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Do you plan to create a website, develop a mobile application, a web application or any other digital product? We have prepared 12 rules that you must follow to have a good chance of succeeding with your project. “USP”, or Unique Selling Propositon, tells you where your greatest added value and potential chances lie.Source: https://www.tractionwise.com/en/unique-selling-proposition-customer-perspective/ Clearly define the main features of the new product, what problem it solves, and what value it brings to users. Start developing if you have a unique product. Do not copy or combine other products. Be innovative. Lean Start cycle of quick iteration of idea, development and measurement of the result.Source: https://blog.goyello.com/2015/04/28/enterprise-software-development-lean/lean-startup-image/ Do the least amount of work possible and gather feedback. Evaluate the data, learn and start working on another version. Comprehensive specifications and planning for several years ahead are probably going to be a waste of time. A successful product must meet all these criteria.Source: https://www.slideshare.net/JoanLumanauw/ux-lesson-1usercentereddesign Test and validate all your ideas, prototypes, designs and every new release of your product with real users. Gather all the feedback you can and adjust your plans accordingly. There is a lot you can do to know what users think – from workshops to focus groups, interviews and questionnaires. Sorting features by priority using the MoSCoW methodology. Source: https://railsware.com/blog/moscow-prioritization/ Your product doesn’t have to contain all the ideas you can think of. Focus on the features that bring your users the highest value. Prioritize your work and your backlog. Don’t try to do everything at once. A road map will help you plan and track your progress.Source: https://stratisplatform.com/2019/04/11/2019-development-roadmap/ Roadmap tells you where you are and where you’re heading with your product. Your backlog is a storage for all your features, from those that are just an idea to those that are being implemented. Both need to be prioritized and always up to date. Agile methodologies strive to achieve timely delivery of results through a clear timeframe for each meeting.Source: https://www.scruminc.com/what-is-timeboxing/ Stick to deadlines that you agree upon with your team, your partners and suppliers. Missing the deadlines frequently will lead to a decline in working morale. You will also lose your momentum and the critical speed to market. For your team to work well, you need to motivate them, allow them to work independently and provide them with the right conditions.Source: https://www.slideshare.net/agiledad/empowering-agile-teams-13165482 Find the right team members with appropriate experience, skillset and character attributes. Empower your team to make decisions and bear responsibility. The self-organizing team will deliver the best results and give your project more than just lines of code. Testing applications is not just a click through if everything works, but it takes many forms.Source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-challenges-in-Mobile-App-testing-Services Testing is not the last stage of the project. Quality control must be present during the whole design and development process. Every output must be double-checked whether it is a design, release or a project management product. Networking can be a valuable way to win new business partners.Source: https://www.slideshare.net/aksingh1959/networking-47013215 Don’t work on the project and promote it yourself. Connect with others in the industry, or find affiliate partners to help get your app among a sufficient number of users. There are a lot of applications development technologies and it may not be easy to choose the right one.Source: https://www.novelucent.com/services/mobile-application-development Not every technology fits every project. Consider future project development, team costs, maintenance and operations. The technology will also affect the requirements for team composition and size, development methodology and testing. Take advantage of all the marketing channels that make sense to you.Source: https://digitalmarketing.temple.edu/forklyft/product/marketing-channels/ Pay attention to your marketing. Identify the channels that work best for you and prepare your campaigns thoroughly. Evaluate data, enhance your strategy and ads when your promotion starts. Do not be afraid of failure and obstacles along the way. You will not avoid them and you will learn a lot.Source: https://twitter.com/greyscalespaces/status/1006243462465966080 Don’t hesitate to launch your product, don’t keep your ideas in the drawer for a long time. Do not worry even disapproving or lukewarm reactions from users. Possible errors are valuable data, from which you will learn to further development. Are you going to develop an app for the first time? We have prepared a complete guide to a mobile application development that can help you choose the right team, technology and avoid the most common mistakes. Author: Pixelfield team

Creating a new product is expensive and time consuming, is a waste of money and energy if the product will not be successful. This is why it is crucial to validate your product as soon as possible with an MVP. MVP Explained MPV, minimum viable product, is a product that has only the essential features, which are enough to make your product work as intended. Instead of making a full product, investing a lot of money and time into it, just to find out that the features you have worked so hard on, are not important for the user, and the features you thought are trivial are the actual important ones, you are better off determining what the minimum requirements are to get your product out there in the marketplace, and keep updating the product from the users feedback. (Uh, this was a long thought) The key takeaway here is that a Minimum Viable Product allows businesses to start smaller and iteratively build up to produce a better, more polished product. Are you interested in building an MVP? If yes, let us know.

The comparison of Java and Golang pits two popularly quick backend programming languages. Moreover, they compete against one another in several other categories like learning time, web development, performance, developer payout, and others. Developers widely use both Golang and Java. Direct rivalry exists between the two languages for dominance of server-side web applications. The parallels, distinctions, and business uses of each language are highlighted in this article. Is Java superior to Golang? Is Golang more complicated than Java? Let's explore. Since it has been around for a while, Java has established a stronghold in the backend development sector of the software business. Golang, on the other hand, is a recently developed language. Developers use Java and Golang both extensively. The two languages are directly competing for supremacy in server-side web applications. Google released Go, often known as Golang, as an open-source language in 2011. Golang is a multi-paradigm, statically typed, compiled, general-purpose programming language, much like Java. Because the language's compiler was created in C, Golang's syntax is similar to that of 'C.' But now that it is written in Golang, the language can continue to be self-hosted. Golang is a concurrent programming language that can perform several tasks simultaneously. It was created for modern multicore computers. Deferred garbage collection is another feature that efficiently maintains memory to run programs. Java is a general-purpose, statically typed programming language. In 1995, Sun Microsystems created and made Java available. Java is used on various platforms, including contemporary data science and machine learning applications and dated legacy software on servers. Java was developed to simplify the web development process and enact the principle of "write once, execute anywhere." And programmers have undoubtedly thrilled at the ability to design code that can operate on various platforms without recompiling. Some popular Java-based platforms are Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, eBay, and LinkedIn. Because Java is well-known among developers, many pre-built modules and programs are available. Java coding is made simple by these modules and the availability of developers. Java has several uses. Anywhere there is a CPU, it can run. The virtual machine converts the source code into bytecode before compiling it, making it similar to a compiled language. Golang and Java are both powerful server-side programming languages. Here is a comparison of them. Golang and Java offer a wide range of functionality, but because Java is object-oriented, it is better suited for demanding jobs. Code reuse is encouraged by object-oriented programming (OOP), which also improves the developer experience. Java additionally enables runtime self-reflection of code to check for faults. Golang is less flexible than Java since it is not an object-oriented language and does not enable inheritance or reflection. One of the most crucial aspects of Golang is garbage collection. Java has garbage collection as well, although it could be stronger. Large codebases are easier to manage using garbage collection. Furthermore, another crucial aspect of Golang is concurrency. Functions or processes can execute concurrently, thanks to "Goroutines." Java offers multithreading features that produce a comparable result, although they are much less potent than Golang's. Golang has a unique syntax. The language is easy to read and write for native English speakers. To define preset actions and internal procedures, Golang has a total of 25 keywords. Additionally, Golang's library is compact, making skimming simple. Golang's syntax also does away with the brackets, parentheses, and colons that programmers typically use at the end of lines, which is different from most programming languages. On the other hand, Java is complicated. The use of Java demands a developer's whole focus. However, the advanced grammar of Java allows for flexibility and loose coupling. Despite Java's speed, Golang performs better than Java in most measures. Java's virtual machine for Java compilation is partially to blame for the lack of performance. Although this virtual machine enables Java to operate on any platform, it slows it down. Golang is in the lead. Testing is simple, and the user experience is superior with Golang. Due to its resemblance to "C," Golang is speedy. Additionally, Golang's memory management adds to its quickness. Automatic garbage collection takes care of new object references without pausing. Golang is younger and less well-known than Java. Java used to be the language used the most frequently for server-side development. Although Python and Java are currently vying for that distinction, Java still has a more extensive user base than Golang. Java developers are simple to discover for recruiters. Also, because the Java community is extensive and well-established, Java developers can readily seek advice from it. Even though Java and Golang are server-side languages, they have diverse applications. Thanks to JVM, Java is a cross-platform programming language that enables it to operate across platforms with little to no hassle. On the other hand, the scope of Golang is constrained. For instance, Golang creates a binary file from code to run on any platform. However, making a binary file for each platform takes longer than necessary. Compiling the individual binary files for each platform takes time. Java is hence the best choice if portability is a priority. Golang can be a valuable addition to your tech stack if you want to optimize your backend. Only when Python or Java are not accessible is Golang an excellent alternative for machine learning due to its parallelism. Both Java and Golang are reliable, popular, and valuable. But they are still very different from one another. Java is object-oriented, more well-established, and has a larger community and library. Golang is a multi-paradigm and superior at handling concurrency. Golang is quicker, but Java has more features and more significant support. You can determine which language is appropriate for use professionally depending on the kind of websites or applications you're producing. If you need help with the technology to utilize or the team of experts to hire, get in touch with Amplifyre. Amplifyre makes it possible to locate, evaluate, match, and remotely manage the world's best software engineers, partners, and developers. Amplifyre helps companies create their engineering dream teams by combining a global footprint. Get your ideal team right away with Amplifyre!

So this story begins one fine afternoon just minding my own business, roaming around in a project’s production AWS console. I was testing out some new ideas to change the system over to a more serverless architecture, the main goal being to lower some costs, but also just because serverless is all the rage, right? One of our biggest costs is EC2, which accounts for nearly 70% of the total bill: However, when I was having a look at these EC2 costs in more detail, there was an extra EC2-Other service which accounted for a hefty amount of the total EC2 costs: EC2-Other - sorry, what? After some research into this EC2-Other service, AWS made it sound like it was an expected cost, and it was just part and parcel of using EC2: The EC2-Other category includes multiple service-related usage types, tracking costs associated [with] Amazon EBS volumes and snapshots, elastic IP addresses, NAT gateways, data transfer, and more. – EC2 Cost Explorer So, for a moment I stopped looking into these costs and just assumed they were normal. EC2-Other - sorry, no. A few days had passed, and I was still roaming around in that same console. This time I was looking specifically at a monthly bill breakdown. This was when I noticed something odd: Did you spot it? 52,664 GB (~53 TB) of data being processed through our NAT gateway - that is suspicious. We would expect to see some data being transferred through the NAT gateway but that amount is absurd. My investigations began, and well it did not take long to find an answer. I determined that every time a container in EC2 was pulling an image from ECR (Elastic Container Registry) it was being transferred through our NAT gateway. Every file that was being transferred from S3 to a container or vice versa, which in our system is a lot of GBs, this was going through the gateway. Even our logs being sent from any container to CloudWatch, through the gateway… First off you would have thought that AWS would have managed all these transfers because they are from within AWS - but of course, they are outside your VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) - so the only way in is through your NAT gateway. Do not panic though - there is a solution - enter VPC Endpoints, also known as AWS PrivateLink. You can use AWS PrivateLink to connect the resources in your VPC to services using private IP addresses as if those services were hosted directly in your VPC. – AWS PrivateLink concepts - Amazon Virtual Private Cloud If you use your console for changes to infrastructure then follow this tutorial on how to set these endpoints up for S3, ECR, and logs: Create Private Links via Console or also this one provided by AWS: New VPC Endpoint for S3. However, if you use CDK to deploy your infrastructure, like a hero, then here is how to set up your 3 new VPC endpoints. I am using Kotlin but if you use TypeScript or another language it shouldn’t be too hard to adjust. Here are your imports for this setup: You’ll need to have your VPC available in this stack. Firstly here is your Gateway Endpoint for S3: Gateway endpoints are only currently available for S3 and DynamoDB - otherwise you must use an Interface Endpoint. Gateway endpoints for S3 are offered at no cost and the routes are managed through route tables. Interface endpoints are priced at $0.01/per AZ/per hour. Cost depends on the Region, check current pricing. Data transferred through the interface endpoint is charged at $0.01/per GB (depending on Region). For the Interface Endpoint for ECR you need to have your security groups available: Here I have used my security groups to give you an idea of what you might need. It is important to get these right or else you could have issues with your containers not being able to pull from ECR: Then for the Interface Endpoint for Logs: Sadly with CDK you cannot add a name tag to these endpoints (see issue here) so when you deploy you will see something that looks like this: So I pushed these changes to our production environment halfway through the day of 23rd June, but I think you can see that quite clearly here: So after leaving your system to run for a little while with these endpoints in place you should start to see the EC2-Other costs drop significantly. For this example our costs dropped from over $2000 per month to just over $200! There is an increase of course in the costs for your VPC for these endpoints, but I am not too worried about the $1 increase there: Thanks for coming on this journey with me, and I hope this can help you save some precious dolla bills

How important is it today to take care of security in software development? Well, given the recent increase in successful cyber attacks caused by some applications’ vulnerabilities, building secure software from scratch has become extremely crucial! Security issues, such as cyber-attacks and data leaks are common in many applications. How can you prevent privacy issues when building software from scratch? We’ve prepared a bunch of useful tips on developing secure software that guarantees to deliver safe applications! Let’s find out: Software security can’t take second place in the development process – it needs to be treated as the priority from the start. Building really secure software requires a bunch of good practices on all levels of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from the very first stage of planning to the final phase and maintenance. Pro tip: A well-rounded development lifecycle consists of a combination of both manual and automatic testing, which gives developers a chance to detect major bugs early. In order to ensure proper security management in the project, a software house should provide IT specialists with the necessary knowledge on how to prevent security issues from the start. It helps to navigate and fix the bugs before they cause some damage concerning privacy. The exposure of software to cyber attacks is very high – cybercriminals are constantly trying to find security gaps in systems. Hence, making security a priority within the software development lifecycle is a proven way to create a more efficient guard against, e.g. data leaks. How to take the right approach to security in software development and what methodologies are the most efficient? The best solution is going Agile. The main assumption of innovative Agile thinking is focusing on testing at every phase of the SDLC. Needless to say, implementing software security principles requires continuous testing across the SDLC. Ongoing testing is the best way to detect all privacy issues at every stage of software development. Here, taking the Agile approach comes out as the cheapest and the most beneficial solution. It enables checking on security errors step by step and allows you to respond to them when needed. It also prevents IT, teams, from handling a lot of errors at once. Gradual testing helps to avoid patching up privacy gaps overnight at the final stage of the project. Summing up, this approach is the cheapest and the most beneficial. Pro tip: At FireUp we create a workflow that fosters implementing software security rules. We always use top-notch testing tools and services that enable the development of secure applications at ease. Check out our case study on how we developed an application for a fintech company. In this industry, taking care of the protection of all vulnerable data is the core. Managing software security isn’t as easy a ride as it may seem. Therefore, we’ve gathered the list of best practices for more secure coding from the very start of the IT project: Since automation is a powerful weapon for hackers – you can’t rely on manual techniques either. Automation is the proven way to defend your software from cyber attacks. Automating day-to-day operations will help detect security misconfigurations faster and improve the team’s workflow. As a result, it allows developers to switch their focus from mundane, repetitive tasks and devote time to more involving endeavors. Having security policy documentation will ensure workflow transparency in the project. Maintaining all the rules in one place is a great source of knowledge for all team members. It’s also extremely useful for everyone who is new to the project and needs fast verification of some procedures concerning security. Pro tip: Getting familiarized with security documentation is a good practice for every new employee. You can implement this as a part of the onboarding process. The best way to always deliver safe products is to take care of security at every stage of the software development life cycle: Handling security issues should start at the very first stage – which is about planning and creating a concept. The step you can take at the beginning involves defining security requirements and setting up the goals for the project. At this stage, you should also select a secure SDL methodology. A really good practice is organizing training on security awareness for IT teams. Such an approach is the key to starting a project with well-prepared teams who have expert knowledge in application security. At this stage, every Software House should take care of detecting all potential security defects concerning the architecture and design. A really good way is analyzing possible danger scenarios and predicting at what stage cyber attacks may occur. As an outcome, an experienced IT team may invent great solutions to defend and ensure proper protection within a software architecture. Here, it’s good to remember to turn all security principles into coding routines. Developing security habits is the key to success. You can also take advantage of static code scanning thanks to SAST tools and automated code reviews to foster this phase. At this phase, the main focus is on bug-fixing concerning security. The most important activity is discovering and fixing application errors. What may be helpful during testing is keeping consistent QA documentation. In order to release safe software without errors, you need to improve its features constantly. Logging and integrating real-time incident-spotting mechanisms may come in handy. At the final stage of the project, every piece of important or sensitive data software may contain should be carefully protected. If you want to discover more on how to protect your application from vulnerability issues, read our article. Modern software requires a well-developed approach to security so as to ensure efficient protection from data breaches. How can a Software Hosue manage security issues effectively? A bunch of good practices for IT teams is the best way to avoid failure concerning privacy issues. Remember – even the best software isn’t fully-fledged if it’s not safe!

Constant location tracking can be an important feature for taxi apps, apps that track the location of your children or friends. In such cases, we need to work in the background. In Flutter, we can use an open-source location package for this purpose. Also, for a visual demonstration of the plugin's work, we used OpenStreetMap. Let's see how to use this package. Github - Flutter Background Location Permissions are the first thing to start with. Since access to the location is a dangerous permission, we need to request it from the user. With Flutter 1.12, all the dependencies are automatically added to the project. But to use location background mode, we have to add the following additional permissions: Apps that target Android 9 (API level 28) or higher must add the FOREGROUND_SERVICE permission. If the app targets Android 10 (API level 29) or higher, we also need to check for the ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION permission. Add them to AndroidManifest.xml before tag: Remember that to use the background location the user has to accept the location permission to Allow all the time. On Android 11 (API level 30) and higher, however, the system dialog doesn't include the Allow all the time option. Instead, users must enable background location on a settings page. However, the plugin allows us to immediately show to the user the necessary page by calling the location.requestPermission() method. This will show the following window: We need to add the NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription key to the app's Info.plist file, to use location services in an iOS app. If your app needs to access the user's location information at all times, even when the app is not running, you can also add the NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription key. These keys are used to request permission from the user to access their location information and are required by the operating system. We also have to add the following to Info.plist: You can always refer to the official repository if you have any problems. That's all we need to do in the native part. Let’s go to the dart code ⬇️. To request a location, you should always check the Location Service status and Permission status manually: Now we can request our current location: Or track the user's movement: To receive location when the application is in the background you have to enable it: When our application is running in the background, we must show the user the appropriate notification. The plugin allows us to customize the type of notification: We can also change iconName, description, color, channelName, and onTapBringToFront flag. On Android, a notification is displayed with information that the location service is running in the background: On iOS, while the app is in the background and gets the location, the blue system bar notifies users about updates. Tapping on this bar moves the User back to the app. The plugin is open source, so it allows us to understand its internal structure. You can learn how to work with Platforms Channels, natively call notifications, and request location using LocationManager for Android and CLLocationManagerfor iOS.

Although it seems a simple task, people rarely use the appropriate image file type for their website. To easily convey your message and show others what you have, it is true that you have to rely on images. Studies show that 8% of the websites do not have any visual content. The other 92% have images. It is important that you use the correct image format for different use cases for your website; otherwise, it will cause the website to slow down. Here, let us discuss the most significant file extensions, the use cases, and the pros and cons of each format. You can also find the answers to the most frequently asked questions. Let us have a look at different image file formats: It is one of the two image formats: the raster and the vector. Used by many photographs or pictures on the web, the raster image format is JPEG, GIF, and PNG in its category. Displays static images, pixels in the raster format have accurate color, position, and proportion, depending on the resolution. When you try to resize raster images, they will get blurry or pixelated as they are static. The pixels in it get stretched to fill the extra space, which will cause blurriness. SVG, EPS, AI, and PDF are some of the vector image file types. In contrast to the raster images, vector images are more adjustable. One can enlarge the image resolution while it stretches to the total area and not lose any quality or disturb the graphics. Placed on a Cartesian plane, the Vector image format uses lines and curves. According to the statistics, PNG, JPEG, GIF, SVG, and WebP are the most common types of image files. Let us see what's behind their popularity: PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Screenshots, coupons, infographics, pictures, and banners that have text use this type. Since the file size can be increased drastically, PNG is great for photos of high resolution. PNG is often used for text inside an image. For compression without any loss, designers and photographers use PNG to make their work remain in a high-quality format. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) Used for pictures, it is a good option for the images in blogs and articles. It is not suitable to use JPEG for infographics with small text and screenshots. Being popular for compression and universal browser and OS support, it has second place in website usage with 74%. GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) It is used for sharing animations. It is a raster format type and has lossless compression but limits the color and bits of the image. But this keeps the size of the file small and internet friendly. GIF is perfect for dynamic content, and it is used as a secondary format in websites. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) It is used for icons, logos, graphs, and illustrations and is great for image types that require scalability. It was designed to provide 2D images within the website. Instead of depending on pixels, SVG uses XML text. It is scalable without losing quality. It is the third most commonly used format with 39 % of websites. WebP It supports both lossy and lossless compression. It is seen in the latest versions of Chrome, Safari, Opera, Edge, and Firefox. It helps save disk space and bandwidth. It has a usage percentage of 34. JPEG has a universal browser/OS support, small file size, and is supported in browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. It has the disadvantage that it's poorly readable due to lossy compression.PNG has higher quality, visible text, supported by major OS and browsers but slows down the website sometimes. SVG has small sizes and loss-free scaling, supported by major browsers and illustration softwares, but is not suitable for photographs and complex drawings. GIF has a small file size, supported animation, supported by the major OS, but constrains the image quality. For WebP, supported by professional editors, small sizes but is not supported by major browsers. Raw images formats have the highest quality. PNG, WebP, GIF, and SVG support transparency. The difference between JPEG and PNG is that the former is a lossy one and the latter, lossless.

Are you looking for a reliable point-of-sale system? This is how it works. It's easy. Shopify POS Lite is the standard version of the solution that comes with all Shopify packages. Simply scroll through your Shopify product catalogue and select the product the customer wants to purchase, process their credit card, and provide them with a receipt. You can do it all with Shopify POS. Needless to say, Shopify POS integrates almost every aspect of your online selling and in-person selling through its platform. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about the Shopify point-of-sale solution! What's Shopify POS? As you probably already know, Shopify is one of the most popular online selling platforms. In short, Shopify POS is an application that you can download on your iOS or Android devices. You can use this app to create a shopping cart for each of your customers, accept payments and create recipients - all from your smartphone or iPad. The beauty of this application is that it syncs with your Shopify online store. Please note that if you want to start adding hardware to this system, you will need more expensive payment plans i.e. Shopify Plan or higher. Shopify POS or Shopify POS Pro? Shopify POS comes in two different options depending on what you need. There are no additional costs besides your Shopify package for Shopify POS as a standard package. Shopify POS Lite features include: The list of features is endless and this is one of the reasons why Shopify has such great user reviews. If you're after a more advanced experience, you can upgrade to Shopify POS Pro. Shopify POS Pro features include: And much more. How Do I Get up and Running with Shopify POS? First of all, you need to install the Shopify POS application. The app will then auto-populate with all the products you sell. You will be happy to hear; that there are no limits on the number of products you can create. For your convenience, Shopify POS works together with retail hardware including: You get the idea! You can use Shopify POS while using multiple cash registers because you can install the app on many devices. However, if you cannot show off such gadgets, you can still handle sales without them. Though, if you're using Shopify POS for Android and not iOS, you'll need to use a Swipe card reader. Shopify POS Review: What Payment Methods Can Customers Use? If you use an iPad or iPhone, customers can use almost any payment method. Alternatively, if you are running your business from the UK or Ireland, you can accept contactless payments and credit cards with an EMV-compatible Tap, Chip and Swipe card reader. However, if you operate outside of these countries, you will need to pay for an external credit card terminal from a trusted payment processor. You can also offer your customers the option of split payment. Shopify POS Pricing Shopify POS offers a user-friendly checkout solution for Shopify users. The Shopify POS version included with all plans is the standard POS. The Shopify Lite Plan Shopify Lite will set you back $9 per month. Unfortunately, this plan bundles its clients with the most expensive credit card rates. On the other hand, you can register an unlimited number of products and use as many devices as you like. The Basic Shopify Plan The Basic Shopify package is on the next level and costs $29/month. This package gives you all the same perks as the "Lite Plan" in addition to two employee accounts and the Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter sales channels. The Shopify Plan Shopify plan skyrockets in price; it will cost you a whopping $79 per month. You will also receive: All in all, it's a pretty sweet deal! The Advanced Shopify Plan Advanced Shopify is the second most comprehensive of all payment methods. No wonder it boasts the best credit card rates of any of the payment plans listed: In addition to everything in the Shopify plan, you'll also enjoy: Needless to say, this is suitable for large enterprises! The Shopify Plus Plan Shopify Plus is the smartest payment plan, perfect for large businesses. One of the biggest advantages of Shopify Plus is that it also comes with a more advanced Shopify POS version. Shopify POS Pro Pricing Although Shopify POS is bundled with all Shopify plans, there is a way to upgrade the features and functionality you get. To access the premium version of Shopify POS, you need to buy one of the Shopify packages and then pay an additional fee of $89 per month per space. Although the Pro version of Shopify POS is a little pricey, it has additional features that you simply cannot get in the basic service. If you already have Shopify Plus, you won't need to pay extra to access all of these features. Things To Note… The prices listed here do NOT include state sales tax, so you will need to account for this in your budget. Each plan has the option to add a "Retail Package" which costs an additional $49 per month and includes: If you don't have a Shopify account yet, you can take advantage of the 2-week free trial. The Benefits of Shopify POS In general, the benefits of Shopify POS are as follows: Shopify POS is Incredibly Easy to Use When it comes to design, Shopify POS is second to none. This makes this application a great solution for salespeople who don't have the time or experience to deal with complex systems. You can get started in just an hour! Shopify POS Review: Reporting Shopify POS gives users access to several analytics tools, including: Shopify POS Review: Integrations There are so many integrations to choose from. Alternatively, if you're a programming genius, you can create your own apps using the Shopify API. However, while the number of integrations Shopify offers is impressive, some of these plugins cost money, so factor that into your budget. Shopify POS Review: Customer Service If you're stuck, don't panic - Shopify offers its users free 24/7 technical support. In general, their chat service usually responds quickly, and they usually provide helpful and friendly advice. Shopify POS Review: Store Management You can manage your whole store from the back of your Shopify account. Also, with these same packages, you can keep track of all the adjustments made to your cash flow, in addition to any changes to your staff. You can also keep track of your order history. Shopify POS Review: Manage Your Customers When a new customer makes a purchase, the program automatically creates a new customer profile. It doesn't matter where your potential customers placed their order; your order history is tracked and synced with your Shopify store. If you need access to your customer's contact information or order history, you can download this data with just a few clicks. For example, you can send an email informing customers of any promotions you run. Shopify on Mobile If you are an entrepreneur on the road, then you will be pleased to know that you can do many things using Shopify POS from your mobile device. For example, you can access the Shopify toolbar in order to quickly and effectively process everything that requires your attention. The Disadvantages of Shopify POS Like any software, Shopify POS has a few downsides. Shopify POS: Hardware & Operating System Requirements If you want to use Shopify POS, you will need the right hardware. If you want custom hardware designed specifically for brick-and-mortar stores, you'll have to upgrade to a Shopify "Shopify Plan" or higher. Shopify's Point of Sale Solution: Card Readers The card reader you choose depends largely on your location, the payment service provider you use, and the device you use to run the Shopify POS app. Shopify POS supports their card readers: All of the above integrate with Shopify POS. To use Shopify-supported card readers, you must meet the following requirements: 1. Your physical store must be located in the US, UK, Canada or Ireland. 2. You need to use either Shopify Payments or another third-party payment provider supported by Shopify POS. Viable Shopify POS Alternatives If you're looking for a few viable Shopify POS alternatives, check out the list below: Square focuses on simplicity. 2. Lightspeed POS Lightspeed POS provides retailers with products and services that enable them to make decisions based on data. 3. iZettle iZettle provides a POS solution that includes a cash register, inventory tracker, and analytics tools. 4. Bindo POS If you are a local merchant, then Bindo POS is a great solution for you. This POS system also helps to expand your online reach by providing an application to your customers. You should also note: Just like Shopify POS, Bindo POS also ensures that your in-store and online transactions are in sync in real time. 5. Air POS Air POS is a simple point-of-sale system. Air POS works on iPad, Android, and Windows devices, so you'll be able to get this software to work with your hardware and credit card readers. Who Should Use Shopify POS? If you are a brick-and-mortar store and are already using Shopify for online sales, then you should definitely consider using Shopify POS. If you have experience with Shopify POS, please let us know in the comments.

As we all know, GDPR will be in force May 2018. After that, users of software products and services will have the right to be forgotten (cool, right? Finally I can rest assured that my browsing history will not be read aloud at my funeral). In other words, if a user from the EU asks a service provider to delete user's data, the provider will have to delete all user's data or face very serious consequences.But, it is unclear what it means to delete a user's data. I guess the only way to find out is when the audit occurs. Photo by Devin Avery / Unsplash A user's data is simultaneously both deleted and not deleted until observed at the time of audit. This post is the introduction to a series of blog posts about GDPR and Apache Cassandra databases. As Apache Cassandra consultants, our main concern is: what does it mean to delete the data from Cassandra points of view? And what we can do to be as sure as possible that a user’s data will stay deleted. As we know, when Cassandra deletes the data, it just marks it as deleted. The actual "deletion" occurs during the compaction process. When the data is marked as deleted: Once again: Cassandra, as many other systems, does not actually delete data when it deletes the data. But this is in line with the definition of the verb delete from the Oxford dictionary: "remove or obliterate (written or printed matter), especially by drawing a line through it" On the other hand, a similar thing happens in the underlying OS (Linux). When a file is deleted, it is just marked as deleted. And you can actually recover the deleted files with specialized forensic tools. Okay, so the actual, irreversible deleting of the data does not usually happen in the software engineering. But we would love to do as much as we can in order to make sure that the data is not accessible from Cassandra and any Cassandra tooling (like sstabledump, sstable2json). OS and file system engineers should do their part of work by doing the same for the OS level (if they think that’s necessary). Another problem in Cassandra is that it is hard to filter on fields that are not part of the primary key. So, if some of the user’s data is held in the table where the primary key is something like deviceId, that would mean that we would have to search all the records for all the deviceIds and remove the corresponding user’s data. That does not scale. As already said, even after a delete statement is issued, it is not guaranteed that the data is deleted. Furthermore, if the data model is not well designed, the deleted data might never get evicted. In Cassandra 3.10, this behavior is improved and compaction is triggered when there is a certain percent of expired tombstone (read more about it here), and deleting compaction strategy looks like it could solve this problem (note that the strategy is not an official part of Apache Cassandra). Also, I'm quite sure that I saw a Jira issue on an Apache Cassandra project about some other kind of Deleting compaction strategy, which should guarantee to actually delete the data, not only mark it as deleted, but I can't find it now. That would be cool. Speaking of compaction strategies, SizeTieredCompactionStrategy can be tricky, because if you end up with one huge SSTable file, you need SSTables of a similar size in order to compact them. Which means that the tombstones will stay in a huge SSTable for a very long time, maybe forever. A situation similar to the one occurring in the 2048 game: Tile 2048 will not be merged anytime soon. The main takeaway is: be aware of how different compaction strategies work and know your system behavior. If you have a problem with tombstone eviction, it might be a good idea to change your compaction strategy and/or to redesign your tables. Unlike in relational databases, in Apache Cassandra data is stored in denormalized form. Thus, it is not possible to (easily) filter on fields that are not part of the partition key. So, if we have the following table: This means that we cannot just: DELETE FROM device_measurement WHERE user_id = bf884b98-0a72-10e8-ba89-0ed5f89f718b. It is, however, possible to issue DELETE FROM device_measurement WHERE user_id = bf884b98-0a72-10e8-ba89-0ed5f89f718b ALLOW FILTERING, but this might ruin the performance of the entire cluster. Therefore, we should think about the user’s data in advance when designing the tables. Solution 1: design tables in a way that the user's data can be easily deleted (user_id part of the primary key) from all the tables. This will obviously have an impact on the design process in both green field projects and when redesigning existing databases. Solution 2: embrace encryption. Okay, this is not really a solution, it's more of an idea we're currently playing with in SmartCat. Encrypting the stored user's data with homomorphic encryption to preserve the ordering of clustering columns, and when the data needs to be deleted, just delete the key. If you have any thoughts on this or experience to share, we would love to hear from you. Embrace Privacy by design. The idea of GDPR is a good thing from a consumer perspective. A user's data will be seen as a liability for the companies, not as an asset. Which means that companies will, hopefully, be very careful when storing a user's data. This is also a good opportunity for new players on database as a service market (DaaS) or some derivative of the concept. Because it seems that it is easier to build new systems with privacy in mind from scratch, than to refactor the existing ones. What I would like to see is a database (as a service) that would allow me to issue a delete for the userId, and for me (as a programmer/user of the database) to stop worrying about it. The DaaS provider would be responsible for the rest.

The demand for industrial UX designers will increase by 3% annually through 2028. The right time is now if you’re keen to pursue the UI/UX design career path. Creating a UX design career requires first imagining it. Find out what kinds of UX design jobs are accessible by conducting research. This covers jobs like UX researcher, product designer, UI designer (learn how to apply for entry-level UI designer jobs to get into the sector), information architect, and content designer, among others. While each of these UX design jobs calls for a particular set of abilities, they all require a general understanding of the field. Some people feel more at ease and more engaged in learning about a new profession at home while perusing books and articles, watching YouTube videos, etc. Others require a setting and atmosphere for design. Take the course; it will help if you fall into the second category and have the time and some financial flexibility to complete the requirements. Choose a course with suitable UI/UX design niches, read the comments and reviews, and find out how well-liked the school is. Here’s a list of a few platforms offering UI/UX design courses: How can you succeed if you haven't yet grasped the necessary program? You can visit Figma or Sketch. Think about what you need to understand when you read about their distinctions. If you've already decided on the design route you want to go, check out Headhunter, Linkedin, or any other job search engine to see what companies are looking for and what programs you should be familiar with. For instance, if you’re looking for UI & UX resources for health and wellness apps, choose your tools accordingly. The most recent programs that you might find helpful are listed below: After reading, hearing, and watching experts discuss UX design, it's time to put what you've learned into practice and improve your UX skills. Begin your customized UX initiatives. You can choose an actual notion or one made up, participate in online competitions, or provide a hand to a nearby small business with its web presence. When starting a task, start small to keep things under control. While learning UI/UX design principles is an excellent place to start, you must also become knowledgeable about the most recent trends if you want to stand out and be taken seriously. The best way to research design trends is to browse other designers' portfolios on websites like Dribble, Pinterest, and Behance. Save any attractive designs relevant to your project and take a few screenshots for inspiration. Don't forget to mention the designer and ask them how they use their creativity to produce the best design results. “Do I need to build a portfolio?” Are employers even considering it? Many job openings state that applicants without a portfolio will not be considered. It’s a no-brainer - you must build a portfolio. Your portfolio serves as your calling card, and the company will use it to choose whether to invite you for an interview or go on to a different candidate. The good news is that you don't need to create your own website. You can register and submit your projects on the following websites by going there: Contrary to common belief, negative feedback can often be much more helpful than positive information. It can aid in the development of better products and help you become a better designer. Find constructive design feedback, accept it, and use it to improve your work. Post your work to Dribbble and ask for helpful criticism; the community is eager to help. And finally, one of the things that will help your design career the most is likely to be negative feedback. Just remember that you don't have to rediscover all of your talents instantly. Continuous progress toward success will result from attempting to improve by 1% every day. To develop your design skills, get a design mentor. You'd be surprised how many knowledgeable UI/UX designers are willing to offer guidance and help you advance your career. Since they may not feel competent, beginners are occasionally reluctant to submit a UX design job application. It is common, but it must also be overcome. Once you have the required knowledge, exposure, and experience, you may confidently apply for jobs. It would be best if you didn't let rejections get you down. Contact employers, ask for comments, and keep improving your profile. Join online communities about UX design, follow influencers, and interact with other professionals. To stay competitive in a field like UX design that is constantly expanding, keep learning new skills. This could entail focusing on a specialized area, learning UX management strategies, etc. From effective search features in UI to the role of color in UX, everything matters. As you can see, entering the field of UI and UX design requires developing a diverse skill set, which is precisely why it is so fascinating. Read More: A/B Testing Software to Improve User Experience

With the digital revolution storming the market, all businesses and organizations relying on digital technology and data must ensure the highest standards of data security. Each year, thousands of organizations fall victim to malware, ransomware, and other cyber-attacks. The growing threat of cybercrime and an increasing number of cyber-attacks should work as a wake-up call for these organizations that don’t take lab data security seriously enough. To help laboratory owners and managers safeguard valuable data, I’ve put together a guide on how to effectively protect the data stored in your laboratory. Every laboratory stores huge amounts of data, such as research results, patient information, and other critical intellectual property. Data is the lifeblood of today’s information-based laboratories. It provides lab technicians with vast knowledge and keeps the labs running. Given the large quantity of data collected every single day, it’s crucial for lab managers and stakeholders to consider introducing data loss prevention programs and creating a set of rules and policies to secure data and ensure that it is not lost, or mishandled, or accessed by unauthorized individuals. Lack of data security is a threat to any organization and its employees. It makes invaluable information vulnerable to data leaks and hacking attempts and jeopardizes laboratory operations. Whether it’s a malicious attack or an accidental internal leak, only complete dedication to security will protect data from unauthorized individuals. Data loss is one of the biggest threats facing modern laboratories and that’s exactly why you should pay undivided attention to lab data security. Poorly executed, manual processes, outdated systems, or obsolete technology can all contribute to data security problems and diminish lab data security infrastructure. That’s why it’s so important to ensure a comprehensive, versatile approach and establish a strategy to protect your data. Here are some practical tips on how to ensure data security in a laboratory. To assess the security level of your lab, you should consider where you currently store and host your data and check whether the system you are using is efficient and secure enough. Hosting your data irresponsibly is the first deadly sin of laboratory security. Investing in new technology will not only grant you greater protection of your data but will also provide your team with reliable and productive tools for day-to-day working. If you use an outdated, obsolete system, or even worse, store your data manually, on physical pieces of paper, there’s no wonder why your data ends up lost or leaked. Relying on outdated technology is not only a risk to your data security but it can also slow your team down. One of the best ways to increase lab data security is to invest in LIMS, also known as a laboratory management system. As the name itself suggests, LIMS stores and manages your data, providing security features to help you secure the data and protect it from any cyberattacks. Moreover, by incorporating Electronic Lab Notebook, LIMS encrypts all the data, keeping it safe from unauthorized access. To ensure the highest security of your data, you should establish whether your chosen data hosting option is the best for your organization. If you feel like your security infrastructure is safe and reliable, you may opt for on-premise hosting. However, if you feel that your lad data security infrastructure is lacking, you may want to consider choosing a cloud-based data storage and entrust your data to a second party. It may come in handy for smaller labs looking for reliable and flexible solutions. If you are planning to implement LIMS, make sure to discuss types of hosting with your potential vendor to choose the most convenient and secure option. Modern laboratories use a wide range of systems and applications in their day-to-day work. Many of them offer their own security options and preferences. It’s important to make use of such features to ensure that the security is at its highest level. Something as simple as setting a strong access password is enough to ensure first-level security. Often, cybercrime happens just because of simple oversight, such as setting a weak password. However, if you need extra security, I would strongly advise you to introduce role-specific access controls and authentication. Role-based access controls allow you to control who can access specific applications and data sets and monitor access history. If you invest in LIMS implementation, you have this option covered. Many instruments and devices used in modern labs operate based on network-based collaboration and data sharing. If you forget to keep the instruments updated, the connection between them and your network can be compromised and make your systems prone to cyber-attacks. Make sure to always keep them up-to-date. The same applies to mobile devices used as part of everyday operations, such as tablets, smartphones, or wireless research devices. To protect your devices from unauthorized access, ensure the authentication process to safeguard your network and devices to mitigate the risk of cybercrime. Unfortunately, there’s no trick when it comes to data security – no single methodology or technology will have it completely covered. That’s why your data security strategy must be comprehensive and use multiple levels of protection. Labs should undertake regular assessments of data security risks and come up with an efficient plan to protect their data on multiple levels of protection in hardware, network security, application, and access security. To do so, I would strongly advise you to consider introducing laboratory management systems to keep your data safely stored.

Because of the level of competition in today's business environment, startups must stand out almost immediately, increasing revenue while keeping expenses low. Startup leaders must focus on the company's broad, long-term goals, but this can be much easier said than done in the early stages of a startup when wearing so many hats. According to Investopedia, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA), 20% of small businesses fail in their first year, 50% fail after five years, and only 33% survive ten years or longer. This occurs as a result of poor management, poor road mapping, and a lack of expert advice. This is where a reputable strategy and business consultant can help. Business consulting uses an independent professional to educate, plan, and implement business segments, methods, processes, and other decisions to help your business succeed. Entrepreneurs can seek expert advice from startup consultants to help their businesses become profitable. A good business consultant works with business owners to develop a foolproof business strategy, create a plan, identify business needs, and do a variety of other things to help startups climb the success ladder. When you understand everything there is to know about business consulting, you will understand why it is so essential in today's world. Hiring a business consultant can truly change the fate of your startup. It can assist businesses in improving their performance and making the necessary changes to ensure their success. Furthermore, a startup consultant identifies issues, understands your business needs, and strategizes to get you where you want to go. When business consultants are hired, they can provide enormous benefits to startups. Here are some practical reasons why your startup needs a business consultant to obtain a competitive edge, regardless of industry. Consultants benefit from their higher level of knowledge. This means they have honed larger skill sets and refined expertise on issues that managers may lack. This specialty comes with extensive experience from multiple companies, allowing them to identify trends, work patterns, and common issues on a broader scale. Consultants have the additional qualifications required to critically analyze problems and cost-effectively implement practical solutions. There are various kinds of business consultants. There is a consultant for every department, including marketing, operations, finance, strategy, and even IT. Most startups rely on their existing talent, experience, knowledge, and expertise while ignoring external changes. This is why receiving honest and unbiased feedback can be extremely beneficial to startups, and this is where the role of a startup consultant becomes critical. Startup consultants can provide a much-needed external perspective on the startup's practices and core model. The startup will receive feedback not only on the concept of your business, but also on the specifics of execution, organization, and other critical issues. The blueprint of your business is simply excelling sheets, word documents, and PowerPoint presentations on your consultant's computer, from the initial idea and vision to the next phases and steps of the startup business. Startup consultants' expertise and advice can be applied to many different areas of your business, and they provide a wide range of consulting services. Most startup founders are relatively young, have MBAs from top business schools, and have chosen to pursue their passion rather than work for someone else. Because of obvious disadvantages such as young age and little or no experience, the people in charge of running these businesses can be expected to lack the necessary managerial experience or knowledge to steer the venture in the right direction. A startup consultant can provide management advice to a young, relatively inexperienced CEO who is just learning to steer his business through the business executive language based on their experience in management, finance, strategy, marketing, and development. Working with an experienced professional who has been through the process multiple times provides the client with insight and clarity. Managers of businesses are always on a tight schedule, and it is a difficult task to devote time to every aspect of the business. Because of this constraint, managers may overlook some elements that are detrimental to the business's operations. Startup consultants, on the other hand, offer managers assistance as well as the necessary support. This allows managers to concentrate on the most important aspects while saving time by having an ally to help them through any difficult phase of the business. Planning a growth-focused business roadmap is critical to the success of any business, but especially so for a startup. A startup consultant assists entrepreneurs with analysis, statistics, and high and low-level strategy by drawing on his or her expertise, knowledge, and experience. Many startups lack concrete planning or a roadmap, resulting in a variety of challenges as they begin. A consultant can assist in developing and implementing a strategic plan in this situation. When a company's performance and sales decline, it harms its employees, who begin to slack off even more. This is because they are threatened and anxious as a result of a lack of job security, which feeds into a severe lack of motivation in employees. It can be difficult to manage such employees who are frustrated and under pressure to perform well but are not being rewarded appropriately. Startup consultants advise and assist managers in motivating and implementing necessary reforms. They train employees in areas where they believe they need more development, which boosts employee confidence and overall morale. Your startup consultant will conduct extensive research on the market and the segment in which you intend to expand your business. Market research is regarded as an important tool for strategic business decisions. Market research data includes, but is not limited to, information on your customers' needs, your competitors' capabilities, and industry trends. Professional startup consultants are known for their ongoing analysis of market trends and dynamics, which means that they are on the lookout for changes and developments in various market sectors and will alert you to any suitable opportunities that they come across. Business consultancy is the practice of providing professional, prudent third-party advice, expertise, and support to business executives to improve the company's performance. A business consultant can assist your company in increasing its presence, reputation, and revenue by conducting a thorough investigation of your targeted markets, competitors with comparable business models, and their marketing tactics, and delivering a concise report that will be critical to your eCommerce business. Outside perspectives and perspectives are provided by business consultants. Internal teams performing analysis may frequently overlook critical details because it is difficult to be self-reflective to identify our errors. Consultants are experts at advising and making recommendations for problem-solving in situations where managers are unsure, confused, or stuck. Business consulting services guarantee you experts who will assist your company in preventing technological problems from recurring and manifesting into larger, more destructive ones. IT consultants excel at quickly identifying technical flaws and recommending solutions to address them. Startups benefit from the services of business consultants. They provide much-needed push and motivation to startups by telling them where they can improve and solve problems. It's difficult to do something when you don't know how to do it, as the saying goes. Business consultants can assist you in resolving this issue. They empower businesses by making critical suggestions that will assist them in growing and prospering.

Stuck with a big fat monolith? A company just recently invested time, effort and money in a brand new piece of software, which is working correctly or at least it looks like it… A new marketing campagne, attractive discount in your webshop ( or pandemic lockdown) resulted with an unpredicted number of the request which exceeds every prediction. No new resources available to “reinvent the wheel” from scratch, rewrite and redesign adopting latest best-practice: microservices, service mesh, auto-scaling… Microservice architecture brings a lot of changes and improvements in software design and development process. Flexibility in the development phase and later in operations is a game changer. Developers and their teams are focused on specific problems, challenged to identify and isolate specific functionalities and use all available resources (languages, frameworks, tools) in order to respond in the best possible way. And even if they miss or oversee something, adding new features is simple and fast. Biggest impact of this approach is in the operations. Opportunity to perform a “fine system tuning”, adding just enough resources to a “slow-performing” part, results with global system performance improvement, without changing a single line in code. Unfortunately the infrastructure seeks for changes too. Utilizing and handling of containers, especially in production and on premise, in a secure way can be quite a demanding task. Cloud users have much easier tasks, a few very stable and usable (usually offered as managed services) will do the work. AWS offers two managed container orchestration services: Elastic Container Service and Elastic Kubernetes Service, both very reliable and already associated with monitoring and logging systems. Insist on a system redesign and enjoy the long-term benefit of new technologies or try to use the best from both worlds? Although containers are designed to be lightweight, fast and easy to move and transfer, nobody forbids applying same approach against a monolith structure. Some of the flexibility will be lost (images are usually bigger), but some of the benefits are still usable. Containerized apps usually have very similar performance compared to a traditional deployment and in the same way much easier to transport and distribute among multiple machines, which in some cases can be an easy and “quick-fix” solution. So, this step tends to be an easy one, create a Docker file, build a container image and store him on registry. Managing a number of containers is a challenge, especially in a production env! Where and how to perform a deployment? How to monitor and upgrade? Nowadays, we have a quite big number of possibilities for this problem: Kubernetes, Swarm, AWS ECS, Helios… In our case, the decision was to go with Elastic Container Service (ECS), with simple reasons, we had a good knowledge of technology and already solved CI/CD procedure, which was quite handy at the moment. So one ECS Task, managed with a single ECS Service, exposed to the outside world via Load Balancer and that is all. And as a benefit, when needed, the system can be easily scaled simply by adding more containers in task, and load will be evenly distributed. Our monolith is performing all the work, but only some of the specific tasks are slow and throttle overall system performance. Microservices design is focusing on a specific system functionality implemented via dedicated service. Our idea was to apply the microservice pattern and create multiple instances of the same application for every problematic functionality of the system. That instance will be later used only for a specific task. Biggest challenge is to identify slow services (or parts) of the system! Sometimes it is the authorization, sometimes cart manipulation, and most often integration with third-party systems. In our case, a simple jMeter with a standard set of tests did the magic, problematic services especially under a heavy load, were easily identified. Deeper application log analysis only confirmed what was detected in performance testing. Once identified, process isolation looks like the easiest task to be done! Run a new service instance, using the same docker container image, for every problematic process, just with automatic scaling this time. And to connect the dots, some kind of traffic routing needs to be implemented. A quite number of services can do the job: HAProxy, Nginx, L7 LoadBalancer… AWS users can use an Application Load Balancer, as this service offers all what is needed out-of-the-box. Simple L7 path based routing will forward traffic to a specific Target Group/ESC without affecting other parts of the system. Number of running containers will rise, hardware demands will be higher, but now administrators will be able to finely tune parts of the system independently. CI will offload the burden from your shoulders. Utilize all aspects of testing pyramids, test whatever possible, and put a goal, every release needs to be a production ready. Deployment part can be tricky, especially when you need to redeploy multiple services (containers) without downtime. We use Jenkins, but any other tool we do. Rolling update, blue/green whatever suits you, but deploy as much as you can and as often as you need. And one last thing,implement caching! Use caching and use it always. For sharing sessions, search results. It is much faster and results are visible instantly, which will put a smile on the face of your managers… Not a perfect solution, sounds more like a workaround. But in some cases, specially when things become problematic, like sudden increase in traffic, high number of users and limited hardware resources. Breaking the monolith, isolation of a problematic process brings us in a position to easily scale only specific, problematic parts or parts of the system, and easily enhance a system throughput without changing the code itself or major architectural change. Better approach is to adopt modern design patterns, rewrite code from scratch but this is a topic for some other discussion.

Managing and coordinating a project is a very gruelling task. There are a lot of moving pieces that have to be synchronized while sticking to a deadline. Ensuring that the resources assigned to the project are utilized properly and employees are not over-or under-worked is also essential. This applies to all sorts of projects. Let’s look into the benefits of having a project manager and the role of the amazing project managers at Osom Studio. Before looking at how having a PM is beneficial, let’s look into what happens if you don’t have a PM for your project. Without a PM, there won’t be a single source for getting up-to-date information regarding the project. If there is no one to overlook the planned schedule for the project, it is more likely to lead to delays. There can also be less control over the budget. These things could eventually lead to a low-quality product. Here’s why you need to have a dedicated person to supervise a project: The PM knows the various tasks and priorities involved in the project and can assess these to take critical decisions. In fact, the PM also understands when a meeting can be tackled without the client’s interference, thus avoiding unnecessary meetings with you. As a client, you can always rely on the PM’s information and advice. The project manager facilitates any communication between you and the team working on your project. If there are multiple departments working on the same project, the project manager can keep you updated on these smoothly. Any queries or issues will be managed in a manner that keeps all stakeholders and employees equally updated. This reduces communication gaps and miscommunication. The project manager can collect all the concerns from the team and present them to you in a single meeting so that your time is well-respected. This practice ensures a successful collaboration between you and the agency. The project manager sets a schedule for the optimal implementation process. They also ensure that any blocks are identified properly and tasks are assigned or delegated to the right people. The PM will also keep you informed about the status of the project and any blocks or delays. The PM is actively involved in the development process. They will coordinate with the development team members and facilitate open discussions to prevent any roadblocks or delays. For example, if a developer is unable to figure out a particular module or is spending too long on it, or if a required module doesn’t meet the specifications, such blocks can be identified by a project manager. Having someone who can have these honest discussions helps to avoid delays and ensures safe project delivery. Project managers also ensure that the right tools are used for collaborative work like meetings or conference calls. They facilitate these things based on your preference so that you aren’t inconvenienced. The PM monitors the work to ensure that modules are delivered as per the plan, with proper implementation and testing. Even if there are any blocks, project managers can quickly take decisions on these to keep the project moving. Most project managers have great motivational and oratory skills that can be helpful to the agency’s team as well as yours. They can convey thoughts, ideas and feedback in a way that motivates teams to do better. They can communicate equally well with technical as well as non-technical people. Project managers have a knack for funds management and resource allocation. During the planning phase, they discuss the technical requirements for the project to create an optimal budget allocation plan. They can also guide you through what features should be prioritized and what can be taken up later. At Osom Studio, we have excellent project managers who serve as the single point of contact between you and the team working on your project. They have the right experience to understand the technicalities and requirements involved with a web development project. With their involvement, you can sleep peacefully while they get the work done. They can also help you with any queries before beginning the project and even after the delivery of the project. Feel free to send us your brief and we’ll create the best website for you.

Nowadays, many of us are facing the challenge of transforming a physical workplace into a virtual one. Since the majority of the organizations are adopting remote setups, the need for facilitators to help facilitate workshops or meetings is becoming the new normal. The best facilitators assist teams in moving towards their desired outcomes in a systematic manner by applying trusted facilitation methodologies and approaches. Many experts believe that remote facilitation and online workshops will become more common and significant in the future. Developing the right skills and tools necessary to be an effective remote facilitator will prepare your team and organization for the future and enable you to engage with virtual teams and remote workers. Let’s dive deep into knowing the common challenges of virtual workshop facilitation which are as follows: 1) Using and managing the right tools As a facilitator, it’s important to control and have a complete understanding of the tools that you’re using. Due to the plenty of video conferencing tools available in workshop tools such as Zoom, Teams, or Hangout, we often tend to choose the one that offers ease and comfort. It’s always a great idea to mix different methods such as posting ideas, creating groups, etc. in order to increase interaction and participation from several individuals. Moreover, keeping note of which tool to use makes it easy to communicate things effectively. Testing new things and experimenting with the combination of tools with a colleague or friend results in better planning and successful conduction of a workshop. 2) Holding people’s focus and attention for a virtual workshop For grabbing people’s attention for virtual workshops, it’s preferable to have a strategy based on smaller interventions and shorter synchronous video calls. Since people have shorter attention spans when it comes to working in a digital environment, it also becomes harder to keep pace with the energy of the group on calls. It’s also beneficial to consider what participants can do ahead of time in order to be effective with time management. The involvement of activities based on participants’ interests will result in better engagement from them. Simplification of the workshop in order to ensure that participants spend less time grasping activities and more time implementing them and processing the relevant information. 3) Activate people and create a relaxed and trust-filled environment The most essential thing in a virtual workshop is to make the participants feel safe and secure before the beginning of a discussion in a virtual workshop. Moreover, one must ensure that everyone is in the flow of following the same guidelines in a video meeting. For example, instructing the participants to not post in the chat unless required. Also, getting feedback from participants not only after the completion of the whole session but also in the middle of it would help in improving the deliverability of future sessions based on current feedback. To conclude, as teams and organizations will spend more time in online workshops and remote meetings, it is important to ensure that these are effective and well-facilitated in order to enable remote teams to feel connected, productive, and contribute to the organization's success. Since leading in the digital sphere differs from leading in the physical sphere. It might certainly serve the same function and achieve the same objectives, but it will necessitate fresh talents and insights into what works and what does not. One needs to facilitate digital interaction as much as you would if you were going for face-to-face interaction. Remote facilitation isn’t just the future: it’s happening right now and gradually taking its space to an extreme level. Want to test yourself how Howspace works? Start your 30-day free trial here.

Before we talk about migrating to Microsoft Sharepoint, let’s first ask this: what is SharePoint? SharePoint is a powerful communication and collaboration platform created by Microsoft that enables organizations to work more efficiently and effectively. Microsoft SharePoint is a single ‘sharing-point’ for sharing data among various users. It’s a single space for content management of data for companies. Companies can design and create sites and give permissions to people depending on their business requirements. To make it simpler to understand, let us take the example of Lego. We all know about Lego blocks – we can build many different structures from them. We can build trains, ships, houses and more from our imagination. SharePoint is a platform similar to Lego Blocks. It is a product by which we can build niche things like Content Management Systems (CMSs), Document Management Systems (DMSs), Intranet and Extranet Portals and much more based on our requirements. If your business is considering an upgrade or migration, it’s important to ask if it’s a true business need, or simply being driven by an IT team that wants to use the latest technology. There are costs associated with adopting and learning to use technology, and it’s important to make these decisions carefully. Now let’s see some reasons to migrate to the latest version of an application or platform like Sharepoint: First, it is difficult to maintain old versions of a technology like Microsoft SharePoint. There is a lack of people who have experience or knowledge of Microsoft SharePoint 2003 because there were fewer Microsoft SharePoint experts back then. Experienced professionals want to work with the latest versions. Second, upgrades provide increased support for newer technologies like improved browser support, device support and office integration. In multi-device environments, there is increased pressure to provide support for mobile devices and options which were not supported or considered in the past. Third, because of increasing expectations for technology user experience and growing options, IT needs to be more responsive and should speed up upgrade cycles. Here are the top reasons why you should move to Microsoft Sharepoint. Better End User Experience Microsoft SharePoint 2013 has significantly changed over what it was in those previous versions. The interface is cleaner. Sharepoint has simplified the design process with some major enhancements. Users can easily customize current and global navigation menus directly via drag and drop of menu items. Some of the other changes include easier sharing and permissions management, cross site collection, enhanced task management and aggregation, and themes and accessible design experiences for many developers and end users. Enterprise Search Portal One of the biggest issues that a user faces when it comes to handling huge amounts of data is in spending a lot of time trying to find documents and files within the system. No matter how good the info architecture is, stuff doesn’t always get placed in the right spot. SharePoint’s improved and much better search and subtle improvements like ‘view library’ and ‘send’ options enable users to discover information much more quickly with quick document preview in the web browser. Improved Workflow The latest Microsoft SharePoint makes it easy to maintain the earlier SharePoint engine. Users can easily get the new add-on called Workflow Manager, which has the capability to run its own server. SharePoint provides support for workflows such as ‘approval workflows’ that improve document processes and visibility and can even remind users that they still need to provide feedback. Also, users can leverage information from the corresponding database for Service Bus and the Workflow Manager itself. Workflow creation is also pretty easy due to the Task Process Designer Canvas. Enterprise Social Networking Social networking plays a key role in SharePoint teamwork and it aids in flexibility by bringing in more functions to help you create community sites without paying extra. It includes the ability for users to tag, bookmark and rate content. #Hashtags are a newly introduced social tagging feature. Socializing is possible through My Sites and Community sites, which act as forums for users to communicate via discussions on topics. Sharepoint Mobile App With the migration to mobile, it was necessary for Microsoft to create an app for tablets and smartphones. Microsoft announced that a SharePoint app is coming soon for iPhone, Windows 10 and Android. Some of the new features include: users can check site activity, navigate using quick launch and see recent files, connect to sites and portals, access the people they work with, and use multiple accounts. Improved Business Intelligence Business Intelligence (BI) continues to grow in SharePoint’s latest versions with improvements across MS Excel client, MS Excel services, PerformancePoint and Visio services. The in-memory capabilities of Excel client now allow business users to pull data from various sources and build amazing sheets in minutes. Sharepoint BI brings deeper business insights and analytics of big data reports. It also brings tight integrations between Sharepoint and Excel. High Level Of Security And Integrity Users will always find a way to get their job done. And during work, if security gets in their way, they will find another, likely less secure way to get their job done. When their work information is sensitive or regulated, security is a major concern. More than 200,000 organizations worldwide use SharePoint, which means approx. 190 million users. So, Security is one of the key areas of investment in the new SharePoint. MS SharePoint provides easy access to critical data through intranet, extranet, and public-facing applications. It can help you manage permissions for apps, sites and docs. As you can see, SharePoint is a very large platform that can assist organizations in many areas. It is important to have a general understanding of the different products and all main features before migrating to Microsoft SharePoint. The migration project is not without its own set of difficulties and pitfalls. So if there is an update to such core technology, you need to take good care and plan for it well.

Have you come up with an application idea? Are you thinking about investing in the same? But, it is essential that you remember that a successful application comes with a strong foundation and base. Mobile app development architecture plays a significant role in making the foundation right. But, if you are not able to select the right architecture for your application, then it might not take you anywhere and eventually, it will be a big failure. As per the latest reports, Google Play Store has more than 3.4 million applications, and Apple App Store has more than 2.2 million applications in the year 2021. This shows how the app development industry is growing with every passing day. So, it is essential that you choose the right app architecture first and then take the other steps to lead to a successful enterprise mobility solutions. If you are thinking about how you can find the right application architecture, you have certainly landed on the right page. We are here to help you with a complete guide on the best practices that help you select the right application architecture. But, let’s first understand what mobile app architecture is and then take things ahead. When it comes to mobile app architecture, it is basically a combination of patterns and techniques that helps in the process of designing and developing an application as per the industry standard. With the assistance of application architecture, you get the roadmap and the practices that need to be followed to get the application developed. The clarity can help you get the application you are looking forward to having. In precise, application architecture is basically the skeleton of your app that consists of different parts. If your application has any of the parts missing, then it can undoubtedly cost the performance of your application. So, it is essential that you have the application designed with an appropriate architecture that can help it work efficiently in every which way. But, when it comes to designing or creating high-quality architecture, there are several aspects to be considered. It depends on the size of your application, and if the architecture is developed appropriately, it can also help you save time and money. When it comes to mobile app architecture, it is divided into four layers. Take a look: Hopefully, you got complete clarity about what mobile app architecture is and what all it covers to help you with a reliable application. But it is important that you understand the practices that make your application architecture ideal for investment. We have it covered in the next segment. Check it out: You might find several applications that have been developed without any kind of architecture. Without any architecture, your application might face issues like: These issues show why it is important that you invest in mobile app development services that can help you have your application developed with proper architecture. The application that comes with proper architecture means that it is going to follow proper development principles in different phases of development. This can not only speed up the process of development because of the clarity you get to move ahead but also assist in the procedure of scalability or expanding the application in the time to come. When you have your mobile application architecture ready, you get clarity on the aspects that you are going to have covered in the process of development. But, it also assists in providing Agility and flexibility to the development procedures. Having well-defined architecture also makes the process of testing effective and efficient. It is a lot easier to maintain, and the chances of any errors or bugs are meagre. The best part is that with proper mobile app architecture, you are going to save a lot of time and money both in the long and short duration. When it comes to mobile app architecture, it is not basically developed as per the chosen platform. It is basically applied to cross-platform and native methodologies that assist in getting the development covered with a unified approach. If you think of mobile application architecture as the skeleton of the app, then the layers are the bones that can assist the development of other important elements of the application. As now you are clear with what a good mobile application architecture is going to be like and how it is going to help enterprise app development services, let’s now understand the architectures of different operating systems. The iOS applications are developed with the use of Swift and Objective-C languages. Here Apple is providing the best methodologies to get the application architecture developed following the MVC model. This particular model is developed with the below-mentioned elements. Take a look: Using the model for the purpose of iOS app development can certainly make the process fast. It also plays a crucial role in developing multiple views that is a perfect option to consider while hiring an iOS app development agency. The applications that are developed mainly for the Android operating system are a form of a native application. This means that it is only developed for a specific platform. The Android application development means you get an app that supports Java and Kotlin, which are acknowledged as Android languages. This means that you can run these applications on the devices of different manufacturers, including Samsung, Google, Nokia, and even Sony. When it comes to choosing an architecture, there is no one particular name. Bit, clean architecture is certainly one of the most popular ones used by Android app development companies worldwide. In the Clean mobile app architecture, you might find the development following control inversion and principles of layers. Its primary focus is on having 3 layer structure. The first layer comes in the form of a business layer that is also acknowledged as a domain layer. This layer is not dependent on any other layer. It can get challenging to get hold of the same, but it becomes easier to scale or add to applications. All you need is the assistance of one of the best android application development companies. When it comes to the hybrid mobile application, it is basically known for gaining the benefit from both web and native solutions. The native applications are used as shells by the hybrid applications for the purpose of the back-end, and for the front-end, developers are using CSS, HTML, and JavaScript languages. These applications use plugins that include Ionic Capacitor or even Apache Cordova to get complete access to the attributes of the native platform. Hybrid applications are acknowledged to be the fastest of all applications to develop a huge range of platforms. It is very easy to update but is not an ideal option for interactive, complicated, or feature-rich mobile applications. Cross-platform development comes using a common codebase, just like hybrid architecture. This type of application depends on frameworks instead of programming languages that include Flutter, React Native, and Xamarin. These types of applications are highly popular for providing user experiences that are very much close to native and eventually makes the overall process engaging and attractive. If you are confused about how to choose the right mobile application architecture, then the next segment can certainly make it easy for you. Check it out. If you are having trouble choosing the right application structure, then you can consider following the below-mentioned pointers. It can help you finalize the architecture of your application without any hassle. Take a look: >>Budget: The first and the most important aspect that needs to be addressed while choosing the application architecture is the budget to hire the right mobile app developer. If you get the developer with the appropriate skills and understanding of the market and approach to be taken, then certainly it can help you have all the boxes ticked. So, you need to be clear with your budget to have the right mobile app developer working on the architecture. >>Features: After you are clear with the audience, the next important aspect to be checked is the features as well. Understanding the features that fit the application the best can help you have your architecture developed accordingly. It can assist you in understanding whether the application is perfectly suited for Cross-platform, Hybrid, or Native development. >>Audience Analysis: The next aspect that needs to be addressed is the users and their detailed backgrounds. Getting to understand your user persona and competitors can help you have your architecture developed a lot more user-friendly. It assists in mapping, prototyping, and wireframing as well. >>Time Of Development: It has been seen that there are many architectures that take a lot of time to develop different types of integrations and elements as per the application needs. So, you need to check with the same, and then proceed ahead with the decision-making process. >>Platform: The next attribute that needs to be addressed has to be the choice of platform. As per your platform, the UI and UX of your application architecture are going to be decided. These are the aspects that need to be checked to find the right application structure for your development needs. Finding the right architecture is the utmost important aspect of the development process that can lead to a successful application. When it comes to mobile application success, it entirely depends on how well it has been developed and how strong its foundation is. So, you need to have a robust architecture ready for your application that adds clarity to the process of development. All the above-mentioned points need to be taken into consideration to get your mobile app architecture designed to perfection. If you are looking for an expert to assist you in having your mobile app architecture developed for wearable applications or on demand mobile app development services , then reach out to experts at A3Logics. You get all the bases covered as per your custom needs.

What are the upcoming frontend changes? We present a bunch of reflections from the daily work of a frontend developer. Marcin will talk about areas and technologies that will be in demand and may eventually become part of the day-to-day duties of frontend teams. We can observe a continuous digital transformation in the IT industry. In line with the saying: new day, new framework. frontend innovations come and go, changing faster than the English weather. Among novelties, there are both valuable technologies and those that will fail over time. Here’s some frontend news to keep up to date with, as well as a summary of the changes that have occurred over the last few years. React has been the most popular frontend framework for several years, and it doesn’t look like radical changes are coming in 2023. What is changing about React, however, is the approach. The choice of starter when developing an app falls on Next.js, which is increasingly pushing out Create React App. Version 13 of Next.js is already hugely popular, even though it is still in the experimental stage. New features and fixes are being added every few days, and documentation is being created virtually on the fly. Even though it should be noted that it is still not recommended to use in production. There was a lot of excitement last year about the arrival of Next.js 13. The changes unveiled at the Next.js Conf conference raised hopes concerning new directions in frontend. Here is a brief summary of the biggest new features in Next.js 13: The first most visible change for developers is moving away from the old routing, which has raised constant criticism so far. The new routing in Next.js is still based on the file system, but there have been significant changes. Until now, each file was a separate path in the application. This forced the duplication of common elements, which became particularly problematic, e.g., for nested elements. We no longer need to employ the pages folder, which created paths using file names. Instead, we have access to the app folder with structured naming, making performing any actions easier. In the new version of Next.js, the logical structure of directory paths makes it easier for us to use layouts. In Next.js 13, we are dealing with a completely new architecture. The biggest revolution is the division of components into Server Components and Client Components. This speeds up application development due to the reduction in JS. What else does this division offer? Server Components are statically rendered on the server side, while JS is only added to Client Components through hydration. The term refers to the process of adding JavaScript code to the compiled HTML code on a page while it is being rendered in the browser. As a result, if all components are server-side, users can get a page even completely devoid of JS code into their browser, which will slim it down considerably. // app/page.js async function getData() { const res = await fetch('https://api.example.com/...'); return res.json(); } // This is an async Server Component export default async function Page() { const data = await getData(); return {/* ... */};} Source: https://nextjs.org/blog/next-13 Next.js 13 also introduces async components, a new data collection method for server-rendered components. This ditches the old methods, i.e., Static Site Generation (SSG), Server-Side Rendering (SSR), or Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR), and replaces them with a new rendering approach. The new features in Next 13 will significantly change the way we develop applications: Alongside A11y, the topic of performance was often pushed to the very end of frontend activities. When everything was already done, but the lighthouse showed errors, someone from the team usually took more time to think about how the a11y issues could be speeded up or improved. There was a radical change in approach in 2022 when the topic of performance began to gain even more importance due to changes in Google’s algorithms. Pages that were well optimized for speed started to rank high in search rankings – now, the same can happen with accessibility. Accessibility is nothing more than adapting the interfaces of an application or software to the needs of as many users as possible. As we know, more and more people are using the Internet, including the elderly and people with various dysfunctions, such as sight or mobility impairment. A number of factors contribute to the growing popularity of developing accessible apps: We should therefore ensure that everyone can use our application as comfortably as possible, despite the limitations. Hence, every feature we develop should be planned and tested for accessibility for different users. If a website contains functions that are unavailable from the keyboard, it is difficult to access its content, for example, for blind people. The issues of optimization I mentioned earlier are also highly relevant. Google’s algorithms will favor the apps designed to meet all possible audiences’ needs. Today, developing applications according to the principles of accessibility is becoming more than a trend. It is rather a standard and even a necessity in some countries. There are some law regulations that refer to digital product development in the public sector; however, the chances are high that these rules will apply to a broader scope in the near future. What will change in 2023? In my opinion, there will be an increase in the popularity of testing tools that allow us to predict how our application will perform, such as lighthouse or axe, as I mentioned before. The topic of performance used to be treated rather vaguely – now the awareness of this matter is rising every year. As a result, the teams take greater responsibility for performance. Everyone who takes part in the application development process, from designers to testers, is equally involved. The topic of AI was already quite common a few years ago, but now with the popularity of Chat GPT, it is back. Many companies are looking for an outlet to use AI capabilities in their business; some are already doing it. AI solutions also find their application in frontend, for example, they can be used for solving less complex problems or even writing code from scratch for us. Let’s take a look at the following example of code generated by Chat GPT: This function can be used for easier tasks. It is a feature that speeds up mundane and repetitive activities, such as preparing documentation for specific functionalities. Tools such as Ponicode support running unit tests. Even though they could have been criticized some time ago, today, they work well enough to make testing applications much more effortless. Innovative technology allows us to build better and better applications that provide a top-notch user experience. We can’t deny that every business owner wants an app or website based on the latest technologies and defeats the competition. So, obviously, it is a good idea to keep an eye on frontend novelties to know which direction is worth developing. However, it is not a must. At this year’s frontend conferences, we could notice returning to the minimalistic programming approach. There’s a growing tendency to move away from over-hyped technologies. It’s good to become aware that the latest frontend solutions do not always deliver the expected results. Due to their sudden rise in popularity, some technologies can generate even new problems with solutions yet to be developed. Visit our blog for more technology-related topics. And if you need any advice from our team of IT specialists, contact us! We can become your trusted partner in developing software from scratch.

No matter how businesses choose to store their data, there will always be a concern for security. Today, third-party cloud storage providers currently manage most web-based data, operating systems, and infrastructure networks for companies worldwide. While cloud storage is currently the most innovative and ubiquitous security solution, entrusting deeply sensitive data to a secret section of the internet can introduce new questions. Will I be more vulnerable to cyber-attacks? Can I rely on a third-party provider? Just how safe is it? What is cloud storage/security? Cloud security is a complex system of controls, policies, and servers, which makes it difficult to give a one size fits all definition. Unlike old methods of storing data on a local hard drive, cloud-based files are delegated remotely. Companies entrust their digital assets to the security of online servers that can be instantly requested, whenever, wherever (so long as you have an internet connection) – allowing for increased productivity, speed, and efficiency. The level of security solutions can vary and will need to be established between the company and the provider. There is no question that the level of sophistication cloud security offers is by far the safest, cheapest, and most flexible solution in modern technology. The mass integration of cloud computing is inevitable, paralleled with increasingly advanced methods of cyber-attacks, further safeguarding your database imperative for you and your business. While many companies feel insecure about cloud storage, with the latest research from (ISC)2 reporting that 93% of organizations feel moderately to extremely concerned about the level of security it provides – there are steps you can take to achieve an impenetrable level of security. What are the most important strategies to achieve robust cloud security? Two-factor authentication (2FA) for users Two-factor authentication is a type of multi-factor authentication, that allows you to verify your identity via a second device i.e smartphone. 2FA is a simple and effective way to curtail hacking attempts such as phishing and credential exploitation. Limited user access By limiting the number of services, a user account has access to, if that account is compromised, we can mitigate the damage that can be done in that event. This can not only be achieved on a per-project basis, but also per-service, whereby a project admin could have access to day-to-day services like a web server or a CDN, but a separate user has access to the database. Separation of services While hosting different services such as databases and web servers on the same piece of hardware can be seen as more obvious, separating these between different pieces of hardware reduces the number of attack vectors that a bad actor can utilize. For example, if the hardware your web server is hosted on is compromised, your database remains uncompromised. Various techniques can be employed to further secure the connection between these services such as IP whitelisting, and SSL-only access. Backups - different cloud service Delegating your database to a secondary, remote location is required to ensure an insurance copy of your virtual or physical files can be backed up safely. Depending on the scope of your data, it’s common for organizations to choose cloud storage to host a backup, mainly due to convenience, cost, and security. Garter reports that 95% of cloud security breaches arise from misconfiguration. Conducting a cloud service posture assessment is the best way for organizations to detect holes within their cloud security system and rectify misconfiguration previously unknown. Encryption If you’re dealing with extra sensitive data, it’s worth looking into cloud encryption. While cloud storage vendors provide automatic encryption when dealing with the transference of cloud-based files, encrypting files before you transfer to cloud storage always ensures complete data protection, unable to be decrypted by unauthorized parties.

Traditional marketing strategies brought the marketing message to the prospect—often in invasive ways. An unwanted commercial dropped at the most dramatic moment of a favourite show. A full-page newspaper ad separating the first three columns of a newspaper feature article from the last three. A billboard that benefits from being the only interesting thing to look at while stuck in traffic on the morning commute. Direct mail, cold calls, or cold emails from a complete stranger because you ended up on a list. The goal was to build trust by recognition or hook the viewer’s imagination with something so clever and catchy that they forget they weren’t asking to be marketed to. The social media and streaming age have rendered these kinds of invasive marketing methods obsolete. They may have their place, but inbound marketing is making them more and more expendable. Every brand should be examining the place inbound marketing should occupy in their strategy. For many brands, it’s the only kind of marketing they need. Rather than bringing the brand message to the viewer, inbound marketing methodology endeavours to bring the viewer to the message—and thereby, to the brand. How does it do this? By producing content that the brand’s target market will find useful, laser-targeting that market with the help of Big Data, and using that content to entice the user into engagement with the brand. This form of outreach is considered “permission-based”—rather than inserting your message where it isn’t wanted, the prospect gives you both implicit and explicit permission to contact them by engaging with your content. Brands can entice customers to value-added content in several ways. Examples include: By offering value rather than an interruption, inbound marketing is less invasive. Instead, it seeks to foster a relationship of trust and mutual respect with the customer, rather than relying on name recognition, jingles, and sound bites. Inbound marketing methodology relies on the sequential application of four pillars: The first pillar is to attract traffic with value-giving content, with the goal of directing the traffic to your company’s website, landing page, or digital experience. The “attract” pillar is not just about drawing traffic—it’s about getting the right traffic, warm to the product and qualified to buy. Targeting the content to the buyer is at least as important as attracting the buyer to the content. Once the prospective customer or client is attracted to the website, the convert pillar dictates that the prospect must be converted into a lead. This usually means collecting the prospect’s email address, phone number, or other contact information, which can be used to nurture them as a lead. To satisfy the “convert” pillar, the website, landing page, or digital experience the prospect lands on in the “attract” phase must be built to convert. It’s not just for looks—it’s to prompt that visitor to enter their contact information and become a lead! This can be accomplished with calls to action, further giveaways, and demonstrations of value. The close pillar dictates that the lead be nurtured to a sale. Brands can use CRMs and marketing automations, including email sequences, to nurture the lead to the close. Sales calls and strategy calls can work as well, if the prospect’s buying temperature is so high that they schedule the call themselves. Prospects who schedule their own call are much more likely to be ready to buy than a number off a cold-call list. The final pillar of inbound marketing methodology dedicates that you must continue to delight your client or customer, even after you have made the sale. This encourages repeat purchases and nurtures the customer to become a brand ambassador or advocate, referring other clients, driving positive word of mouth and social mentions. Two key models arise from inbound marketing methodology: the Inbound Marketing Funnel and the Inbound Marketing Flywheel. Both have strengths and weaknesses, and both are effective under the right circumstances. Similar to the sales funnel, the inbound marketing funnel arranges the four pillars as stages in a funnel. The top of the funnel (the “attract” phase) collects the majority of prospects who are in “learning” mode, discovering more about your industry and perhaps not even considering buying. The middle of the funnel (the “convert” phase) collects prospects who are past “learning” and on to “shopping.” The goal of this stage of the funnel is to convert them to a lead so you can convince them that your organisation is the only one they should buy from. The bottom of the funnel (the “close” phase) collects prospects that are ready to buy and close the deal. The inbound marketing funnel does not directly address the “delight” pillar—that is up to each organisation to arrange. The inbound marketing flywheel reimagines the customer journey as a wheel with the customer at the center. The different pillars flow from one to the other in a continuous circle, with the idea that delighted customers refer more customers and become brand advocates, speeding up the wheel and promoting growth. The inbound marketing flywheel depends on acceleration and reduction of friction. Acceleration can be accomplished by adding “forces” that feed into customer delight—robust feedback, extra offers, follow-up calls, thank-you emails, etc. It can also be accomplished by removing forces that impede the “delight” pillar (i.e. “friction” on the flywheel) like poor communication or internal misalignment of departments. Ultimately, the power of inbound marketing methodology is that it sets up a win-win proposition between the business and the prospect, creating enthusiastic customers rather than reluctant ones.