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The future of Data Lakehouses: Apache Iceberg explained

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Tags apache database miscellaneous app-development streaming

The evolution from traditional data warehouses to modern data lakehouses marks a significant shift in how businesses approach data management. Data warehouses once served as the centralized repository for structured data and facilitated rapid query performance with robust governance mechanisms. However, companies faced challenges such as high storage costs, rigid schema enforcement, and limited support for AI and machine learning workloads. By Fawaz Ghali, PhD.

The article covers:

  • The emergence of Data Lakehouses
  • Apache Iceberg: A leading table format for Data Lakehouses
  • The evolution from Hive to Iceberg
  • Benefits of Apache Iceberg in data management
  • Challenges addressed by Apache Iceberg in Data Lakehouse models

Data lakes emerged as solutions to these problems by offering a scalable and cost-effective approach to storing unstructured, semi-structured, and even structured data in cheap storage like Amazon S3, Azure Data Lake Storage, Google Cloud Storage, and Hadoop Distributed File System. While this offered several benefits such as reduced storage costs and the use of novel data formats, it also presented challenges like inconsistent data sets, inefficient query performance due to full table scans, and lack of ACID transactions.

Enter Apache Iceberg, a modern table format that solves these issues by providing ACID transactions for reliable data updates and consistency, schema evolution without breaking existing queries, and efficient management of metadata to reduce unnecessary file scans and enhance query execution speed. This transformation allows companies transitioning into a data lakehouse approach to manage their information cost-effectively and at scale while maintaining high performance.

As part of this transition, the final two blog posts in this series will delve deeper into Apache Iceberg’s architecture and explore query mechanisms within Iceberg tables, emphasizing its role in modern data architectures.

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Test-driven development (TDD) explained

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Tags tdd miscellaneous web-development app-development

Test-driven development (TDD) is a software development process that involves writing tests for your code before you write the code. This approach has transformed the development methodology around testing. While the traditional waterfall model of software development was linear, with testing occurring near the end of one long timeline, TDD makes testing an ongoing, iterative process. By Jacob Schmitt.

Author provides following information on:

  • Introduction: Test-driven development (TDD) explained
  • The TDD Process Explained: A sample online scheduling system example
  • Benefits of Test-Driven Development: Software delivery teams collaborate and requirements align
  • Best Practices for TDD: Writing clear, targeted tests; continuous code improvement; structured organization
  • Implementing TDD with CI/CD: Ensures assured code quality, rapid releases, consistent feedback loop

The test-first methodology of TDD brings code reliability, efficient bug detection, and reduced long-term maintenance costs. Structured testing with a comprehensive range of expressive test cases optimizes the software development process and improves code quality. Good read!

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Viewport concepts - CSS: Cascading Style Sheets

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Tags css frontend web-development app-development

This article explains the concept of the viewport — what it is, its impact in terms of CSS, SVG, and mobile devices — and differentiates between the visual viewport and the layout viewport. By mozilla.org.

Viewport refers to the visible area of a document on a screen, excluding UI elements like toolbars. Its size depends on factors such as screen size, fullscreen mode, and zoom level. The viewport can be divided into two types: layout viewport (the full visible area, including fixed elements) and visual viewport (the currently visible portion on the screen).

The layout viewport is influenced by CSS properties like padding and margins, while the visual viewport adjusts when users scroll or zoom. Developers use DOM properties like clientWidth and innerWidth to access the layout viewport size, which changes during zooming. The visual viewport may shrink when zoomed or scrolled but remains linked to the layout viewport.

In CSS, media queries and units like vw (1% of layout viewport width) and vh (1% of height) are based on the layout viewport. SVG viewports are set by attributes like height and width, with media queries applying styles based on their container size. For mobile devices, the viewport is typically adjusted using a meta tag to ensure proper rendering.

JavaScript’s Visual Viewport API allows programmatic control over the visual viewport. Developers must consider both layout and visual viewports when designing responsive web pages, especially for mobile browsers where the viewport can be scaled or zoomed by users. Nice one!

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Agile methodology: A Beginner's guide to Agile method and scrum

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Tags software-architecture app-development agile cloud cio

This is a guide for software developers and testers to understand and start working on the very famous Agile SCRUM methodology for software development and testing. Learn the basic but important terminologies used in the Agile Scrum process along with a real example of the complete process. By Vijay.

The article takes into account:

  • Introduction to Agile development
    • History of Agile
    • Agile challenges
  • Agile Methodology
    • Advantages of Agile methodology
    • Disadvantages of Agile methodology
    • Types of Agile methodologies
  • Scrum methodology
  • Important SCRUM terminologies

… and more. Agile is not a set of rules. Agile is not a set of guidelines. Agile is not even a methodology. Rather, Agile is a set of principles that encourage flexibility, adaptability, communication and working software over plans and processes. It is very succinctly captured in what is called the agile manifesto. Good read!

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Terraform vs. Ansible: Key differences and comparison of tools

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Tags software-architecture app-development ansible devops

What is the difference between Terraform and Ansible? Terraform is an open-source platform designed to provision cloud infrastructure, while Ansible is an open-source configuration management tool focused on the configuration of that infrastructure. By Sumeet Ninawe.

You will learn about:

  • Orchestration vs. configuration management
  • Declarative vs. procedural language
  • Mutable vs. immutable infrastructure
  • State management
  • Configuration drift

A key distinction between the two tools lies in their approach to infrastructure immutability versus mutability. Terraform supports an immutable infrastructure model by easily provisioning new resources while deprovisioning old ones, minimizing risks associated with configuration changes on existing infrastructure. Conversely, Ansible, though not primarily designed for full lifecycle management like Terraform, supports mutable infrastructure through VM image creation and other configuration management tasks. Nice one!

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The power of ubiquitous language in Domain-Driven Design

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Tags software-architecture app-development code-refactoring functional-programming event-driven

The article by Derek Comartin emphasizes the significance of ubiquitous language in domain-driven design (DDD), describing it as the “secret sauce” for understanding and effectively implementing DDD principles. Ubiquitous language involves using a shared vocabulary across both business and technical teams to ensure alignment and clarity within an organization’s domain. The author highlights several strategies for developing this common language, including awareness of terminology used by different departments, capturing concrete concepts and policies, and understanding the nuances brought about by multiple contexts. By Derek Comartin.

Derek Comartin’s article highlights the critical role of ubiquitous language in domain-driven design (DDD), describing it as essential for aligning business needs with technical implementation. Key strategies include:

  • Terminology Awareness: Ensure a shared vocabulary across departments to define domain boundaries and improve communication.
  • Concepts and Policies: Capture concrete business rules using clear, consistent names that reflect both business and technical contexts.
  • Contextual Understanding: Be aware of context shifts within teams and the influence of legacy systems on language development. Use tools like event storming for clarity.
  • Synchronization with Code: Align ubiquitous language with code to prevent discrepancies between business discussions and technical execution, fostering better collaboration.

The article warns against pitfalls such as legacy systems that may misguide the development of ubiquitous language. Author emphasizes the importance of synchronizing language with code to avoid discrepancies between business discussions and technical implementations. Good read!

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Angular 2025 strategy

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Tags angular web-development javascript google

For the past two and a half years, we’ve been laser focused on improving developer experience and performance for all Angular developers. In this post, I’d like to share a brief summary of the high-level process that we’ve been following to achieve this and describe our strategy for 2025. By Minko Gechev.

Angular’s 2025 strategy focuses on improving developer experience, performance, and enabling adoption of new features. The team has been tracking developers’ needs through an annual survey, which this year received over 10,000 responses. The results showed that developers are satisfied with Angular, with close to 90% reporting high satisfaction levels. The top opportunities for improvement identified in the survey include:

  • Simplifying dependency management in components
  • Improving forms and router integrations
  • Enhancing performance

To address these needs, the team plans to invest in projects such as:

  • Promoting zoneless change detection
  • Developing signal-based forms
  • Running an RFC for selectorless components
  • Replacing Karma with a new test runner

The team also aims to improve documentation and visibility of features, making it easier for developers to adopt Angular in their existing stacks. They will continue to evolve incremental hydration, stabilize effects, and stabilize route-level render modes. Overall, the 2025 strategy aims to enhance developer experience, performance, and adoption of new features, while continuing to innovate and improve the framework. Nice one!

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AWS 2025: New features and changes you should know

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Tags app-development distributed aws infosec learning

AWS is one of the most popular cloud platforms, and it’s important to stay updated on what’s new. In this blog, we will look at the most important updates to AWS in 2025. These updates include new tools, improved features, and services that will make cloud computing easier, faster, and more cost-effective. By Croma Campus.

AWS has several major updates that are expected to be made in 2025, including:

  • Graviton3 processors: These processors will get better performance and lower costs for developers. They allow more low-code development and improve communication between cloud services
  • Amazon Polly and Lex: These tools help with tasks like text-to-speech, voice assistants, and image analysis, making it easier to use AI in applications
  • AWS CloudWatch: The cloud monitoring platform will be improved by adding more low-code features and the ability to deploy services through API networks

These new features are expected to make your cloud computing experiences better, faster, and more cost-effective. They help you automate processes, build better customer service systems, and analyze data more effectively. Nice one!

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What is prompt engineering?

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Tags app-development web-development ai learning

Prompt engineering is a critical practice in optimizing the outputs of generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems. By refining prompts, engineers enhance AI’s ability to comprehend and respond accurately to various queries, thus reducing biases and confusion. Prompt engineering involves crafting high-quality inputs that help AI models understand nuances and intent, significantly improving the relevance and quality of generated content such as text, code, or images. By ibm.com.

The main pints in the article:

  • How does prompt engineering work?
  • What are the benefits of prompt engineering?
  • What skills does a prompt engineer need?
    • Zero-shot prompting
    • Few-shot prompting or in-context learning
    • Chain-of-thought prompting (CoT)

Generative AI operates on transformer architectures and natural language processing (NLP), utilizing large datasets and machine learning algorithms to produce meaningful outputs from textual inputs. Techniques like tokenization, model parameter tuning, and top-k sampling are integral to effective prompt engineering. These methods enable foundation models, such as OpenAI’s GPT series or Google Bard, to deliver optimized results with minimal post-generation editing. Good read!

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How to become a Chief Information Officer: CIO cheat sheet

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Tags cio career learning teams agile

Business leaders require guidance and support to achieve organizational goals. This is where the Chief Information Officer (CIO) plays a crucial role in driving technology strategies and innovation. The CIO is responsible for aligning IT initiatives with business objectives, ensuring that organizations remain competitive in an evolving tech landscape. By Megan Crouse.

The article does a good job explaining:

  • What does a CIO Do?
  • Why are CIOs important for organizations?
  • What is the difference between a CIO and an IT director?
  • What are some paths to becoming a CIO?
  • What is the average salary for a CIO?
  • What are the hottest markets for CIOs?

… and more. Overall, the market for CIOs is very positive. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in this field is projected to grow by 17% by 2033, faster than the total employment growth of 4% across occupations in the U.S. CIOs need expertise in business strategy, digital transformation, data analytics, and leadership. They must also remain updated on emerging technologies like generative AI to drive organizational growth. Good read!

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