In computer science, systems are typically divided into two categories: software and hardware. However, there is an additional layer in between, referred to as middleware, which is a software pipeline—an operation, a process, or an application between the operating system and the end user. This article aims to define middleware and reflect on its necessity, as well as address controversies about when and where it applies.

OpenTelemetry is a collection of tools and APIs for collecting, processing, and exporting telemetry data from software. It is used to instrument applications for performance monitoring, logging, tracking, tracing, and other observability purposes. What is Telemetry? The word is derived from the Greek “tele” meaning “remote,” and metron meaning “measure.” So, it’s the collection of metrics and their automatic to a receiver for monitoring.

There’s another new operations methodology in town. Agile operations, or AgileOps, is a digital operating model that combines Agile methodologies with DevOps practices for enterprises seeking improvement in a hybridized work environment.

Michael Stefferson received his PhD in Physics from the University of Colorado before deciding to make the jump into machine learning (ML). He spent the last several years as a Machine Learning Engineer at Manifold, where he first started working on projects in the healthcare industry. Recently, Stefferson joined the team at Cerebral as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer and hopes to leverage data to make clinical improvements for patients that will improve their lives in meaningful ways.

A full-stack networking platform with machine learning, autonomous capabilities, and multicloud support allows devops engineers to focus on what matters most—building applications. The promise of digital transformation is enabling businesses to magnify competitive advantages, create new revenue streams, and improve customer experiences.

Machine learning has crossed the chasm. In 2020, McKinsey found that out of 2,395 companies surveyed, 50% had an ongoing investment in machine learning. By 2030, machine learning is predicted to deliver around $13 trillion. Before long, a good understanding of machine learning (ML) will be a central requirement in any technical strategy. The question is — what role is artificial intelligence (AI) going to play in engineering?

IT is now seen as integral to business rather than a cost center ripe for layoffs. Technology, people, and culture are worth protecting during economic contractions. A recent piece in Silicon Angle by Paul Gillin said out loud what I see firsthand: Cloud spending seems immune to budget reductions during contractions in the economy.

Operations staff get a hard time. The lowly systems administrator (sysadmin), database administrator (DBA) and all the other operations engineering team members from cyber penetration specialists to user acceptance testing (UAT) and so on are generally unloved.

Delivering business-critical applications and code relies on two key factors; functionality and efficiency. Mock and Unit tests are a few industry standards that aim to ensure the correct functionality of your code, catching potential bugs and issues before deployment. These tests are vital to workflows, CI/CD pipelines, and the overall build and deployment process. While functionality may be sound, one key aspect that is oft-forgotten is the efficiency and performance of your code.