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Google Cloud Next 2023 FinOps product announcements recap

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Tags cloud cio management fintech

Google Cloud recently announced a number of new FinOps features and enhancements at Google Next ‘23. These new features and enhancements are designed to help organizations optimize their cloud costs and get the most value from their cloud investment. By Sarah McMullin.

One of the most significant announcements was the launch of the FinOps Hub. The FinOps Hub is a central place where organizations can manage all of their FinOps activities. It provides a single view of cloud costs, recommendations for cost optimizations, and tools to help organizations implement those recommendations.

Google Cloud also announced a number of other new FinOps features and enhancements, including:

  • Cost Budgets for project users: This new feature allows organizations to set budgets for individual project users. This can help organizations to control cloud costs and identify users who are overspending.
  • Committed Use Discount recommendations: This new feature uses machine learning to recommend the right type and size of CUD for each workload. This can help organizations to save money on their cloud costs by taking advantage of CUDs.
  • Pricing API: This new API allows organizations to retrieve Google Cloud pricing data in real time. This data can be used to develop custom cost optimization tools and to make informed decisions about cloud pricing.

The new FinOps features and enhancements announced at Google Next ‘23 are a significant step forward for Google Cloud’s FinOps capabilities. These new features and enhancements will help organizations to optimize their cloud costs and get the most value from their cloud investment. Interesting!

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AWS EC2 instance types: Challenges and best practices for hosting your applications in AWS

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Tags cloud cio microservices devops app-development

When it comes to hosting applications on Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the most important decisions you will need to make is which Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance type to choose. EC2 instances are virtual machines that allow you to run your applications on AWS. By Christopher Graham.

The article pays attention to:

  • Understand your workload: The first and most important step in choosing the right EC2 instance type is to understand your workload. Every application has different requirements in terms of CPU, memory, network, and storage. Once you know what your application needs, you can start to narrow down the list of possible instance types.
  • Consider cost: Cost is one of the most important factors to consider when choosing an EC2 instance type. EC2 instances are priced on a per-hour basis, so it is important to choose an instance type that is right-sized for your workload and that fits your budget.
  • Think about scalability: If you expect your application to grow in the future, you should choose an EC2 instance type that is scalable. This will allow you to easily add more resources to your application as needed.
  • Use the right tools: There are a number of tools available to help you choose the right EC2 instance type for your workload. The AWS Instance Advisor is a good place to start. It can help you to identify the best instance type for your workload based on your requirements.
  • Monitor your performance: Once you have deployed your application on an EC2 instance, it is important to monitor its performance. This will help you to identify any bottlenecks and to make sure that you are using the right instance type for your workload.

Selecting the right EC2 instance type is crucial for the performance and cost-effectiveness of your AWS infrastructure. By understanding your workload, considering the CPU, memory, network, and storage requirements, choosing the right pricing model, and testing and optimizing your application, you can ensure that you are getting the most out of your EC2 instances. Good read!

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A comprehensive guide to logging in Go with Slog

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Tags monitoring programming microservices app-development golang

Logging is essential for debugging and monitoring Go applications. The Go standard library provides a basic logging package, but it is not ideal for production use. There are a number of third-party logging libraries available for Go, such as Zap, Logrus, and Zerolog. By Ayooluwa Isaiah.

When choosing a logging library for your Go application, consider the following factors:

  • Features: Does the library support the features you need, such as log levels, structured logging, and sampling?
  • Performance: Is the library overhead acceptable for your application?
  • Ease of use: Is the library easy to configure and use?
  • Support: Is the library actively supported and maintained?

Logging in a structured format offers a significant advantage over traditional plaintext formats by allowing the inclusion of arbitrary attributes as key/value pairs in log records. These attributes provide additional context about the logged event, which can be valuable for tasks such as troubleshooting, generating metrics, auditing, and various other purposes. Nice one!

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How to use systemd in Linux to configure and manage multiple MySQL instances

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Tags linux servers learning devops mysql

Systemd is a system and service manager for Linux systems. It provides a consistent way to start, stop, and manage system services. Systemd can also be used to manage multiple MySQL instances on a single server.

To use systemd to manage multiple MySQL instances, you first need to create a systemd service unit file for each MySQL instance. This file should specify the name of the MySQL instance, the path to the MySQL executable, and any other relevant configuration options.

Once you have created the systemd service unit files, you can enable and start the MySQL instances using the following commands:

systemctl enable mysql@[instance_name]
systemctl start mysql@[instance_name]

You can also stop the MySQL instances using the following command:

systemctl stop mysql@[instance_name]

Systemd also provides a number of other commands that can be used to manage MySQL instances, such as:

    systemctl status mysql@[instance_name] - Shows the status of the MySQL instance.
    systemctl restart mysql@[instance_name] - Restarts the MySQL instance.
    systemctl reload mysql@[instance_name] - Reloads the MySQL configuration file.

Using systemd to manage multiple MySQL instances has a number of advantages, including:

  • It provides a consistent and reliable way to start, stop, and manage MySQL instances.
  • It allows you to easily start and stop multiple MySQL instances with a single command.
  • It provides a number of features that can help you to troubleshoot problems with MySQL instances.

Overall, systemd is a powerful tool for managing multiple MySQL instances on a single server. Good read!

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How to go Agile in state and local government: Scrum vs. PMBOK

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Tags agile miscellaneous learning management cio

Agencies should consider two primary agile methodologies to accelerate the development of software and government services. By Agencies should consider two primary agile methodologies to accelerate the development of software and government services. By Phil Goldstein.

In the past few years, as state and local governments sought to modernize and release more digital services to meet the needs of citizens during the coronavirus pandemic, they have embraced an agile approach to government service delivery. The article then explains:

  • What is Scrum methodology?
  • How can state and local governments use Scrum?
  • What is PMBOK?
  • How do Agile methodology principles impact government agencies?
  • What challenges do governments face in implementing Agile?

Cultural changes and changes in the way teams collaborate pave the way for the introduction of new technologies and project management tools that can make approaches like scrum easier to implement. Good read!

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Eight tips for junior software developers

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Tags software app-development web-development how-to learning

The software development industry is continually growing and evolving. As new technologies emerge, the need for skilled developers grows. This can make it challenging for junior developers looking to break into the industry. By Temitope Oyedele and Tomas Ferna.

From technical skills to professional etiquette and having the right attitude, these eight tips will help you navigate the fast-paced world of software development.

Further in the article:

  • Understand the fundamentals
  • Keep learning
  • Ask for help
  • Practice good communication skills
  • Embrace failure
  • Write as much code as possible
  • Don’t forget to unwind when needed
  • Consistency is key

Being a junior software developer can be challenging, but by following these eight tips, you can set yourself up for success. From understanding the fundamentals to taking care of yourself, these tips will help you navigate the world of software development and achieve your goals as a software developer. Some good avdice here!

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Kickstart your Kotlin journey: Essential tips and tricks for beginner app developers

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Tags kotlin app-development jvm how-to learning

Kotlin, a modern programming language developed by JetBrains, has gained immense popularity among app developers in recent years. With its concise syntax, interoperability with Java, and powerful features, Kotlin has become the language of choice for Android app development. In this article, we will explore why Kotlin is a great choice for beginner app developers, how to get started with Kotlin, and essential tips and tricks to enhance your Kotlin app development skills. By lset.uk.

The article does a good job explaining:

  • Why choose Kotlin for app development?
  • Getting started with Kotlin
  • Kotlin syntax basics
  • Essential tips for Kotlin app development
  • Common pitfalls to avoid in Kotlin
  • Best practices for writing Kotlin code
  • Kotlin libraries and frameworks for App Development
  • Advanced Kotlin features for experienced developers
  • Resources and courses to enhance your Kotlin skills

Kotlin has become the language of choice for many app developers due to its powerful features, excellent tooling support, and interoperability with Java. Nice one!

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Terraform vs. Ansible: Key differences and comparison of tools

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Tags ansible app-development devops how-to

Ansible vs Terraform battle continues to escalate as the DevOps environment focuses more on automation and orchestration. These two tools help in automating configurations and deploying infrastructure. Terraform offers to deploy Infrastructure as a Code, helps in readability and lift and shift deployments. Ansible is a configuration management tool for automating system configuration and management. By Sandeep Kumar.

The article then deals with:

  • What is Terraform?
  • What is Ansible?
  • Similarities between Terraform and Ansible
  • Difference between Terraform and Ansible provisioning (Terraform vs. Ansible)
  • Orchestration vs. configuration management
  • Declarative vs. procedural
  • Mutable vs. immutable
  • State management

… and more. Terraform comes with good scheduling capabilities and is very user-friendly. It integrates with docker well, as docker handles the configuration management slightly better than Terraform. But there is no clear evidence of how the target devices are brought to their final state, and sometimes, the final configuration is unnecessary. Ansible comes with better security and ACL functionality. It is considered a mature tool because it adjusts comfortably with traditional automation frameworks. It offers simple operations and helps to code quickly. But, on the other hand, it is not good at services like logical dependencies, orchestration services, and interconnected applications. Good read!

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Effective Kotlin Item 2: Eliminate critical sections

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Tags kotlin app-development jvm learning

When multiple threads modify a shared state, it can lead to unexpected results. This problem was already discussed in the previous item, but now I want to explain it in more detail and show how to deal with it in Kotlin/JVM. By Marcin MoskaƂa.

Java also provides some collections that have support for concurrency. The most important one is ConcurrentHashMap, which is a thread-safe version of HashMap. We can safely use all its operations without worrying about conflicts. When we iterate over it, we get a snapshot of the state at the moment of iteration, therefore we’ll never get a ConcurrentModificationException exception, but this doesn’t mean that we’ll get the most recent state.

The article then will guide you through:

  • The problem with threads and shared state
  • Synchronization in Kotlin/JVM
  • Atomic objects
  • Concurrent collections
  • Do not leak mutation points

Multiple threads modifying the same state can lead to conflicts, thus causing lost data, exceptions, and other unexpected behavior. We can use synchronization to protect a state from concurrent modifications. The most popular tool in Kotlin/JVM is a synchronized block with a lock. Follow the link to the full article to learn more!

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How to publish an Android app on Google Play Store: Step-by-step guide

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Tags web-development app-development android frameworks how-to

When the application development process is completed, it’s high time to introduce your special product to the world. First publishing may be thrilling and tricky. Today, we will guide you through the release process on the Google Play Store, which is undoubtedly the leader in the number of published apps and users. By Julia Rasich.

Steps mentioned in the article:

  • Create a Google Developer account
  • Add a merchant account
  • Prepare the documents
  • Study Google Developer Policies
  • Technical requirements
  • Creating the app on the Google console
  • Store listing
  • Content rating
  • Pricing the application
  • Upload APK and send it for review

But remember that the journey does not stop at publishing. Running a mobile application requires continuous efforts to get it trending, otherwise, competition will overshadow the app. Good read!

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