**AngelList** is a cloud-based startup investment & job posting platform enabling startups to develop and manage their talent pipelines. Businesses can recruit candidates by broad search keywords such as profile, job type, location, etc.

[AngelList](https://www.angellist.com/{externalnofollow}) is used by many people, including entrepreneurs, investors, and job seekers. Entrepreneurs use the platform to find investors interested in their companies and raise funds for their startups. Investors use AngelList to find startups interested in investing in and connecting with other investors. Job seekers use the platform to find job opportunities at startups.

Nowadays, AngelList is a kind of constellation. Modern AngelList is comprised of six primary entities, which have shifted and split throughout its history:
![AngelList_ benefits and possibilities for startups.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2023/1/24/Group_3053_ee38e7bfdb.png)

- AngelList Venture
- AngelList Talent
- AngelList India
- CoinList
- Republic
- Product Hunt

## What are AngelList advantages?

AngelList is an excellent opportunity for startups, helping them connect to investors and employees.

_Defining "AngelList" is tricky._ AngelList isn't just one company. Technically, three entities leverage the brand: AngelList Venture, AngelList Talent, and AngelList India. That's without mentioning businesses that spun out from the company, including Republic and CoinList. Or, indeed, Product Hunt, which AngelList owned between 2016 and 2020. 

_AngelList Venture is an efficient unicorn._ According to an exclusive AngelList's Venture team shared, the company is now worth $4.1 billion, thanks to a recent $100 million funding round. Its targeted spending means it has achieved that outcome with relatively little capital.‍

_Spinning out aligns incentives._ Companies like Republic exemplify a crucial component of AngelList's playbook: some innovations are best served by going solo. AngelList founder Naval Ravikant believes it produces more effective teams, largely thanks to better alignment of incentives. 

_Hiring founders increase leverage._ AngelList employs an unusual number of former entrepreneurs, especially those with an engineering background. The company looks to build around individuals who understand how to leverage their labor and can take a product from zero to one.‍

_AngelList's most essential products are just getting started._ Ask Naval Ravikant what products he believes are most important to AngelList's future, and he'll point to Rolling Funds and the software suite Stack. Both have been around for less than two years. 

And now, let's explore the benefits and possibilities for **Startups**, **Investors**, and **Job seekers**.

## Benefits for Startups

AngelList offers several benefits for startups, including:

1. **Access to investors**: Startups can connect with investors interested in their industry and stage of development. AngelList offers a database of over 100,000 accredited investors who can invest in your startup.
2. **Fundraising tools**: Startups can create fundraising profiles with their pitch deck, financials, and team information. AngelList offers a suite of fundraising tools, including fundraising templates and investor CRM tools, that help startups streamline their fundraising process.
3. **Hiring tools**: Startups can post job listings, review resumes, and connect with job candidates. AngelList offers a database of over 2 million job seekers interested in working for startups.
4. **Community**: Startups can connect with other entrepreneurs and industry experts on AngelList. The platform offers a community forum where startups can ask questions and get advice from other members.
5. **Visibility**: Startups can get more exposure for their business on AngelList. The platform has over 1 million registered users, including investors, job seekers, and other startups.

## Possibilities for Startups

AngelList also offers several possibilities for startups, including:

1. **Funding opportunities**: Startups can apply to accelerators and incubators on AngelList, which can provide funding, mentorship, and other resources.
2. **M&A opportunities**: Startups can explore mergers and acquisitions on AngelList. The platform offers a database of over 43,000 startups, which can be searched by industry, location, and other criteria.
3. **Partnership opportunities**: Startups can connect with other startups and industry experts on AngelList, leading to partnerships and collaborations.

## Benefits for Investors

AngelList also offers several benefits for investors, including:

1. **Access to startups**: Investors can find startups that match their investment criteria. AngelList offers a database of over 43,000 startups, which can be searched by industry, location, and other criteria.
2. **Investment tools**: Investors can use AngelList's investment tools to evaluate startups, including pitch decks, financials, and team information.
3. **Syndication opportunities**: Investors can join [syndicates on AngelList](https://saasholic.com/most-popular-syndicates-on-angellist-you-should-be-following/{externalnofollow}), which allows them to invest alongside other investors.
4. **Community**: Investors can connect with other investors and industry experts on AngelList. The platform offers a community forum where investors can ask questions and get advice from other members.
5. **Visibility**: Investors can get more exposure for their investment portfolio on AngelList. The platform has over 1 million registered users, including startups, job seekers, and other investors.

## Possibilities for Investors

AngelList also offers several possibilities for investors, including:

1. **Early-stage investing**: Investors can invest in early-stage startups on AngelList, offering high potential returns.
2. **Diversification**: Investors can build a diversified portfolio of startups on AngelList, which can reduce risk.
3. **Social impact investing**: Investors can invest in startups that have a social impact on AngelList, which can align with their values.

## Benefits for Job Seekers

AngelList also offers several benefits for job seekers, including:

1. **Access to startups**: AngelList provides job seekers access to a wide range of startups actively hiring. This is particularly beneficial for those interested in working for early-stage companies.
2. **Transparent hiring process**: AngelList promotes a transparent hiring process by providing job seekers with detailed job descriptions, company profiles, and salary information. This allows job seekers to decide which companies to apply to.
3. **Networking opportunities**: AngelList enables job seekers to connect with startup founders and employees, which can be a valuable networking opportunity. This can lead to potential job opportunities in the future.
4. **User-friendly interface**: AngelList's user-friendly interface makes it easy for job seekers to navigate and apply for jobs. The platform also allows job seekers to create a profile that showcases their skills and experience, making it easier for them to stand out to potential employers.
5. **Customized job alerts**: Job seekers can set up customized job alerts that match their preferences, such as job type, location, and salary range. This saves time and effort by sending relevant job opportunities directly to their inbox.
6. **Job search assistance**: AngelList provides job seekers with additional resources such as job search tips and advice. This can be helpful for those who are new to the job search process or want to improve their chances of landing a job.

## Possibilities for job seekers

1. **Job Listings**: AngelList features job listings from thousands of startups in various industries, including technology, healthcare, finance, and more. Job seekers can search for job listings based on their skills, location, and preferences.
2. **Job Matches**: AngelList's algorithm matches job seekers with relevant job openings based on their skills and preferences. Job seekers can create a profile and indicate their job preferences, and the platform will provide them with job matches that meet their criteria.
3. **Networking**: AngelList provides job seekers with opportunities to network with other professionals in the startup ecosystem. Job seekers can connect with other professionals in their industry or attend networking events to expand their network and learn about new job opportunities.
4. **Investor Jobs**: AngelList also features job openings at venture capital firms and angel investment groups. Job seekers can explore these opportunities if they want to work in the investment industry.
5. **Remote Work**: Many startups on AngelList offer remote work opportunities, making it easier for job seekers to find a job that fits their lifestyle and work preferences.

AngelList provides job seekers with various resources and opportunities for startup job openings. Whether job seekers are interested in a particular industry or job function, AngelList can help them find relevant job listings, connect with other professionals, and expand their network in the startup ecosystem.

## What is an AngelList syndicate?

A syndicate is an investor group that invests in [SVP deals](https://learn.angellist.com/articles/spv{externalnofollow}). When you back a syndicate, you will have access to deal-by-deal deals. No commitments can be made in a transaction with a syndicate.

## AngelList: Final words

AngelList is a valuable platform for anyone interested in the startup ecosystem and who wants to connect with other like-minded individuals. Whether you are an entrepreneur, investor, or job seeker, AngelList can provide various opportunities and resources to help you achieve your goals.

AngelList has revolutionized the way startups and investors connect. It provides startups access to a wide range of investors, a streamlined process, and a supportive community. It also provides investors access to a wide range of startups, a simplified process, and a supportive community. The possibilities of AngelList, including Syndicates, Job Listings, and AngelList Venture, provide even more opportunities for startups and investors to connect and collaborate. If you are a startup or an investor, AngelList is a platform that you should consider.

😏😇The article provides an overview of the benefits and possibilities of AngelList for startups, investors, and job seekers.

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AngelList: benefits and possibilities for startups

**DevOps** entails more than just bringing development and operations together. Tools and practices are just the beginning. Defining DevOps as a mindset, a cultural shift, involves adopting new ways of working.

By understanding user requirements and needs better, developers in a DevOps culture get closer to the user. As part of the development process, operations teams add maintenance requirements and customer needs. In contrast to traditional software development methods, DevOps teams follow the following fundamental principles that allow them to deliver services and applications at a faster rate and a high quality.

A company that employs separate development and operations teams may require a complete overhaul of the organization to implement DevOps. DevOps can only be implemented with the right people, culture, and tools.

## Benefits of DevOps

_By bringing development and operations together, teams can reduce lead time, deploy more frequently, and produce better-quality software_. 

DevOps benefits fall into **three categories**: technical, cultural, and business.

_Technical benefits_ include reducing complexity, accelerating delivery, and quickly eliminating problems. DevOps practitioners usually deploy higher-quality code faster than traditionally [siloed teams](https://nbold.co/working-in-silos/#:~:text=Working%20in%20silos%20describes%20a,their%20work%20separately%20without%20coordination.{externalnofollow}).

Customers are happier and more productive as a result of the _cultural benefits_.

_Business benefits_ include faster delivery times and more stable operating environments, resulting from greater collaboration and trust between team members.

## What Is DevOps Lifecycle?
![Mask group (2).png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2023/1/24/Mask_group_2_70fee41c74.png)

**DevOps lifecycle** describes software development processes that use DevOps best practices for planning, building, integration, deployment and monitoring. It is no specific software or specialized team.

The DevOps lifecycle combines **continuous development, integration, testing, deployment, monitoring, operation, and feedback**. DevOps lifecycle phases are continuous. So, influential DevOps engineers combine all seven steps in each agile development sprint in ways that make the most sense to them. For example, some teams implement testing before integration. The other one runs continuous feedback before deploying a build in production.

Let's look at each phase in detail.

## Continuous operation

As part of the continuous operations phase, customers are ensured maximum performance, security, compliance, and smooth service.

You'll maintain a competitive edge, high customer satisfaction/ratings, and service reliability when you consistently do this. By increasing your [monthly recurring revenue](https://www.zoho.com/subscriptions/guides/what-is-monthly-recurring-revenue.html#:~:text=Monthly%20Recurring%20Revenue%20(MRR)%20is,but%20excludes%20one%2Dtime%20fees.{externalnofollow}) (MRR), you can attract more subscribers, retain your customers longer, and increase your MRR.

## Continuous Development

Continuous development involves developing software. This way, development is split up into small cycles. DevOps teams are also able to a similar process to speed development processes. Developing and testing software development programs helps developers fully understand projects and expectations. The unit can then visualize its final destination. The development environment doesn't require a DevOps tool, but several software version control tools can be used. These processes of code maintenance can be referred to as source code maintenance.

Tools like [Git](https://git-scm.com/{externalnofollow}), [CVS](https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Concurrent-Versions-System-CVS#:~:text=Concurrent%20Versions%20System%20(CVS)%20is,a%20common%20repository%20of%20files.{externalnofollow}), [Subversion](https://hackbrightacademy.com/blog/svn-vs-git/#:~:text=What%20are%20the%20advantages%20of%20SVN%3F,to%20create%20a%20new%20feature.{externalnofollow}), [Mercurial](https://www.trustradius.com/products/mercurial/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons#reviews{externalnofollow}), [Maven](https://www.devopsuniversity.org/maven-tutorials/{externalnofollow}), and [Garden](https://garden.io/{externalnofollow}) help organize, ease, and speed up the process.

## Continuous Integration

Continuous integration (CI) is an [agile software development](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development{externalnofollow}) practice allowing a developer to regularly merge changes in one repository before automating the build or test. This phase aims to find and fix bugs faster, and increase product quality. In other words, it helps creating a useful product that is also secure and user-friendly.

Besides, the updated code must seamlessly integrate with the other systems you built it to work with. CI involves reworking the source code frequently, as a result.

## Continuous monitoring

Software products are monitored to evaluate overall production efficiency. It processes essential information regarding developed applications. Using continuously monitorable software, developers can identify patterns and gray areas that require more work. Continuous monitoring is an operational stage aiming to increase software applications' overall effectiveness. It also monitors app performance. The DevOps lifecycle is the defining point in the process.

## Continuous Delivery

The continuous delivery method relies on changing code developed and adapted automatically. This extension for Continuous integration enables the deployment of code updates in test and production environments. If continuous delivery has been effectively implemented, a developer always deploys artifacts that have passed a standard test process.

## Continuous testing

Testing is essential to the DevOps process because it involves checking for bugs, errors, configuration issues, UX/UI problems, and other issues. There are various types of software testing, including component testing, unit testing, and system integration testing.

Tests are conducted by QA teams to make sure that every software component works as intended by your DevOps team and end users. The best continuous testing tools include Selenium, Ranorex, [Test.ai](https://test.ai/about-us{externalnofollow}), TestSigma, [TestNG](https://testng.org/doc/{externalnofollow}), and [JUnit](https://junit.org/junit5/{externalnofollow}).

This phase is the final step before the software code can be deployed to the production environment. The programmer who iterated the code to fix the issue will be notified if it doesn't work through the continuous integration tool (regression automation).

## Continuous feedback

The continuous feedback phase of DevOps helps improve products by allowing all stakeholders to share their feedback. In contrast to traditional software development methodologies, DevOps involves many stakeholders, including the client, product team, development, cloud operations, finance, and management.

In this phase, data is collected from the software being run in real time and monitored by real users. All parties continuously improve the product through continuous feedback.

## Continuous deployment

After testing and validating the code/build, the next step in the DevOps lifecycle involves releasing it into production. Continuous deployment is the last step in the [CI/CD pipeline](https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/devops/what-cicd-pipeline{externalnofollow}) in which teams deploy validated code changes to real users.

Unlike continuous deployment, continuous delivery primarily prepares validated builds for human review before deploying. The difference is that continuous deployment releases validated build to live production automatically.

CD software and CI/CD tools like [UrbanCode Deploy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh5KsH-JByw{externalnofollow}), [DeployBot](https://deploybot.com/#:~:text=DeployBot%20lets%20you%20execute%20or,%2C%20after%2C%20or%20during%20deployment.{externalnofollow}), and [Juju](https://juju.is/{externalnofollow}) can automate both CD processes. Or, use all-in-one solutions like GitLab, CircleCI, and Travis CI. A hassle-free application performance can be achieved using tools like Puppet, Chef, and Ansible.

Your service delivery can be improved by implementing the complete DevOps lifecycle. Continuous improvement of your DevOps pipeline can also help you meet customer needs and business goals more quickly.

## DevOps Methods and Tools
![Frame 3828.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2023/1/24/Frame_3828_ac2f5f6638.png)

Measurement and analysis can determine how successful a company can become with DevOps practices. We provide automation solutions for development operations in all phases.

To speed up and improve product releases, organizations can use **DevOps methods**. They are embodied in software development methodologies and practices. Popular processes include Kanban, Agile, and Scrum:

##### Kanban
Originally developed on the Toyota factory floor, Kanban has gained much traction. The Kanban method prescribes tracking the state of work in progress (WIP) on a Kanban board.

##### Scrum
Using scrum, team members can work together more efficiently on development and quality assurance projects. As part of Scrum practices, there are specific workflows and terms (sprints, time boxes, daily scrums [meetings]), as well as designated roles (Scrum Master, product owner).

##### Agile
DevOps practices and tools continue to be heavily influenced by earlier agile software development methods. Agile programming is incorporated into many DevOps methods, including Scrum and Kanban. By performing daily standups, documenting requirements as user stories, and incorporating continuous customer feedback, some agile practices enhance responsiveness to changing needs and requirements. Agile prescribes shorter software development lifecycles as an alternative to lengthy, traditional "waterfall" development methodologies.

## Prioritize security practices

Data breaches are seen as an integral part of organizations' systems. Developing and managing automated processes is an essential aspect of security monitoring and ensuring the success of DevOps processes. No coding is needed for any application and only verified versions control methods will apply.

It is also essential to deliver multiple DevOps Managed Services, allowing for simplified Devops transformations. 
Providing comprehensive defenses from unauthorized access and a potential attack is a key component of this strategy.

Typically organizations with less than 80% securing compliance concerns have a person responsible for security. It can sometimes prove a problem because security is a last thought, and it'll become much harder to secure software after it has been designed and installed than when you design the software to keep it secure.

## What are DevOps services?

DevOps is a mix of cultural philosophies, practices and tools which improve the company's ability to develop and improve products at faster speeds compared to traditional software development and infrastructure management.

Effective tooling is essential to enabling teams to deploy and innovate quickly and reliably in the DevOps model. DevOps tools automate manual tasks, manage complex environments at scale, and keep engineers in control of the high velocity. AWS provides services designed for DevOps and built first for use with the AWS cloud. Using these services can assist you in implementing DevOps phases.

## What is a DevOps engineer?

DevOps engineers are generalists with broad experience in software design, infrastructure development and operations, including code management. Likewise, developers need to have interpersonal skills in their roles so that they can work with different departments in order to build more collaborative environments. DevOps developers must understand common systems architecture, provisioning, and administration, but they should be familiar with the typical toolset.

### Top 9 DevOps Engineer Skills

The skills needed by DevOps Engineers depend on team structure, technology, and tools used. However, good communicative skills are vital to the success of any organization. DevOps Engineers must understand all components of a delivery pipeline. 

The **essential skills** for great DevOps developers are Linux Fundamentals, Scripting, Automation, Coding, Security, and [Cloud skills](https://www.simplilearn.com/top-cloud-computing-skills-article{externalnofollow}), Testing skills, Configuration, Version Management, Learning Proactive monitoring, and [Soft skills](https://www.ecdevstudio.com/blog/top-ten-essential-soft-skills-for-engineering-professionals/).

## The future of DevOps

Since DevOps entered the game, it has proved to be effective in many ways: From speeding up development processes to bringing more value and high-quality products.
DevOps isn't going anywhere, but it doesn't stand still. Here are three DevOps trends for the near future.

As more organizations migrate to the cloud, DevOps will be tightly connected with cloud-native security bringing changes in how software is built, deployed, and operated. With [SecDevOps](https://www.xenonstack.com/insights/secdevops#:~:text=in%20the%20SDLC.-,What%20is%20SecDevOps%3F,than%20being%20held%20by%20them.{externalnofollow}), companies can integrate security into the development and deployment workflows.

Some experts predict the broader adoption of [BizDevOps](https://www.techtarget.com/searchsoftwarequality/definition/BizDevOps-Business-Development-and-Operations{externalnofollow}), a new approach to software development that eliminates the boundaries between developers, operations teams, and business staff so companies can build user-oriented products more quickly.

⚡️This article describes DevOps benefits, principles, tools, and the DevOps engineer role. 

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DevOps: principles, tools, and DevOps engineer role

**Cybersecurity** plays an essential role in the operational processes as the system protects against the theft and destruction of personal data. With an effective cybersecurity policy, your company can defend itself against the threats of unauthorized access. 

Cyber security protects various devices, data, electronic systems, and networks from malware attacks. Also, it can be named information technology security. It is the kind of organization's strategic efforts to protect information resources. Cyber security threat monitoring describes revealing cyber threats and data breaches, which can cause significant damage and disruption.

## Types of CyberSecurity

Cyber security applies in various contexts - from business to mobile computing. It can be divided into such types:
![Types of CyberSecurity.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/12/20/Types_of_Cyber_Security_0e36e608cc.png)

##### Application security

This type of cyber security focuses on protecting software and devices free of threats. A hacked application could provide access to the data designed to protect. Successful security should be begun in the design stage before a program or device is deployed.

##### Information security

It guards the privacy of data, both in transit and storage.

##### Network security

It is the crucial practice of protecting a computer network from intruders if targeted attackers or malicious software.

##### Operational security

This type of security works with data assets. Permissions for accessing a network and procedures for storing or sharing data fall within the scope.

##### Encryption

It takes plain text, like a text message or email, and scrambles it into an unreadable format — called cipher text. The purpose of encryption is confidentiality—concealing the content of the message by translating it into a code.

##### Access control

This type of cyber security is an essential element that determines who can access specific data, apps, and resources—and in what circumstances. Access control aims to minimize the security risk of unauthorized access to material and logical systems.

##### End-user education

It addresses the most unpredictable cyber-security factor: people. Any person can accidentally bring a virus to an otherwise secure system by failing to follow good security practices. Teaching users to delete suspicious email attachments, not plug in unidentified USB drives, and other essential lessons are vital for any organization's security.

##### Disaster recovery and business continuity

This type learns the companies' response to cyber security incidents, which cause data loss or operations. Disaster recovery policies determine how the organization restores its information and functions to return to the operating capacity as before the damage. Business continuity is the organization's plan while trying to operate without specific assets.

## Cyber security management
![Cyber security management.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/12/20/Cyber_security_management_1e4abb5f1b.png)

In IT, cybersecurity management protects sensitive information from unwanted guests and cybercriminals. It can protect the company's computer networks and information systems from cyber attacks, threats, intrusions, malware, and data breaches. 

Cybercriminals always look for new ways to take advantage of computer systems' vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated. Individuals' computer infrastructure may also be affected by some of these viruses. Now, organizations and companies are reevaluating their strategies against these threats. Organizations and businesses are developing better ways to prevent more damage by hiring cybersecurity managers or professionals who understand the importance of keeping information secure. 

## What makes managing cyber risk so challenging today?
![Frame 3827 (1).png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/12/20/Frame_3827_1_2201421621.png)

Let's start with cloud services and third-party vendors interacting with sensitive information. Approximately 583 third parties share confidential information with companies, according to a Ponemon Institute study. IT security teams have their hands complete, managing complex infrastructures full of vendor risk.

Meanwhile, organizations face many laws and regulations governing how confidential data must be protected. Modern enterprises are held accountable for third-party data processing on their behalf. If handling your risk wasn't challenging enough, today's organizations must also manage vendor risk.

What is the responsibility for each part of the security risk? Everyone - is entirely responsible and shares ownership. The situation becomes complicated when four business functions have a stake in the outcome.

Functions often lack empathy for one another and understand each other's agenda. Rather than taking security and compliance seriously, it often views them as annoying roadblocks. The security industry knows about safety but must also be aware of evolving technology and regulations. Security audits are a top priority for the sales team as they want to keep their customers happy. It is common for compliance to operate without understanding security and follow strict regulations to stay out of trouble.

Cybersecurity risk management requires specific responsibilities and clear roles for all functions. It is no longer the case that siloed departments stumble along in disconnected confusion. We need a unified, coordinated, disciplined, and consistent approach to manage risk effectively today. Here are some key risk management components that all organizations should consider:

- Assessing vendor risk with robust policies and tools
- Identification of emerging threats, such as new regulations that affect the business
- Finding weaknesses in internal security, such as a lack of two-factor authentication
- Training programs or policies and controls can be used to mitigate IT risks
- An overall security assessment
- Provide documentation of vendor risk management and security to satisfy regulatory requirements or prospective customers

## What programming languages are used for Cybersecurity?
C and C++, Python, JavaScript, PHP, and SQL are a few of the preferred programming languages used for cybersecurity.

### C and C++

The C programming language has been used in the development of some of the most popular operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows. C and C++ provide access to low-level IT infrastructure, such as RAM and system processes. Hackers can easily exploit these lower-level operations if they are not properly protected.

### Python

Python is one of the most popular programming languages for cybersecurity because of its ease and functionality. Python is used for developing both web-based and software-based applications. Cybersecurity professionals use Python to develop analysis tools and hacking scripts, as well as to design secure programs.

### JavaScript

This language is primarily used to design interactive web pages and apps. JavaScript is extensively used, and it can be manipulated by hackers to gather information. Learning JavaScript can help to identify vulnerabilities in web design and fend off malicious users.

### PHP

PHP is used on the server-side to develop websites. Because most websites are created using PHP, learning this language will be helpful for cybersecurity jobs that focus on protecting websites.

### SQL

Structured Query Language (SQL) is primarily used in the design and management of databases and is widely used to maintain and retrieve data. Learning SQL is particularly helpful to prevent SQL injections, a type of cyber-attack where the attacker manipulates SQL statements to steal or modify information.

## Best Practices in Cybersecurity Management

Here are the **tried-and-tested best practices** for cybersecurity management.

- **Understand Your IT Assets and Environment**

A comprehensive cybersecurity management strategy demands deep knowledge of your firm's IT environment, including all your organization's data and digital assets, BYOD devices, networks, systems, third-party services, technologies, and endpoints. 

It is crucial to be aware of all aspects of your IT landscape, as they can all be exploited to breach your network. Moreover, your IT environment should be continuously monitored and maintained.

- **Implement a risk management strategy**

Risk management without an effective cybersecurity risk management strategy is counterproductive. Organizations must maintain up-to-date systems and plans. 

You should determine your risk tolerance before planning. Incorporate employee roles and escalation strategies, as well as information on the roles of key stakeholders.

- **Integrate cybersecurity risk management into the company culture**

A well-crafted cybersecurity risk management policy and process are only helpful if implemented effectively throughout the organization. Communicate your ideas, plans, and procedures to all stakeholders. Establish cybersecurity risk management as part of the company's culture and values. Each party managing cyber threats must know, understand, and embrace its responsibilities.

- **Assess risks continuously, adaptable, and proactively**

Identifying and assessing risks are crucial components of risk management. Cybersecurity risks are constantly evolving. For example, changing company procedures or introducing new technologies can significantly change your chances. Therefore, the organization's general risk assessment needs to be adjusted. Your strategies should be continuously assessed for deficiencies to ensure sufficient security.

Risk assessments are critical because they provide the business with information about where vulnerabilities currently exist and which threats are on the horizon.

- **Implement Strict Security Protocols**

Effective risk mitigation requires a security system that is both comprehensive and user-friendly. Here are a few techniques:

1. Use [a web application firewall (WAF)](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ddos/glossary/web-application-firewall-waf/{externalnofollow}) managed and situated at the network's edge to keep track of traffic, offer immediate and actionable information, and continuously protect against known and unknown threats.
2. Extend security to[ BYOD devices](https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/byod{externalnofollow}) and all other hardware in your IT environment.
3. Implement stringent security procedures for remote employees.
4. When possible, use automatic patching to keep all security systems up-to-date.
5. Implement stringent access controls and authentication policies.
6. Consolidate systems and data whenever possible. Data that is segregated and dispersed is more challenging to manage and secure.
7. Set up a consistent, reliable backup system.

- **Enhance Visibility into Your Network**

Visibility into all areas of your network is critical to preventing and mitigating cybersecurity incidents. Factors like insider threats, third-party components with built-in vulnerabilities, and human error can endanger your environment. Real-time and trustworthy visibility into your organization's risk profile is essential.

## What is a cyber security audit?

A cyber security audit is a comprehensive review of an organisation’s IT infrastructure. Audits ensure that appropriate policies and procedures have been implemented and are working effectively.

The goal is to identify any vulnerabilities that could result in a data breach. This includes weaknesses that enable malicious actors to gain unauthorised access to sensitive information, as well as poor internal practices that might result in employees accidentally or negligently breaching sensitive information.

As part of their review, the auditor will assess the organisation’s compliance posture. Depending on the nature of the organisation, it could be subject to several information security and data privacy laws, creating a complex net of requirements.

The audit should be performed by a qualified third party. The results of their assessment act as a verification to management, vendors and other stakeholders that the organisation’s defences are adequate.

## Final words

Practicing cybersecurity can strengthen your security system and prevent data breaches. Employees must be loyal to your company and should not leak company data, confidential information, or other intellectual property details. Any suspicious activity on your network should be reported to your security department as part of your responsibility to ensure safe online behavior.

Preventative security technology can identify known signature-based threats, but cyber security threat monitoring can detect more sophisticated threats.


🧑‍💻🔐The article outlines cyber security's meaning, options, tools, and best practices.

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Cyber Security: meaning, options, tools, and best practices

Due to the digital age, businesses interact with customers in a completely different way today. It is not enough just to set up an online store or a website to go digital. You should integrate user experience, processes, funnels, services, and product deliveries.

Innovations like automation, digital platforms, and open-source software are changing the fundamental nature of work. Artificial intelligence, [ChatGPT](https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/{externalnofollow}), data analytics, and [the Internet of Things](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBO2vqLv38{externalnofollow}) are among the technologies that influence these processes. Many companies seek large-scale change efforts to adapt to these technological developments or remain competitive. All these led to the necessity of digital product transformation, which gives the vision and destination of the product.

In this article, we will examine the core stages of the digital product development process, potential pitfalls, and best practices of DPD. But first, let's dive into the relevance of digital products.

## What is considered a digital product?
![What is a digital product_.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/12/20/What_is_a_digital_product_320f939152.png)

What is the most distinctive characteristic of digital products? Any digital product brings together the concept of products or services, providing value through the interactive point of view.

The term **digital product** refers to something that can be created, sold, and purchased online. The delivery of digital products is usually instantaneous after you buy them, instead of being shipped in a box with packing peanuts.

For creative entrepreneurs, digital products provide a fantastic **monetization option** since they can often be scalable indefinitely. You don't have to create new digital courses or ebooks each time you sell one. [Paywalls](https://rockcontent.com/blog/paywall/{externalnofollow}) allow users to access digital products. A creator has a huge advantage here.

However, their simplicity should be understood. There are many digital products on the market, but making a good one takes a lot of work and pitfalls. The digital product market needs to be more saturated, so slapping anything into a PDF and putting a price tag on it will likely attract few customers. The best digital products must be well-researched, well-executed, and constantly improved.

Also, the common types of digital products include mobile apps, [SaaS](https://www.ecdevstudio.com/blog/awesome-saas-ideas-for-product/) (Software as a Service), software-augmented hardware solutions, and IT solutions.

## What is digital product development?
![What is digital product development_ (1).png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/12/20/What_is_digital_product_development_1_750c919f38.png)

Digital product development transforms an innovative [digital product concept](https://thestory.is/en/process/concept-validation/digital-product-concept/{externalnofollow}) into reality by leveraging the best technology to develop and deliver exceptional designs.

The goal of digital product development is to develop an authentically helpful application that serves your customers and provides the most value for your business. A digital product agency with engineers, designers, and project strategists working towards a common goal can help you carry out this work with purpose and confidence.

Investing in digital product development will allow you to provide your end users with the experience they want and need, regardless of whether you are launching a startup or running a successful business.

## The digital product strategy - the basis of your business

Creating valuable products and implementing digital transformation requires a digital product strategy. 

The ability to predict **the future lifecycle of a product**, its value proposition, and the product's target audience allow businesses to make better decisions that will benefit both shareholders and customers.

The path for developing a digital product can help businesses create unique, scalable products. 

On the other hand, vague digital product strategies can impede project development, contributing to the failure of [95% of 30,000 new products](https://incafrica.com/library/marc-emmer-95-percent-of-new-products-fail-here-are-6-steps-to-make-sure-yours-dont{externalnofollow}) launched each year. 

Digital product strategies today include numerous standard components that are considered **best practices**. The following are some critical aspects of this strategy:

- The product's ability to address the pain points of customers
- Launch details 
- The way it attracts and retains customers
- The method for the product to grow rapidly and sustainably

Anyway, a digital product development approach includes a wide variety and encompasses all the steps of a software product. So, let's take a look at the critical phases of DPDP.

## The core stages of the digital product development process
![The core stages of the digital product development process.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/12/20/The_core_stages_of_the_digital_product_development_process_76b7539d63.png)

### Stage 1: Discovery stage

At this phase of digital product development, the general ideas of the project, the scope of work, the project's terms, and the future product's competitiveness should be determined.

**Testing of ideas**

In this step, you must determine whether your business idea is viable. It is vital to gather marketing requirements, and analyze your needs and demands, as well as competitive solutions, to define your potential users, avoid possible risks, and make your product unique.

**Gather requirements**

You should prioritize features and functionality based on your essential needs. In this way, a project backlog and vision are defined.

**Defined priority backlog**

With accurate detail elaboration, it describes the stack of features and their implementation to meet the needs of end users.

**Project vision**

It describes the entire project idea. Detailed descriptions of features and essential characteristics will be provided, as well as benefits and strengths your product will offer, along with a short competitive analysis.

**Wireframing**

When you have the project requirements, you are ready to start creating the product visualization. In most cases, it represents the initial product concept, page structure, layout, information architecture, user flow, functionality, and intended behavior. Furthermore, you can view the minimum level of product styling, color, and graphics.

**Infrastructure Architecture**

Depending on your business needs, you can choose the best infrastructure architecture. Various modules and development environments enable the operation of a system, the ability to scale, or the capability to support mobile devices.

**Estimation of the project**

By analyzing your requirements, you can determine the project's cost, time, and resources. Identifying potential risks is crucial for optimizing the budget and minimizing its effects.

### Stage 2: Development stage

In this stage, a product is tailored to the client's needs based on the technology stack.

**Proof of concept**

The purpose of [a proof of concept](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04VMhY0lo1A{externalnofollow}) is to test whether the idea is feasible. A minimal working prototype lets you check if the future product's key features will work with the proposed technology.

**MVP development**

During this stage, you [develop a product](https://vilmate.com/blog/mvp-in-software-development/{externalnofollow}) with only the most essential features and scalable architecture. As a result, the product can be tested, users' feedback is gathered, bugs can be resolved, and the end-users suggestions are integrated into the final product.

### Stage 3: Delivery stage

The final stage is where the product is tested, deployed to the production environment, and provided support for the product.

**Testing process**

A comprehensive testing process is included to ensure bug removal and smooth system operation.

**Continual maintenance**

All necessary upgrades and improvements will be provided for your digital products. A modern and innovative strategy will meet the needs of a fast-changing business environment and a digital transformation.

## Digital Product Development Services
![Digital product development services.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/12/20/Digital_product_development_services_87d9668187.png)

Products develop a business perspective to increase a firm's market share to meet consumer demand. Customer-focused value can be gained by offering quality goods and services to customers.

Digital products help companies become technology companies by providing innovative product teams that deliver digital solutions that can be easily marketed and implemented. The experts [help businesses scale up their software business](https://www.ecdevstudio.com/blog/what-you-should-know-about-hiring-remote-developers/) through various services.

The digital product development process includes conceptualizing, designing, prototyping, developing, and delivering new digital experiences to an organization's customers. To make these services effective, users must first understand existing needs, then use technology in new ways. 

Regarding innovation speed, **digital product development services** offer the most significant business benefits. Fast and agile innovation in sustained product engineering is crucial to engaging customers in a fast-paced and elegant environment. Prototypes for user testing can be developed quickly with effective digital product development services.

EcDev Studio takes your best ideas and makes them real using proven methodologies and research within the realm of design thought and UX/UI. Our engineers know the way users think. Our digital product development can be completed efficiently and effectively. The digital world is not limited to geographical terms. An excellent digital product development firm will increase your visibility and grow your brand globally.

Also, read <u>**[How EcDev Studio prevents 6 most common problems in software outsourcing](https://www.ecdevstudio.com/blog/how-ecdev-studio-prevents-six-most-common-problems-in-software-outsourcing/)**</u>

## Final thoughts

Digital product development is the architecture of successful products, and their successful execution depends on an aligned operation between managers, designers, engineers, and marketers. An effective digital product strategy must be meticulously and inclusively prepared. It must be premised on factors and variables from different stages of product development, including the team members involved.

While technical requirements are the most challenging, low-code plugin solutions are viable tools to circumvent complex product strategy and development processes, getting companies to plan, build and bring their product to market faster. 

Contact [EcDev Studio's development team](https://calendly.com/ecdev-studio/45min) if you want to create a scalable digital product with effective and easy-to-integrate low-code APIs.

📱📲This article describes the core phases of the digital product development process, strategies, pitfalls, and best practices to create or develop your brand.📈

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What you need to know about digital product development: strategies, pitfalls, and best practices

⭐️An article about the pros and cons of software development outsourcing destinations to the Philippines 🇵🇭 and Ukraine 🇺🇦

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Software development outsourcing destinations: Philippines vs Ukraine

It is often the case that engineers place a lot of attention on their technical skills and abilities, ignoring their soft skills primarily. Most roles and industries, however, require soft skills.

As our world becomes more globalized, teams operate across departments, and employees work closely with clients and partners, soft skills are in high demand. Let's take a look at the essential soft skills for engineering professionals.
![Communication.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/11/10/Communication_3016404ce3.png)
## Communication skills

Engineers need communication with others as they work, which is essential communication between them. Soft skills help improve the working environment and make engineers perform more efficiently. The importance of good communication skills is increasing, especially when dealing with clients.

As an engineer, you tend to focus on the technical details when clients are more interested in finding solutions to their problems and understanding the benefits. Clients are interested in something other than abstract theories or high-level science, particularly at the management level. It would help if you practiced communicating highly technical information while keeping the client's perspective in mind.

A third point to remember when discussing communication skills is that they are a category rather than a single skill. Enhancing your communication skills will also involve improving other soft skills. The following soft communication skills may not be necessary for everyone, but they are nonetheless important:

- Ability to listen actively
- A good writing ability 
- Developing presentation skills
- Non-verbal communication skills
- Empathy
- Patience

## Teamwork

There will always be times when you have to work with others. Whether it's a team of developers, designers, or a project team, developers need to work well with others to be successful. Working well with others makes what you're working on more fun and makes people more likely to help you in the future.

In addition, you may only sometimes agree with the people on your team, but having different viewpoints helps build more successful companies.

## Problem-solving

In your career, there will be times when you face a challenge. It could happen regularly or be rare, but it's inevitable. How you handle problems will significantly impact your career and the company you work for.

Problem-solving is a critical skill that employers look for in prospective employees, so the more examples you have of problem-solving, the better. Whenever you encounter a new problem, always view it objectively, even if you accidentally created one. Once you know the problem, what caused it? Finding a solution is easy once you know the cause.

It's also important to remember that whether you cause the problem or not, you don't have to fix it alone. Working with people in and outside your team helps you solve a problem faster than doing it alone.

## Time management

Knowing how to manage your time is crucial when you have a lot to do. How much time do you spend planning? Coding? Working with your team on new ideas?

Managing your time allows you to focus on what's most essential and get tasks done more efficiently.

Techniques like [the Pomodoro technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique{externalnofollow}), where you work for a set period on one task, take a break, then go back to it, or [Kanban](https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban{externalnofollow}), where you visualize your tasks, are great ways to build a routine or learn how to focus your attention if you're prone to multitasking.

While sometimes the need arises for multitasking, and you may feel like you get loads done when you do it, studies have shown that it's bad for productivity. Not giving something your full attention means that tasks take longer, and you're more likely to make errors.

If you often multitask, prioritize your to-do list, then use one of the techniques mentioned above to help you focus. You'll be surprised how quickly you get things done when they have your full attention!

## Leadership

Soft skills are vital for a leader, as they are essential to productivity. Soft skills help you be an excellent employee. It includes work ethics, organizational communication, cooperation, and leadership. A complex skill is a skill acquired at school or on the job. They have everything from C++ programming to advertising campaigns to financial forecasting.

Soft leadership skills are crucial to productivity and performance. Successful leadership typically involves a good set of soft skills to help a team motivate themselves and inspire others. In turn, leaders' abilities are usually affected by their ability to strategize, listen to feedback and integrate ideas. Empathizing with your team allows you to fully understand their problems and find a way to make your project work for everyone.

Suggesting new ideas is much easier when there is an understanding between team members that there won't be any negative feedback or mockery, no matter how someone feels about an idea. Empathy allows us to predict how others will react to what we say, meaning we can tailor how we speak to our audience.

If you don't like someone's idea, ask yourself why. Then, when you give feedback, start by saying something positive about their suggestion, then what you don't like, and finish off with another positive. This 'sandwich' approach means that the person you're giving feedback will not dwell on the negatives but will understand the pros and cons of their idea.

Empathizing with your user allows you to see things from their point of view. They're the ones that will be using your product, so you must always try to see things from their point of view before your own. Just because you like how something looks/works don't mean your users will. Decision-making should be about more than personal preference.

## Strong interpersonal skills

Sometimes you'll be a part of a team or meeting that consists of more than just developers. That means you will have to explain the reasons behind your decisions and do so in a non-technical way. Some people will get everything straight away, while others will need more time. Teams must be patient with each other in these situations to work well together.

Only some understand how complex programming is or how long code takes to write. They may ask you to do something without realizing the scope of what they're asking. This can lead to frustration. Take your time to explain why it's not as simple as they think, and answer any questions they have. Once you've taken the time to do this, future sessions will become much easier!

## Adaptability

At some point, someone's going to want to ask you something. It could be about your tasks for the day, an issue or a bug, or just about your plans for the weekend. Being approachable is key.

If people don't feel they can approach you and ask you something, they're less likely to ask you for help when something goes wrong. That could mean that a little problem soon evolves into a big one. Not being approachable or helpful also means that others are less likely to help you should you need it. If you can establish a rapport with people, they're more likely to work with you and not against you.

You can tell people when you don't have time to communicate by putting headphones in when you're busy and setting yourself offline on the company chat. If someone still approaches you, set a time to meet to discuss things.

## Critical skills (self-awareness)

When your mind is open, you're more willing to accept new ideas, whether yours or someone else's. Even the worst pictures can inspire something great if you're ready to consider them before dismissing them. Having more ideas means you can work on more projects. While not every idea you have will turn into something, you only know what will once you've thought about it in-depth.

Keep your mind open to new ideas from your team, the rest of the company, and even clients. Clients are the ones who use your product, so they're the best people to tell you what works and what they need.

## Creativity

The best ideas and solutions often come to us when we approach things from a different, less obvious angle. This separates the most creative people — from programmers to entrepreneurs to authors — from everyone else.

Reading fiction, writing, art, crafts, and even cooking are ways of exploring creativity. The more forms of invention you explore, the easier it is to find different ways to approach the same problem.

## Striving for perfection

You should always ask for feedback. An impartial opinion from a colleague or mentor can be beneficial in assessing your level of soft skills. Consider asking someone who works with you to evaluate your performance at work. Coworkers can provide constructive criticism on how you can improve and suggestions on how to become a better software developer.

## How do you highlight soft skills in your CV?
![soft skills.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/11/10/soft_skills_d0e236f228.png)
Software developer soft skills may be helpful to list on your resume to help the managers determine whether you are qualified for the job. Reviewing the job description, you can ensure your resume includes the skills the employer seeks in candidates. For example, it is a good idea to list soft skills such as public speaking and collaboration in your resume if the posting asks candidates to work well with others and to lead monthly assembly meetings.

In a cover letter, you can also describe the soft skills that make you a good fit for the position you're applying for. Your letter should highlight your skills and provide examples of how you have used them. In addition to empathizing with your teammates, you can write about how you supported their professional growth.

In the interview, you'll have the chance to show off your [soft skills assessment](https://www.bizlibrary.com/soft-skills-assessment/{externalnofollow}) and give examples of how you've applied them. Communicate your contributions in specific terms to the interviewer so they fully understand the situation. As well as describing your ability to improve your skills over time, you can also show the employer you're open to feedback.

An article about the top essential soft skills for developers

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Top 10 essential soft skills for engineering professionals

**Software** drives our world. Nowadays, most businesses, phones, and cars depend on coding. As a result, software plays a significant role in modern society. As a result, software development quality is crucial. But what exactly software development quality means? Let's look at the meaning and principles of quality-driven software development.

**Quality-Driven Software Development** is a process, a set of best practices, and a framework. A high-performing team delivers exceptional results using methods and approaches refined over decades of successful projects.

Software products are characterized based on their functionality and quality. The quality goods will accomplish what users are searching for. Fulfilling the SRS documentation's requirements can explain the fitness. Although the "fitness-of-purpose" definition is a satisfactory description of quality in most devices like cars, tables, and grinding machines' fit of purpose' is hardly a whole lot acceptable in the case of software products. Consider software products that work correctly and functionally. So the program performs all functions described within SRS. The interface is almost impossible to understand.

## What are the five core principles of software quality-driven software development?

For quality-driven development, it is essential to start from the beginning, maintain a systematic approach to quality, take ownership of quality, and remember to be creative.
Developing quality software is something that only happens in stages. There is much more to it than tools, methods, and bug counts. 
Quality is crucial to digital transformation, so you should involve your entire organization. 
In practice, there are five cornerstones of quality-driven software development. So, let's analyze each one.
![Frame 2987 (1).png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/11/10/Frame_2987_1_1a53564f20.png)
### 1) Specification

The agreement between stakeholders and the developers is a significant factor in software development. 
There can be a lot of challenges associated with writing a good software specification. It takes an understanding of business or process, technology capabilities, limitations, and good communication skills to register a quality specification that is understandable to both - project members and non-technical decision makers.
To verify that the specifications are met, a third party reviews them to ensure such factors as: 

- comprehensible
- project-specific
- achievable
- testable
- based on priorities

### 2) Design

In software design, requirements become blueprints. It takes creativity, experience, technical expertise, and a commitment to quality to create a good concept. During this step, it is crucial to maintain quality to achieve a successful outcome.

Software design is an essential factor in enhancing quality and productivity. Embedded quality control ensures the website or app is practical. Before coding begins, quality control provides a primary understanding interface. Investing time and resources in the design review is more cost-effective than reworking during the coding phase.

### 3) Coding

Clean, quality code does not just happen by accident. Developing quality-driven projects requires developers to commit and be passionate about them. Code can be written in several ways, but one should always strive to meet high-quality standards.

- Simplicity is a key 
- You should not overdo and reinvent the wheel
- Continual unit testing against the requirements

These principles are a great place to start. In addition to these core principles, there are many others, such as robustness, maintainability, usability, and efficiency.

### 4) Testing
![Frame 2988 (1).png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/11/10/Frame_2988_1_9292d616ae.png)
And the last cornerstone for quality-driven software development is testing. It is the most misunderstood and underrated part of software development. Defects are the result of poor testing. Since the first three foundations failed, testing is the last defense against poor quality reaching customers and end users.

It is necessary to integrate testing into the software development process and to push it out of the end of the cycle.

Finding defects is not the definition of successful testing. Finding the problems and resolving them is the goal. As a result, you must create test plans, develop a comprehensive test strategy, prepare the environments and data, and ensure that all procedures and results are documented.

### 5) Security

As part of the development process, quality-driven software assurance helps identify errors and flaws in the software code and design, so that money and time are not wasted. This way, the end product is secure, competitive, and performs as expected. Software quality assurance practice can enhance the reputation of a business and ensure user and client satisfaction.

## Why are software quality metrics used for quality-driven software development?

A quality measure is a way to evaluate your products, services, and processes. Quality metrics are a tool to determine customer satisfaction levels within a company.

Software Quality Metrics (SQMS) are an essential management tool; they represent numbers representing information about software or its development processes. Specific metrics measure code quality based on its complexity or ability to pass testing tests. Other process-related indicators describe software workflow and productivity. Software quality measures are standard practice in software development firms as they give them a better idea of how a software product works.

Quantitative quality metrics measure how large a software product can be, how many lines it contains, and how many bug occurrences per thousand lines. Qualitative coding quality measures include maintainability, readability, clarity, efficiency, and documentation quality.

Although many can be done to improve the quality of the product during such phases, the following are fixes that take place so the defect can be resolved as quickly as possible at a high-quality level.

## Final thoughts

Building quality-driven software applications do not happen by accident. The process of software quality assurance requires a collaborative effort from the very beginning.

Quality is not a universal property of software. It depends on the stakeholders` context and goals.

No matter how well you do it the first time, you can always expect it to become invalid over time. Hence, continuous quality control is the only way to solve the problem. It is essential to continuously evaluate quality control measures based on a product's properties and the organization's quality goals.

As a result, software professionals would only have to spend less time fixing defects and maintaining existing applications. Using this time more productively, we can innovate solutions to make the process more efficient. Furthermore, this would reduce the organization's costs and enhance its reputation.

An article about quality-driven software development, metrics, opportunities and tools

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Quality-driven software development: meaning, possibilities, and tools

Microservices architecture is something that is often mentioned as the architecture to follow, specially in cloud based solutions. But why is it so, and is it really the best option all the time? In this article, I'll guide you through some of the good and the bad, show some real life use cases of it in action, along with best practices to follow if it is indeed the right choice for you.

## Brief history

Software was done traditionally as monoliths. A product consisted of a multitude of features that lived inside the same codebase, were maintained and operated as a huge, concise block. Eventually, due to problems such as single points of failures, scaling issues and coupling, came the need to split up the software into smaller, more manageable pieces. Along this path, came SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), that relied on the web to interface between smaller services.
![Architecture evolution from monolith to Microservices](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/9/10/Frame_2984_419bedabaf.png)
As SOA became finer grained and service sizes became smaller, also the ecosystem around it changed. With the introduction of PaaS (Platform as a Service) and the cloud, it became easier to create very small, focused services. Thus microservices started gaining traction.

## Advantages of microservices advantages over Monolithic architecture

So what do microservices bring to the table that make them such an exciting alternative to monoliths? Let's take a look at some sections where there's clear advantages.

### Ownership

When the an application is split into smaller parts, you can have teams or individuals focused on specific parts of the application. This increases the ownership sense: As an individual contributor, you own that microservice, it's yours. It's never "someone else's problem" when it comes to your microservice. This can bring a sense of pride when your microservice works flawlessly, as well as focusing expertise on certain domain areas.

### Scalability

Easier horizontal scaling as opposed to vertical scaling. When the service to scale is smaller, you can fine-tune scaling better, achieving better service availability and cost reduction. Containers (think Docker), offer a lot to better scalability, as scaling up or down means adding or removing copies of containers that needs scaling, with potentially no need to add more servers.

### Blast radius reduction

Having the application split into tiny pieces makes it easier to repair or replace certain parts. If a bug caused a microservice to crash, only a localised part of the whole service will be impacted. Recovery or mitigation become simpler, thus reducing MTTR (Mean Time To Recovery).

### API-first design

The way microservices interact with each other is through APIs. It's essentially a contract where you tell other services what you can do, and what you need to do it. In microservices, APIs must be 'first class citizens'. Forcing services to always have an API, from first design, educates the design to follow from the start. The service must fulfil the API needs, not the other way around.

### Technological freedom

Since communication is done through APIs, the technology used inside each microservice can be tailored to the needs of the functionality. Need a highly performant daemon service? Maybe C is the right language. Need a data analysis service? Perhaps Python is more adequate for that, with its specialised data analysis tools.

## Disadvantages of microservices architecture

The advantages sound great! So why shouldn't microservices be used everywhere?

### Added operational effort

Having a microservices architecture means that each service will have dedicated infrastructure, be it cloud resources or physical servers. Each service will have an independent resource stack, and each stack will have an independent release cycle. In case you follow a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery for release, this means a specific release pipeline for each microservice. The added operational effort is not only during setup stages, but it follows through the lifespan of the service. Development teams need to manage specific code bases and repos, code changes, approval workflows, automated tests, alarms, deployment and rollback procedures. At scale it is common to have development teams own 1 or a couple of microservices, and this complexity is already accounted for in a standard 6-8 people development team, but in smaller teams and companies there is an added DevOps effort.

### Increased communication complexity

This concern is twofold: first, there's a cost to managing communication between microservices. Distributed systems are inherently more complex to set up. They require an increased development time to define APIs, operations and clear access permissions between resources. Additionally, communication changes are more cumbersome to perform. They require new operations, methods or API versions to be released while keeping support for existing clients and offering clear deprecation paths and procedures.
![Graph of microservice dependencies at Amazon in 2008. From twitter.com/werner/status/741673514567143424?lang=en](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/9/10/image_148_ec443c66cc.png)
The second part of this topic is organisational communication. Once you have teams owning specific microservices, any project or feature request involving multiple microservices requires inter-team communication. In big projects or milestones these efforts might even need roadmap alignment. Although these orchestration constraints can also happen in monolithic systems, there's a less strict separation of concerns there, meaning the politics of who-owns-what are more flexible and potentially less impactful.

### Service discoverability

With many services online there is another component that is vital in architecture, a Service Registry that manages service availability, health status and connections. For instance based microservices, this can take the form of a load balancer, whereas with containers, container orchestration tools like Docker Swarm or Kubernetes have this functionality built in.

### Testing

This can be both an advantage and disadvantage and it is important that you follow microservices architecture best practices to avoid some of the testing pitfalls. On the one hand it is simpler to test a clear domain with a smaller test suite. However, to perform end-to-end testing or user acceptance testing (UATs) you need to either mock other services or deploy the full system. At scale, UATs are hard to perform for individual teams. They are usually done in environments that already contain the full system, for example a Beta stage where all teams deploy their individual services but already have service wiring in terms of communications and interoperability.

### Changes in application design

When approaching an application, thinking in terms of microservices architecture changes how to design and develop components. It might give added flexibility and modularity but it also introduces additional constraints and challenges.

Sometimes application size doesn't translate to complexity and not all architectures are suited to follow a microservice approach. It's not a silver bullet! As anything in software development, there's a balance to strike between development effort and maintainability, a give and take.

## Use cases

### Dropbox
![1057500b-bf4d-4bd8-acdc-dbe94e49d201.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/9/10/dropbox_43fabc9835.png)
Dropbox is a cloud storage service that allows saving files in shared folders sync them to multiple devices.

Dropbox started with a monolithic backend service, called Metaserver. Over the years, as the Dropbox development team increased in size, the pains of working in a monolith increased.

There were many efforts to destructure this monolith into smaller pieces, not all of them successful. An initial effort failed due to reliability issues with the new solution.

After some reassessment, Dropbox decided to use a Hybrid approach. Instead of moving everything to microservices, and suffer the downsides of having microservices, they decided to structure all simple services inside a service called Atlas, while big components would stay as they were, owned by large teams. The reasoning for creating Atlas is, most of the small services are not critical enough to warrant caring about supporting services for each of the microservices independently. Atlas would manage scaling, alarming and other concerns of these services altogether.

Atlas works as a managed service, similar to AWS Fargate, where developers should only care about the code. The target of Atlas is to "provide the majority of benefits of SOA, while minimising the operational costs associated with running a service."

### Uber
![71572a5e-638b-4c4f-98c0-f87e9f573c49.jpeg](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/9/10/Frame_2985_32b541affc.png)
Uber is a transportation company with an app that allows passengers to use a taxi-like service while also allowing users to register as drivers to charge fares and get paid.

Uber started off as [2 monolithic services](https://www.uber.com/en-PT/blog/microservice-architecture/{externalnofollow}). As the company grew from dozens to hundreds of engineers, the pains of having a codebase started to appear, with coupling and availability risks as some of the cited. Uber claims that they could not reach the level of scale and quality offered today without the microservices architecture.

The interesting part about with this use case comes when going from hundreds to thousands of engineers. In that part of their growth, system complexity started to arise as a critical problem. A simple feature can touch multiple services, meaning additional communication with multiple teams, design and code reviews.

To tackle the increased complexity, Uber took steps to reduce granularity with DOMA (Domain Oriented Microservices Architecture). How does DOMA work in a nutshell?

- Organize microservices in collections of services, named domains.
- Organize domains in collections, called layers. Domains inside layers have dependencies in common
- Create gateways that serve as single points of interface with domains.
- Domains should be agnostic from other domains. To share context, Uber uses an extension architecture to create extension points between domains.

With the adoption of DOMA, Uber claims to have been "able to reduce onboarding time by 25-50%".

## Best practices

### Single responsibility principle

Each service should handle a single logical domain and you should establish clear boundaries between services.

### Guarantee decoupling between services

Is your service API exposing internal concepts? Does the client need to know any inner property to make calls on handle responses? If you cannot replace one service internal logic, without impacting clients, that is a red flag that your architecture in coupled. It is one thing to deploy different services and another to have them decoupled.

### Don't persist communication artefacts

It might be tempting to persist objects directly from the API controller, but if you persist communication objects, you cannot change persistence layer without impacting clients.

### Eventually consistent persistence layer

It is a common pattern for micro-services to communicate via Publish/Subscribe pattern and handle notifications asynchronously. In many scenarios, it is simpler and more accurate to follow an eventually consistent approach, where an event notifies the service, but event details are ignored, and query the publisher as the source of truth. This way the end result of processing a notification stream will be the same regardless of message order.

### Extend the microservice to the data storage

Microservices expect separation of concerns even at the data storage level. If this doesn't happen, the coupling persists. If there's ever an issue with the database, all microservices depending on that database are impacted.

When possible, split the data persistence layer for each microservice. As with the code itself, this grants flexibility to choose a specific solution that works best for the target data, instead of having to work for all use cases in the monolith.

### Use smart endpoints, dumb pipes

The idea with this statement is to reinforce the idea that the microservices should own all business logic. When it comes to communication, knowing how to communicate should live inside the microservice (the endpoints), not in the communication protocol (the pipe). This is why microservices tend to use "simple" communication protocols, such as REST and message queues, as opposed to [BPEL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Execution_Language{externalnofollow}) or [Enterprise Service Bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_service_bus{externalnofollow}).

When microservices own all the business logic, there's no need for another external entity that needs to change when your microservices does, so less moving parts to worry about.

### Monitoring is a must

A side effect of having a monolith is that, when something breaks, it's very likely you will notice it, given the blast radius. With microservices, not so much. To guarantee the best availability to your end users, a thorough monitoring and alarming process, based on SLAs, must be adopted. Key monitoring targets include latency, number of errors, resource usage (CPU, Memory, Disk Space). Having the right level of monitoring for each service will allow the service to react to unusual situations (i.e. fatal bugs that require rollbacks, or traffic spikes that require scaling or rate-limiting) in a timely manner and leave your customers happy.

### Use an API Gateway

There are several benefits that arise when putting an API Gateway in front of a microservice architecture.

One is the reverse proxy nature of an API Gateway. It hides internal microservice endpoints under a single public endpoint. This allows flexibility when changing the underlying services. Consider migrations, where you're splitting the monolith up into smaller services, or you are building a brand new service to replace another one. The flip from old to new can be hidden behind an API Gateway, where the public endpoint for the service doesn't change, but the underlying service does.

Another benefit is centralising some of the cross-cutting concerns that API Gateway manages well. API Gateways already handle functionality such as authentication, authorization, response caching and throttling, so extracting this from each microservice into an API Gateway seems logical to keep microservices focused. Consider the API Gateway as its own microservice, responsible for tasks related to requests.

### Logical architecture and physical architecture may differ

Microservices are a logical concept. The implementation of such a concept doesn't have to be a 1-to-1 copy of the design. Due to size or logical boundaries, you may have multiple services enclosed in the same microservice. To exemplify this, let's conceptualise an example of 1 microservice composed of 2 services. If we have a User Search service and a User Details service, that have isolated codebases, but interact with the same database. It may make sense to logically call this the User Data microservice, while keeping the two service separate. This keeps them together within the same business logic boundary, but allow them to scale independently.

## How do I start?

So you figured out the a microservices architecture is the right call for your project. You've designed the architecture, and are ready to implement. I would suggest not reinventing the wheel here. Microservices have been around for a while, and there's tools and services you can use to make the experience better. A lot of these have the best practices proposed in mind, so less stressing about that. So let's take a look at some tools to get you started.

### Docker

Docker is an open source platform used to build and run distributed applications, in the form of containers. Although containers are not synonymous with microservices, their usage shares a lot of the advantages of using microservices: isolation and scalability being two of them. Most of the tools below expect applications to be containerised, making Docker or other containers a must-use.

### Amazon ECS

Amazon ECS is Amazon's managed container orchestration offering. It's works a layer above Amazon EC2, where you don't deal with instances directly, but you need to manage instances, which includes scaling, monitoring, patching. Because of this, ECS is free, and you pay only for the EC2 instances you use.

### Amazon Fargate

Fargate differs from ECS on how the containers run. With Fargate, task execution is serverless, so no need to worry about EC2 instances, that's transparent to the user. This means, there's far less operational effort with this solution, although you also have less flexibility. In terms of pricing, you pay per task execution time instead of per instance, which may seem like an increase in cost at first glance, but it's possible to have a badly implemented ECS solution cost more than Fargate.

### Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source container orchestration framework. Originated from Google Borg, it's considered the standard in container orchestration. Many of the features offered by Kubernetes out-of-the-box offer a lot of the requirements for microservices, such as service discovery and load balancing.

You can think of Kubernetes in a lower layer of abstraction compared to Amazon ECS, nothing in Kubernetes is managed for you, you will need to setup all the details. An advantage of this is that Kubernetes is vendor agnostic, so you can integrate with any cloud vendor, or even use it on-premises with your company infrastructure.

If this level of fine grained configuration is not what you need, but you still want to use Kubernetes, a managed Kubernetes service like Amazon EKS may be the right choice.

### Amazon EKS

Amazon EKS is a managed Kubernetes service. Instead of using Amazon's proprietary orchestration like ECS, it uses a Kubernetes management layer for the same purpose. This makes it the more seamless transition if you're already using Kubernetes, but can be more difficult to configure if not. Choose EKS if you plan to go multicloud in the future (since Kubernetes is vendor agnostic), and expect to scale to a large degree.

### AWS Lambda

The one exception on the list to using containers. AWS Lambda is a Function as a Service offering. They offer arguably the easiest path to start using microservices, in terms of ease of development and setup. AWS Lambda is particularly useful for handling short running tasks, such as APIs, or very simple tasks. In those cases, the complexity of containers plus manages orchestration services may not be worth the effort.

## Conclusion

It's important to not pick microservices architecture because it's the new shiny thing on the industry, but to understand the benefits and drawbacks and choose accordingly. In this article we analysed the good and the bad about microservices, and offered some advice on how to begin and do it right from start.

An article about Microservices, their benefits, challenges, real-life examples, and best practices

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Quick dive into Microservices: benefits, challenges, real-life examples, and best practices

**Web design** is the long route of creating content for a brand. Modern website design is the combo of how things look and how things work. Moreover, it is not limited to websites but includes other uses such as web apps, mobile apps, etc.

The website design is not just a nice picture. It's the crucial solution for the business image, making the brand recognizable and valuable in the market. So, it is not enough to have a product. You have to make an effective, efficient, and visually pleasing display. 

UX and UI design services allow companies to verify business ideas, ultimately saving money on development. Business owners can test every function before launching it with digital prototyping and iterative outlines. In this way, companies can avoid unnecessary expenses while still getting an accurate and realistic evaluation of their app or website.

By using an application or website prototype, the company can determine which functions are useless or need to be improved. With UX design services, the development process can be flexible, and money can be saved in the long run. Correctly implemented prototypes and validated features can help companies avoid change requests and ensure no requirements are missed.

Nowadays, many successful companies choose between in-house and outsourced web design. Let's try to understand the difference between these two types of hiring web designers and find the best for your company. 

## In-house web design

If you hire someone to create your website design in-house, they will only work on your projects. A complete focus will speed up the process.

### Pros of in-house web designers:

1. **Priority**
Your company is always in the first place for an in-house web designer. Having someone work on your site in-house means only working on that website. With an entire focus, in-house web designers can deliver faster.

2. **In-depth understanding of your business**
In-house web designers work with you for a long time, which gives them a deeper understanding of the company's needs and values. With an in-house team member, you're saving the time it takes to explain all project details to an outsider.

3. **Communication**
Face-to-face conversations and tracking of work allow you to monitor and control in-house designers. As a result of an in-house team, you can see the work results and interact with them. With an in-house web development team, you have complete control over all aspects of your project. Each development step will be explained in detail, including progress and setbacks. You will be able to track the progress of your web development project more efficiently.
Moreover, you understand and build a particular system of values, norms, rules, traditions, and principles driven by which your team works and your business grows. Often, corporate culture performs a motivational function by inspiring the team to achieve specific goals.

4. **Data security**
It is easier to secure your business when you work with reliable workers you know well. It is the question of intellectual property, and it has to be a priority.

### Cons of in-house web designers

When we speak about in-house workers, that means additional expenses. An in-house web development team would be more expensive and would require you to hire more experts. It is essential to consider both the monthly salary and the mandated benefits such as paid leave and health insurance. In addition, you will need to consider HR services, equipment, personnel management, software, office space, and facilities.

Hiring in-house means incurring all costs without knowing whether your product will succeed. It can be hard to find skilled designers, especially in small cities. Many of the best talents have already been employed.

The next drawback of an in-house design team is a slow start. It is acсeptable for big projects but devastating for small ones. As a result, in-house web design resources become ineffective for short-term projects.

## Outsourced web design
![Frame 2982.png](https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.ecdevstudio.com/uploads/2022/9/10/Frame_2982_656ce684fc.png)
It's worth mentioning that outsourcing businesses are prevalent in today's IT industry. Moreover, the number of new outsourcing companies is growing each day. It has pros and cons, but it is needless to say that outsourced web design brings excellent results into the global market. So, let's analyze this in detail.

### Benefits of outsourced web design

1. **Reduced cost**
One of the most incredible things about web design outsourcing is the opportunity to save money. You pay for the result without other expenses when you hire an outsourced web designer or company. It saves you a vast amount of time and cost of building a perfect in-house team. Hiring a fully staffed outsourcing company to execute your project is much more cost-effective than hiring and training your team.

2. **Save time using specific skills for specific projects**
Among the benefits of outsourcing is access to a large talent pool. You can choose people with excellent qualifications for the job, which means the projects usually get done faster. You can outsource web design work in various ways depending on the type of cooperation you choose and the country your outsourced vendor is from.

3. **New perspectives**
New workers can infuse a fresh look at the project, cutting-edge technology, tools, and solutions. It will help achieve the best result in a short time. Working with a third-party company will allow you to produce new ideas for your project and bring fresh perspectives. Web designers are incredibly creative people with the ability to find extraordinary solutions to tricky tasks.

4. **Global access**
Finding a web design outsourcing agency that delivers quality work within your budget is possible regardless of location. Digitalization provides endless opportunities around the world. And for the current unstable world situation, this benefit is quite crucial.

5. **Shift the focus**
When outsourcing website design, you have more time to focus on other essential business tasks. It is a great time to expand your business, get more clients, and do marketing. With a good outsourcing web development agency, you will always be able to stay involved in the process via email, project management tools, and Skype conversations. It would be possible for you to communicate with your team throughout the project's lifecycle.

### Drawbacks of outsourcing

Outsourcing web design has its cons as any other model. You can collide with a need for more transparency and control over the development process. Also, there is a risk of disclosing confidential information. Nevertheless, outsourced web design gives you a fresh look at things and better results. It's a cost-effective way to get the desired web design.

## Final thoughts

Outsourcing the design of your website adds new creative flair and gives a unique perspective on business strategy. Outsourcers can help you solve significant tasks.

The outsourcing team will complete the task much faster and more effectively. So, it is vital to choose an outsourced website design firm that can handle complex tasks, and it also determines the budget you can spend on the project. The use of outsourcing has historically been viewed as a way to reduce costs and optimize operations. Experienced professionals can quickly meet deadlines with the best possible results. In 2025 IT outsourcing will generate a value of $3976 million based on the following trends.

Insights about technology and software outsourcing