Professionals
33 Engineering Challenges of Building Mobile Apps at Scale:
Most engineers – who have not built mobile apps – assume the mobile app is a simple facade that requires less engineering effort to build and operate. Having built both types of systems: this is not the case. There is plenty of depth in building large, native, mobile applications – but often little curiosity from people not in this space. Product managers, business stakeholders, and even non-native mobile engineers rarely understand why it “takes so long” to ship something on mobile
This post was co-written by Abdullah Sahin, senior technology architect at Accenture, and Muhammad Qasim, software engineer at Accenture. Organizations deploying call-center chat bots are interested in evolving their solutions continuously, in response to changing customer demands.
DataOps for the modern data warehouse
This text outlines a data solution for city planning involving a fictional city, using an end-to-end data pipeline following the MDW architecture. The pipeline includes Azure services for data orchestration and storage, with DevOps and DataOps processes for data analysis. This solution helps assess parking usage, aiding in informed decision-making.
The article explains how to use a blue-green deployment to test a new version of an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster while keeping the current version running. Upon validation, user traffic is switched to the new version, enhancing availability during modifications. The article provides in-depth insights into the architecture, workflow, transition triggers, and network discoverability of the clusters. Additionally, it highlights different stages involved, alternative techniques for traffic switching, components used, considerations, and deployment scenarios.
IaaS: Web app with relational database
The content describes a high availability solution leveraging Azure’s availability zones for a web application and SQL Server database hosted on Virtual Machines. This setup makes use of a redundant Azure Application Gateway and load balancer to distribute network traffic and ensure uptime. It features zonal deployment for increased application availability. Replication of VMs across zones prevents service interruption during zone failure and maintenance. It also mentions recommended configurations and addressing key pillars of the Azure Well-Architected Framework, including cost optimization, security, and availability.
Configure SAML federation for Amazon OpenSearch Serverless with AWS IAM Identity Center
With OpenSearch Serverless, you can configure SAML to enable users to access data through OpenSearch Dashboards using an external SAML identity provider (IdP). A user accesses the OpenSearch Dashboard URL in their browser and chooses the SAML provider.
Generative Adversarial Networks
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have gained noticeable recognition in AI for their novel ways of generating and improving data, and their critical role in creating photorealistic images, altering image styles, and producing realistic human faces, among others. Introduced by Ian Goodfellow and team in 2014, GANs rely on two interactive neural systems – a generator that creates data and a discriminator that differentiates between original and generated data. Advanced GAN forms, like Deep Convolutional GANs (DC-GANs) excel at producing high quality, lifelike images.
Orchestrating dependent file uploads with AWS Step Functions
This blog post by Amazon S3 details how the Aggregator pattern can handle coupling issues in event-driven architectures (EDA). Using the AWS Step Functions, the object storage service can process data files uploaded by different teams in a particular order. The process involves asynchronous communication between system components that enable these components to function autonomously. This method allows for accurate data correlation and workflow orchestration.
RedPajama v2 Open Dataset with 30T Tokens for Training LLMs
A new version of the RedPajama dataset has been released, featuring 30 trillion filtered and deduplicated tokens from 84 CommonCrawl dumps covering five languages and 40+ pre-computed data quality annotations. This is believed to be the largest public dataset for LLM training. The release aims to reduce the burden of data processing from the community and provide a base for high-quality LLM training data development and research.
Leaders
The Future of Team Leadership Is Multimodal
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift to hybrid work models, requiring a fundamental change in leadership skills. Team leaders need to operate effectively across virtual coordination and face-to-face collaboration modes. Enriching the traditional leadership skills, future leaders must adapt four new roles for multimodal leadership in a post-pandemic world – Conductor, Catalyst, Coach, and Champion to effectively manage a hybrid workforce.
Reinventing HR to deliver on human-centered transformation by Armin von Rohrscheidt
The “Human-Centric Enterprise” ebook aims to reimagine corporate management to maximize human potential. The book, a collaboration between Thinkers50 and Mercer, proposes that best practice should cater to individual needs and aspirations over balance sheets or rigid efficiency ideals. Armin von Rohrscheidt’s chapter discusses how HR needs to evolve to support this shift towards a more humane and people-centered organizational structure.
Digital Twins are now faster and easier to deploy with AWS. Are you ready?
Amazon’s AWS IoT TwinMaker simplifies the creation of Digital Twins, virtual replicas of real world systems, enabling better operational insights for organizations using IoT devices. Digital Twins offer enhanced visibility, boosting productivity by augmenting traditionally static data with spatial and temporal inputs. This technology can streamline issue identification within complex indoor environments, and has diverse applications across various industries. Digital Twins can also integrate with advanced Artificial Intelligence for more sophisticated use cases.
Exploring Cloud Crisis Management Solutions
In a webinar, Sherelle Moore, CEO of Cyion Cyber, and Vince Hwang, Senior Director at Fortinet, outlined key stages of cloud crisis management. Focusing on risk assessment, crisis leadership, planning, and communication, Moore suggests regular review and updates of plans to maintain business continuity and disaster recovery. Meanwhile, Hwang emphasizes planning from a procurement perspective to balance costs and ensure speedy recovery. The main goal is to prepare for inevitable cyber crises, maintain effective communication lines, and ensure business continuity.
, a leading open-source container orchestration platform, was engineered at Google in 2013 to automate the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized apps. It revolutionized cloud-native infrastructure, despite originating from traditional IT and virtual IT infrastructure. Kubernetes’ history includes the development of its predecessor, Borg, and the incorporation of Docker’s open-source containerization. Today, it is used by 71% of Fortune 100 companies and it’s predicted over 90% of worldwide organizations will be employing containerized applications by 2027.
OpenAI Holds First Developer Conference: What It Means For Consumer Digital Experiences
held its first developer conference in November 2023, hosted by CEO Sam Altman. The company announced having 100 million weekly active users and 92% of Fortune 500 companies using their products. Updates include extended knowledge cut-off date, complex prompts support in GPT-4 Turbo, control over answer output, customization for niche applications, reduced prices, and the launch of a GPT store. The updates are expected to expand use cases, reduce risk, and create opportunities for third-party developers.
The Thinkers50, a global ranking of management thinkers, announced its 2023 ranking and the recipients of its nine Distinguished Achievement Awards. For the second consecutive time, Amy Edmondson from Harvard Business School topped the list. Winners of the Distinguished Achievement Awards include Wendy K. Smith, Marianne W. Lewis, Michael Bungay Stanier, Paul R. Daugherty, H. James Wilson, and others. The ranking also features several newcomers and includes individuals from diverse backgrounds and nationalities.
Escape the Grip of Greed and Envy
Greed and envy, driven by social comparisons, can lead to severe negative psychological effects and destructive behaviors. These “twin terrors” often result from unresolved emotional traumas and unmet needs. To overcome them, individuals must understand their emotional roots, focus on personal growth and what truly matters, practice gratitude and humility, find fulfillment in helping others, and seek professional help when needed. Embracing a feeling of being “good enough” can lead to genuine life satisfaction.
How Tech For Good Will Help Leaders Solve The World’s Greatest Challenges
Tech for Good is a movement aimed at using advanced technology to drive global progress by addressing environmental and social issues. The Fourth Industrial Revolution offers the opportunity to use technology to significantly benefit businesses while driving sustainable growth. With large corporations increasingly tech-oriented, they hold power and responsibility to use technology to tackle global challenges, such as poverty, climate change, and inequality. Companies, while pursuing sustainability, can unlock more than $12 trillion in growth markets by 2030, creating an estimated 380 million jobs annually.