Backend developers are always looking for new tools and approaches to make apps more efficient and secure, while cutting costs for clients. In 2025, there are several key trends that reshape backend development services. In this article, we share our thoughts on top backend trends and experiences related to some of them.
1. Serverless architecture
Serverless architecture is an approach that allows developers to create an app’s backend without assembling and managing its infrastructure. This architecture automatically scales with demand, reduces operational costs, and allows app owners to pay only for the resources they use. This backend trend is evolving rapidly, with major platforms like AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Azure Functions leading the charge. The global serverless computing market was valued at USD 24.51 billion in 2024, with projections indicating a growth rate of 14.1% annually from 2025 to 2030.
One of the key benefits of serverless computing is its ability to manage peak traffic efficiently without over-provisioning resources. This ensures that businesses, such as e-commerce platforms, can handle sudden traffic surges during events like holiday sales without pre-planned infrastructure upgrades, thereby avoiding downtime or performance issues. However, challenges like cold start latency remain a concern for applications that require quick response times, such as those in financial services or healthcare. Additionally, high-traffic applications may encounter unpredictable costs, and reliance on proprietary services poses a risk of vendor lock-in.
Looking ahead to 2026, the industry is addressing these challenges by developing standardized serverless interfaces across providers, improving the portability of serverless applications, and creating multi-cloud deployment tools. Moreover, advanced pre-warming strategies, improved container reuse, and new runtime optimizations are being introduced to mitigate cold start problems.
Serverless databases, a key part of this trend, offer automatic scaling and geographic dispersion, surviving failures across regions. This means businesses can maintain high performance and data accuracy anywhere in the world. As a result, the world is increasingly moving toward a completely serverless environment.
2. Web assembly
WebAssembly (Wasm) is a technology that helps web apps run faster by allowing code to execute efficiently in a browser, improving performance and speed. Using Wasm for backend development is a growing backend trend due to its high performance and platform independence. It offers near-native execution speed and support for a variety of programming languages, such as Rust, C, and Go. WebAssembly supports serverless and microservices due to its lightweight nature and fast startup times. According to the 2023 State of WebAssembly report by CNCF and SlashData, 63% use it for serverless environments. However, its ecosystem is less mature compared to established backend technologies like Node.js, which may require more effort in integration and debugging.
Cloud providers such as Cloudflare Workers and Fastly Compute@Edge are already using Wasm to run code closer to users, reducing latency and enabling high-performance microservices and edge computing applications. Industry adoption is set to increase, with contributions to open-source projects accelerating its development. While challenges like security and standardization remain, WebAssembly's ability to meet future needs in performance and flexibility makes it a promising option for backend development.
3. Gitops
GitOps is a practice in DevOps that uses Git as a single source of truth for managing and deploying infrastructure and application code. The GitOps trend is transforming backend development and DevOps, particularly for managing cloud-native infrastructure and Kubernetes deployments. In 2025, GitOps is expected to become the standard for managing Kubernetes clusters, with predictions suggesting that over 90% of these deployments will use GitOps workflows. This approach aligns seamlessly with Kubernetes' declarative nature, supporting scalable and reliable deployment strategies.
GitOps also works well with the growth of platform engineering and Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs), giving developers standardized, self-service environments. This integration reduces operational complexity and boosts developer productivity while ensuring security compliance. Additionally, GitOps enhances security by embedding policies and compliance checks directly into Git workflows, supporting DevSecOps practices and ensuring security is considered from the start.
When we developed a neobank app for one of our clients, we used Terraform as a GitOps tool to simplify our infrastructure management. By using Terraform and Git together, we could automatically and consistently set up the environment needed for the app. This made it easier to manage cloud settings, reduced mistakes, and helped us finish the project faster.
4. Edge computing
Edge computing is a way to process data closer to where it is generated, instead of sending it all to faraway data centers. This approach speeds up processing and makes it easier for apps like smart devices and streaming services to respond quickly.
Edge computing is changing backend development by speeding up response times and reducing the load on central servers. This is important for real-time apps like gaming, AR/VR, autonomous vehicles, and IoT devices. With the rise of 5G and IoT, there's a growing demand for edge computing solutions such as AWS IoT Greengrass, Azure IoT Edge, and Google Edge Cloud. These services help developers adjust APIs and data storage for distributed, globally available networks, boosting performance and enhancing data security by keeping sensitive information local. As backend technologies advance, edge computing is set to play a key role in making backend systems more efficient and responsive.
5. Zero trust
The zero trust trend in backend development services is an important move towards better security in a world where remote work and cloud computing are common. Unlike traditional methods that rely on a secure perimeter, zero trust assumes that threats can come from anywhere, so it verifies everyone and everything trying to access the network. This approach operates on the principle of "never trust, always verify," which helps protect sensitive data and reduces the risk of breaches.
Innovations in zero trust include using decentralized identifiers (DID) for secure authentication and AI-powered API gateways to detect threats. Tools like Open Policy Agent (OPA) allow for dynamic policy enforcement, while advanced data encryption techniques keep data safe even during use. These methods are especially important in industries like healthcare and finance, which rely on secure cloud platforms.
6. Single responsibility
The single responsibility approach is a principle that states each module or class should have one, and only one, reason to change, meaning it should only have one responsibility or function. This makes the code easier to understand, maintain, and modify, as each part does a specific task without affecting others.
The Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) is an important trend in backend development services, especially as systems become more complex and large in 2025. SRP is one of the SOLID software design principles that ensures each class, module, or service has one specific function, or reason to change. This approach helps developers create systems that are easier to manage and understand by breaking down code into modular parts, like separate components for database access, business logic, or API handling, reducing the complexity and interdependencies.
By following SRP, developers can handle complex processes more effectively by turning them into smaller, focused services or functions with clear roles. Although it requires careful planning, this approach improves code clarity and makes testing easier. SRP also aligns well with microservices architecture, where each microservice handles a single business function, and supports clean architecture principles, keeping backend systems flexible and adaptable to change.
In our recent project, we improved our adherence to the SRP by breaking down a service layer into smaller, focused components. This way, each part of the system has a clear, single job, making it easier to understand and manage. Additionally, we optimized testing of asynchronous processes by splitting tests into synchronous and asynchronous parts, which reduces the number of tests and makes them more understandable for developers. This method has proven to be effective in maintaining cleaner code and more reliable applications.
To conclude
Serverless architecture reduces costs and simplifies scaling, while WebAssembly boosts performance with its flexible and fast execution capabilities. GitOps is streamlining cloud-native infrastructure management by using Git for version control and deployment, making processes more reliable. Edge computing is bringing data processing closer to the source, crucial for real-time applications and supported by the proliferation of 5G and IoT technologies. The zero trust model is strengthening security by verifying all network access, reducing the risk of data breaches. Finally, the single responsibility approach improves code clarity by ensuring each component has a specific function, thereby aligning well with microservices. Together, these trends are changing backend solutions, making them more robust, secure, and efficient.
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