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

The risks of low-code and no-code development in cloud architecture

These prebuilt components simplify development and offer flexibility and speed, but watch out for scalability, security, and integration problems.

By David Linthicum

Sep 19, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing No Code and Low Code

Testing the limits of generative AI

As part of the learning curve with AI and LLMs, experiment all you want, but take the results with some skepticism, especially if you’re using it to write your code.

By Matt Asay

Sep 18, 2023 4 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Technology Industry

3 things to do right now to enhance your cloud computing career

You might think that running back to get a master's degree or joining a country club to make business contacts is the best strategy. It’s simpler than that.

By David Linthicum

Sep 15, 2023 3 mins

Careers Cloud Computing Technology Industry

How Microsoft uses walkthroughs to guide open source development

Often the hardest part of contributing to an open source project is learning where to start. Microsoft has a cure for that.

By Simon Bisson

Sep 14, 2023 5 mins

Open Source Software Development Technology Industry

A comeback for private clouds

Enterprises facing high cloud costs are taking a more balanced look at where workloads should reside and considering repatriation to a cloud in their own data center.

By David Linthicum

Sep 12, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Private Cloud Technology Industry

A new way of thinking about open source sustainability

Go beyond paying developers to maintain the software your business depends on. Pay the companies that pay the developers and watch the whole ecosystem thrive.

By Matt Asay

Sep 11, 2023 6 mins

Open Source Software Development Technology Industry

Adding generative AI systems may change your cloud architecture

From data availability and security to model selection and monitoring, adding generative AI means re-examining your cloud architecture.

By David Linthicum

Sep 8, 2023 5 mins

Careers Cloud Architecture Generative AI

Building collaborative apps with Microsoft Loop components

Adaptive Card-based Loop components are live and portable chunks of functionality that you can embed in Outlook, Teams, business apps, and your own code. Here’s how to get started.

By Simon Bisson

Sep 7, 2023 7 mins

Cloud Computing Libraries and Frameworks Technology Industry

Generative AI may displace traditional cloud development

With the explosion of interest (and money) in generative AI, what will be left for traditional cloud service development and enhancement that companies need?

By David Linthicum

Sep 5, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Computing Generative AI Technology Industry

Rethinking open source for AI

What are the license rights and restrictions for large language models? Do they cover weights and deep neural network architectures?

By Matt Asay

Sep 4, 2023 6 mins

Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Open Source

What happens when finops finds bad cloud architecture?

Finops practices and tools can spot inefficiencies and opportunities to optimize. Here's what to do when you find waste in cloud deployments.

By David Linthicum

Sep 1, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Architecture IT Skills and Training Technology Industry

Launch into satellite applications with Microsoft Azure

Microsoft’s Azure Space platform and Azure Orbital Space SDK are taking edge computing to the final frontier, starting with satellite image processing, geospatial, and communications applications.

By Simon Bisson

Aug 31, 2023 6 mins

Analytics Cloud Computing Microsoft Azure

The shortcomings of serverless computing

Serverless computing is a popular approach for cloud-based applications, but it's not the best fit in every case. Too often serverless fails to deliver business value.

By David Linthicum

Aug 29, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Computing Serverless Computing Web Development

When the generative AI hype fades

GenAI is a small piece of the artificial intelligence pie, not the whole pie itself. Keep paying attention to deep learning and machine learning.

By Matt Asay

Aug 28, 2023 5 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Machine Learning

3 meta career paths for cloud computing

There are three main career options for most cloud pros: consulting, working in industry, or with a cloud vendor. Are you on the right road for you?

By David Linthicum

Aug 25, 2023 5 mins

Careers Cloud Computing IT Skills and Training

The key new features and changes in .NET 8

With Microsoft’s yearly .NET release just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about the changes you will need to make to your code.

By Simon Bisson

Aug 24, 2023 7 mins

C# Microsoft .NET Web Development

The digital divide, rural businesses, and cloud computing

Rural businesses lack easy access to high-speed internet and thus cloud-based resources, causing vast disadvantages that affect the overall economy.

By David Linthicum

Aug 22, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing Technology Industry

Follow the cloud money

Led by CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE, the new Open Enterprise Linux Association is likely to fail without at least one major cloud vendor on board.

By Matt Asay

Aug 21, 2023 5 mins

Cloud Computing Open Source Technology Industry

Centralized cloud security is now a must-have

Cloud security is largely siloed by cloud provider. Enterprises are demanding strategic approaches for complex distributed multicloud deployments.

By David Linthicum

Aug 18, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Cloud Security Multicloud

Building LLM applications with vector search in Azure Cognitive Services

Microsoft’s Cognitive Search API now offers vector search as a service, ready for use with large language models in Azure OpenAI and beyond.

By Simon Bisson

Aug 17, 2023 8 mins

Generative AI Microsoft Azure Technology Industry

The looming battle over where generative AI systems will run

Putting AI on cloud versus on-premises systems may seem like a simple decision, but it's much more complex (and potentially expensive).

By David Linthicum

Aug 15, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Generative AI Technology Industry

Why our agile journey led us to ditch the relational database

How a decision to veer away from the relational database for an experimental application profoundly improved the business.

By Jeff Needham

Aug 14, 2023 5 mins

Data Management

12 schema design patterns for your next app

MongoDB shares guidance on data modeling patterns for 12 common use cases.

By Daniel Coupal and Ken W. Alger

Aug 14, 2023 5 mins

Data Management

HashiCorp’s software license turns realpolitik

The move to the Business Source License will allow HashiCorp to continue investing in its products and will force big vendors to become better partners, a win for all users.

By Matt Asay

Aug 14, 2023 6 mins

Cloud Computing Open Source Technology Industry

How to tell if your cloud finops program is working

A solid finops process can keep the CFO's team happy and everyone out of jail. Too many enterprises lack a formal program, and it's time to get on board.

By David Linthicum

Aug 11, 2023 4 mins

Careers Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing

Understanding OneLake and lakehouses in Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Azure’s new, unified data platform aims to be your one-stop shop for analytics and machine learning at scale.

By Simon Bisson

Aug 10, 2023 8 mins

Data Architecture Machine Learning Microsoft Azure

You can’t run away from technical debt

Like student loans and credit card balances, technical debt is holding you back or even killing your business. Unfortunately, the cloud can't always save you.

By David Linthicum

Aug 8, 2023 4 mins

Careers Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing

6 interview questions for agile tech leads

The technical lead role is an important career milestone for many engineers. Here's an inside look at the questions interviewers ask and what they’re looking for.

By Isaac Sacolick

Aug 7, 2023 10 mins

Agile Development Careers Technology Industry

Generative AI and a new version of old programming

Prompt engineering is still telling a computer what to do. Studying large language models and the limits of generative AI will keep your job security.

By Matt Asay

Aug 7, 2023 5 mins

Development Tools Engineer Generative AI

Cloud may be overpriced compared to on-premises systems

Cloud was the go-to choice for the past five years, but we could see traditional systems become more viable. Savvy architects consider all the options.

By David Linthicum

Aug 4, 2023 4 mins

Careers Cloud Architecture Technology Industry

What is a document database?

While relational databases rely on rigid structures, document databases are much more natural to work with and can be used for a variety of use cases across industries.

By MongoDB

Aug 3, 2023 5 mins

Data Management

Tame your wild LLM with TypeChat

Large language models mean not having to use complicated regular expression handlers to turn text into data. Using TypeChat, you can ensure that that data is type-safe JSON.

By Simon Bisson

Aug 3, 2023 8 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Natural Language Processing

The tug-of-war between optimization and innovation in the CIO’s office

Should budget go to innovations or fixing existing systems so they don’t bankrupt you? The future of your business may ride on the answer.

By David Linthicum

Aug 1, 2023 4 mins

Artificial Intelligence Careers Devops

The open source licensing war is over

It’s time for the open source Rambos to stop fighting and agree that developers care more about software’s access and ease of use than the purity of its license.

By Matt Asay

Jul 31, 2023 5 mins

Generative AI Open Source Technology Industry

The lost art of cloud application engineering

AI-driven coding is now in wide use, but we may not know all the risks of using it until the damage has been done. Think security problems and code that wastes resources.

By David Linthicum

Jul 28, 2023 3 mins

Application Security Artificial Intelligence Generative AI

The downsides of microservices architecture

Microservices came in with a great deal of momentum a few years ago, but now we’re seeing their drawbacks for applications on cloud platforms.

By David Linthicum

Jul 25, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing Software Development

A new hope for software security

From package signing to SBOMs to new developer toolchains, the pieces for securing the software supply chain are starting to come together.

By Matt Asay

Jul 24, 2023 6 mins

Application Security Open Source Technology Industry

Megatrend alert: The rise of ubiquitous computing

By David Linthicum

Jul 21, 2023 5 mins

Cloud Computing

Customizing Microsoft Dev Boxes with code

Configuration as code is coming to Microsoft’s Azure-hosted workstations, allowing us to use WinGet, YAML files, and PowerShell DSC to deliver ready-to-run toolchains to developers.

By Simon Bisson

Jul 20, 2023 7 mins

Cloud Computing Development Tools Software Development

How to value cloud computing services

As the costs for cloud services continue to rise, companies need to determine if the business value of those services is worth the price tag.

By David Linthicum

Jul 18, 2023 4 mins

Careers Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing

The biggest barrier to AI productivity is people

Generative AI is helping us churn out vastly more content at remarkable speed, when what we really need is better content. It’s up to humans to put the focus on quality and value.

By Matt Asay

Jul 17, 2023 5 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Technology Industry

The new high-paying jobs in generative AI

The push to adopt generative AI in the cloud will lead to new roles and needed skills, and enterprises will likely pay top dollar.

By David Linthicum

Jul 14, 2023 4 mins

Artificial Intelligence Careers Technology Industry

Build custom actions for Power Automate for Windows

Bundled with Windows 11, Power Automate for Windows lets you wrap low-code workflows around your desktop applications. A new SDK supports custom actions.

By Simon Bisson

Jul 13, 2023 7 mins

Cloud Computing No Code and Low Code Technology Industry

Downsides to using cloud autoscaling systems

Too many IT shops just accept that autoscaling systems are right for them, at least until the massive cloud bill arrives.

By David Linthicum

Jul 11, 2023 4 mins

Cloud Architecture Cloud Computing IT Skills and Training

Red Hat kicked off a tempest in a teapot

The biggest threats to Red Hat’s Linux market share will come from the companies that make it easiest for developers to do their jobs.

By Matt Asay

Jul 10, 2023 6 mins

Open Source Software Development Technology Industry

Data should be a first-class citizen in the cloud

Without proper data governance, interoperability, and access control, enterprises have no hope of maximizing the business value of their data.

By David Linthicum

Jul 7, 2023 4 mins

Data Governance Data Integration Data Quality

Are cloud architects biased?

Many cloud leaders prefer one technology selection over another, to the detriment of the business. It’s time we learn to be much more objective.

By David Linthicum

Jul 4, 2023 4 mins

Careers Cloud Architecture IT Skills and Training

Build accelerated AI apps for NPUs with Olive

Microsoft’s open-source, hardware-aware optimization tool for ONNX models is an essential part of its AI application development tool chain.

By Simon Bisson

Jul 3, 2023 6 mins

Artificial Intelligence Libraries and Frameworks Machine Learning

AI’s impact on cost savings, productivity, and jobs

While short-sighted companies may look to AI to cut jobs and costs, smart companies will use AI to increase productivity and agility. Just as they did with open source and cloud.

By Matt Asay

Jul 3, 2023 5 mins

Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Technology Industry