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@article{180064,
        author = {Simran Prasad and Ms. Rauki Yadav},
        title = {Innovating Web Development: Leveraging Next.js  for Direct Database Access and Eliminating the  Backend Layer},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {1},
        pages = {57-71},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=180064},
        abstract = {Traditional web development architectures rely heavily on dedicated backend servers to manage business logic, database interactions, and API services. While effective, this layered approach introduces additional complexity, increased de- velopment time, and higher infrastructure overhead—especially for small to medium-sized applications. With the advent of modern full-stack frameworks like Next.js, a paradigm shift is emerging: enabling frontend developers to build applications that directly interact with databases through server-side capabilities. This research investigates the potential of leveraging Next.js as a backendless architecture platform by enabling secure and efficient direct database communication through API routes and server-side rendering (SSR). The study evaluates architectural design patterns, implementation strategies, and performance metrics associated with this approach. A prototype application is developed to benchmark and compare response time, scalability, and development complexity against traditional multi-layer ar- chitectures. Furthermore, the paper discusses key considerations including authentication, data security, and deployment practices
when eliminating the dedicated backend layer.
By consolidating backend and frontend functionalities within a unified framework, this approach demonstrates promising improvements in performance, maintainability, and deployment efficiency. The findings suggest that backendless architectures using Next.js can offer a viable solution for lightweight appli- cations, redefining conventional web development workflows and reducing the barrier to full-stack development.},
        keywords = {Next.js, Backendless Architecture, Direct Database Access, Full-stack Web Development, Server-side Ren- dering, Web Performance Optimization},
        month = {May},
        }