For databases that need to hold and query hundreds of petabytes to exabytes of data, there are only a few viable choices. Be very careful about evaluating and planning exabyte-scale databases, as they are huge commitments and hard to change once the data is loaded. ... Data consistency is usually “strong” for SQL databases, meaning that all reads return the latest data. Data consistency may be anything from “eventual” to “strong” for NoSQL databases. Eventual consistency offers lower latency, at the risk of reading stale data. Consistency is the “C” in the ACID properties required for validity in the event of errors, network partitions, and power failures. The four ACID properties are Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability. ... Some databases are faster at reads and queries, and others are faster at writes. The mix of reads and writes you expect from your application is a useful number to include in your database selection criteria, and can guide your benchmarking efforts. The optimum choice of index type differs between read-heavy applications and write-heavy applications.
Can we please stop talking about replacing employees with AI?
With mundane, repetitive tasks taken over by AI, your team will have more room for creative, human work. Shift your organizational structure and job descriptions to open up room for the strategic, relationship-oriented work that AI just can’t do as well as a human. With less on employees’ to do lists, leaders and managers can shift their focus to challenging and developing them in other more valuable areas, such as building relationships and soft skills. AI can help here, too, but not in the way you may think. Rather than replacing humans, it can unlock insights (from data most companies already have) that lead to hiring and nurturing the right humans for the job. Software used to identify the important soft skills that lead to success in specific roles can be extremely valuable for both employers and employees. Ultimately, improvements in job performance and satisfaction will boost morale and your bottom line — a win-win. ... A good leader knows that for any organization to survive, people cannot be replaced. AI should instead help make employees exponentially more valuable to their companies by spending more time on creative productivity, and for companies to become more valuable to employees by improving their lives.
The Complexity of Solving Performance Problems
Our brains work in two different modes, particularly as we’re solving
problems: intuitive and analytical. Intuitive is the mode that our brain is in
when we’re not actively and effortfully thinking about something. It’s
automatic. Analytical is the mode where we’re actually applying effort and
working diligently in a focused manner in our brains. ... Nobody ever says,
“Come fix my system,” without telling you what the problem is, right? They
might just tell you that it’s slow, but there’s almost always something along
with that. Maybe “It’s slow and I think there’s an IO problem” or “It’s slow
and it looks like we’re pegging the CPU between two and three o’clock in the
morning.” There’s always a little bit of information. That information gives
us the ability to start theorizing early. That’s the main characteristic of
this approach. ... With the methodical approach, we’re basically going
dogmatically through the steps outlined above. And the key characteristic of
this one is that we have the mental discipline to postpone that theorizing
step until after we’ve gathered the data.
Liquid cooling solutions for high-density computing applications
One of the major challenges when designing data centers is anticipating
end-of-life options and accurately predicting the nominal heat load from the
beginning. This unpredictability often leads to a disconnect between projected
and actual heat demands. For instance, a system designed for 1MW might only
require 150kW in reality. Liquid cooling intensifies this challenge due to
fluctuating cooling demands; as servers process large amounts of data, energy
demand, and heat rejection peak, then drop drastically when idle. ... Liquid
cooling offers significant sustainability gains and surpasses traditional air
cooling methods in efficiency. By capturing heat directly at its source,
liquid cooling allows operation at higher temperatures within the cooling
loop. This facilitates the use of free cooling techniques, leveraging ambient
air for cooling without resorting to additional energy-intensive processes.
Moreover, the captured heat can be reused, further enhancing energy efficiency
and sustainability.
What to do if certificates for passive authentication fail
If you have just one source and it becomes unavailable, your entire
authentication process can be compromised. A wise solution would be to use a
combination of sources to ensure higher service availability. At the
government-to-government level, countries share certificates for passive
authentication with each other through diplomatic channels, thus collecting
their own database of trusted certificates. ... No matter which sources you
trust to get certificates and master lists from—be it a central repository or
each publisher directly—the responsibility remains yours. Organizations like
the ICAO or BSI may facilitate the process, but they are not liable if
something goes wrong. Also, understanding the certificate system and its
expiration dates is crucial. You need to set up alerts for approaching
expiration dates to ensure you have a fresh certificate ready to replace the
old one. The most responsible organizations don’t rely solely on external
sources. They collect certificates from various countries, create their own
master list, sign it with their own certificate, and ensure that it’s
valid.
Ignoring quantum threats in CBDC design is reckless
Relying on quantum mechanics phenomena, it far outpaces the ability of
classical computers and supercomputers to solve complex algorithms in both
speed and capability. Public-key cryptography is one of its primary targets.
Thus, it’s alarming that developers of CBDCs are not prioritizing
quantum-resistant designs in their early technical roadmaps. As RAND
mathematician Alvin Moon noted, “A steady stream of advances in quantum
computing technology is undeniably increasing the urgency to standardize and
implement post-quantum algorithms, or algorithms which are resistant to both
present-day computing and on-the-horizon quantum computing.” This security
flaw represents a serious vulnerability in the US monetary system if central
bank digital currencies are eventually adopted by the Federal Reserve and
authorized by Congress. Valid concerns about surveillance and potential harm
to civil liberties are driving debates and may positively influence laws,
regulations and ethical governance standards. Technical designs continue to
evolve, albeit slowly, to address privacy risks. However, without secure and
resilient technical rails, CBDC adoption will remain a serious risk.
A CISO's Summary Of The Cyber Resilience Act
As a baseline, you need to make sure that whatever you’re building is as
secure as is reasonable to be. Your product must have minimal attack surfaces
and should be hardened. This means that by default it should not allow
unauthorized access; its data is encrypted or protected; and its data and
commands can’t be intercepted or manipulated. It also means that your product
must keep working, even under a DoS attack, and that it mustn’t interrupt
other devices, even when attacked with exploits. Additionally, your product
needs to be able to monitor or log changes in the device, as well as receive
security updates or rollbacks. This includes direct or remote updates, user
notifications about updates and the ability to roll back updates or reset the
product to a factory/default state. On top of that, you’ll also need to follow
or provide documentation and information about your product, including a
description of the design, development and vulnerability handling process.
This would also include a formal SBOM, where you’d include more information on
the components in your product and its potential vulnerabilities.
The Compelling Need for Low-Code in Legacy Application Modernization
With technology at the centre of India’s transformation initiatives, it is
imperative that its base digital infrastructure undergoes transformation if
the nation hopes to achieve its goals. However, in this quest to become a
digital leader lies a huge challenge: legacy systems. Even today, in many
organisations, legacy systems are still used to run daily processes and are a
huge hurdle in the path of digital transformation. Legacy systems not only
consume a significant portion of IT budgets but also make businesses incapable
of adapting to fast-changing customer needs. ... There is another compelling
method that has gained huge traction in recent times. Low-code visual software
development, which helps developers accelerate the software development
process using a friendly and intuitive drag-and-drop process. The low-code
development approach offers organisations the ability to modernise their core
systems without the cost and risk of traditional development approaches. Let
us look at some of the common legacy systems that are prevalent in most
organisations today and understand how low-code platforms can be used
effectively.
How To Establish A Culture Of Cyber-Resilience Within An Organization
Workers ought to be aware of how their activities affect the security posture
of the company and should feel confident enough to serve as the first line of
defense. Additionally essential is routinely upgrading training programs
according to the most recent dangerous environment. Organizations may greatly
lower their susceptibility to cyberattacks by encouraging a culture of ongoing
education and awareness. ... Incorporate cybersecurity into all company
operations to ensure consideration of security issues during each undertaking
and decision-making process. This interconnectedness allows each department to
understand its responsibility in safeguarding the company’s digital assets,
leading to a holistic approach to security. One essential first step is to
create security rules and processes that support company goals. Making sure
cybersecurity needs are part of the planning and development phases of a
project facilitates early risk identification and the application of suitable
safeguards. ... More than simply putting security technology into place, an
organization must develop a cyber-resilience culture.
Mastering Long-Running Processes in Modern Architectures
It is important to note that long-running processes refer to the act of
waiting, not algorithms running for extended periods. This waiting can be due
to human actions, external responses, or intentionally allowing time to pass.
These processes can take hours, days, weeks, or even longer. ... Besides
business reasons for waiting, there are also technical ones, such as
asynchronous communication delays, failures in message delivery, and the
unavailability of peer services in distributed systems. If not addressed,
these issues can lead to cascading failures. ... As soon as you start handling
the complexities of distributed systems and long-running processes in payment
processing, it is essential to embrace asynchronous communication in your API
design. Although payments are usually quick and straightforward, situations
like declined credit cards or unavailable services demand a different
approach. We can build more adaptable and robust payment systems by designing
systems that can handle immediate and delayed responses and using signals like
a 202 HTTP code to indicate that processing will continue in the
background.
Quote for the day:
"Your problem isn't the problem. Your
reaction is the problem." -- Anonymous
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