Daily Tech Digest - August 04, 2022

Artificial intelligence makes project planning better

Unlike neural networks, expert systems do not require up-front learning, nor do they necessarily require large amounts of data to be effective. Yes, expert systems can and do absolutely learn and get smarter over time (by adjusting or adding rules in the inference engine) but they have the benefit of not needing to be “trained up front” in order to function correctly. Capturing planning knowledge can be a daunting task and arguably very specific and unique to individual organizations. If all organisations planned using the same knowledge e.g., standard sub-nets, then we could simply put our heads together as an industry and establish a global “planning bible” from which we could all subscribe. This of course isn’t the case and so for a neural network to be effective in helping us in project planning, we would need to mine a lot of data. Even if we could get our hands on it, it wouldn’t be consistent enough to actually help with pattern recognition. Neural networks have been described as black boxes — you feed in inputs, they establish algorithms based on learned patterns and then spit out an answer.


Trending Programming Language to Learn

Generally, Python is seen as an easy-to-learn software language thanks to its simple syntax, extensive library of guidelines and toolkits, and its compatibility with other prominent programming languages, including C and C++. Its popularity is demonstrated by its ranking in TIOBE and PYPL Index in 2021: Python was the leading programming language. Companies like Intel, Facebook, Spotify, and Netflix are still using the best python developers to take advantage of this language’s extensive libraries. ... Although GO is somehow similar to C in syntax, it’s a unique language that offers excellent memory protection and management functionality. It is likely that GO’s popularity will continue to rise as it’s used to design systems that use artificial intelligence, just like Python. ... It's no wonder Java is so popular; getting started with this language is fairly simple, and it boasts a high level of security. Furthermore, it’s capable of handling large amounts of data. The technology is used in a variety of applications on almost all major systems like mobile, desktop, web, artificial intelligence, cloud applications, and more.


Why Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud love Ampere Computing’s server chips

“Ampere is designing for a completely different goal,” to its rivals, says Dylan Patel, a chip industry analyst from SemiAnalysis. “Intel is targeting a wider net of people, versus what Ampere is going for, which allows them to make certain sacrifices and gain benefits from that,” he says. Though the company’s chips have a “weaker and smaller CPU core” than some of the x86 processors designed by Intel and AMD for servers, Patel says this means the chips themselves are smaller, and that as a result power usage is lower and the chips are more efficient. “That’s a big deal” for data centre operators, he says. Patel adds: “Renee realised this needed to be done much earlier than most of the cloud providers themselves. Amazon figured out they needed to build CPUs like this, but the others did not, and as a result, most of them are now in a position where they need to buy the technology from someone else. That’s why you find Ampere in every major cloud now.”


Digital transformation: How to guide innovation leaders

Digital Trailblazers are lifelong learners and can start their careers in product management, technology, security, or data roles. What sets Digital Trailblazers apart is their ability to ask the questions that challenge people’s thinking and get into the weeds around customer experience, data quality issues, or how to integrate emerging technologies. But finding Digital Trailblazers isn’t easy, and guiding them requires leadership’s commitment to empowering their creativity and collaboration. CIOs who dedicate themselves and their lieutenants to seek and guide aspiring transformation leaders are setting their entire organization up for success for years to come. Once you identify these leaders, you must encourage them to step out of their comfort zones because many will soon be experiencing firsts such as presenting to leadership, responding to detractors, or making tough calls in setting priorities. In the book, I tell the stories of what it feels like to be a Digital Trailblazer, knowing they will face many new experiences. I’ll share an excerpt from the chapter “Buried in bad data.” 


6 key advantages of ERP and CRM software integration

Typically, businesses purchase and deploy ERP and CRM systems separately. However, if your ERP and CRM systems have their own databases, you will consistently have to worry about keeping them synchronised. Whether it’s a CRM user from customer service or an ERP user from billing who updates a customer’s account, any changes implemented in one system will have to be transferred to the other. Considering this is a manual process, having to wait for a database to update before you can, for example, process bills, replenish inventory levels and arrange product returns for customers, will result in slower operations and an increased risk of database errors. Applying an integrated CRM functionality to your ERP solution will ensure both systems share one database; meaning updates in either system are visible instantaneously. Customers can be billed faster and any product returns can be automated between systems; providing your business with clearer visibility into all stages of your business’ sales process.


Can You Recover Losses Sustained During a Cloud Outage?

Even if the providers do have insurance, the terms of those policies are unlikely to cover more than a fraction of the costs incurred by the clients. “Negotiate how much risk is being held by the company and how much risk is being retained by the cloud service provider,” advises Michael Phillips, chief claims officer of cyber insurance company Resilience. “It's an unfortunate fact of life right now that many of the major cloud service providers are willing to accept none of the risk of their own failure.” The public cloud is a multi-tenant environment, further complicating the issue of responsibility. “Many cloud providers currently do not offer meaningful SLAs, arguing the application must meet the demands of multiple customers,” says Lisa Rovinsky, partner at full-service law firm Culhane Meadows. “I think this power structure will be changing as customers become more sophisticated and hybrid cloud solutions develop.” This puts the onus on clients to ensure that their cloud agreements are as airtight as possible from the get-go. Boilerplate contracts are unlikely to offer even cursory protection, so customization is increasingly the name of the game.


6 Smart Ways to Optimize Your Tech Stack

Consolidation can be thought of through the lens of technical debt. While some technical debt may be intentional, all technical debt creates added complexity that gets in the way of organizational agility. Recent research found that while 94% of organizations recognize the impact of technical debt digital transformation, less than half have a strategy in place to manage it. Looking for ways to eliminate technical debt by consolidating solutions and letting go of those that are highly customized or out of support offers a clear path to delivering measurable business value. ... EA can align with DevOps in two complementary ways. First, the development tech stack must be reflected in the overall organizational tech stack. On this front, collaboration with head of development and software architects are key. Second, EA can use their tools and expertise to help dev teams manage their one tech landscape, particularly when it comes to microservices. A microservice catalog can serve in this case as both an essential tool for DevOps, particularly when it promotes reuse, and a natural extns


Hacking Concerns Delay Balloting for New UK Prime Minister

Online voting has been changed so that instead of a Tory party member being able to use their unique code multiple times to change their vote, the code will instead be deactivated after they initially vote. "The part that caused particular concern was being able to change your vote after submission," says Alan Woodward, professor of computer science at the University of Surrey. NCSC, which is the public-facing arm of Britain's security, intelligence and cyber agency, GCHQ, confirms that it has been providing guidance to the Tory party. "As you would expect from the U.K.'s national cybersecurity authority, we provided advice to the Conservative Party on security considerations for online leadership voting," an NCSC spokesperson tells Information Security Media Group. "Defending U.K. democratic and electoral processes is a priority for the NCSC, and we work closely with all parliamentary political parties, local authorities and MPs to provide cybersecurity guidance and support." The Conservative Party acknowledged the cybersecurity center's input.


How to succeed as an enterprise architect: 4 key strategies

Technical debt should be used intentionally to make incremental gains, not accumulated from neglect. Every architect must decide how to deal with debt—both addressing it and taking it on—to succeed in their role. Get comfortable with technical debt as a tool. The key questions that need to be addressed are when to take on debt and when to pay it off. Take on debt when the future of a product or feature is uncertain. Whether for a proof of concept or a minimum viable product, use debt to move fast and prove or realize value quickly before committing more cycles to make it robust. Architects can minimize the impact of debt by first solidifying interfaces. Changes to interfaces impact users. Consequently, these changes are not only sometimes technically difficult but can also be logistically challenging. And the more difficult it is to address debt, the less likely it is to be managed. Pay down technical debt when its value proposition turns negative and has a measurable impact on the business. That impact could come in the form of decreased engineering velocity, infrastructure brittleness leading to repeated incidents, monetary cost, or many other related effects. 


6 ways your cloud data security policies are slowing innovation – and how to avoid that

Some security professionals may consider this first pitfall as irrelevant to their organization, as they allow data to be freely moved or modified across cloud environments without restrictions. While beneficial for business purposes, this approach ignores the exponential growth in data and its tendency to spread across data stores and environments, with little ability to locate where it resides. This lack of visibility and control will inevitably lead to loss of what may be sensitive, personal or customer data in the process. If data is the fuel of many of our business processes, then losing some of it means that you’re running low on gas. Innovative teams require access to data. Whether it’s data scientists who are creating new machine learning algorithms, threat researchers researching new trends, marketing or product management teams who need to understand customer behavior or other stakeholders – innovating without data is like trying to bake without an oven. Managing organizational access to data may be critical to ensure that it isn’t abused or lost but creating stringent access control policies and boundaries around data usage creates what are essentially data silos, once again restricting innovation.



Quote for the day:

"Failures only triumph if we don't have the courage to try again." -- Gordon Tredgold

No comments:

Post a Comment