involve databases, user-facing websites, and working with clients during the planning phase of projects.

Examples

OS-level stacks

BCHS
OpenBSD (operating system)
C (programming language)
httpd (web server)
SQLite (database)
Ganeti
Xen or KVM (hypervisor)
Linux with LVM (mass-storage device management)
Distributed Replicated Block Device (storage replication)
Ganeti (virtual machine cluster management tool)
Ganeti Web Manager (web interface)
GLASS
GemStone (database and application server)
Linux (operating system)
Apache (web server)
Smalltalk (programming language)
Seaside (web framework)
LAMP
Linux (operating system)
Apache (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database management systems)
Perl, PHP, or Python (scripting languages)
LEAP
Linux (operating system)
Eucalyptus (free and open-source alternative to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud)
AppScale (cloud computing-framework and free and open-source alternative to Google App Engine)
Python (programming language)
LEMP/LNMP
Linux (operating system)
Nginx (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database management systems)
Perl, PHP, or Python (scripting languages)
LLMP
Linux (operating system)
Lighttpd (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database management systems)
Perl, PHP, or Python (scripting languages)
LYME and LYCE
Linux (operating system)
Yaws (web server, written in Erlang)
Mnesia or CouchDB (database, written in Erlang)
Erlang (functional programming language)
MAMP
Mac OS X (operating system)
Apache (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database)
PHP, Perl, or Python (programming languages)
LAPP
Linux (operating system)
Apache (web server)
PostgreSQL (database management systems)
Perl, PHP, or Python (scripting languages)
MLVN
MongoDB (database)
Linux (operating system)
Varnish (software) (frontend cache)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
WAMP
Windows (operating system)
Apache (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database)
PHP, Perl, or Python (programming language)
WIMP
Windows (operating system)
Internet Information Services (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database)
PHP, Perl, or Python (programming language)
WINS
Windows Server (operating system)
Internet Information Services (web server)
.NET (software framework)
SQL Server (database)
WISA
Windows Server (operating system)
Internet Information Services (web server)
SQL Server (database)
ASP.NET (web framework)
WISAV/WIPAV
Windows Server (operating system)
Internet Information Services (web server)
Microsoft SQL Server/PostgreSQL (database)
ASP.NET (backend web framework)
Vue.js (frontend web framework)

OS-agnostic web stacks

ELK
Elasticsearch (search engine)
Logstash (event and log management tool)
Kibana (data visualization)
GRANDstack
GraphQL (data query and manipulation language)
React (web application presentation)
Apollo (Data Graph Platform)
Neo4j (database management systems)
JAMstack
JavaScript (programming language)
APIs (Application programming interfaces)
Markup (content)
MARQS
Apache Mesos (node startup/shutdown)
Akka (toolkit) (actor implementation)
Riak (data store)
Apache Kafka (messaging)
Apache Spark (big data and MapReduce)
MEAN
MongoDB (database)
Express.js (application controller layer)
AngularJS/Angular (web application presentation)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
MERN
MongoDB (database)
Express.js (application controller layer)
React.js (web application presentation)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
MEVN
MongoDB (database)
Express.js (application controller layer)
Vue.js (web application presentation)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
NMP
Nginx (web server)
MySQL or MariaDB (database)
PHP (programming language)
OpenACS
NaviServer (web server)
OpenACS (web application framework)
PostgreSQL or Oracle Database (database)
Tcl (scripting language)
PERN
PostgreSQL (database)
Express.js (application controller layer)
React (JavaScript library) (web application presentation)
Node.js (JavaScript runtime)
PLONK
Prometheus (metrics and time-series)
Linkerd (service mesh)
OpenFaaS (management and auto-scaling of compute)
NATS (asynchronous message bus/queue)
Kubernetes (declarative, extensible, scale-out, self-healing clustering)
SMACK
Apache Spark (big data and MapReduce)
Apache Mesos (node startup/shutdown)
Akka (toolkit) (actor implementation)
Apache Cassandra (database)
Apache Kafka (messaging)
T-REx
TerminusDB (scalable graph database)
React (JavaScript web framework)
Express.js (framework for Node.js)
XAMPP
cross-platform (operating system)
Apache (web server)
MariaDB or MySQL (database)
PHP (programming language)
Perl (programming language)
XRX
XML database (database such as BaseX, eXist, MarkLogic Server)
XQuery (Query language)
REST (client interface)
XForms (client)

See also

References

Uses material from the Wikipedia article Solution stack, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.