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EP74: The Evolution of AWS Services
EP74: The Evolution of AWS Services
View in browser This week’s system design refresher:
Algorithms You Should Know Before You Take System Design Interviews (Youtube video)
AWS Services Evolution
How does Git Work?
IaaS, PaaS, Cloud Native. How do we get here?
Is the cloud really free or inexpensive?
Inside The Top 10% Of Engineering Organizations (Sponsored)
Fact: You can’t become better at anything unless you understand what getting better would actually look like. This is especially true in the case of engineering teams.
Following an analysis of 2,000 dev teams and over 4.5 million code branches, we finally know what performance metrics look like in the world’s best engineering orgs.
In this exclusive report, engineers will finally get visibility into what the top 10% of dev teams are hitting in terms of crucial metrics – like cycle time, deployment frequency, rework rate, and more!
Algorithms You Should Know Before You Take System Design Interviews
AWS Services Evolution
How did AWS grow from just a few services in 2006 to over 200 fully-featured services? Let's take a look.
Since 2006, it has become a cloud computing leader, offering foundational infrastructure, platforms, and advanced capabilities like serverless computing and AI.
This expansion empowered innovation, allowing complex applications without extensive hardware management. AWS also explored edge and quantum computing, staying at tech's forefront.
This evolution mirrors cloud computing's shift from niche to essential, benefiting global businesses with efficiency and scalability.
Happy to present the curated list of AWS services introduced over the years below.
Note:
The announcement or preview year differs from the public release year for certain services. In these cases, we've noted the service under the release year
Unreleased services noted in announcement years
Over to you: Are you excited about all the new services, or do you find it overwhelming?
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How does Git Work?
The diagram below shows the Git workflow.
Git is a distributed version control system.
Every developer maintains a local copy of the main repository and edits and commits to the local copy.
The commit is very fast because the operation doesn’t interact with the remote repository.
If the remote repository crashes, the files can be recovered from the local repositories.
Over to you: Which Git command do you use to resolve conflicting changes?
IaaS, PaaS, Cloud Native… How do we get here?
The diagram below shows two decades of cloud evolution.
2001 - VMWare - Virtualization via hypervisor
2006 - AWS - IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
2009 - Heroku - PaaS (Platform as a Service)
2010 - OpenStack - Open-source IaaS
2011 - CloudFoundry - Open-source PaaS
2013 - Docker - Containers
2015 - CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) - Cloud NativeOver to you: Which ones have you used?
Is the cloud really free or inexpensive?
While it may be inexpensive or even free to get started, the complexity often leads to hidden costs, resulting in large cloud bills.
The purpose of this post is not to discourage using the cloud. I’m a big fan of the cloud. I simply want to raise awareness about this issue, as it's one of the critical topics that isn't often discussed.
While AWS is used as an example, similar cost structures apply to other cloud providers.
Free Tier Ambiguity: AWS offers three different types of free offerings for common services. However, services not included in the free tier can charge you. Even for services that do provide free resources, there's often a limit. Exceeding that limit can result in higher costs than anticipated.
Elastic IP Addresses: AWS allows up to five Elastic IP addresses. Exceeding this limit incurs a small hourly rate, which varies depending on the region. This is a recurring charge.
Load Balancers: They are billed hourly, even if not actively used. Furthermore, you'll face additional charges if data is transferred in and out of the load balancer.
Elastic Block Storage (EBS) Charges: EBS is billed on a GB-per-month basis. You will be charged for attached and unattached EBS volumes, even if they're not actively used.
EBS Snapshots: Deleting an EBS volume does not automatically remove the associated snapshots. Orphaned EBS snapshots will still appear on your bill.
S3 Access Charges: While the pricing for S3 storage is generally reasonable, the costs associated with accessing stored objects, such as GET and LIST requests, can sometimes exceed the storage costs.
S3 Partial Uploads: If you have an unsuccessful multipart upload in S3, you will still be billed for the successfully uploaded parts. It's essential to clean these up to avoid unnecessary costs.
Data Transfer Costs: Transferring data to AWS, for instance, from a data center, is free. However, transferring data out of AWS can be significantly more expensive.
Over to you: Have you ever been surprised by an unexpected cloud bill? Share your experiences with us!
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by "ByteByteGo" <bytebytego@substack.com> - 11:36 - 26 Aug 2023 -
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We hope you find The Shortlist helpful. We’ll be taking a summer hiatus for a couple weeks, returning to your inbox on September 8 with an updated newsletter name: The CEO Shortlist. As McKinsey doubles down on its commitment to support CEOs, whose role is more challenging than ever, the refreshed newsletter will focus on helping those CEOs, present and future, do the best job they can. Rest assured it will continue to deliver, twice monthly, a shortlist of articles and reports that are must-reads regardless of role—from C-level execs to the frontline.
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by "McKinsey Shortlist" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 02:39 - 25 Aug 2023 -
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by "McKinsey On Point" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 10:07 - 24 Aug 2023 -
Common Failure Causes
Common Failure Causes
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Designing distributed systems is hard. Without careful planning, numerous issues can arise quickly. It's vital to understand potential pitfalls to be resilient against unforeseen failures.
One of the most exciting books I've come across on this subject is "Understanding Distributed Systems." The author, Roberto Vitillo, held positions as a Principal Engineer/Engineering Manager at Microsoft and later as a Principal Engineer at Amazon. The book is organized into five parts:
Part I: Communication
Part II: Coordination
Part III: Scalability
Part IV: Resiliency
Part V: Maintainability
I approached Roberto to see if he'd be willing to share a chapter with our newsletter subscribers, and he graciously agreed. I selected the "Common Failure Causes" chapter. In this excerpt, we discuss 8 common causes of failure and briefly overview how to address them.
For those interested in a deeper dive into other subjects, the e-book is available on Roberto's website, and the printed version can be found on Amazon.
Common failure causes
We say that a system has a failure when it no longer provides a service to its users that meets its specification. A failure is caused by a fault: a failure of an internal component or an external dependency the system depends on. Some faults can be tolerated and have no user-visible impact at all, while others lead to failures.
To build fault-tolerant applications, we first need to have an idea of what can go wrong. In the next few sections, we will explore some of the most common root causes of failures. By the end of it, you will likely wonder how to tolerate all these different types of faults.
Hardware faults
Any physical part of a machine can fail. HDDs, memory modules, power supplies, motherboards, SSDs, NICs, or CPUs, can all stop working for various reasons. In some cases, hardware faults can cause data corruption as well. If that wasn't enough, entire data centers can go down because of power cuts or natural disasters.
As we will discuss later, we can address many of these infrastructure faults with redundancy. You would think that these faults are the main cause for distributed applications failing, but in reality, they often fail for very mundane reasons.
Incorrect error handling
A study from 2014 of user-reported failures from five popular distributed data stores found that the majority of catastrophic failures were the result of incorrect handling of non-fatal errors.
In most cases, the bugs in the error handling could have been detected with simple tests. For example, some handlers completely ignored errors. Others caught an overly generic exception, like Exception in Java, and aborted the entire process for no good reason. And some other handlers were only partially implemented and even contained "FIXME" and "TODO" comments.
In hindsight, this is perhaps not too surprising, given that error handling tends to be an afterthought. This is the reason the Go language puts so much emphasis on error handling. We will take a closer look at best practices for testing large distributed applications.
Configuration changes
Configuration changes are one of the leading root causes for catastrophic failures. It's not just misconfigurations that cause problems, but also valid configuration changes to enable rarely-used features that no longer work as expected (or never did).
What makes configuration changes particularly dangerous is that their effects can be delayed. If an application reads a configuration value only when it's actually needed, an invalid value might take effect only hours or days after it has changed and thus escape early detection.
This is why configuration changes should be version-controlled, tested, and released just like code changes, and their validation should happen preventively when the change happens. We will discuss safe release practices for code and configuration changes in the context of continuous deployments.
Single points of failure
A single point of failure (SPOF) is a component whose failure brings the entire system down with it. In practice, systems can have multiple SPOFs.
Humans make for great SPOFs, and if you put them in a position where they can cause a catastrophic failure on their own, you can bet they eventually will. For example, human failures often happen when someone needs to manually execute a series of operational steps in a specific order without making any mistakes. On the other hand, computers are great at executing instructions, which is why automation should be leveraged whenever possible.
Another common SPOF is DNS. If clients can't resolve the domain name for an application, they won't be able to connect to it. There are many reasons why that can happen, ranging from domain names expiring, to entire root level domains going down.
Similarly, the TLS certificate used by an application for its HTTP endpoints is also a SPOF. If the certificate expires, clients won't be able to open a secure connection with the application.
Ideally, SPOFs should be identified when the system is designed. The best way to detect them is to examine every system component and ask what would happen if it were to fail. Some SPOFs can be architected away, e.g., by introducing redundancy, while others can't. In that case, the only option left is to reduce the SPOF's blast radius, i.e., the damage the SPOF inflicts on the system when it fails. Many of the resiliency patterns we will discuss later reduce the blast radius of failures.
Network faults
When a client sends a request to a server, it expects to receive a response from it a while later. In the best case, it receives the response shortly after sending the request. If that doesn't happen, the client has two options: continue to wait or fail the request with a time-out exception or error.
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by "ByteByteGo" <bytebytego@substack.com> - 11:37 - 24 Aug 2023 -
Demand for chief revenue officers is growing. How well can their involvement pay off?
On Point
Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities
•
Start-ups stall out. A combination of VC funding and pandemic-era loans kept many start-ups open—until now. As VC funding becomes harder to come by and the economy has slowed, the closure rate of a wide range of start-ups—from biotech to fintech—is going up. US-based start-ups raised $37 billion from January through March 2023, which is down more than 50% compared with the first quarter of 2022. Some companies are hoping to hold on long enough to see the market rebound. [WSJ]
•
What CROs can do. Given that 80% of start-ups never achieve scale and only 11% of Fortune 100 companies count a chief revenue officer (CRO) in their ranks, CROs have their work cut out for them. McKinsey senior partner Markus Berger-de León and colleagues found that both scale-up and incumbent companies may benefit from adding this role to the C-suite. Experienced CROs can complement a marketing and sales executive role by focusing their energies on identifying new market opportunities and building a pipeline with specific sales targets.
•
Timing is everything. A company’s business model and industry often inform decisions around when to hire a CRO. For example, engineering and technology companies with complex products may prioritize building a working product before allocating resources to sales. (One European urban-air-mobility start-up didn’t hire a chief marketing officer and a chief sales officer until 2.5 years after the incorporation.) Other companies may need to invest in distribution much sooner. Understand when, how, and why hiring a CRO can help companies better integrate sales and marketing for long-term success.
— Edited by Gwyn Herbein, editor, Atlanta
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by "McKinsey On Point" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 12:17 - 24 Aug 2023 -
พิจารณาการประมวลผลเอดจ์อุตสาหกรรมเพื่อตระหนักถึงนวัตกรรมทางเทคโนโลยี!
Schneider Electric
การประมวลผลเอดจ์อุตสาหกรรมเพื่อให้เกิดนวัตกรรมทางเทคโนโลยีDear Abul,
นวัตกรรมทางเทคโนโลยีใหม่ๆ ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับอุตสาหกรรม 4.0 เช่น ฝาแฝดดิจิทัล AI และหุ่นยนต์อัตโนมัติ มีส่วนช่วยเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพในโรงงานอุตสาหกรรม นวัตกรรมทางเทคโนโลยีนี้เกิดขึ้นได้โดยการรวม IT และ OT และปรับใช้เทคโนโลยี IT กับไซต์ Edge.
ในเอกสารไวท์เปเปอร์นี้ เปรียบเทียบความพร้อมใช้งานของโซลูชัน Edge Computing สำหรับการสร้างโรงงานอัจฉริยะ และแสดงตัวอย่างการลดเวลาหยุดทำงาน เพื่อให้อุตสาหกรรมเอดจ์คุณ โปรดตรวจสอบการนำโซลูชันคอมพิวติ้งมาใช้งาน
© 2023 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric is a trademark and the property of Schneider Electric SE, its subsidiaries and affiliated companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
by "Noe Noe OO, Schneider Electric" <Marcom.thailand@se.com> - 09:04 - 23 Aug 2023 -
Beacon Advancements - Keep an Eye On Your Assets
Beacon Advancements - Keep an Eye On Your Assets
Unveil the future of data-driven management with beacon advancements. Elevate precision and efficiency for smarter operations.
Find out what makes our software stand out from the crowd
Motion Detection
Leverage the software's motion data processing to enhance beacon capabilities.
Range Detection
Enhance fleet operations with precise proximity tracking using range detection beacons.
Alerts and Reports
Harness the power of beacon with real-time alerts, and customizable reports to enhance fleet operations, safety, and security.
Empower your clients with precision-powered beacon advancements
Uffizio Technologies Pvt. Ltd., 4th Floor, Metropolis, Opp. S.T Workshop, Valsad, Gujarat, 396001, India
by "Sunny Thakur" <sunny.thakur@uffizio.com> - 08:00 - 23 Aug 2023 -
How four economic scenarios could shape your business strategy
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Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities
For the last two decades, the world’s “balance sheet”—the sum of global assets and liabilities—grew much faster than GDP. But now, amid recent global turbulence, there are signs that the world could be shifting to a new economic regime. Could it be one that steers the world’s economy back towards productive growth? The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) developed four distinct scenarios that chart a possible path to the future. To learn more about how these scenarios could impact your operating strategies, check out this McKinsey Quarterly article by McKinsey senior partners Michael Birshan and Olivia White, MGI director, as well as MGI partner Jan Mischke. And if you’re interested in AI’s potential to transform industries, shift the workforce, and add as much as $4.4 trillion annually in economic value, be sure to check out the McKinsey Chart of the Day, which explores the implications of AI all this week.
Quote of the day
Chart of the day
ALSO NEW
— Edited by Emily Adeyanju, editor, Charlotte
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by "McKinsey Daily Read" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 06:30 - 23 Aug 2023 -
Are you making the most of middle managers?
On Point
Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities
•
Burned out bosses. As organizations grapple with remote work, skilled talent shortages, and new trends in artificial intelligence, it’s no wonder that more than half of managers are feeling burned out, according to a Microsoft survey of 20,000 workers. Managers affect how engaged their teams are, so companies know it’s crucial to support them. Rather than mandating a return to the office, allowing managers to choose how often their team co-locates would enable them to better satisfy team members’ needs, an expert shares. [Inc.]
•
Essential roles. Although middle managers—leaders who sit somewhere between the front line and the C-suite—may be underappreciated, they’re essential to organizational health and performance, say McKinsey partners Emily Field and Bryan Hancock and senior partner emeritus Bill Schaninger, authors of the new book Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work. The best middle managers attract and develop high performers, bring a leader’s vision to reality, and can influence people’s day-to-day work.
•
Responsibility overload. Middle managers often face enormous demands on their time, especially when companies over rely on “player–coaches.” When bosses are responsible for leading teams and for contributing as individuals, sometimes there isn’t enough time in the day. Senior leaders are recognizing that by spending time with their managers problem solving and agreeing on a strategy, they can empower them to lead. Listen to the full episode of The McKinsey Podcast to understand how to bring out the best in middle managers.
— Edited by Belinda Yu, editor, Atlanta
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by "McKinsey On Point" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 12:30 - 23 Aug 2023 -
Elevate your security skills with Observability and New Relic
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Security is a top concern for both individuals and companies. With the rising number of cyber-attacks and data breaches, developers need to have a strong grasp of security best practices. Application security directly affects the safety and privacy of user data.
To level up your security skill set, read our latest blog on how to use New Relic to discover, detect, and address issues in Juice Shop—an intentionally insecure web application from OWASP. Juice Shop, available on GitHub, is widely used for security training, demos and as a testing ground for security tools.
Learn how New Relic can help identify the OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities and other real-world security flaws.Read the latest Blog Need help? Let's get in touch.
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by "New Relic" <emeamarketing@newrelic.com> - 06:12 - 22 Aug 2023 -
It’s hard to predict a recession. Here’s how to prepare for one.
On Point
Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities
•
Economic jitters. Many Americans are worried that an economic slowdown is around the corner and that it might be as punishing as the 2007–09 financial crisis. Nearly seven out of ten respondents think a recession will hit in the next six months, and of those respondents, eight out of ten expect that the recession will be severe, according to a recent survey of 2,000 US adults. While experts don’t expect a bad recession, they acknowledge that rising prices and recent bank failures are shaking consumer confidence. [CNBC]
•
More volatility. While it’s hard to predict when a recession will happen, recessions do eventually occur. Economic downturns are all different, but we’ve learned some things about them, explains McKinsey’s Sven Smit, chair of insights and ecosystems and chair of the McKinsey Global Institute. Recessions are usually caused by imbalances in the market, the financial sector is always involved, and they typically start in one geographical area and spread to another. Unfortunately, higher volatility in the business environment has also become a new normal.
•
Prepare for uncertainty. Companies head into periods of uncertainty with varying degrees of readiness and health, and most fall into one of four camps. A lucky few are poised to thrive during a recession. These businesses experience relatively steady demand for high-margin products, easily attract and retain talent, and have simple supply chains. To see all four categories of preparedness, along with how any company can build systemic resilience, explore our McKinsey Explainer on recessions.
— Edited by Katherine Tam
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by "McKinsey On Point" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 12:41 - 22 Aug 2023 -
How can flexibility services ensure gird reliability and resilience?
Schneider Electric
Our use case explains it all. 
Modernization solutions for improved grid flexibility.By 2030, 70% of the renewables capacity is expected to be connected to distribution grids. However, the regulated and centralized control of distribution grids is not designed to accommodate this change.
So, how can you maintain overall system quality, reliability, and resilience while making your grids future-ready? Implementing flexibility solutions can help you address these limitations and mitigate constraint network management and investment deferral.
Our use case illustrates how to implement flexibility and presents country-specific flexibility models.© 2023 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric is a trademark and the property of Schneider Electric SE, its subsidiaries and affiliated companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
by "Schneider Electric" <reply@se.com> - 12:32 - 22 Aug 2023 -
Elevate Fleet Efficiency: RPM Monitoring Use Cases that Drive Results
Elevate Fleet Efficiency: RPM Monitoring Use Cases that Drive Results
Ignite your business potential with RPM monitoring. Deliver unmatched benefits in fleet maintenance, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.
Use Cases
Construction
Engine work hour tracking for comprehensive equipment utilization analysis.
Mining
Customizable RPM thresholds with real-time alerts for deviations.
Trucking
Customized eco-friendly RPM thresholds with real-time alerts. Emission reduction analysis to optimize fuel efficiency.
Discuss your use-case to get your business growing
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by "Sunny Thakur" <sunny.thakur@uffizio.com> - 08:00 - 21 Aug 2023 -
It’s a stretch: A leader’s guide to flexible strategic planning
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Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities
More than 20 years ago, an executive told us that the annual strategic planning process at his organization resembled an exotic ritual put on for show. “No one is exactly sure why we do it, but there is an almost mystical hope that something good will come out of it.” By 2022, little had changed. “I have too often seen strategies that are actually a toxic mix of wishful thinking combined with a jumble of incoherent policies,” wrote the author of an article we published last year. To do what it’s supposed to do—advance an organization in the real world—strategy needs to be practical and dynamic, enabling leaders to remove obstacles to progress as they appear and solve problems on an ongoing basis. This flexible approach to strategic planning may involve broadening its traditional confines. This week, we explore some factors and trends to consider.
Growth, profit, and sustainability—those are the three factors to include in a flexible strategic-planning model. Companies that offer better shareholder returns than their peers outperform on growth and profitability while improving sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. These “triple outperformers” are more than twice as likely as their peers to grow revenue by more than 10 percent a year. If you’re not sure whether your organization can pull off this triple play, consider these five suggestions from McKinsey senior partner Lucy Pérez and colleagues. The strategies of top performers are decidedly not old school: for example, one software provider has created a user-friendly interactive tool that publicly tracks its progress on key ESG metrics, and a logistics company has developed innovative mechanisms to solve its customers’ supply chain challenges.
That’s the number of facets in a chief strategist’s role, according to classic McKinsey research. These facets, in turn, can be grouped into five clusters, or archetypes, that embody a strategist’s signature strengths. For example, in the “visionary” archetype, the strategist functions as a trend forecaster, innovator, and business developer—tasks that were relatively uncommon a few years ago but are becoming essential aspects of the role today. For more strategic principles that have stood the test of time, take a look at the probability-based research led by McKinsey senior partners Chris Bradley and Sven Smit, in which they discuss “the tension between the real data of what makes good strategy and the games that are being played in the strategy room.”
That’s McKinsey global managing partner Bob Sternfels, senior partner Ryan Brukardt, and colleagues on why you shouldn’t ignore the space economy. Valued at nearly half a trillion dollars and growing at about 9 percent annually, space-related applications and technologies offer vast potential across most sectors: for example, satellites can detect weather patterns that may affect agriculture, energy generation, insurance, and shipping. “It’s no longer possible to say that space is too many degrees removed from your business,” say the McKinsey experts. “Create a new space business line, as some companies outside the aerospace industry have already done. Don’t be left on the ground.”
“What we know about volatility is that it’s a great time to be a strategist,” says McKinsey partner Emma Gibbs in an Inside the Strategy Room podcast. “You don’t need strategists when the world is smooth sailing.” An update of McKinsey research conducted ten years ago shows that the role of chief strategist has broadened considerably since then. “We’ve seen, in recent times, the rise of the ‘and’ strategist, which is, ‘I’m the chief strategist, and I also have another role,’” notes Gibbs. Ninety-one percent of respondents to our latest survey of strategy leaders say that besides strategy, they own other functions such as sustainability, digital, and data and analytics. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing that this is happening,” suggests Gibbs. “In many cases, I think it’s reflective of the breadth of topics that a strategist needs to consider as they think about the strategy.”
Listening to music can boost creativity—and what better creative juice than a McKinsey-curated playlist to inspire your best strategies? Check out our handpicked list of songs, which we’ve paired with McKinsey articles and interviews, along with books on business, social, environmental, and spiritual themes. These reading-and-song combos may be just what you need to spark the disruptive and innovative thinking that can advance your organization’s business.
Lead strategically.
— Edited by Rama Ramaswami, senior editor, New York
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by "McKinsey Leading Off" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 01:06 - 21 Aug 2023 -
How could generative AI and automation technologies transform work in America?
On Point
Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities
•
CEOs’ plans for AI. Some experts speculate that generative AI poses an existential threat to workers. In banking, insurance, and IT, US companies are already using AI to provide investment tips, detect fraud, and draft letters welcoming new colleagues. What the technologies can’t do is replace human ingenuity, judgment, and empathy, according to top US CEOs. For the moment, leaders should consider AI to be a tool to augment, rather than replace, human capabilities, says the CEO of a global financial-services firm. [Fortune]
•
Changing roles. The US labor market is evolving fast. Many employees are working flexibly from the home and office, and employers are speeding up adoption of automation technologies. Generative AI is extending the possibilities for automation to a much wider set of careers. Amid this disruption, workers changed jobs at a remarkable pace. From 2019 to 2022, some 8.6 million occupational shifts occurred in the US. Twelve million more job shifts may be needed by 2030, McKinsey Global Institute director Kweilin Ellingrud and coauthors explain.
•
Accelerating automation. With generative AI in the mix, automation is about to affect a wider set of work activities involving expertise, interaction with people, and creativity. Automation could take over tasks that account for about 30% of hours worked in the US economy by 2030. The employment mix could change significantly through 2030, with more healthcare, STEM, and managerial positions and fewer customer service, office support, and food services jobs. Consider how employers can fill the jobs of the future.
— Edited by Belinda Yu, editor, Atlanta
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by "McKinsey On Point" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 12:55 - 21 Aug 2023 -
The CEO life cycle
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Brought to you by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities
New from McKinsey & Company
Every chapter of the CEO journey comes with a unique set of challenges—and opportunities. Whether you’re a senior executive who aspires to the top job or you’re a celebrated CEO who’s preparing to pass the baton to a successor, check out this series of McKinsey Quarterly articles from senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, Vikram Malhotra, and Kurt Strovink for high-impact leadership advice. Then dive into lessons from the world’s best CEOs, and bookmark The McKinsey guide to excelling as a CEO for the latest insights on topics that should be at the top of your agenda.
ACHIEVING CEO EXCELLENCE
Bookmark The McKinsey guide to excelling as a CEO for expert insights and advice on topics that should be at the top of your CEO agenda, including gen AI, digital transformations, the changing talent landscape, growth and resilience, the net-zero transition, DEI, and more.
— Edited by Eleni Kostopoulos, managing editor, New York
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by "McKinsey & Company" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 06:12 - 20 Aug 2023 -
The week in charts
The Week in Charts
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by "McKinsey Week in Charts" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 03:56 - 19 Aug 2023 -
EP73: Cheat sheet of different databases in cloud services
EP73: Cheat sheet of different databases in cloud services
View in browser This week’s system design refresher:
Top 6 Load Balancing Algorithms Every Developer Should Know (Youtube video)
Cheat sheet of different databases in cloud services
HTTPS, SSL Handshake, and Data Encryption Explained to Kids
How does Chrome work?
The 2023 State of the API Report is here! (Sponsored)
For the fifth year, the State of the API is the world's largest and most comprehensive survey and report on APIs. More than 40,000 developers and API professionals have shared their thoughts on development priorities, their API tools, and where they see APIs going.
Top 6 Load Balancing Algorithms Every Developer Should Know
Static Algorithms
1. Round robin
The client requests are sent to different service instances in sequential order. The services are usually required to be stateless.
2. Sticky round-robin
This is an improvement of the round-robin algorithm. If Alice’s first request goes to service A, the following requests go to service A as well.
3. Weighted round-robin
The admin can specify the weight for each service. The ones with a higher weight handle more requests than others.
4. Hash
This algorithm applies a hash function on the incoming requests’ IP or URL. The requests are routed to relevant instances based on the hash function result.Dynamic Algorithms
5. Least connections
A new request is sent to the service instance with the least concurrent connections.
6. Least response time
A new request is sent to the service instance with the fastest response time.
A nice cheat sheet of different databases in cloud services
Choosing the right database for your project is a complex task. The multitude of database options, each suited to distinct use cases, can quickly lead to decision fatigue.
We hope this cheat sheet provides high level direction to pinpoint the right service that aligns with your project's needs and avoid potential pitfalls.
Note: Google has limited documentation for their database use cases. Even though we did our best to look at what was available and arrived at the best option, some of the entries may be not accurate.
Over to you: Which database have you used in the past, and for what use cases?Latest articles
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"I Was Under Leveled!" — Avoiding the Tragedy of Making Only $500k a Year
Network Protocols behind Server Push, Online Gaming, and Emails
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HTTPS, SSL Handshake, and Data Encryption Explained to Kids
HTTPS: Safeguards your data from eavesdroppers and breaches. Understand how encryption and digital certificates create an impregnable shield.
SSL Handshake: Behind the Scenes — Witness the cryptographic protocols that establish a secure connection. Experience the intricate exchange of keys and negotiation.
Secure Data Transmission: Navigating the Tunnel — Journey through the encrypted tunnel forged by HTTPS. Learn how your information travels while shielded from cyber threats.
HTML's Role: Peek into HTML's role in structuring the web. Uncover how hyperlinks and content come together seamlessly. And why is it called HYPER TEXT.
Over to you: In this ever-evolving digital landscape, what emerging technologies do you foresee shaping the future of cybersecurity or the web?How does Chrome work?
The diagram below shows the architecture of a modern browser. It is based on our understanding of “Inside look at modern web browser” published by the chrome team.
There are in general 4 processes: browser process, renderer process, GPU process, and plugin process.
Browser process controls address bar, bookmarks, back and forward buttons, etc.
Renderer process controls anything inside of the tab where a website is displayed.
GPU process handles GPU tasks.
Plugin process controls the plugins used by the websites.
The browser process coordinates with other processes.
When Chrome runs on powerful hardware, it may split each service in the browser process into different threads, as the diagram below shows. This is called Servicification.
Now let’s go through the steps when we enter a URL in Chrome.
Step 1: The user enters a URL into the browser. This is handled by the UI thread.
Step 2: When the user hits enter, the UI thread initiates a network call to get the site content.
Steps 3-4: The network thread goes through appropriate network protocols and retrieves the content.
Step 5: When the network thread receives responses, it looks at the first few bytes of the stream. If it is an HTML file, it is passed to the renderer process by the browser process.
Steps 6-9: An IPC is sent from the browser process to the renderer process to commit the navigation. A data pipe is established between the network thread and the renderer process so that the renderer can receive data. Once the browser process hears confirmation that the commit has happened in the renderer process, the navigation is complete and the document loading phase begins.Over to you: Why does Chrome assign each tab a renderer process?
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