Search

Digital transformation has accelerated nearly tenfold in recent years as both a business and technology journey. Yet, most white papers and how-to guides still focus solely on the business side, rather than include methods for optimizing the technology behind it. This handbook shows CIOs, IT directors, and architects how to balance these two concerns successfully.You'll explore current technology trends and shifts required to build a digital business, including how enterprise architecture should evolve if it's to sustain and grow your business. A CIO who can handle digital transformation along with business interests is a rare find. This is the ideal guide to modernizing IT.You'll examine:The latest trends and technologies driving the need for a digital enterprise architectureNew components, layers, and concepts that comprise a framework for digital enterprise architectureSkills and technologies you need to modernize an enterprise architecture for a digital businessDomains and characteristics of a digital enterprise architectureHow to map digital enterprise technologies to the appropriate teams

As a working software developer, you know how to complete your tasks with solid code, whether it's on the frontend or backend. Now you're ready to move to the next level in your career, and you need to understand the subtle yet deep skills it takes to become a senior developer. This practical book shows you everything it takes to create a full-stack web application hosted on a cloud platform.Senior staff engineer Milecia McGregor helps you see how the whole system works and how senior developers arrive at technical decisions. You'll learn about design and development principles and when to apply them. You'll also discover strategies for working with different teams and understand how the product team makes its decisions.In four parts, this book shows you how to:Translate designs into tasks and learn the questions you'll need to ask the product teamWalk through development considerations for the backend like overall architecture, security, and third-party servicesBuild the project's user interface as well as state and data management, performance, and other concerns associated with frontend appsConnect the frontend, backend, and other systems and deploy a full stack app to production

With hundreds of tools preinstalled, the Kali Linux distribution makes it easier for security professionals to get started with security testing quickly. But with more than 600 tools in its arsenal, Kali Linux can also be overwhelming. The new edition of this practical book covers updates to the tools, including enhanced coverage of forensics and reverse engineering. Author Ric Messier also goes beyond strict security testing by adding coverage on performing forensic analysis, including disk and memory forensics, as well as some basic malware analysis. Explore the breadth of tools available on Kali LinuxUnderstand the value of security testing and examine the testing types availableLearn the basics of penetration testing through the entire attack lifecycleInstall Kali Linux on multiple systems, both physical and virtualDiscover how to use different security-focused toolsStructure a security test around Kali Linux toolsExtend Kali tools to create advanced attack techniquesUse Kali Linux to generate reports once testing is complete

This book provides an ideal guide for Python developers who want to learn how to build applications with large language models. Authors Olivier Caelen and Marie-Alice Blete cover the main features and benefits of GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 models and explain how they work. You'll also get a step-by-step guide for developing applications using the OpenAI Python library, including text generation, Q&A, and smart assistants.Written in clear and concise language, Developing Apps with GPT-4 and ChatGPT includes easy-to-follow examples to help you understand and apply the concepts to your projects. Python code examples are available in a GitHub repository, and the book includes a glossary of key terms. Ready to harness the power of large language models in your applications? This book is a must.You'll learn:Fundamentals and benefits of GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 models, including the main features and how they workHow to integrate these models into Python-based applications, leveraging natural language processing capabilities and overcoming specific LLM-related challengesExamples of applications demonstrating the OpenAI API in Python for tasks including text generation, question answering, content summarization, classification, and moreAdvanced LLM topics such as prompt engineering, fine-tuning models for specific tasks, RAG, plug-ins, LangChain, LlamaIndex, GPTs, and assistantsOlivier Caelen is a machine learning researcher at Worldline and teaches machine learning courses at the University of Brussels.Marie-Alice Blete, a software architect and data engineer in Worldline's R&D department, is interested in performance and latency issues associated with AI solutions.

Welcome to the systems age, where software professionals are no longer building software&emdash;we're building systems of software. Change is continuously deployed across software ecosystems coordinated by responsive infrastructure. In this world of increasing relational complexity, we need to think differently. Many of our challenges are systemic. This book shows you how systems thinking can guide you through the complexity of modern systems. Rather than relying on traditional reductionistic approaches, author Diana Montalion shows you how to expand your skill set so we can think, communicate, and act as healthy systems.Systems thinking is a practice that improves your effectiveness and enables you to lead impactful change. Through a series of practices and real-world scenarios, you'll learn to shift your perspective in order to design, develop, and deliver better outcomes.You'll learn:How linear thinking limits your ability to solve system challengesCommon obstacles to systems thinking and how to move past themNew skills and practices that will transform how you think, learn, and leadMethods for thinking well with others and creating sound recommendationsHow to measure success in the midst of complexity and uncertainty

Despite the increase of high-profile hacks, record-breaking data leaks, and ransomware attacks, many organizations don't have the budget for an information security (InfoSec) program. If you're forced to protect yourself by improvising on the job, this pragmatic guide provides a security-101 handbook with steps, tools, processes, and ideas to help you drive maximum-security improvement at little or no cost.Each chapter in this book provides step-by-step instructions for dealing with issues such as breaches and disasters, compliance, network infrastructure, password management, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and more. Network engineers, system administrators, and security professionals will learn how to use frameworks, tools, and techniques to build and improve their cybersecurity programs. This book will help you:Plan and design incident response, disaster recovery, compliance, and physical securityLearn and apply basic penetration-testing concepts through purple teamingConduct vulnerability management using automated processes and toolsUse IDS, IPS, SOC, logging, and monitoringBolster Microsoft and Unix systems, network infrastructure, and password managementUse segmentation practices and designs to compartmentalize your networkReduce exploitable errors by developing code securely

Entity resolution is a key analytic technique that enables you to identify multiple data records that refer to the same real-world entity. With this hands-on guide, product managers, data analysts, and data scientists will learn how to add value to data by cleansing, analyzing, and resolving datasets using open source Python libraries and cloud APIs.Author Michael Shearer shows you how to scale up your data matching processes and improve the accuracy of your reconciliations. You'll be able to remove duplicate entries within a single source and join disparate data sources together when common keys aren't available. Using real-world data examples, this book helps you gain practical understanding to accelerate the delivery of real business value.With entity resolution, you'll build rich and comprehensive data assets that reveal relationships for marketing and risk management purposes, key to harnessing the full potential of ML and AI. This book covers:Challenges in deduplicating and joining datasetsExtracting, cleansing, and preparing datasets for matchingText matching algorithms to identify equivalent entitiesTechniques for deduplicating and joining datasets at scaleMatching datasets containing persons and organizationsEvaluating data matchesOptimizing and tuning data matching algorithmsEntity resolution using cloud APIsMatching using privacy-enhancing technologies

By incorporating cyber threat intelligence, adversary emulation provides a form of cybersecurity assessment that mimics advanced persistent threat (APT) tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). This comprehensive guide introduces an empirical approach with strategies and processes collected over a decade of experience in the cybersecurity field. You'll learn to assess resilience against coordinated and stealthy threat actors capable of harming an organization.Author Drinor Selmanaj demonstrates adversary emulation for offensive operators and defenders using practical examples and exercises that actively model adversary behavior. Each emulation plan includes different hands-on scenarios, such as smash-and-grab or slow-and-deliberate. This book uses the MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base as a foundation to describe and categorize TTPs based on real-world observations, and provides a common language that's standardized and accessible to everyone.You'll learn how to:Map Cyber Threat Intelligence to ATT&CKDefine Adversary Emulation goals and objectivesResearch Adversary Emulation TTPs using ATT&CK knowledge basePlan Adversary Emulation activityImplement Adversary tradecraftConduct Adversary EmulationCommunicate Adversary Emulation findingsAutomate Adversary Emulation to support repeatable testingExecute FIN6, APT3, and APT29 emulation plans

The software architect role is evolving. As systems and their interactions with the teams that build, run, and evolve them become more complex, it's often impossible for those playing the traditional architect roles to be everywhere they need to be. There's simply too much architecture to be done, and the situation has reached a breaking point. There's a better way. Author Andrew Harmel-Law shows you how architects and development teams can collaborate to create and evolve more efficient architectures for their systems. Techniques in this book will help you learn how to create a mindset that allows everyone to practice architecture and build the best systems they've ever experienced. With this book, you will:Understand the new dynamics that affect modern software deliveryLearn a methodology that brings software architecture and development togetherNurture the fundamental interplay of decisions, advice, architecture, and feedback from running systemsInitiate practices that maximize benefits and mitigate risksCreate an approach tuned to architecture, everyone's skills, and your organization's culture

Large language models (LLMs) are revolutionizing the world, promising to automate tasks and solve complex problems. A new generation of software applications are using these models as building blocks to unlock new potential in almost every domain, but reliably accessing these capabilities requires new skills. This book will teach you the art and science of prompt engineering-the key to unlocking the true potential of LLMs. Industry experts John Berryman and Albert Ziegler share how to communicate effectively with AI, transforming your ideas into a language model-friendly format. By learning both the philosophical foundation and practical techniques, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to build the next generation of LLM-powered applications.Understand LLM architecture and learn how to best interact with itDesign a complete prompt-crafting strategy for an applicationGather, triage, and present context elements to make an efficient promptMaster specific prompt-crafting techniques like few-shot learning, chain-of-thought prompting, and RAG

This practical book demonstrates why C++ is still one of the dominant production-quality languages for financial applications and systems. Many programmers believe that C++ is too difficult to learn. Author Daniel Hanson demonstrates that this is no longer the case, thanks to modern features added to the C++ Standard beginning in 2011.Financial programmers will discover how to leverage C++ abstractions that enable safe implementation of financial models. You'll also explore how popular open source libraries provide additional weapons for attacking mathematical problems. C++ programmers unfamiliar with financial applications also benefit from this handy guide.Learn C++ basics from a modern perspective: syntax, inheritance, polymorphism, composition, STL containers, and algorithmsDive into newer features and abstractions including functional programming using lambdas, task-based concurrency, and smart pointersImplement basic numerical routines in modern C++Understand best practices for writing clean and efficient code

To ensure that applications are reliable and always available, more businesses today are moving applications to AWS. But many companies still struggle to design and build these cloud applications effectively, thinking that because the cloud is resilient, their applications will be too. With this practical guide, software, DevOps, and cloud engineers will learn how to implement resilient designs and configurations in the cloud using hands-on independent labs.Authors Kevin Schwarz, Jennifer Moran, and Dr. Nate Bachmeier from AWS teach you how to build cloud applications that demonstrate resilience with patterns like back off and retry, multi-Region failover, data protection, and circuit breaker with common configuration, tooling, and deployment scenarios. Labs are organized into categories based on complexity and topic, making it easy for you to focus on the most relevant parts of your business.You'll learn how to:Configure and deploy AWS services using resilience patternsImplement stateless microservices for high availabilityConsider multi-Region designs to meet business requirementsImplement backup and restore, pilot light, warm standby, and active-active strategiesBuild applications that withstand AWS Region and Availability Zone impairmentsUse chaos engineering experiments for fault injection to test for resilienceAssess the trade-offs when building resilient systems, including cost, complexity, and operational burden

Today, investment in financial technology and digital transformation is reshaping the financial landscape and generating many opportunities. Too often, however, engineers and professionals in financial institutions lack a practical and comprehensive understanding of the concepts, problems, techniques, and technologies necessary to build a modern, reliable, and scalable financial data infrastructure. This is where financial data engineering is needed.A data engineer developing a data infrastructure for a financial product possesses not only technical data engineering skills but also a solid understanding of financial domain-specific challenges, methodologies, data ecosystems, providers, formats, technological constraints, identifiers, entities, standards, regulatory requirements, and governance.This book offers a comprehensive, practical, domain-driven approach to financial data engineering, featuring real-world use cases, industry practices, and hands-on projects.You'll learn:The data engineering landscape in the financial sectorSpecific problems encountered in financial data engineeringThe structure, players, and particularities of the financial data domainApproaches to designing financial data identification and entity systemsFinancial data governance frameworks, concepts, and best practicesThe financial data engineering lifecycle from ingestion to productionThe varieties and main characteristics of financial data workflowsHow to build financial data pipelines using open source tools and APIsTamer Khraisha, PhD, is a senior data engineer and scientific author with more than a decade of experience in the financial sector.

Performance tuning is an experimental science, but that doesn't mean engineers should resort to guesswork and folklore to get the job done. Yet that's often the case. With this practical book, intermediate to advanced Java technologists working with complex platforms will learn how to tune Java cloud applications for performance using a quantitative, verifiable, and repeatable approach.In response to the ubiquity of cloud computing, this updated edition of Optimizing Cloud Native Java addresses topics that are key to high performance of Java applications in the cloud. Many resources on performance tend to focus on the theory and internals of Java virtual machines, but this book discusses the low-level technical aspects within the context of performance-tuning practicalities and examines a wide range of aspects.With this book, you will:Learn how Java principles and technology make the best use of modern hardware, operating systems, and cloud stacksExamine the pitfalls of measuring Java performance numbers and the drawbacks of microbenchmarkingUnderstand how to package, deploy, operate, and debug Java/JVM applications in modern cloud environmentsApply emerging observability approaches to obtain deep understanding of cloud native applicationsUse Java language performance techniques including concurrent and distributed forms

ActivityPub is the new standard for connecting social networks together on the social web. This open, decentralized social networking protocol defines an API for sharing activities to a social network and a procedure that servers use to distribute those activities to a subscriber's feed. With this book, you'll learn how to assemble ActivityPub-enabled clients for making new kinds of social apps on top of existing networks and build ActivityPub servers that create new human or automated accounts on the social web.With those skills under your belt, you can explore other applications of this publish-subscribe technology: content management systems, internet of things, and enterprise automation. With hands-on examples and in-depth knowledge from Evan Prodromou, one of the authors of the protocol, this is the ActivityPub handbook that every social software hacker needs.Learn what the social web is and what ActivityPub doesRepresent social network data in the Activity Streams 2.0 formatWrite a simple ActivityPub client and serverExtend ActivityPub's functionality with new typesFind in-depth details about the more obscure ActivityPub data structuresEvan Prodromou is a coauthor of the ActivityPub protocol and the Activity Streams 2.0 data format.

What will you learn from this book?The new edition of this brain-friendly guide takes you through a comprehensive journey into modern JavaScript, covering everything from core language fundamentals to today's cutting-edge features. You'll dive into the nuances of JavaScript types and the unparalleled flexibility of its functions. You'll also learn how to expertly navigate classes and objects, and finally understand closures. But that's just the beginning. You'll also get hands-on with the browser's document object model (DOM), engaging with JavaScript in exciting ways. You won't just be reading—you'll be playing games, solving puzzles, pondering mysteries, and interacting with JavaScript as never before. And you'll write real code, lots of it, so you can start building your own applications.What's so special about this book?If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect: a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. If you haven't, you're in for a treat. With this book, you'll learn JavaScript through a multisensory experience that engages your mind—rather than a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.

Real-time applications are becoming the norm today. But building a model that works properly requires real-time data from the source, in-flight stream processing, and low latency serving of its analytics. With this practical book, data engineers, data architects, and data analysts will learn how to use streaming databases to build real-time solutions.Authors Hubert Dulay and Ralph M. Debusmann take you through streaming database fundamentals, including how these databases reduce infrastructure for real-time solutions. You'll learn the difference between streaming databases, stream processing, and real-time online analytical processing (OLAP) databases. And you'll discover when to use push queries versus pull queries, and how to serve synchronous and asynchronous data emanating from streaming databases.This guide helps you:Explore stream processing and streaming databasesLearn how to build a real-time solution with a streaming databaseUnderstand how to construct materialized views from any number of streamsLearn how to serve synchronous and asynchronous dataGet started building low-complexity streaming solutions with minimal setup

Get the details, examples, and best practices you need to build generative AI applications, services, and solutions using the power of Azure OpenAI Service. With this comprehensive guide, Microsoft AI specialist Adrián González Sánchez examines the integration and utilization of Azure OpenAI Service—using powerful generative AI models such as GPT-4 and GPT-4o—within the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.To guide you through the technical details of using Azure OpenAI Service, this book shows you how to set up the necessary Azure resources, prepare end-to-end architectures, work with APIs, manage costs and usage, handle data privacy and security, and optimize performance. You'll learn various use cases where Azure OpenAI Service models can be applied, and get valuable insights from some of the most relevant AI and cloud experts.Ideal for software and cloud developers, product managers, architects, and engineers, as well as cloud-enabled data scientists, this book will help you:Learn how to implement cloud native applications with Azure OpenAI ServiceDeploy, customize, and integrate Azure OpenAI Service with your applicationsCustomize large language models and orchestrate knowledge with company-owned dataUse advanced roadmaps to plan your generative AI projectEstimate cost and plan generative AI implementations for adopter companies

In this insightful and comprehensive guide, Addy Osmani shares more than a decade of experience working on the Chrome team at Google, uncovering secrets to engineering effectiveness, efficiency, and team success. Engineers and engineering leaders looking to scale their effectiveness and drive transformative results within their teams and organizations will learn the essential principles, tips, and frameworks for building highly effective engineering teams.Osmani presents best practices and proven strategies that foster engineering excellence in organizations of all sizes. Through practical advice and real-world examples, Leading Effective Engineering Teams empowers you to create a thriving engineering culture where individuals and teams can excel. Unlock the full potential of your engineering team and achieve unparalleled success by harnessing the power of trust, commitment, and accountability.With this book, you'll discover:The essential traits for engineering effectiveness and the pitfalls to avoidHow to cultivate trust, commitment, and accountability within your teamStrategies to minimize friction, optimize career growth, and deliver maximum valueThe dynamics of highly successful engineering teams and how to replicate their achievementsHow to implement a systems thinking approach for everyday problem-solving and decision-makingSelf-advocacy techniques to enhance your team's visibility and recognition within the organization

Filled with tips, tricks, and techniques, this easy-to-use book is the perfect resource for intermediate to advanced users of Excel. You'll find complete recipes for more than a dozen topics covering formulas, PivotTables, charts, Power Query, and more. Each recipe poses a particular problem and outlines a solution that you can put to use right away—without having to comb through tutorial pages.Whether you're a data analyst, project manager, or financial analyst, author Dawn Griffiths directs you straight to the answers you need. Ideal as a quick reference, Excel Cookbook is also perfect for learning how to work in a more efficient way, leading to greater productivity on the job. With this book, you'll jump in and get answers to your questions—fast.This cookbook shows you how to:Get the most out of Excel's featuresAddress complex data problems in the best way possibleCollect, manage, and analyze data from a variety of sourcesUse functions and formulas with ease—including dynamic array and lambda formulasAnalyze data with PivotTables, Power Pivot, and moreImport and transform data with Power QueryWrite custom functions and automate Excel with VBA

Great engineers don't necessarily make great leaders—at least, not without a lot of work. Finding your path to becoming a strong leader is often fraught with challenges. It's not easy to figure out how to be strategic, successful, and considerate while also being firm. Whether you're on the management or individual contributor track, you need to develop strong leadership skills.This practical book shows you how to become a well-rounded and resilient engineering leader.Understand what it means to be the driving force behind your careerLearn how to self-manage and avoid the pitfalls that many newer managers faceEstablish evolving practices and structures to best scale your teamDefine the impact of your team and its core mission and values

How will software development and operations have to change to meet the sustainability and green needs of the planet? And what does that imply for development organizations? In this eye-opening book, sustainable software advocates Anne Currie, Sarah Hsu, and Sara Bergman provide a unique overview of this topic—discussing everything from the likely evolution of national grids to the effect those changes will have on the day-to-day lives of developers.Ideal for everyone from new developers to CTOs, Building Green Software tackles the challenges involved and shows you how to build, host, and operate code in a way that's not only better for the planet but also cheaper and relatively low-risk for your business. Most hyperscale public cloud providers have already committed to net-zero IT operations by 2030. This book shows you how to get on board.You'll explore:How the energy transition is likely to change hosting on prem and in the cloud—and how your company can prepareThe fundamental architectural principles of sustainable software development and how to apply themHow to determine which parts of your system need to changeThe concept of extending hardware longevity and the part that software plays

With rapidly changing architecture and API-driven automation, cloud platforms come with unique security challenges and opportunities. In this updated second edition, you'll examine security best practices for multivendor cloud environments, whether your company plans to move legacy on-premises projects to the cloud or build a new infrastructure from the ground up. Developers, IT architects, and security professionals will learn cloud-specific techniques for securing popular cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and IBM Cloud. IBM Distinguished Engineer Chris Dotson shows you how to establish data asset management, identity and access management (IAM), vulnerability management, network security, and incident response in your cloud environment. Learn the latest threats and challenges in the cloud security spaceManage cloud providers that store or process data or deliver administrative controlLearn how standard principles and concepts—such as least privilege and defense in depth—apply in the cloudUnderstand the critical role played by IAM in the cloudUse best tactics for detecting, responding, and recovering from the most common security incidentsManage various types of vulnerabilities, especially those common in multicloud or hybrid cloud architecturesExamine privileged access management in cloud environments

Having a great idea or design is not enough to make your software project succeed. If you want stakeholders to buy into your design and teams to collaborate and contribute to the vision, you also need to communicate effectively. In this practical book, author Jacqui Read shows you how to successfully present your architecture and get stakeholders to jump on board.Misunderstanding and lack of buy-in leads to increasing costs, unmet requirements, and an architecture that is not what you intended. Through constructive examples and patterns, this book shows you how to create documentation and diagrams that actually get the message across to the different audiences you'll face.This book shows you how to:Design diagrams and documentation appropriate to your expected audience, intended message, and project stageCreate documentation and diagrams that are accessible to those with varying roles, needs, or disabilitiesMaster written, verbal, and nonverbal communication to succeed in technical settingsApply the communication patterns presented in this book in real-world projects and software designsCommunicate and collaborate with distributed teams to successfully design and document software and technical projects

Ready to simplify the process of building data lakehouses and data pipelines at scale? In this practical guide, learn how Delta Lake is helping data engineers, data scientists, and data analysts overcome key data reliability challenges with modern data engineering and management techniques.Authors Denny Lee, Tristen Wentling, Scott Haines, and Prashanth Babu (with contributions from Delta Lake maintainer R. Tyler Croy) share expert insights on all things Delta Lake--including how to run batch and streaming jobs concurrently and accelerate the usability of your data. You'll also uncover how ACID transactions bring reliability to data lakehouses at scale.This book helps you:Understand key data reliability challenges and how Delta Lake solves themExplain the critical role of Delta transaction logs as a single source of truthLearn the Delta Lake ecosystem with technologies like Apache Flink, Kafka, and TrinoArchitect data lakehouses with the medallion architectureOptimize Delta Lake performance with features like deletion vectors and liquid clustering

The sheer volume of business data has reached an all-time high. Using visualizations to transform this data into useful and understandable information can facilitate better decision-making. This practical book shows data analysts as well as professionals in finance, sales, and marketing how to quickly create visualizations and build savvy dashboards.Alex Kolokolov from Data2Speak and Maxim Zelensky from Intelligent Business explain in simple and clear language how to create brilliant charts with Microsoft Power BI and follow best practices for corporate reporting. No technical background is required. Step-by-step guides help you set up any chart in a few clicks and avoid common mistakes. Also, experienced data analysts will find tips and tricks on how to enrich their reports with advanced visuals.This book helps you understand:The basic rules for classic charts that are used in 90% of business reportsExceptions to general rules based on real business casesBest practices for dashboard designHow to properly set up interactionsHow to prepare data for advanced visualsHow to avoid pitfalls with eye-catching charts

Frontend developers have to consider many things: browser compatibility, usability, performance, scalability, SEO, and other best practices. But the most fundamental aspect of creating websites is one that often falls short: accessibility. Accessibility is the cornerstone of any website, and if a website is inaccessible, users won't be able to interact with it, obtain information, sign up for services, or buy products.The Web Accessibility Cookbook provides you with dozens of recipes to help you avoid these failures. You'll learn how to build common components, such as main navigation, filters, and dialogs, in an accessible manner. Each recipe not only explains how to build things but also why. Author Manuel Matuzovic provides the knowledge you need to create your own accessible components and address your users'varying needs, abilities, and preferences.With this practical guide, you will:Learn how to build websites that feature inclusive frontendsDiscover the common obstacles website users face every dayUnderstand how your decisions impact usersLearn how to build accessible frontends step-by-stepWrite high-quality markup and CSSEvaluate the accessibility of frontend components

C# is undeniably one of the most versatile programming languages available to engineers today. With this comprehensive guide, you'll learn just how powerful the combination of C# and.NET can be. Author Ian Griffiths guides you through C# 12.0 and.NET 8 fundamentals and techniques for building cloud, web, and desktop applications.Designed for experienced programmers, this book provides many code examples to help you work with the nuts and bolts of C#, such as generics, LINQ, and asynchronous programming features. You'll get up to speed on.NET 8 and the latest C# 11.0 and 12.0 additions, including generic math, new polymorphism options, enhanced pattern matching, and new features designed to improve productivity.This book helps you:Understand how.NET has changed in recent releases and learn what it means for application developmentSelect the appropriate C# language features for any taskLearn when to use the new features and when to stick with older onesExamine the range of functionality in.NET's class librariesApply these class libraries to practical programming tasksExplore numerous small additions to.NET that improve expressiveness

Python is an excellent way to get started in programming, and this clear, concise guide walks you through Python a step at a time—beginning with basic programming concepts before moving on to functions, data structures, and object-oriented design. This revised third edition reflects the growing role of large language models (LLMs) in programming and includes exercises on effective LLM prompts, testing code, and debugging skills.With this popular hands-on guide at your side, you'll get:A grounding in the syntax and semantics of the Python languageA clear definition of each programming concept, with emphasis on clear vocabularyHow to work with variables, statements, functions, and data structures in a logical progressionTechniques for reading and writing files and databasesA solid understanding of objects, methods, and object-oriented programmingDebugging strategies for syntax, runtime, and semantic errorsAn introduction to recursion, interface design, data structures, and basic algorithmsHow to use LLMs—including effective prompts, testing code, and debuggingAnd more

If programming is magic, then web scraping is surely a form of wizardry. By writing a simple automated program, you can query web servers, request data, and parse it to extract the information you need. This thoroughly updated third edition not only introduces you to web scraping but also serves as a comprehensive guide to scraping almost every type of data from the modern web.Part I focuses on web scraping mechanics: using Python to request information from a web server, performing basic handling of the server's response, and interacting with sites in an automated fashion. Part II explores a variety of more specific tools and applications to fit any web scraping scenario you're likely to encounter.Parse complicated HTML pagesDevelop crawlers with the Scrapy frameworkLearn methods to store the data you scrapeRead and extract data from documentsClean and normalize badly formatted dataRead and write natural languagesCrawl through forms and loginsScrape JavaScript and crawl through APIsUse and write image-to-text softwareAvoid scraping traps and bot blockersUse scrapers to test your website

Trillions of lines of code help us in our lives, companies, and organizations. But just a single software cybersecurity vulnerability can stop entire companies from doing business and cause billions of dollars in revenue loss and business recovery. Securing the creation and deployment of software, also known as software supply chain security, goes well beyond the software development process.This practical book gives you a comprehensive look at security risks and identifies the practical controls you need to incorporate into your end-to-end software supply chain. Author Cassie Crossley demonstrates how and why everyone involved in the supply chain needs to participate if your organization is to improve the security posture of its software, firmware, and hardware.With this book, you'll learn how to:Pinpoint the cybersecurity risks in each part of your organization's software supply chainIdentify the roles that participate in the supply chain—including IT, development, operations, manufacturing, and procurementDesign initiatives and controls for each part of the supply chain using existing frameworks and referencesImplement secure development lifecycle, source code security, software build management, and software transparency practicesEvaluate third-party risk in your supply chain

Embedded controller electronics are at the heart of virtually all modern electronic devices today with a market of more than $86 billion per year and growing. To serve the needs of designers creating products for this huge market, this practical book covers topics crucial for modern electronics design.Author Jerry Twomey examines the methods necessary to help you create a trouble-free integrated system for your product, with an emphasis on hardware design. You'll explore topics from the perspective of real-world applications, including discussions about non-ideal components, noise, and methods for avoiding problematic scenarios.Topics include:Ideal versus actual connections, components, digital, signalsArchitecting an embedded systemDigital interface selection by application, speed, distanceMultivoltage power suppliesHigh frequency power integrityBattery and charging systemsEMI reduction and ESD protectionDriving and sensing peripheralsDigital feedback controlOptimization of power consumption and costSpecialty systems: medical, industrial, aerospacePCB design including manufacturability, yield, and low noiseThis book guides you through all of the techniques listed, which are required for a reliable integrated system. Through extensive illustrations and minimal equations, anyone with an interest in electronics will quickly grasp the ideas discussed.

Business decisions in any context—operational, tactical, or strategic—can have considerable consequences. Whether the outcome is positive and rewarding or negative and damaging to the business, its employees, and stakeholders is unknown when action is approved. These decisions are usually made under the proverbial cloud of uncertainty.With this practical guide, data analysts, data scientists, and business analysts will learn why and how maximizing positive consequences and minimizing negative ones requires three forms of rich information: Descriptive analytics explores the results from an action—what has already happened. Predictive analytics focuses on what could happen. The third, prescriptive analytics, informs us what should happen in the future.While all three are important for decision-makers, the primary focus of this book is on the third: prescriptive analytics. Author Walter R. Paczkowski, Ph.D. shows you:The distinction among descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analyticsHow predictive analytics produces a menu of action optionsHow prescriptive analytics narrows the menu of action optionsThe forms of prescriptive analytics: eight prescriptive methodsTwo broad classes of these methods: non-stochastic and stochasticHow to develop prescriptive analyses for action recommendationsWays to use an appropriate tool-set in Python

Until recently, infrastructure was the backbone of organizations operating software they developed in-house. But now that cloud vendors run the computers, companies can finally bring the benefits of agile custom-centricity to their own developers. Adding product management to infrastructure organizations is now all the rage.But how's that possible when infrastructure is still the operational layer of the company?This practical book guides engineers, managers, product managers, and leaders through the shifts that modern platform-led organizations require. You'll learn what platform engineering is—and isn't—and what benefits and value it brings to developers and teams. You'll understand what it means to approach a platform as a product and learn some of the most common technical and managerial barriers to success.With this book, you'll:Cultivate a platform-as-product, developer-centric mindsetLearn what platform engineering teams are and are notStart the process of adopting platform engineering within your organizationDiscover what it takes to become a product manager for a platform teamUnderstand the challenges that emerge when you scale platformsAutomate processes and self-service infrastructure to speed development and improve developer experienceBuild out, hire, manage, and advocate for a platform team

Large language models (LLMs) are not just shaping the trajectory of AI, they're also unveiling a new era of security challenges. This practical book takes you straight to the heart of these threats. Author Steve Wilson, chief product officer at Exabeam, focuses exclusively on LLMs, eschewing generalized AI security to delve into the unique characteristics and vulnerabilities inherent in these models.Complete with collective wisdom gained from the creation of the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs list—a feat accomplished by more than 400 industry experts—this guide delivers real-world guidance and practical strategies to help developers and security teams grapple with the realities of LLM applications. Whether you're architecting a new application or adding AI features to an existing one, this book is your go-to resource for mastering the security landscape of the next frontier in AI.You'll learn:Why LLMs present unique security challengesHow to navigate the many risk conditions associated with using LLM technologyThe threat landscape pertaining to LLMs and the critical trust boundaries that must be maintainedHow to identify the top risks and vulnerabilities associated with LLMsMethods for deploying defenses to protect against attacks on top vulnerabilitiesWays to actively manage critical trust boundaries on your systems to ensure secure execution and risk minimization

Large language models (LLMs) and generative AI are rapidly changing the healthcare industry. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize healthcare by improving the efficiency, accuracy, and personalization of care. This practical book shows healthcare leaders, researchers, data scientists, and AI engineers the potential of LLMs and generative AI today and in the future, using storytelling and illustrative use cases in healthcare.Authors Kerrie Holley, former Google healthcare professionals, guide you through the transformative potential of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI in healthcare. From personalized patient care and clinical decision support to drug discovery and public health applications, this comprehensive exploration covers real-world uses and future possibilities of LLMs and generative AI in healthcare.With this book, you will:Understand the promise and challenges of LLMs in healthcareLearn the inner workings of LLMs and generative AIExplore automation of healthcare use cases for improved operations and patient care using LLMsDive into patient experiences and clinical decision-making using generative AIReview future applications in pharmaceutical R&D, public health, and genomicsUnderstand ethical considerations and responsible development of LLMs in healthcare'The authors illustrate generative's impact on drug development, presenting real-world examples of its ability to accelerate processes and improve outcomes across the pharmaceutical industry.'--Harsh Pandey, VP, Data Analytics & Business Insights, Medidata-DassaultKerrie Holley is a retired Google tech executive, IBM Fellow, and VP/CTO at Cisco. Holley's extensive experience includes serving as the first Technology Fellow at United Health Group (UHG), Optum, where he focused on advancing and applying AI, deep learning, and natural language processing in healthcare.Manish Mathur brings over two decades of expertise at the crossroads of healthcare and technology. A former executive at Google and Johnson & Johnson, he now serves as an independent consultant and advisor. He guides payers, providers, and life sciences companies in crafting cutting-edge healthcare solutions.

Learn how to implement and manage a modern customer data platform (CDP) through the Salesforce Data Cloud platform. This practical book provides a comprehensive overview that shows architects, administrators, developers, data engineers, and marketers how to ingest, store, and manage real-time customer data.Author Joyce Kay Avila demonstrates how to use Salesforce's native connectors, canonical data model, and Einstein's built-in trust layer to accelerate your time to value. You'll learn how to leverage Salesforce's low-code/no-code functionality to expertly build a Data Cloud foundation that unlocks the power of structured and unstructured data. Use Data Cloud tools to build your own predictive models or leverage third-party machine learning platforms like Amazon SageMaker, Google Vertex AI, and Databricks.This book will help you:Develop a plan to execute a CDP project effectively and efficientlyConnect Data Cloud to external data sources and build out a Customer 360 Data ModelLeverage data sharing capabilities with Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, and AzureUse Salesforce Data Cloud capabilities for identity resolution and segmentationCreate calculated, streaming, visualization, and predictive insightsUse Data Graphs to power Salesforce Einstein capabilitiesLearn Data Cloud best practices for all phases of the development lifecycle

Product management naturally incorporates empathy, psychology, and thinking outside the box in pursuit of the best design for products. But how often do you apply those same skills to your relationships with people in your company?By breaking the art of stakeholder management into simple lessons and frameworks, this practical book shows product managers how to manage the crucial relationships that will help you make an impact and advance your career. You'll learn how to build trusting relationships with stakeholders, optimize your communication for different audiences, get buy-in for your ideas and roadmaps, and have stakeholders appreciate it when you say no.You'll learn how to:Build and maintain trust with your stakeholdersMap your organization and identify the real power playersEstablish roles and build an extended team that works well togetherCommunicate in a way that speaks to the needs and goals of different stakeholdersGet buy-in on your ideas and roadmapMake stakeholders appreciate and support you when you say'no'Sustain buy-in over timeManage difficult stakeholders and personalities

Learn how to get started with Futures Thinking. With this practical guide, Phil Balagtas, founder of the Design Futures Initiative and the global Speculative Futures network, shows you how designers and futurists have made futures work at companies such as Atari, IBM, Apple, Disney, Autodesk, Lufthansa, and McKinsey & Company.This book demystifies the process of Futures Thinking into a language that's practical and useful for both designers and strategists. You'll learn about Strategic Foresight for using ideas about the future to anticipate and prepare for change; explore Speculative Design to deal with the relationship between science, technology, and humans; and Design Fiction to explore and critique possible futures.Balagtas also shares stories from his journey to build a global community and describes how he works with clients to reshape the futures vocabulary. With this guide, you'll learn how to:Prepare your client, team, and/or audience for futuresFacilitate and work with the fundamental methods and frameworksGain advocacy and support within your organizationProvide measurable value from the process and outcomesBuild a futures culture and teamSustain a culture and support system beyond projects

Gain the valuable skills and techniques you need to accelerate the delivery of machine learning solutions. With this practical guide, data scientists, ML engineers, and their leaders will learn how to bridge the gap between data science and Lean product delivery in a practical and simple way. David Tan, Ada Leung, and Dave Colls show you how to apply time-tested software engineering skills and Lean product delivery practices to reduce toil and waste, shorten feedback loops, and improve your team's flow when building ML systems and products.Based on the authors'experience across multiple real-world data and ML projects, the proven techniques in this book will help your team avoid common traps in the ML world, so you can iterate and scale more quickly and reliably. You'll learn how to overcome friction and experience flow when delivering ML solutions.You'll also learn how to:Write automated tests for ML systems, containerize development environments, and refactor problematic codebasesApply MLOps and CI/CD practices to accelerate experimentation cycles and improve reliability of ML solutionsApply Lean delivery and product practices to improve your odds of building the right product for your usersIdentify suitable team structures and intra- and inter-team collaboration techniques to enable fast flow, reduce cognitive load, and scale ML within your organization

In the modern symphony of business, each section-from the technical to the managerial-must play in harmony. Authors Ron Itelman and Juan Cruz Viotti introduce a bold methodology to synchronize your business and technical teams, transforming them into a single, high-performing unit. Misalignment between business and technical teams halts innovation. You'll learn how to transcend the root causes of project failure-the ambiguity, knowledge gaps, and blind spots that lead to wasted efforts. The unifying methodology in this book will teach you these alignment tools and more: The four facets of data products: A simple blueprint that encapsulates data and business logic helps eliminate the most common causes of wasted time and misunderstandingThe concept compass: An easy way to identify the biggest sources of misalignmentSuccess spectrums: Define the required knowledge and road map your team needs to achieve successJSON Schema: Leverage JSON and JSON Schema to technically implement the strategy at scale, including extending JSON Schema with custom keywords, understanding JSON Schema annotations, and hosting your own schema registryData hygiene: Learn how to design high-quality datasets aligned with creating real business value, and protect your organization from the most common sources of pain

This practical guide provides a collection of techniques and best practices that are generally overlooked in most data engineering and data science pedagogy. A common misconception is that great data scientists are experts in the'big themes'of the discipline—machine learning and programming. But most of the time, these tools can only take us so far. In practice, the smaller tools and skills really separate a great data scientist from a not-so-great one.Taken as a whole, the lessons in this book make the difference between an average data scientist candidate and a qualified data scientist working in the field. Author Daniel Vaughan has collected, extended, and used these skills to create value and train data scientists from different companies and industries.With this book, you will:Understand how data science creates valueDeliver compelling narratives to sell your data science projectBuild a business case using unit economics principlesCreate new features for a ML model using storytellingLearn how to decompose KPIsPerform growth decompositions to find root causes for changes in a metricDaniel Vaughan is head of data at Clip, the leading paytech company in Mexico. He's the author of Analytical Skills for AI and Data Science (O'Reilly).

Learn how to use Go's strengths to develop services that are scalable and resilient even in an unpredictable environment. With this book's expanded second edition, Go developers will explore the composition and construction of cloud native applications, from lower-level Go features and mid-level patterns to high-level architectural considerations.Each chapter in this new edition builds on the lessons of the previous chapter, taking intermediate to advanced developers through Go to construct a simple but fully featured distributed key-value store. You'll learn about Go generics, dependability and reliability, memory leaks, and message-oriented middleware. New chapters on security and distributed state delve into critical aspects of developing secure distributed cloud native applications.With this book you will:Learn the features that make Go an ideal language for building cloud native softwareUnderstand how Go solves the challenges of designing scalable distributed servicesDesign and implement a reliable cloud native service by leveraging Go's lower-level features such as channels and goroutinesApply patterns, abstractions, and tooling to effectively build and manage complex distributed systemsOvercome stumbling blocks when using Go to build and manage a cloud native service

Reinforcement learning (RL) has led to several breakthroughs in AI. The use of the Q-learning (DQL) algorithm alone has helped people develop agents that play arcade games and board games at a superhuman level. More recently, RL, DQL, and similar methods have gained popularity in publications related to financial research.This book is among the first to explore the use of reinforcement learning methods in finance.Author Yves Hilpisch, founder and CEO of The Python Quants, provides the background you need in concise fashion. ML practitioners, financial traders, portfolio managers, strategists, and analysts will focus on the implementation of these algorithms in the form of self-contained Python code and the application to important financial problems.This book covers:Reinforcement learningDeep Q-learningPython implementations of these algorithmsHow to apply the algorithms to financial problems such as algorithmic trading, dynamic hedging, and dynamic asset allocationThis book is the ideal reference on this topic. You'll read it once, change the examples according to your needs or ideas, and refer to it whenever you work with RL for finance.Dr. Yves Hilpisch is founder and CEO of The Python Quants, a group that focuses on the use of open source technologies for financial data science, AI, asset management, algorithmic trading, and computational finance.

Get a fascinating and disturbing look into how state and nonstate actors throughout the world use cyber attacks to gain military, political, and economic advantages. In the third edition of this book, cyber warfare researcher Jeffrey Caruso explores the latest advances in cyber espionage and warfare that have emerged on the battlefields of Ukraine and the Middle East, including cyber attacks that result in the physical destruction of the target and the pairing of cognitive with maneuver warfare.Inside Cyber Warfare features an exclusive deep dive into the wartime operations of an offensive cyber unit of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense as it works to defend the nation against Russian forces, particularly since the 2022 invasion:See what happened when a Ukrainian cyber and special operations team worked together to destroy a secret missile laboratoryExplore the legal status of cyber warfare and civilian hackersDiscover how a cyber team with little money and limited resources learned to create fire from the manipulation of code in automated systemsDistinguish reality from fiction regarding AI safety and existential riskLearn new strategies for keeping you and your loved ones safe in an increasingly complex and insecure world

Data modeling is the single most overlooked feature in Power BI Desktop, yet it's what sets Power BI apart from other tools on the market. This practical book serves as your fast-forward button for data modeling with Power BI, Analysis Services tabular, and SQL databases. It serves as a starting point for data modeling, as well as a handy refresher.Author Markus Ehrenmueller-Jensen, founder of Savory Data, shows you the basic concepts of Power BI's semantic model with hands-on examples in DAX, Power Query, and T-SQL. If you're looking to build a data warehouse layer, chapters with T-SQL examples will get you started. You'll begin with simple steps and gradually solve more complex problems.This book shows you how to:Normalize and denormalize with DAX, Power Query, and T-SQLApply best practices for calculations, flags and indicators, time and date, role-playing dimensions and slowly changing dimensionsSolve challenges such as binning, budget, localized models, composite models, and key value with DAX, Power Query, and T-SQLDiscover and tackle performance issues by applying solutions in DAX, Power Query, and T-SQLWork with tables, relations, set operations, normal forms, dimensional modeling, and ETL

Learn how to prepare for—and pass—the Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) certification exam. This practical guide serves as both a study guide and point of entry for practitioners looking to explore and adopt cloud native technologies. Adrián González Sánchez and Jorge Valenzuela Jiménez teach you not only the core technology fundamentals, but also the community and industry that KCNA serves.With the meteoric rise in cloud adoption, cloud native technologies such as Kubernetes have become the de facto industry standard. Other Kubernetes certifications—including KCSA, CKAD, CKA, and CKS—are all geared toward higher-level technical proficiency. The KCNA is the entry door to your cloud native journey, and the certification exam covers the cloud native environment generally as well as fundamental Kubernetes skills and knowledge.This guide helps you learn:How to best and most efficiently prepare for the KCNA examThe latest cloud native developments and their importanceThe fundamentals of Kubernetes, cloud native development, and related CNCF projectsThe core elements of Kubernetes applicationsThe crucial elements of modern cloud native developmentHow to differentiate and choose cloud native technologiesThe market value of passing the KCNA examInsights and testimonials from key cloud native industry experts

TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript with the potential to solve many of the headaches for which JavaScript is famous. But TypeScript has a learning curve of its own, and understanding how to use it effectively takes time and practice. Using the format popularized by Effective C++ and Effective Java (both Addison-Wesley), this practical book features 83 items that give specific advice on what to do and what not to do, and how to think about the language. Author Dan Vanderkam shows you how to apply each item's advice through concrete examples. This book will help you advance from a beginning or intermediate user familiar with TypeScript basics to an expert who knows how to use the language well. Updated for TypeScript 5, this second edition includes two new chapters on type-level programming and TypeScript recipes.Learn the nuts and bolts of TypeScript's type systemUse type inference to get full safety with a minimum of type annotationsDesign types to make your code safer and more understandableModel complex APIs using generic types and type-level programmingUnderstand how dependencies and type declaration files work in TypeScriptSuccessfully migrate your JavaScript code base to TypeScript

If you haven't modernized your data cleaning and reporting processes in Microsoft Excel, you're missing out on big productivity gains. And if you're looking to conduct rigorous data analysis, more can be done in Excel than you think. This practical book serves as an introduction to the modern Excel suite of features along with other powerful tools for analytics.George Mount of Stringfest Analytics shows business analysts, data analysts, and business intelligence specialists how to make bigger gains right from your spreadsheets by using Excel's latest features. You'll learn how to build repeatable data cleaning workflows with Power Query, and design relational data models straight from your workbook with Power Pivot. You'll also explore other exciting new features for analytics, such as dynamic array functions, AI-powered insights, and Python integration.Learn how to build reports and analyses that were previously difficult or impossible to do in Excel. This book shows you how to:Build repeatable data cleaning processes for Excel with Power QueryCreate relational data models and analysis measures with Power PivotPull data quickly with dynamic arraysUse AI to uncover patterns and trends from inside ExcelIntegrate Python functionality with Excel for automated analysis and reporting

Get practical advice on how to leverage AI development tools for all stages of code creation, including requirements, planning, design, coding, debugging, testing, and documentation. With this book, beginners and experienced developers alike will learn how to use a wide range of tools, from general-purpose LLMs (ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude) to code-specific systems (GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, Cursor, and Amazon CodeWhisperer).You'll also learn about more specialized generative AI tools for tasks such as text-to-image creation.Author Tom Taulli provides a methodology for modular programming that aligns effectively with the way prompts create AI-generated code. This guide also describes the best ways of using general purpose LLMs to learn a programming language, explain code, or convert code from one language to another.This book examines:The core capabilities of AI-based development toolsPros, cons, and use cases of popular systems such as GitHub Copilot and Amazon CodeWhispererWays to use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other generic LLMs for codingUsing AI development tools for the software development lifecycle, including requirements, planning, coding, debugging, and testingPrompt engineering for developmentUsing AI-assisted programming for tedious tasks like creating regular expressions, starter code, object-oriented programming classes, and GitHub ActionsHow to use AI-based low-code and no-code tools, such as to create professional UIs