What It Means to Be a Software Architect — and Why It Matters
One of the misperceptions that architects face is that we are engaging in
architecture for architecture’s sake, or that we propose new technologies mainly
because of the “coolness” factor. Our challenge is to counter this misperception
by arguing not merely for the aesthetic value of good design, but for the
pragmatic, economic value. We need to frame the need for intentional design as
something that can save the company significant costs by averting
disadvantageous technology and design choices, producing a distinct competitive
edge through market differentiation and paving the way for increased customer
satisfaction. ... My commentary on some of Martin Fowler’s views of software
architecture is not intended to paint a complete picture of this important role
and how it differs from other types of architects. Rather, I’ve sought to
highlight the importance of designing the structure of a system at the code
level to ensure that the application of relevant patterns results in a design
that can sustain cumulative functionality over time, increasing business value
while reducing time to market.
5 Ways to Supercharge Incident Remediation with Automation
It’s a balance between your confidence in the automation, the value or cost of
the incident and the frequency the task occurs. Common incidents with proven
automated steps for diagnosis and remediation are good opportunities to trigger
with AIOps. From there, follow a similar process to prioritize your incident
response. Automate diagnosis and remediation steps for serious outages to speed
resolution. Then focus on increasing efficiency by automating recurring
diagnostics and remediation actions that occur across many kinds of incidents.
You can safely automate and trigger lower-risk actions such as read-only
diagnostic pulls with AIOps, giving downstream personnel the information they
need, even when they are paged. You can automate common remediation actions and
make them available to responders to use. This automation can utilize secrets
management tools such as Vault to enable privileged actions in production
environments without sharing credentials, making it safer to delegate to
responders.
Tech Pros Quitting Over Salary Stagnation, Stress
Gartner Vice President Analyst Lily Mok told InformationWeek via email CIOs
should work with their recruitment and compensation teams to identify IT roles
and skills areas facing higher attrition risk and recruitment challenges due to
noncompetitive compensation. “This will help pinpoint additional funding will be
needed in the short term to address pay gaps,” she says. “Organizations with
limited financial resources should prioritize allocating increases to high-risk
areas.” She also recommends conducting spot-checks of the market pay conditions
on at least a quarterly basis and updating pay benchmarks for key IT roles and
skills areas with more recent data. “At very least, I would recommend annual
review of market pay levels for key IT jobs and skills area,” Mok adds. ...
Another suggestion is to create a separate salary structure for IT, an approach
that helps avoid force-fitting IT jobs into enterprise wide pay grades that
often place a higher weight on internal equity than external competitiveness
when valuing jobs across different functions.
Unlocking Cyber Resilience: The Role Of SBOMs In Cybersecurity
Implementing an SBOM strategy is a step towards fortifying your cybersecurity
defenses. While having a list of the components that make up your software
supply chain is better than not having one, context is also crucial. You don’t
just want to know that you have a given code module—but all of the associated
data as well. Vulnerabilities and exploits tend to effect specific versions,
so you need to know the details of the versions in your environment, the year
and date the code was released, where and how the code is used, etc.
Automation is essential. It’s impractical, bordering on impossible to try and
manage or maintain an accurate SBOM through any manual process. By automating
the SBOM generation and maintenance, the margin for human error diminishes,
the speed of response accelerates, and organizations can scale their security
practices as they grow. Compliance is another piece of the puzzle. Your SBOM
solution should align with industry standards and regulatory requirements,
ensuring that you aren't just secure, but also compliant.
CISOs can marry security and business success
While businesses aim for different outcomes, one goal that the business
typically prescribes for cybersecurity is business continuity. This is
probably due to most executives viewing cybersecurity only as an operational
necessity. At the same time, they fail to see cybersecurity’s essential
contribution to the due diligence aspect of the procurement process. The
complexity and length of procurement processes have increased over the years,
as prospective clients use this as part of their third-party risk management.
Executives that are aware of clients’ needs can use them to improve the
cybersecurity of the organization and its offerings, by translating them into
features that will raise the offering’s competitive advantage. Traditionally,
R&D and innovation teams perceive the CISO’s role as an obstacle to
innovation and advancement. Conventional security entities frequently resort
to phrases like “this can’t be done due to security protocols,” obstructing
changes to existing infrastructure and impeding innovation. If security is
confined to an IT concern rather than recognized as a business imperative,
CISOs struggle to emerge as strategic partners.
Advanced Applications of Open-Source Technologies
The Evolution of Open-Source Culture The widespread adoption of open-source
technologies is attributed to the culture and philosophy underpinning the
open-source movement. Early pioneers in the open-source community championed
the belief in the transformative power of collaborative, community-driven
efforts and unrestricted access to software source code. For young developers
exploring careers, open source presents exciting opportunities. Contributing
to open-source projects enables developers to hone their skills, gain
visibility, and engage with mentorship from experienced professionals. ...
Demonstrated by Brazil’s Amazonia-1 satellite program, Julia is instrumental
in in-orbit sensor calibration, showcasing its adaptability beyond
conventional software development. NASA, a leader in space exploration, also
utilises Julia for various purposes, including gaining insights into the
intricacies of Earth’s oceans. This strategic adoption of open-source
technology highlights its pivotal role as more than just a developer’s tool,
serving as a crucial enabler to tackle real-world challenges on a global
scale.
Generative AI is a developer's delight. Now, let's find some other use cases
"We aren't surprised that the most common application of generative AI is in
programming, using tools like GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT," Mike Loukides,
author of the O'Reilly report, writes. "However, we are surprised at the level
of adoption." There is also evidence of a healthy tools ecosystem that has
already sprung up around generative AI, the report indicates. ... "Automating
the process of building complex prompts has become common, with patterns like
retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and tools like LangChain. And there are
tools for archiving and indexing prompts for reuse, vector databases for
retrieving documents that an AI can use to answer a question, and much more.
We're already moving into the second generation of tooling." ... "Programmers
have always developed tools that would help them do their jobs, from test
frameworks to source control to integrated development environments.
Programmers will do what's necessary to get the job done, and managers will be
blissfully unaware as long as their teams are more productive and goals are
being met."
In the symphony of enterprise, every business today dances to the silent tune of technology
Not all AI applications have had a positive impact – content writing and the
media industry are the worst hit. It was widely believed that creative
industries will be the last to be impacted by technologies like AI however the
ground realities are very different. One of the demands of the striking
Writers Guild of America was that AI will not encroach on writers’ credits and
compensation. No matter the core product, all functions of an organization are
now utilizing technology in some form or manner – planning, organizing,
analysis, marketing, sales, customer engagement or service. Technology has
always been a catalyst for progress, often propelling non-tech companies into
new realms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. From the industrial
revolution’s steam engines to the digital age’s computers, companies outside
the technology sector have harnessed innovation to transform their operations.
Today, the conductor of this transformative orchestra is artificial
intelligence (AI) and the darling subset – Generative AI.
5 pillars of a cloud-conscious culture
“A developer shouldn’t just provision an extra-large server and then leave it
running,” says Firment. “Coders have to learn to work in a cloud native way.
That requires understanding terms like elasticity, scalability, and
resiliency. They need to know what we mean by multiple availability zones.
Developers can still leverage their skills in the cloud, but they just have to
apply them in the new way.” Building a culture is like building a tribe, and
certificates are a good marker of the new tribe. They create a sense of
belonging. Rituals are equally important. “As individuals get certified,
create a cloud of fame,” says Firment. “That’s a great way to say you value
people who develop the skills. And it’s an artifact of the new culture.”
Celebrating certification is also highly effective. “Establish a weekly or
monthly cloud hour, where people share what they’re learning on the way to
getting certified,” he says. “Ultimately, they should share how they’re
applying the knowledge and customer success stories. Storytelling is a big
part of creating a culture.”
The SSO tax is killing trust in the security industry
Before some of these solutions are adopted, there are steps we can all take.
If you are responsible for identity and access management at an organization,
have you audited the authentication tokens you rely on to ensure they operate
as expected? Have you considered what compensating controls you could put in
place? Are there security products that can do that auditing for you or
otherwise mitigate this risk in your environment? Do the security
questionnaires your company sends to potential SaaS application providers ask
how they configure authentication tokens? It is going to take a serious
collaborative "security by design" effort between SSO providers, application
developers, and browser companies to repair the broken SSO environment we
currently operate under. We single out application providers for criticism in
this article because they so often charge an upgrade fee to integrate with
SSO. If they are going to charge us a tax, they need to step up or share in
the blame for the compromises that will continue to happen.
Quote for the day:
"Success consists of getting up just
one more time than you fall." -- Oliver Goldsmith
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