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Showing posts from August, 2023

Azul releases new capability that reduces Java warmup time

The company announced ReadyNow Orchestrator (RNO), which is a new feature that reduces Java warmup time and uses demand to determine cloud compute capacity.  “When a JVM wakes up, we believe it spends too much time profiling application usage to get the best optimizations – so we solved that when we first introduced ReadyNow. Now, we are delivering a turnkey way to record and deliver the optimization information needed to get you to full speed as quickly as possible,” said Martin Van Ryswyk, chief product officer at Azul. “We focused on selecting the best performance optimizations and then propagating to the rest of a fleet, with more intelligence to fully leverage cloud elasticity.” According to Azul, companies running business-critical workloads may be familiar with problems regarding warmup time. Whenever an application is launched, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) has to compile it into a form that can be executed by the server, and once an application is running, the JVM is cons

GitHub Enterprise Server 3.1 released with enhanced security capabilities

GitHub Enterprise Server 3.10 was released, offering organizations improved control over repositories for developers and administrators. The update includes enhanced security and compliance measures, emphasizing a strong focus on secure development practices. The release includes enhanced deployment safety through custom rules for GitHub Actions, easier vulnerability identification with improved code scanning setup, fine-grained control over Personal Access Tokens, and more.  GitHub’s new Projects feature is now widely accessible on Enterprise Server. The tool helps with managing work management and tracking within GitHub itself. Designed as a spreadsheet-style interface, it offers a dynamic workspace to filter, sort, and group issues and pull requests. This enables administrators to have a comprehensive overview of ongoing activities, while development teams can collaborate seamlessly and maintain their workflow more effectively. In GitHub Enterprise Server 3.10, teams gain the abi

Gremlin launches new tool for discovering common hidden risks in software

Detected Risks can help SREs find and fix common hidden risks that could impact reliability. It flags things that could potentially be failure points, and offers recommendations on how to resolve them.  According to Gremlin, the hope with this new solution is that it empowers companies to transition from “reactive problem-solving to proactive risk mitigation.”  Gremlin analyzed data from tens of thousands of systems that use Gremlin in order to determine the most common risks. For example, 26% of deployments had zero redundancies and 80% didn’t have two redundancies configured.  These are some of the possible issues that Detected Risks would flag. It also tests for common miscounfiguration problems, including missing Kubernetes liveness probes and misconfiguration of autoscaling.   “Reliability continues to grow in importance,” said Kolton Andrus, CTO and founder of Gremlin. “Our digital infrastructure is as important as our physical infrastructure. Government, healthcare, transpor

Google Cloud Next ‘23: Updates to infrastructure, Vertex AI, analytics, and more

Google Cloud Next kicked off today, with the company highlighting the progress it’s made over the past year as well as showcasing some of its new offerings.  “We are in an entirely new era of digital transformation, fueled by gen AI. This technology is already improving how businesses operate and how humans interact with one another. It’s changing the way doctors care for patients, the way people communicate, and even the way workers are kept safe on the job. And this is just the beginning,” Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, wrote in a blog post .  In addition to announcing the general availability of Duet AI in Google Workspace, the company shared updates across infrastructure, Vertex AI, analytics, and security, as well as sharing new innovations from some of its partners.  Infrastructure The company announced several new capabilities related to infrastructure. According to Google Cloud, over the past 25 years it has grown its network to include 38 cloud regions around the

Google Duet AI now available in Google Workspace

Google is offering a free trial for Duet AI for Google Workspace. Duet AI enhances collaboration by integrating real-time AI assistance into the workspace. This technology aims to make working with others more convenient and enjoyable. “Sometimes it feels like there isn’t enough time in the day — with so much email, so many meetings, and countless action items to follow up on, work can feel daunting. What if you had an intelligent, real-time collaboration partner that dramatically reduced that burden? With Duet AI, you get to focus on what really matters while it can take care of the rest,” Aparna Pappu,  GM and vice president for Google Workspace wrote in a blog post .  Duet AI is being integrated into Google Meet to enhance the quality of meetings and address audio and video quality, slow internet connections, and language barriers. This integration aims to improve participants’ visibility and audio clarity through features like studio-like appearance, lighting, and sound.  Addit

OpenAI releases ChatGPT Enterprise

OpenAI on Monday announced ChatGPT Enterprise, its first commercial offering around generative artificial intelligence. Among its features are enterprise-grade security, greater high-speed GPT-4 access, customization, advanced data analytics and more, according to a blog post on OpenAI’s website. OpenAI is backed by Microsoft, which is the exclusive cloud partner for OpenAI.. “Since ChatGPT’s launch just nine months ago, we’ve seen teams adopt it in over 80% of Fortune 500 companies,” OpenAI wrote in its announcement. “We’ve heard from business leaders that they’d like a simple and safe way of deploying it in their organization. Early users of ChatGPT Enterprise … are redefining how they operate and are using ChatGPT to craft clearer communications, accelerate coding tasks, rapidly explore answers to complex business questions, assist with creative work, and much more.” The announcement made the point that ChatGPT Enterprise does not train on individual organizations’ data, and th

CNCF’s Notary and Notation projects get major update

Notary, the CNCF project that provides cross-industry standards for supply chain security, has announced a major release.  This brings both the Notary Project and Notation Project to version 1.0.0. Notation is a sub-project that implements Notary specifications.  Included in this release are an OCI signature specification, OCI COSE signature envelope, OCI JWS signature envelope, OCI signing and verification workflow, signing scheme, Trust Store, and Trust policy, and plugin specification for Notation.  The team also revealed what it’s working on next. These include the ability to sign and verify arbitrary blogs, integration with GitHub Actions, a HashiCorp Vault plugin, plugin lifecycle management, timestamping support, and the ability to manage trust policies using CLI commands.  “As containers and cloud native artifacts become common deployment units, users want to make sure that they are authentic in their environments. The Notary Project is a set of specifications and tools int

How to successfully optimize application development and management

Today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape combined with challenging economic conditions, complex contracts, and service-level agreements can hinder a business’ ability to evolve and adapt. This also creates an environment where application development and management (ADM) requirements are constantly changing.  The upside of this challenging environment is that it creates an opportunity for companies to proactively navigate and actively manage their ADM processes. As organizations explore different ways to utilize and improve their ADM services, they should prioritize a strategic, simple, and sustainable roadmap.  Enhance strategic decision-making:  By adopting a strategic ADM approach, enterprises can reduce costs and achieve better outcomes that are aligned with their business goals and objectives. In addition, they will improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of your application development and management efforts.  Focusing on the following five key principles and pract

Meta releases its own AI coding tool, Code Llama

Meta is joining other fellow tech giants in creating its own AI-assisted coding tool. The tool, Code Llama , generates code based on text prompts. It can also help with other development tasks, like code completion and debugging.  Meta believes that Code Llama will make development workflows faster and lower the bar to entry for new developers.  “Code Llama is state-of-the-art for publicly available LLMs on coding tasks. It has the potential to make workflows faster and more efficient for developers and lower the barrier to entry for people who are learning to code. Code Llama has the potential to be used as a productivity and educational tool to help programmers write more robust, well-documented software,” Meta wrote in a blog post .  Code Llama is based on Llama 2 , which is a large language model focused on code generation. In order to create Code Llama, the company did additional training on code-specific datasets.  Meta is releasing Code Llama under a community license in

SD Times Open-Source Project of the Week: Storybook

Storybook is a frontend workshop for building UI components and pages in isolation made for UI development, testing, and documentation. Storybook comes with a lot of addons for component design, documentation, testing, interactivity, and so on. Storybook’s API makes it possible to configure and extend in various ways. It has even been extended to support React Native, Android, iOS, and Flutter development for mobile. The tool offers a platform for constructing UIs independently from the main application. It enables developers to work on challenging scenarios and uncommon situations without requiring the entire application to be executed. This isolation of UI development helps streamline the process and makes it easier to handle complex states and edge cases. Users can create components and pages without having to deal with data, APIs, or business logic complexities. Users can also render components in key states that are tricky to reproduce in an app. Then save those states as stor

OpenSSF launches Open Source Consumption Manifesto

OpenSSF created the Open Source Consumption Manifesto (OSCM) with the main objective of enhancing the utilization of open-source software. Similar to the Agile Manifesto, OSCM is based on core values and comprises 15 guiding principles for using open source. It is designed to be a continuously evolving document, according to the Open SSF.  Open Source Software (OSS) is a valuable resource that has greatly enhanced efficiency and innovation. However, not all OSS projects are the same. Some are poorly maintained, lack security standards, or carry risks. Just like any software, OSS has its flaws. Despite this, most organizations lack a strategy for consuming OSS effectively, according to the OpenSSF. Unlike the scrutiny applied to third-party software, OSS often isn’t subject to the same level of evaluation for security, code quality, and licensing. This oversight is concerning since the risks associated with OSS can be significant, according to the OpenSSF End Users Working Group in

10 Key Principles Behind Exceptional Web and Mobile App Designs Neeraj Mishra The Crazy Programmer

First impressions hold immense significance, and this is true not only for physical encounters but also for digital products. It’s this very notion that has propelled the advancement of user interfaces within web and mobile apps. Gradually and persistently, contemporary mobile and web design have dared to push the limits, intricately blending aesthetics, functionality, and effortless interaction. Join us as we delve into the strategies for delivering truly exceptional outcomes within this ever-evolving domain. The significance of mobile and web app design In web and mobile app development, design is of vital importance. It transcends mere aesthetics; it’s about shaping experiences that resonate and make a lasting impact.  Think about the software you find yourself drawn to – the one that holds your attention beyond functionality. This may be a web solution or a product for smart devices. Chances are, its appeal goes deeper; it’s about how it evokes emotions. This is the essence of

Tim Berners-Lee Quotes Ruchi Mishra The Crazy Programmer

Here I have shared some popular quotes by Tim Berners-Lee . Before going through the quotes let’s have a short overview of his life. Tim Berners-Lee was born on 8th June 1955 in London, England. He is known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He completed his schooling at Emanuel school in London and later he enrolled in the Queen’s College, Oxford where he earned his bachelor’s degree in physics in the year 1976. In Oxford, he used an old television set and a soldering iron to build a computer for his future pioneering work. After graduation, he worked in various fields such as telecommunication and computing sectors, where he explored ways to make information more accessible and interlinked. To develop open standards for the web, he founded the Worldwide Wide Web Consortium in the year 1994. To ensure the web remains accessible, beneficial, and safe, he established the Web Science Trust and World Wide Web Foundation. Throughout his whole career, he received many awards and even

Capital One open-sources federated learning with Federated Model Aggregation

AI is the talk of the town and it seems like every software provider would like to have AI-powered features in their software. But in order to do that, you need AI models that you can train.  One of the newer approaches to model training in machine learning is federated learning (FL), which is an approach that decentralizes training so that data doesn’t need to be centrally stored, explained Kenny Bean, machine learning software engineer at Capital One. In order to take advantage of the benefits that FL brings, Capital One created Federated Model Aggregation (FMA) , which is an open-source project that allows developers to deploy their existing machine learning workflows in a federated setting.  According to Bean, FMA includes a number of different Python components. Connectors are provided that can be used to facilitate communication between these different components, and can also be used to connect to your own components.  It also includes a client that facilitates client-servi

How to prevent common data quality issues

Data can be an organization’s most valuable tool, but not if your database is full of people named ‘Mickey Mouse’ or has out-of-date addresses.  According to Michael Lee, solution engineer at data verification solution provider Melissa, the most common issues that could be present in your database tend to be the simple ones, such as typos, inaccurate data, or mistakes from transferring the data. Sometimes people mistype things when filling out a form, or they may be intentionally putting in fake data. “Let’s say, for example, they’re signing up for a marketing item or signing up for a website,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t want to use your correct contact information. So you might put in, like fake email addresses or disposable email addresses.” Issues can also arise when you transfer data because with any data transfer you need to properly handle things like encoding, data types, delimiters, and nulls. An extra column could be added accidentally, for example, which will cause erro

Flow metrics in SAFe 6 help with value realization and delivery

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) helps companies organize work, organize teams, determine how to break work up, and understand what is being prioritized in all of this. And the inclusion of flow metrics into SAFe 6 enables those companies to realize those plans. Flow metrics can enable companies to determine if all of that orchestration is actually running through the process, and if the company is being efficient in its processes. Ultimately, it can help the company determine if it is realizing value and better understand how to get that value into the hands of customers sooner. “It’s great that we have these ideas, but how do we actually close the loop and take it down to the end,” said Hersh Tapadia, co-founder and CEO at value stream intelligence company Allstacks. The flow metrics, he said, “are closing the loop. It’s realizing the dream, as we might say.” This article was first published on VSM Times. Read the  full article there . The post Flow metrics in SAFe 6 help with v

Asana announces intelligent product capabilities that improve strategic alignment

Asana has introduced new intelligent product capabilities that include executive reporting enhancements, goals standardization, Gantt view, and more, which are made possible by Asana’s Work Graph, according to the company.  New executive reporting offers a quick way to access the current status and gain a comprehensive overview of strategic initiatives. It provides essential metrics such as budget, costs, and time. Additionally, a health check AI feature is included, which instantly summarizes the project’s progress and identifies areas that are not on track, which helps in efficiently redirecting efforts toward achieving goals. Users can also standardize goal-setting with custom goal types such as objectives or key results that are connected to the underlying work, and automate the process with templates. This helps drive greater consistency and accuracy in building goals, and standardizes how the work is executed.  Gantt view enables users to plan projects with a clear visualizati

Armory launches new hub full of resources for developers

Armory introduced developer.armory.io, a platform to enhance the developer experience through their declarative continuous deployment solution (Armory Continuous Deployment-as-a-Service).  This developer hub offers a comprehensive website aimed at providing developers and end-users with convenient access to detailed resources. The platform offers various learning materials such as videos, tutorials, and reference documents, enabling users to learn and progress at their preferred pace. “Continuous deployment is critical to us delivering value to our customers, so our engineering team not only code our products, they consume them,” said Jim Douglas, CEO of Armory. “They live and breathe the developer experience daily, so it’s front and center in all our product decisions.” Developer Hub offers the ability to visualize deployment configurations to understand existing setups, share URLs from exposed services to webhooks for service identification, access and review Kubernetes manifests

SmartBear to acquire API company Stoplight

The testing company SmartBear has announced it is acquiring an API company called Stoplight . By adding Stoplight’s API governance, mocking, and no-code editing capabilities into the SmartBear portfolio, SmartBear will be able to provide its customers with a comprehensive API development platform.  Stoplight’s open-source catalog of Prism , Spectral , and Elements will also join up with SmartBear’s open-source projects: Swagger , SoapUI , and Pact . According to SmartBear, these communities are made up of tens of millions of developers in total.  SmartBear believes this acquisition will help it achieve its goal to build a developer-centric platform. Recent moves towards this goal have included integrating PactFlow into API design workflows, adding support for AsyncAPI and OAS 3.1 , and adding two new tools: Explore and Portal .  SmartBear’s timeline for the acquisition is that it will start to incorporate Stoplight features in the first half of 2024. Stoplight cust

Appian AI Copilot delivers practical value to boost developer productivity

Appian announced the release of the latest Appian AI-Powered Process Platform, featuring Appian AI Copilot, an advanced AI assistant that increases developer productivity. It utilizes Appian’s enterprise AI architecture and private AI strategy to deliver comprehensive process automation solutions swiftly. In its first version, AI Copilot employs generative AI to transform PDFs and structured forms into user-friendly digital interfaces, enhancing user experiences. This tool streamlines the conversion of PDF forms into interactive business apps, enabling developers to use low-code design tools for fine-tuning.  Future AI Copilot features will expand its generative AI functions to build workflows using natural language and to access Appian’s data fabric architecture for self-service analytics and immediate report generation. “The AI copilot will augment and accelerate the end-to-end application development capabilities of the Appian Platform,” said Chandra Surbhat, the experience prac

OutSystems Announces New Series of Low-Code Development Schools to Meet the Growing Demand for Developers Worldwide

BOSTON–( BUSINESS WIRE )– OutSystems , a global leader in high-performance application development, today unveiled five new public courses as part of its highly acclaimed  Developer School  program. These new, free courses, held online and in person throughout September and October, focus on developer career paths while addressing a significant need for developer talent around the world. Since 2020, more than 4,000 developers have become certified in the OutSystems platform, driving new careers for more than half of its graduates. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics   shows a 25% increase in employment opportunities for software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers from 2021 to 2031 1 . At the same time, analyst firm Gartner predicts that more than 70% of applications will be developed using low-code by 2025 2 . OutSystems makes the #1 Low Code Platform® on the market and has experienced an increase in developer job postings of 174% from 2021 to 2022. With AI embedded int