Opinion

The ‘toggle-away’ efficiencies: Cutting AI costs inside the training loop

You don't need the newest GPUs to save money on AI; simple tweaks like "smoke tests" and fixing data bottlenecks can slash your cloud bill and carbon footprint.

By Jayachander Reddy Kandakatla

Mar 20, 20269 mins

Artificial IntelligenceGenerative AITechnology Industry

By Gautam Sikka

Mar 20, 20269 mins

Artificial IntelligenceSoftware DevelopmentTechnology Industry

Are the different public clouds really that different?

Cloud providers are becoming commoditized, so you have to be careful to determine where the best value lies.

By David Linthicum

Mar 8, 2024 6 mins

Cloud Computing Technology Industry

Going passwordless with passkeys in Windows and .NET

It’s time to move away from passwords. Microsoft has tools to help you get started.

By Simon Bisson

Mar 7, 2024 7 mins

Libraries and Frameworks Microsoft .NET Software Development

Why we need both cloud engineers and cloud architects

Let’s clear up the confusion around the semantics of these critical roles. They offer a combo of strategic vision and on-the-ground development skills.

By David Linthicum

Mar 5, 2024 5 mins

Careers Cloud Architecture Engineer

Developers don’t need performance reviews

Why do we spend so much time on a process nobody wants? If you’re doing it right, the performance review process should be unnecessary.

By Nick Hodges

Mar 5, 2024 4 mins

Careers Engineer Software Development

The open source problem

Software freedom. User freedom. Why do we have to choose? Licensing hasn’t kept pace with the reality of software in the cloud and AI.

By Matt Asay

Mar 4, 2024 5 mins

Artificial Intelligence Open Source Technology Industry

What is JavaScript? The full-stack programming language

JavaScript is the most in-demand programming language for developer jobs and one of the most versatile languages for full-stack development. Here's what you need to know about JavaScript.

By Josh Fruhlinger

Mar 1, 2024 9 mins

JavaScript Programming Languages Software Development

Questioning cloud’s environmental impact

Cloud can be a green technology, but not without significant planning and up-front work that most enterprises are reluctant to fund.

By David Linthicum

Mar 1, 2024 5 mins

Careers Cloud Computing Technology Industry

Diving into Microsoft’s dev tunnels

Microsoft has quietly added a cloud-hosted secure tunnel to Visual Studio and VS Code, making it easier to test APIs, web services, and mobile back ends.

By Simon Bisson

Feb 29, 2024 8 mins

Development Tools Software Development

What’s going on with cloud finops?

Recent reports supply old and new information about finops. Financial priorities are changing, and more employee training is needed.

By David Linthicum

Feb 27, 2024 5 mins

Careers Cloud Computing Generative AI

How to cut through the AI noise

Once you’ve gotten settled in the cloud, figure out where to innovate, and look for a unicorn vendor that can make AI simple and effective.

By Matt Asay

Feb 26, 2024 5 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Technology Industry

When cloud AI lands you in court

It’s clear that AI, including generative AI, will be tested in the courts. Cloud and AI architects must practice defensive design and governance to stay out of trouble.

By David Linthicum

Feb 23, 2024 5 mins

Cloud Computing Generative AI Technology Industry

Cloud and AI apps take center stage in .NET 9

A first preview release of the next .NET sets the scene for a year of platform development focused on cloud-native and AI-powered applications.

By Simon Bisson

Feb 22, 2024 6 mins

Generative AI Microsoft .NET Microsoft Azure

Improving performance in hybrid cloud deployments

Avoid the stereotype that hybrid cloud is inefficient by implementing measurable objectives, customized architecture, and continuous testing and monitoring.

By David Linthicum

Feb 20, 2024 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Hybrid Cloud IT Skills and Training

Making cloud infrastructure programmable for developers

With so much to figure out with AI, it makes sense to simplify with familiar development techniques, especially infrastructure as code and Python.

By Matt Asay

Feb 20, 2024 7 mins

Cloud Computing Development Tools Python

Mainframes are dead! Long live cloud computing!

Not so fast. Mainframes have more staying power than most understand. Let’s look at the realities of mainframe technology and the people who operate it.

By David Linthicum

Feb 16, 2024 4 mins

Careers Cloud Computing Databases

FlyteInteractive: Interactive development for machine learning models

LinkedIn needed a better way to test and tune machine learning models, so it wrote its own tool that plugs into Visual Studio Code.

By Simon Bisson

Feb 15, 2024 7 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Machine Learning

5 things to consider before you deploy an LLM

Large language models have become tech’s latest hammer, but not every problem is a nail. Answer these key questions before you commit.

By Andrew C. Oliver

Feb 14, 2024 3 mins

Artificial Intelligence Cloud Computing Generative AI

3 killer apps for cloud-based generative AI

Natural language generation, recommendation systems, and anomaly detection are good opportunities to create strong business value with genAI.

By David Linthicum

Feb 13, 2024 5 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Natural Language Processing

Is AI making our code stupid?

AI-generated code has transformed software development forever. That’s not necessarily good. A solid review process can shrink bloat and attack surfaces.

By Matt Asay

Feb 12, 2024 4 mins

Artificial Intelligence Development Tools Generative AI

Why companies are leaving the cloud

Cloud is a good fit for modern applications, but most enterprise workloads aren’t exactly modern. Security problems and unmet expectations are sending companies packing.

By David Linthicum

Feb 9, 2024 4 mins

Careers Cloud Computing Technology Industry

Using Microsoft Graph search with SharePoint Online

Microsoft Graph provides one unified API to search all content in SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 services. That changes how we build SharePoint applications.

By Simon Bisson

Feb 8, 2024 6 mins

Cloud Computing Software Development

How to assemble a generative AI dream team

A lot of different skills are needed to create a genAI system that can do the most for your business. Here’s a description of the important roles.

By David Linthicum

Feb 6, 2024 6 mins

Careers Generative AI IT Skills and Training

Why developers should put the database first

Data is the heart of the user experience, so shouldn’t developers start there? SQLite, NoSQL databases, and abstractions like Neurelo make that far easier to do.

By Matt Asay

Feb 5, 2024 6 mins

APIs Databases Development Tools

Cloud migration is still a pain

Without a magic bullet, enterprises need to do the hard work of optimizing their cloud workloads, especially before jumping into generative AI.

By David Linthicum

Feb 2, 2024 4 mins

Cloud Computing Software Development Technology Industry

Code your infrastructure with Azure Automation

The cloud and automation go hand in hand. Use Azure Automation and runbooks to deploy and manage Azure infrastructure and platform services.

By Simon Bisson

Feb 1, 2024 6 mins

Cloud Computing Devops Microsoft Azure

Most cloud-based genAI performance stinks

Without basic computer architecture best practices, generative AI systems are sluggish. Here are a few tips to optimize complex systems.

By David Linthicum

Jan 30, 2024 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Generative AI IT Skills and Training

Why IT execs need to consider GraphQLquery language for APIs

GraphQL gives developers a flexible and unified way to connect data and services. Its query planning and policy engine make it a promising option for adding LLMs to the mix.

By Matt Asay

Jan 29, 2024 5 mins

APIs Open Source Programming Languages

Is API design a lost art?

We’re getting too much latency from poorly designed, developed, and deployed cloud-based APIs and services. It’s time to brush up on testing and monitoring.

By David Linthicum

Jan 26, 2024 4 mins

APIs Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing

Building AI agents with Semantic Kernel

Microsoft’s LLM orchestration tools might finally deliver on the three-decade-old promise of autonomous software agents.

By Simon Bisson

Jan 25, 2024 8 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Software Development

Most cloud failures have nothing to do with cloud

The verdict is in. Most cloud computing failures can be traced back to very human mistakes. What (expensive) lessons have we learned?

By David Linthicum

Jan 23, 2024 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing Cloud Management

Teaching machines to code

Great documentation is important for humans, but more so for machines. The concept of ‘tiered documentation’ means that both developers and LLMs get what they need.

By Matt Asay

Jan 22, 2024 4 mins

Engineer Generative AI Machine Learning

Beware of hidden cloud fees

Cloud providers are stacking up 'junk fees' and enterprises are pushing back. Here are a few tips to better negotiate and manage those fees.

By David Linthicum

Jan 19, 2024 4 mins

Cloud Computing Cloud Management Technology Industry

Running serverless .NET applications in AWS Lambda

Amazon simplifies writing Lambda functions in C# with features like Lambda Annotations, which uses C# source generators to generate code from a REST API path. Support for .NET 8 is coming soon.

By Simon Bisson

Jan 18, 2024 7 mins

Amazon Web Services Microsoft .NET Serverless Computing

Do you need GPUs for generative AI systems?

There is so much interest in GPUs for generative AI deployment and for some good reasons. However, in some cases, they are overkill and too expensive.

By David Linthicum

Jan 16, 2024 5 mins

Careers Cloud Computing Generative AI

The biggest bottleneck in large language models

Rate limits mean everyone is waiting for better compute resources or different generative AI models.

By Matt Asay

Jan 15, 2024 6 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Machine Learning

How finops can make the cloud more secure

Finops offers obvious financial benefits, but security may be its secret weapon. It's time to have the finops and security teams combine their efforts.

By David Linthicum

Jan 12, 2024 3 mins

Cloud Computing Cloud Management Cloud Security

Inside Phi 2: Microsoft’s small language model

Microsoft Research is experimenting with the development of tailored AI models that minimize resource usage.

By Simon Bisson

Jan 11, 2024 7 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Machine Learning

Why most companies suck at digital transformation

Research agrees: Most businesses need help with cloud-focused digital transformation efforts. Luckily, most wounds are self-inflicted and easily avoided.

By David Linthicum

Jan 9, 2024 5 mins

Careers Cloud Computing Technology Industry

Getting through the awkward toddler phase of generative AI

Our unrealistic expectations of genAI are like hoping a two-year-old will calmly act like an adult. Try patiently experimenting with prompts and spending ‘quality time’ with this developing technology.

By Matt Asay

Jan 8, 2024 4 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Technology Industry

Why cloud architects make big bucks

Survey after survey will tell you what most hiring managers already know. You can find good cloud architects, but it will cost you.

By David Linthicum

Jan 5, 2024 5 mins

Careers Cloud Architecture Technology Industry

How to use primary constructors in C# 12

Primary constructors in C# 12 can be used in classes and structs as well as record types. Here’s how they make your code cleaner and more concise.

By Joydip Kanjilal

Jan 4, 2024 6 mins

C# Microsoft .NET Programming Languages

What Microsoft’s custom silicon means for Azure

Microsoft is laying the groundwork for a hardware-accelerated Azure cloud with its own custom AI silicon, Arm server processors, virtualization offload, and more.

By Simon Bisson

Jan 4, 2024 7 mins

Cloud Computing Microsoft Azure Technology Industry

Why exit the cloud? 37signals explains

Many enterprises are ‘rightsizing’ away from the cloud, but no one has documented the journey as well as 37signals. We can all learn from the company’s experience.

By David Linthicum

Jan 2, 2024 5 mins

Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing

Open source needs to catch up in 2024

Cloud and AI are the most important technologies today, and both have outstripped open source licenses. It’s time for a new open source definition.

By Matt Asay

Jan 1, 2024 5 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Open Source

4 key devsecops skills for the generative AI era

High-level skills such as validating and monitoring LLMs and learning the AI stack are good areas for technologists to tackle.

By Isaac Sacolick

Jan 1, 2024 8 mins

Artificial Intelligence Devops Generative AI

LinkedIn open sources its Developer Productivity and Happiness Framework

How do we measure developer productivity, and how do we use that to improve products and the workplace?

By Simon Bisson

Dec 27, 2023 6 mins

Careers Engineer Software Development

You should be worried about cloud squatting

Just when you thought you knew all the ways hackers could access your data on a public cloud, a new threat has emerged. Luckily, the fixes are manageable.

By David Linthicum

Dec 26, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Computing Cloud Management Cloud Security

A first look at Windows AI Studio

Available in an early preview, Microsoft’s AI development environment for the desktop lets you build small language models that run on PCs and mobile devices.

By Simon Bisson

Dec 21, 2023 8 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Software Development