Android App Bundles Should Be Chosen By Businesses- Why?

Android Developers Blog: Recent Android App Bundle improvements and timeline for new apps on Google Play

Did you know that the Android App Bundle has become the gold standard for publishing on Google Play? Dig into its benefits.

When I first heard about this new upload format known as the App Bundle, I was very excited! Many of the issues that we developers faced like building APKs to target different API versions, device types, and so on- are now passed on Google Play.

From this day on, developers will be able to use Dynamic Delivery for creating optimized APKs that satisfy the requirements of user’s devices and delivers them at the runtime for installation.

All this is being done through the Android app bundle app distribution format. Let us dive into what Android’s new, official publishing format is all about.

What is Android App Bundle?

Android App Bundle

Android launched a new official publishing format called android app bundles (.aab) and it offers a more efficient way to build and release your app. It also lets you easily deliver a great user experience in a small-sized app, this in turn also improves install success rate and reduces uninstallation rates.

Android App Bundles are Google recommended way for building, publishing, and distributing the application across different device configurations.

Did you know that the android app bundle has become the gold standard for publishing on Google Play? Over 600,000 apps and games currently use the app bundle in production, representing over 40% of all releases on Google Play including Netflix.

Let’s look into the benefits of app bundles now.

Benefits Of Using Google Android App Bundle

1.  Size Reduction

App size-reduction. Optimizing builds for lesser sizes | by Manoj Aher | Flawless iOS | Medium

App bundles help in reducing a significant amount of application size! On average, developers have witnessed a 20% size savings compared to APK. You can visit the new app size report in the google play console to see how much your app could save.

Did you know that, with the help of app bundle development, Adobe reduced the size of Adobe Acrobat Reader by 20%? Not only this, but some of these size savings by early adopters of app bundles show some jaw-dropping results. These results are what make Android app bundles a great way to build Android Go apps:

2.  Increased app installations and decreased uninstallations

Why Users Uninstall Apps: 28% of People Feel Spammed | CleverTap

Apps increasing size would not matter much if we had unlimited storage in our devices. But, as we know, it’s not the case. As the size of an app increases the number of installations decrease!

As a ripple effect of size savings with the help of xamarin android app bundle will increase the app installations. This also resulted in the increase of update rates, and very fewer uninstallations. 

 3.  Higher efficiency

How to Protect Efficiency in Your Business

App bundle development in android allows you to build one artifact that includes all of your app’s collected code, resources, and native libraries. So, you are no longer required to build, sign, upload, and manage version codes for multiple APKs. Hence, the efficiency is increased if you install an android app bundle on your device.

4.  Faster downloads

Faster Downloads through MediaFire's New Downloader - MediaFire Blog

Your app can be efficiently tailored to each device by Google Play which means the process of downloading and installing the app becomes faster.

5.  Integrated codes

Integrated Terminal in Visual Studio Code

With the help of the android studio app bundle, you can prepare for the 64-bit requirement without increasing the size of your app. As a result, Play will deliver the appropriate native code required for each device. 

6.  Increased engineering velocity

Heroes and Juniors: Increasing Engineering Team Velocity | by Marianne Bellotti | Medium

The entire process of creating an app is accelerated. From building dynamic and independent modules to designing, testing, and releasing it. The engineering velocity gets a major boost with the android app bundle unity.

For example, The Book My Show app declared that their app builds time (for a completely new build, without any caching) went down by 70% — this is because, with app bundles, it just dumps every resource into the bundle, rather than segregating them, like for APKs.

7.  Reduced manual effort

Reduced effort - Kainos WorkSmart

During android app development several manual efforts can be completely automated. Once the development is done, its link is uploaded and shared on a specific Slack channel automatically. No manual intervention is required.

8.  Dynamic delivery enabled

Dynamic Delivery in Android — Part 1 | by Siva Ganesh Kantamani | Programming Geeks | Medium

App bundles have introduced us to a new concept known as dynamic delivery. One can deliver conditional features at the time of installation on the basis of properties like device features (e.g., AR/VR), user’s country, or device’s version. Users are also given the facility to install features on an on-demand mode instead of the install time. They can even uninstall the features they no longer need.

This will help the users personalize their experience as per their requirements. This will also come in handy when you do not want to increase the size of your app in the long term. Further allowing us to make the initial size of our application smaller and then offering extra features only to the users who might actually make use of them.

How To Build and Deploy Android App Bundles?

Publish smaller apps with the Android App Bundle | Xamarin Blog

Unlike APKs, app bundles are a publishing format that entails all of your app’s codes. So, it cannot be deployed directly to a device. With the help of the android studio, creating a project as a signed app bundle is just a few clicks away!

To build app bundles, follow these steps:

Step-1: Start with downloading Android Studio 3.2 or higher. It is the simplest way to build app bundles.

Step-2: Add support for Play Feature Delivery by including a base module, organizing code and resources for configuration APKs, and, optionally, adding feature modules.

Step-3: Now, start building an Android App Bundle using Android Studio. You can even deploy the application onto a connected device from the app bundle through modification of your debug/run configuration and selection of the ‘deploy APK from app bundle’ option.

Step-4: Testing and publishing your app bundle will be the final step.

Test Your App Bundle

Once you create the android app bundle, you should test how Google Play will use it to generate APKs and how those APKs will behave when deployed to a device. You can use the following methods to test the same:

  • Test your app bundle locally by using the bundle tool. It will generate APKs from your app bundle and deploy them to a connected device.
  • Share your app with a URL. It is the speediest way of uploading your app bundle and sharing your app as a Google Play Store link with your testers.
  • Set up an open, closed, or internal test. This is another way of testing custom delivery options, like downloading app features on demand.

Final Words

The future has a lot in store for all of us and it is up to us to keep up with it! Without any doubt, I can tell you that the android app bundles are where the future lies. Being an android app development company, we can help you stay ahead in the game.

Lean UX – The Evolution of User Experience in the Lean Methodology

Lean UX

You’ve landed your first UX job. Now what? You’re probably excited about what’s in store for you in this career path – and a tad overwhelmed. I’ve written this article as an attempt to ease your nerves. Some of what you read, you may already be aware of. And if you feel some of them sound more like life hacks than design tips – it’s probably because they are.

Show Initiatives

If you’re new to the workplace, chances are the heavy-lifting hasn’t started yet. You’re relatively free, and it’s a great time for you to say yes yes to doing any and all kinds of work – even if it wasn’t part of the job description; even if you don’t think you’re good at it

Being forthcoming and approachable about the kind of work you’re open to doing signifies that you’re open to learning everything there is to the job. Say yes. Make mistakes. It’s all good. Most UX designer jobs are entry-level positions, hence having a host of ancillary skills will help you grow in the organisation faster. Opening yourself up to new kinds of work will only help you holistically as a designer.

Forget the job description; be a generalist

It’s easy to get caught up in the rat race, so here’s a protip- don’t!

 

It’s typical of the most design professional to get trapped in the title race that we forget to think about what eventually matters – our overall growth as a designer. An exceptional UX designer is almost always a generalist and being one involves proficiency not only in design but also in subjects like empathy, communication, content writing, business and strategy, just to name a few.

Find real users to test ideas on

 

One of the most neglected steps in the design process is testing your product on real users before launching it. Don’t get us wrong- having a revolutionary concept is great. But until you get feedback from someone who is going to use it every day, it will remain just – a novel concept! And no, your teammates aren’t your real users, their feedback isn’t going to help much.

Look for a mentor

 

Differing opinions can sometimes be key to new insights. You need to blend with the people and find someone who can speak to you candidly and help you navigate life in the organisation and profession alike. Scan your workplace or industry and find a mentor with the skills and professional drive that you wish to emulate. A good mentor can impart nuggets of wisdom that you may not find in self-help manual or guide.

Sketch first

No matter how far we get with technology there is no alternative for putting pen to paper. Since it’s still early days in your design career, refrain from designing directly on the screen. Even if you are a master at visualizing an idea down to the last pixel in your head, we end up losing many details by the time we reach the final product. Sketching is the quickest way to translate an idea in your mind into the real world. You can come up with multiple iterations of your idea quickly. No time is wasted figuring out which font size or color to use, or what kind of roundness a button should have.

Lean UX

Get into the habit of writing

 

Writing – stories, blogs, journaling – helps in bringing about clarity to your thoughts, which is difficult to achieve if it’s all just locked inside our head. In addition to sketching disparate blueprints, consider fleshing out concept notes that you can develop into products later. When you make writing a habit, you start to notice that it translates to your designs as well. Writing microcopy is an essential skill for UX designers, which can make or break their design. A product’s true value is almost always conveyed through the copy used. Creativity in the spoken word will help you refine your UX designer portfolio.

Get design inspirations, but do not copy

By habit, designs of most designers tend to get heavily influenced by sites such as Dribbble, Behance or by apps with “cool” interfaces. What they miss out to understand is that each design is created to solve a specific problem. It’s obtuse to mindlessly copy these designs without understanding the reasoning behind them. Try to adopt a problem-solving attitude to design; look at each product from a customer’s viewpoint and build experiences to keep them coming back for more. This methodology will give you a definite edge in the industry.

Seek and respect feedbacks

 

In your career as a designer, your thoughts and ideas will be challenged by your clients, peers, and sometimes by yourself (which I highly recommend doing). Defending the designs we make is almost a knee-jerk reaction we’re all guilty of, and while it is your job to communicate to the client why you did what you did, don’t get too attached to your designs. Instead, learn to love the feedback you receive and probe deeper to understand the underlying reason for the feedback. Being receptive to feedback will also help people around you feel more forthcoming in sharing their honest views.

Don’t stick to a single process

The traditional design process that we are used to struggles to keep up with the changing needs of stakeholders. Every new project comes with its own set of challenges – the client wants the product yesterday, they don’t have time for user research, and, likely, the design process you’ve sworn by all this time doesn’t fit in with the project plan. The only way to adapt to these changing needs is by adopting newer design processes that can positively impact the project. Read up about processes like Lean UX and Design Sprints. Read up about design strategy from the greats. They’ve changed the way we work and collaborate with teams and clients (and users) on a project. Understanding these processes and identifying when to apply them is key to becoming a master of your craft.

Attend workshops

 

Design workshops expose you to influential thought-leaders from the industry. They teach you firsthand about real-world problems and solutions. Also workshops are a good way to find a mentor from your field and speak of your interests to a wide variety of people interested in the design discipline.

Conclusion

One last thing, but it’s necessary. The first project you work on won’t be perfect – a lot of them won’t be. The first article you write won’t be perfect either. And neither will the workshops you conduct. And that’s okay. Perfection shouldn’t be your end goal. Design is an iterative process. And we’re all still figuring it out. Might as well enjoy the process while you’re at it.

Guidelines for Writing a Great Corporate Email

Email Marketing

We are living in a world where communication is taken way more seriously than ever before. Communication has been taken to a different level, from letters to mobile communication to emails to sms to Whatsapp to Snapchat and the list can go on.

Today the most basic form of communication is either email or chats or messaging (be it sms or Whatsapp). Although personally I do not favour the modern forms of communication since it kills the whole corporate feeling to it, I have come to accept it, as it is a vital part of corporate communication.

In today’s world, we communicate more in the form of written rather than verbal text because of which the language used and the correct use of grammar surfaces as of the utmost importance, especially while writing to clients.  Clients might just take the literal sense of what we say and miss the whole point altogether!. So here are 8 things, one should be careful about while writing a corporate email!

1. The KISS Rule

Keep it simple tattoo | Drawings, Sketches, Doodle art

Keep it simple silly. No one likes to read long paragraphs or a long story in an email. It’s best to keep it short, simple and crisp. That is how a client would like it. But when I say simple it doesn’t only mean the simplicity of thoughts. More than the content it is the presentation that should be kept short and simple.

2. The Formal/ Informal Email

 Writing Formal and Informal Emails

Depending on whom we are writing to, the tone and the content of the email changes.  The kind of client he/she is left for you to decide. Remember, sometimes we should be very subtle about our opinions because not everyone can take honest suggestions in the right way. Here’s a short example of informal vs formal writing.

Informal: It is a bad idea.

Formal: I am not sure if this would be a good idea.

3. Spelling

These Hacks Remind Us That Spelling Still Matters - Dictionary.com

This is where most of us go wrong. We depend a lot on the auto correct option but it’s not always a good idea. At times you need to double-check certain spellings, especially the client’s name while writing!

4. Never Say No

Never Say No

A client would never like to listen to phrases/words like; no, we cannot do it, it’s impossible, etc. So how would you convey a “no” to a client? There are a lot of ways to do it, here is one example: –

Instead of saying “we cannot do it” you can always say “what we can do instead.”

4. Proofreading

Strategies to Proofread Effectively

This one I would say is the most important part of writing emails, ALWAYS proofread what you have written. I know we live in a crazy – busy world and it is very easy to just press that send button but get into a habit of double checking what you have written.

5. Watch Your Grammar And Your Capitals.

corporate Email

We have to be very careful about not making silly grammatical mistakes. Like for example; we should not forget who we are addressing and keep the gender correct throughout the email. A “her” cannot be addressed as a “him”, so we need to watch out. Take care of your singulars and plurals too.

6. Punctuation

What is Punctuation? Useful Punctuation Rules & Punctuation Marks in English • 7ESL

Punctuations are something that could be overlooked if it is an informal email, however while writing to a client it needs to be attended to. As we are trying to create a good image to our client (especially your potential customers whom you are writing to for the first time.

7. Write Accurate Subjects

7 Tips to Declutter Your E-mail Inbox – So Happi Together

For easy access for you as well as your clients go the extra mile and write accurate email subjects. Create versions of documents so it’s easy to pick out the latest version of a design or copy, it will be appreciated deeply.

Growing threat of E-Skimming Attacks

WooCommerce Sites Targeted by E-Skimming Attacks | CyberScout

E-skimming has been an online shopping threat for a long time, keeping pace with the growth of e-commerce overall. The current global crisis presents another big opportunity for hackers to launch these strikes as people increasingly shop online. The nefarious cybercrime targets online payment systems to collect or “skim” the payment details of customers’ payment cards at the checkout.

What You Need to Know About E-Skimming | Inc.com

Unlike more traditional cyber attacks, where an entire customer database may be targeted in a single hit-and-run attack, skimming attacks continually intercept customer payment details at the point of purchase, making them harder to detect and often invisible to both customers and retailers.

Several criminal groups have become very adept at this kind of attack over the years, the most prevalent and successful of which is known as Magecart. Magecart is an umbrella term for a set of sophisticated criminal groups using similar malware and techniques — all with the goal of stealing credit card information from online retailers.

The Magecart groups are known to have been active since 2016 and have been behind some of the largest payment system attacks in recent years, including British Airways (2018), Newegg electronics (2018), the Atlanta Hawks Shop fan merchandise store (2019), Forbes magazine subscriptions (2019), as well as ticket-reselling websites for the 2020 Olympic Games and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Euro 2020 soccer tournament (2020). Such attacks earned Magecart a position on Wired magazine’s “Most Dangerous People on the Internet” list in 2018.

How it works

New Cybercrime called E-Skimming is Targeting Businesses with Online shopping Websites | by Haniah Shafi | Medium

In most skimming attacks the threat actor introduces some additional code to a retailer’s e-commerce application. Recent attacks by the Magecart group have achieved this through the compromise of a trusted external third party whose code is legitimately included in the application, such as an external code repository, a chatbot or an advertising vendor.

So far, researchers have identified more than 40 different code-injection exploits, sometimes as small as 20 characters, which can be difficult to detect unless the application code is examined line-by-line for changes.

Attackers have also incorporated the use of valid SSL certificates tied to the domains that deliver malicious code, making traffic appear legitimate and preventing customers from receiving mixed content warnings when the website attempts to mix trusted, encrypted website content with malicious content that is served unencrypted.

A recent report has also described Magecart attacks where misconfigured access controls on Amazon S3 buckets allowed the attackers to tack their skimmer code onto existing JavaScript application code files.

Defending against card skimming

Defend against credit card fraud - Articles | Consumers Credit Union

The best proactive cyber defense an organization can implement to defend against card-skimming attacks all focus on hardening the e-commerce application stack and limiting what code is allowed to run.

  • Use a free online scanning resource to help spot suspicious connections being opened by scripts injected into the application. Browser developer tools can also be used to analyze contents and spot suspicious connections made during a customer session.
  • Use the Amazon “Block Public Access” option on any S3 buckets in use by the organization to prevent unauthorized changes to application files.
  • Define a Content Security Policy (CSP) that defines a list of locations that resources can be loaded from on your site. This should be applied to all sensitive pages, such as payment pages, login pages and other areas where users may enter sensitive information.
  • Verify any external scripts, such as those from advertising partners, using Subresource Integrity (SRI). This will ensure that any scripts included from external sources are hashed and checked against a known good value to ensure that they are the files that you expect to be loaded and if not, they are blocked from loading by the browser.
  • Make sure that all assets on sensitive pages use SRI. Using the “require-sri-for” directive in the CSP to enforce SRI on all scripts and style tags will prevent assets being included on these pages that do not have SRI enabled.

The activity seen from Magecart and similar adversaries demonstrates that these are a persistent and resilient threat. The lucrative nature of card-skimming attacks ensures that attacks will continue to evolve in both stealth and capability in response to security precautions. However, for many of the attacks we have seen from these groups to date, had the measures described above been implemented, they would have gone a long way toward preventing some very embarrassing and expensive breaches.

Microservices vs Monolithic Architecture

Microservices vs. Monolith Architecture - DEV Community

Microservices architecture has become a hot topic in the software backend development world. The ecosystem carries a profound impact on not just the enterprises’ IT function but also in the digital transformation of an entire app business.

The debate of Microservices vs monolithic architecture defines a revolutionary shift in how an IT  team approaches their software development cycle: Whether they go with the approach that brands like Google, Amazon, and Netflix chose or do they go with the simplicity quotient that a startup which is at the development stage demands.

In this article, we are going to get startups an answer to which backend architecture they should choose when they are starting their journey to become a startup.

Table Of Content:

  1. What are Microservices Architecture?
  2. What is Monolithic Architecture?
  3. Microservices vs Monolithic Architecture: Advantages and Disadvantages
  4. How to Choose Between Monolithic and Microservice Architecture?
  5. Migrating from a Monolithic Architecture to a Microservice Ecosystem
  6. Conclusion

What are Microservices Architecture?

Microservice Architecture pattern

Microservices architecture contains a mix of small and autonomous services where every service is self-contained and must be implemented as a single business ability. It is a distinct approach used for development of software systems which focus on developing several single-function modules with clearly-defined operations and interfaces. The approach has become a popular trend in the past several years as more and more Enterprises are looking to become Agile and make a shift towards DevOps.

Components of Microservices architecture that makes it one of the best enterprise architecture:

  • The services are independent, small, and loosely coupled
  • Encapsulates a business or customer scenario
  • Every service is different codebase
  • Services can be independently deployed
  • Services interact with each other using APIs

With the question of what are microservices architecture now answered, let us move on to look into what is monolithic architecture.

What is Monolithic Architecture? 

Introduction to Monolithic Architecture and MicroServices Architecture | by Siraj ul Haq | KoderLabs | Medium

Monolithic application has a single codebase having multiple modules. The modules, in turn, are divided into either technical features or business features. The architecture comes with a single build system that helps build complete application. It also comes with a single deployable or executable binary.

Now that we have looked into what is monolithic architecture and microservices architecture, let us look into the disadvantages and benefits that both the backend system offers to get an understanding of what separates them from each other.

Microservices vs Monolithic Architecture: Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of Monolithic Architecture

A. Zero Deployment Dependencies

Dependencies Handling in Python

An organized and well-documented Monolith architecture makes it possible for Backend developers to not worry about which version would be compatible with which service, how to find which services are present and what they do, etc.

B. Error Tracing

Poor man's performance and error tracing (ft. HAProxy) | Sysbee

One of the biggest benefits of monolithic is that all the transactions are logged into one place, making error tracing task a breeze.

C. No Silos

no-silos – TeamStrength, Inc.

The one factor that works in the favour of monolithic in the microservices vs monolithic architecture debate is absence of silos. It becomes very easy for the developers to work on multiple parts of the app for they are all structured similarly, using the same tools, which makes it okay to have no prior distributed computing knowledge.

D. Cross-cutting concerns:

Cross cutting concern example - Stack Overflow

Spending time in defining the services which do not bleed in each other’s time is the time that you can actually spend in developing things that help the customers.

E. Shared Code:

The Problem with Shared Code. This is the first of a 4-part series on… | by Jeff Whelpley | Medium

No shared libraries where the complete scope needed for services to operate is sent along each request.

Limitations of Monolithic Architecture

A. Lack of Flexibility:

Lack of flexibility in the workplace kills productivity, says report - Employee Benefits

Monolithic architectures are not flexible. You cannot use different technologies when you have incorporated Monolithic. The technology stack which have been decided at the beginning have to be followed throughout the project, making upgrades a next to impossible task.

B. Development Speed:

How to Decrease Time for Software Development Projects - BIT Studios

Microservices speed development process is famous when you compare microservices architecture vs monolithic architecture. Development is very slow in monolithic architecture. It can be very difficult for team members to understand and then modify the code of large monolithic applications. Additionally, as the size of codebase increases, the IDE gets overloaded and gets slower. All of this results in a slowed down app development speed.

C. Difficult Scalability:

Scalability Complex Like A Puzzle - Pictured As Word Scalability On A Puzzle Pieces To Show That Scalability Can Be Difficult And Stock Illustration - Illustration of idea, analogy: 164219546

Scaling monolithic applications becomes difficult when the apps becomes large. While developers can develop new instances of monolith and load balancer to distribute the traffic to new instances, monolithic architecture cannot scale with the increasing load.

Benefits of Microservices Architecture

All You Need to Know about Microservices Architecture in 2019

  1. The biggest factor in favour of microservices in the difference between microservices and monolithic architecture is that it handles complexity issues by decomposing the app into manageable service set that are faster to develop and easier to maintain and understand.
  2. It enables independent service development through a team which is focused on the particular service, which makes the ideal choice of businesses that work with an Agile development approach.
  3. It lowers the barrier of adopting newer technologies as the developers have the freedom to choose whatever technology that makes sense to their project.
  4. It makes it possible for every microservice to be deployed individually. The result of which is that continuous deployment of complex application becomes possible.

Drawbacks of Microservices Architecture

Microservice Architecture: 5 Major Benefits - Skelia

  1. Microservices add a complexity to project simply by the fact that the microservices application is distributed system. To solve the complexities, developers have to select and implement inter-process communication that is based on either RPC or messaging.
  2. They work with partitioned database architecture. The business transactions which update multiple business entities inside the microservices application also have to update different databases that are owned by multiple services.
  3. It is a lot more difficult to implement changes which span across multiple services. While in case of Monolithic architecture, an app development agency only have to change the corresponding modules, integrate all the changes, and then deploy them all in one go.
  4. Deployment of a microservice application is very complex. It consists of a number of services, which individually have multiple runtime instances. In contrast, a monolithic application is deployed on set of identical servers behind load balancer.

The benefits and limitations are prevalent in both monolithic and microservices architecture. This makes it extremely difficult for a startup to gauge which backend architecture to incorporate in their journey.

Let us help you.

How to Choose Between Monolithic and Microservice Architecture? 

The fact that both the approaches come with their own set of pros and cons are a sign that there is no one size fits all methodology when it comes to choosing a backend architecture. But there are a few questions that can help you decide which is the right direction to head into.

Are You Working in a Familiar Sector?

Akash - Aligarh,Uttar Pradesh : Take a step to be familiar with computer and start your career in IT sector.

When you work in an industry where you know the veins of the sector and you know the demands and the needs of the customers, it becomes easier to enter into the system with a definite structure. The same, however, is not possible with a business that is very new in the industry, for the amount of looming doubts are much greater.

So, the use of microservice architecture in app development is best suited in cases where you know the industry inside out. If that is not the case, go with monolithic approach to develop your app.

How Prepared is Your Team?

Who is on the Team?

Is your team aware with the best practices for implementing microservices? Or are they more comfortable with working around the simplicity of monolithic? Will your team and your business offering expand in the coming time? You will have to find answers to all these questions to gauge whether the people who have to work on a project are even ready to migrate.

What is Your Infrastructure Like?

The Big Three: Comparing AWS, Azure and Google Cloud for Computing - The Sunshower.io Blog

Everything from the development to the deployment of a monolithic web application would require a cloud-based infrastructure. You will have to make use of Amazon AWS and Google Cloud for deploying even tiny elements. While the cloud technologies make the process easier, The idea of setting up database server for every other microservice and then scaling out is something that startup entrepreneur might not be comfortable with.

Have you Evaluated the Business Risk?

The art of predicting business risks: Why non-experts do it better | Fortune

More often than not, businesses take microservices’ side in the Microservices vs Monolithic Architecture thinking it is the right thing for their business. What they forget to factor in is the chance that their application might not become as scalable as they are optimistically expecting and they might have to suffer the risks of adding a highly scalable system in their process.

Here is a short list of pointers that would help you make the decision of choosing to opt for software development processes with microservices vs monolithic architecture:

When to Choose Monolithic Architecture?

  • When your team is at a founding stage
  • When you are developing a proof of concept
  • When you have no experience in microservices
  • When you have experience in the development on solid frameworks, like the Ruby on Rails, Laravel, etc.

When to Choose Microservices Architecture?

  • You need independent, quick delivery service
  • You need to extend your team
  • Your platform need to be extremely efficient
  • You don’t have a tight deadline to work with

Migrating from a Monolithic Architecture to a Microservice Ecosystem

Migrate From Monolithic Applications to a Microservice Architecture: Part 2

The right approach for migrating a monolithic architecture to a microservice ecosystem is to divide the monolith processes and turn them into microservices. The result of this is a two-factor plan:

  1. Identification of existing monolithic elements which can get decoupled
  2. A validation that the new functionality can be developed as microservice

One of the main challenges that can emerge when initiating the migration from a monolithic architecture to a microservice architecture is to design and create an integration between existing system and a new microservice. A solution for this can be to add a glue code which allows them to connect later, something like an API.

API gateway can also help in combining multiple individual service calls in one coarse-grained service, and this in turn would help reduce the integration cost with monolithic system.

Conclusion

When you compare microservices architecture vs monolithic architecture, you will find the former being a hot trend. Every entrepreneur wants to say that their app is based on this architecture. But the temptation to focus only on the problems of monolithic architecture and abandon the architecture should be measured against the actual value of microservice architecture.

The right approach would be to develop new apps using a monolithic approach and move to microservices only when the justification of the move is backed by proper metrics like performance monitoring.

For established businesses, microservices tend to be avenues for continuous deployment, team based development, and an agility to shift to new technologies. But for startups, or companies that are just starting, adopting microservices can impact the software project success very negatively.

Major Trends that will affect Cyber Security

Key cyber security trends to look out for in 2021 - Information Age

Will this year be as tumultuous as 2020? Let’s hope not. But one thing won’t change: In 2021, as is the case every year, companies will continue to be challenged by new or evolving cyber security threats.

We expect 5 security trends that emerged or accelerated last year to demand even more attention from organizations this year. Here is a look at key threats, potential vulnerabilities and defense strategies in 2021:

Zero Trust becomes more relevant than ever

What is the Zero Trust Model of Cybersecurity, Really? | LogRhythm

While the concept of Zero Trust has been around for over a decade, only now is it becoming a viable defense strategy. Today, every endpoint including remote PCs, smartphones, tablets, IoT sensors, containers, virtual systems and cloud resources is susceptible to attacks.

Traditional defenses are meaningless in an environment where the traditional network perimeter is slowly dissipating. It’s not just a matter if these assets will be compromised, but when. The only safe response is to trust nothing on your network and assume the environment is compromised. The premise of Zero Trust management is that to be secure, organizations must verify and authenticate access in a continuous manner.

In 2021, the rise of machine learning is paving the way for Zero Trust. Machine learning can be used to help document baseline user behavior and detect anomalies in actions. For example, if you normally log in from London, but today you’ve logged in from Hong Kong, the system recognizes this anomalous behavior, blocks access and triggers an alert to raise an investigation.

Applying Zero Trust will become an integral part of every organization’s business behavior as a way to future-proof the protection of data and assets.

Remote working is your new threat vector

Top 5 Remote Work Security Threats

As a result of government-mandated stay-at-home orders, remote working grew faster than anyone could have foreseen in 2020. Approximately 40 percent of the global workforce shifted to working from home or other remote locations. What’s more, the transition happened practically overnight and is expected to settle into a long-term trend.

Traditional security strategies, developed for staff working in the office within the same corporate network, are insufficient. In many cases, home routers and networks are not secure, and family members’ computing devices may be easily compromised.

What’s needed in 2021 is a new way of operating to work securely from remote locations. It will require changes in behavior, such as keeping access to corporate data from a home network to a minimum. Organizations must verify access to data and assets using various authentication methods that require human intervention and leverage new technologies, such as remote browsing or remote terminals, where no actual data is transmitted to the computing device at home.

Such changes, once unthinkable and impractical, will be crucial to securing work-from-home environments.

5G wireless offers new opportunities, enables new threats

Six Threats & Opportunities of the Disruption Called 5G

After being touted for years as wireless networking’s next big thing, 5G is finally becoming mainstream. Apple introduced its first 5G-capable iPhones in late 2020, and telecom providers worldwide have rolled out 5G services.

5G computing with its high-speed connections and improved network reliability should empower organizations to quickly deploy compute servers, IoT sensors and other devices on the edge in remote hubs.

The features of 5G, however, can pose new threats if not well-managed. If infrastructure is not carefully secured, adversaries can exfiltrate information very quickly and in large amounts from compromised environments, thanks to 5G’s blazing-fast bandwidth.

Another concern is that most endpoint devices are not designed to deal with a high-volume network, which means adversaries could use 5G bandwidth to easily overwhelm network assets through denial-of-service attacks.

Ransomware moves one step ahead

Five steps to blocking ransomware in its tracks | ITProPortal

Ransomware dominated headlines in 2020 and security experts have developed new tactics for responding to these threats. For example, by studying ransomware campaigns, security teams can deduce the decryption keys needed to unlock systems without having to pay the ransom.

Cyber criminals are aware of such countermeasures and are already developing ransomware encrypted at the code level. This means cyber security teams will have to wait for the code to run before it can be studied, thus slowing the development of countermeasures.

Attackers are also rewriting ransomware code to infect the firmware of computing devices and ensure perpetual presence in the victim’s environment. Code that is running at the firmware level may not be detected, stopped or removed by antimalware software.

As this malware cannot be simply overwritten, once a device is infected, the hardware must be either replaced or sent back to the factory to reinstall the firmware.

Cyber analytics drives more data-driven decisions

Finding Cyber Threats With Big Data Analytics | SIGNAL Magazine

Organizations are starting to understand the importance of using data to improve business decisions. Operational data can give insights about potential growth and cost-savings opportunities, and how to optimize business process.

Security operations, like other parts of business, are harnessing operational data to understand how business events tie to security events. Organizations can use cyber analytics and AI to predict when and where attacks are most likely to occur so they can then focus their investments to achieve the greatest protection.

AI systems must target aspects of operations unrelated to security that can be correlated with past security events. For example, an AI system might determine that most attacks occur 3 days before quarterly financial results are due to be publicly reported. With that information, organizations can proactively bolster security protections prior to the next public disclosure.

In 2021, such pre-emptive knowledge will help organizations plan ahead. However, to succeed they must thoroughly analyze and understand all the data they collect about operations and business behavior.

Thankfully, 2020 is behind us, but new threats await. Protecting enterprises this year will require new cyber defense strategies and tactics, and better threat intelligence.

Building A Cyber-Resilient Culture

Activating leadership to build cyber resiliency | Accenture

No enterprise is completely immune to cyber security attacks. Instead of focusing solely on preventing attacks, organizations should ensure they are able to respond quickly, recover and maintain operations. In other words, they should become cyber resilient.

Cyber resiliency requires establishing policies and processes that help an organization to survive and continue to execute its long-term strategy in the face of evolving security threats. Cyber resiliency should be part of a holistic approach to security that takes all aspects of the business into consideration, from employees and partners to the board of directors. Improving security is not a one-time project, but instead is a program of continuous improvement.

To become cyber resilient, enterprises must strike a balance between these three actions: protecting critical assets, detecting compromises and responding to incidents. Making the IT landscape cyber resilient requires investments in infrastructure, design and development of systems, applications and networks. At the same time, organizations must create and foster a resilience-conscious culture, of which security is an essential part.

How to build Cyber Resilience in your enterprise? - Estuate

An enterprise cyber resilience strategy includes three main components:

  1. Adapt business and IT systems to next-generation threatsEnterprises must prepare for global malware and ransomware attacks, as well as more subtle attacks, where the adversary lurks inside the network. Begin by defining your enterprise security architecture to address prioritized risks. Get a fresh baseline of your current security stance. For example, find out how your enterprise would recover from ransomware if multiple sites, the Active Directory, and backup platforms were to become encrypted. Evaluate critical applications and their dependencies on infrastructure; then define a communications and command structure to ensure business continuity.
  2. Update your security governance strategy. Governance is essential to successful security planning and key to attaining cyber resiliency. To ensure that your strategy measures up, incorporate strategies for protection, detection and response. Update and test business continuity and crisis management plans to cover new models of sourcing. Expand crisis management requirements to include all partners and suppliers. Make board members aware of cyber risks and the steps to effective cyber resiliency. Review and refine older access and software-patching policies and consider adopting role-based access control (RBAC) to more efficiently regulate access to computer and network resources.
  3. Create a resilience-conscious culture. Encourage all employees — not just the cybersecurity team — to adopt a cyber resilient mindset. Stress that employees are the first line of defense when it comes to threats such as phishing and malware. Promote collaboration across teams with pertinent information about security and threats. Coach employees to share knowledge with appropriate authorities and peers both within and outside of the enterprise.

Keep looking ahead

New threats are emerging as organizations adopt new technologies as part of ongoing digital transformation. Enterprises must be prepared and properly staffed to address these challenges:

Smart Yet Flawed: IoT Device Vulnerabilities Explained - Security News

  • Internet of things (IoT) vulnerabilities. Consider system cyber and physical security requirements and resilience before widely deploying and depending on IoT systems. Use IoT gateways and edge devices to segregate and provide layers of protection between insecure devices and the internet to help manage the overall lack of IoT security.

Solutions for Enterprise - Antier Solutions

  • Blockchain complexities. Blockchain technology, by its nature, is distributed and resilient. But blockchain moves transactions toward a decentralized model, making it essential to control private cryptography keys. When embedding security into blockchain transactions, use role-based authentication and end-to-end encryption to properly protect data.

Day-in-the-life of an SOC Analyst: An Inside Look | Springboard Blog

  • Lack of Security Operations Centers (SOCs) resources. Examine the important role SOCs play in bringing together the resources needed to direct the defense. Define what constitutes suspicious activity, identify vulnerabilities, configure detection technologies, search for and validate active threats and ultimately notify affected parties. SOCs must manage and monitor identities, as well as ensure compliance with policies and regulatory requirements.

Some thoughts about “Shift Left” security in DevSecOps | Andrea Fortuna

  • Transition to DevSecOps. Consider adopting a comprehensive DevSecOps model that incorporates review and governance and supports faster release schedules and innovation. Determine whether your organization can commit to the requirements necessary for success, which include changing to a culture of collaboration, building security throughout the development life cycle and evaluating technical and business risks.

Achieving cyber resiliency should be a modular transformation that evolves from a well-defined strategy to a project roadmap. Make sure you define a strategic direction aligned with business objectives, outline a plan to achieve that direction, and ensure proper execution of that plan, including decision making based on risk management.

Digital Security Strategy’s guiding concepts

Energy Northwest and WizNucleus to Build Next-Generation Cyber Security Assessment Application – WizNucleus

Digital transformation represents the greatest opportunity for the enterprise in the 21st century. CEOs across the globe have digital innovation on their agenda as they seek to deliver innovative new business models, create new digital customer experiences, and optimize and automate their processes to enhance business performance.

BUT…digital technologies and the rapid pace of change in a digital world also threaten the enterprise through a growing cyberthreat landscape with a widening attack surface that exploits the very same digital technologies being used to transform the business.

To prevent cyberattacks from derailing your digital initiatives, we need to build security into the very fabric of the digital enterprise. Delivering secure digital transformation is about building security into the digital core platform which is the foundation for how we transform the business…put simply, we must become “Secure to the Core” and have a consistent framework for digital security transformation.

Deploying the right Cyber Defense

Cyber Security Awareness: 7 Ways to Cyber Attack Vulnerability | Kaspersky

One of the key imperatives for secure digital transformation is the ability to monitor every aspect of technology (both IT and OT) across the business. In short, we need to Monitor Everything.

The modern enterprise requires a plethora of security tools to secure their infrastructure and endpoints (networks, firewalls, servers, storage, devices, applications, data, etc). These tools generate an enormous volume of data each day, making it almost impossible to identify and respond to true cyberthreats in a timely manner.

Intelligent Security Operations can detect threats quickly, respond to attacks rapidly, and defend the enterprise from security breaches by applying intelligence and automation to handle the enormous volume of incidents we see across the globe.

To ensure a secure core, Anteelo’s approach is to provide next-generation digital services with a high degree of automation through a Security Platform that applies lean process, deep analytics and intelligent automation to the security information and event management (SIEM) process.

We often describe the underlying technologies within this platform as SOAR (security, orchestration, automation and response).

Cybersecurity Analytics, Intelligence, Response and Orchestration

IDC, meanwhile, describes these cybersecurity technologies as AIRO (Analytics, Incident, Response, and Orchestration). The AIRO technologies trace what is required in the Security Operations Center (SOC) to protect the enterprise network through to threat detection and formal remediation.

Whether your approach is “SOAR” or “AIRO,” either way we must apply automation and orchestration to cyber defences in order to keep up with the sheer volume of data and incidents generated across a wide array of infrastructure and endpoints.

Firms Need to be "Secure to the Core" Before Digital Transformation

In addition to monitoring everything with SOAR (or AIRO), we also believe in two more critical imperatives that are needed to secure the enterprise: Verify Everything and Encrypt Everything.

Verify Everything is about adopting a zero-trust approach to digital identity and access management. Enterprises engaged in digital transformation need a new approach if they are going to thrive in the digital world. The principle for security is no longer about the “where” it’s about the “who.” Success requires a comprehensive focus on digital identity management. Identity and access management can effectively establish a logical perimeter that enables digital transformation. The right identity and access management solutions prevent unauthorized access to enterprise information using multiple authentication methods with user access management and provisioning.

Privacy by Design

7 Principles of Privacy By Design | by Privacy Guy | Privacy Guy | Medium

Encrypt Everything is about minimizing the risk of unauthorized or unlawful processing of business-critical data and avoiding accidental loss and destruction or damage to data. All sensitive data requires encryption and/or tokenization using trust services (PKI, certificate and key management), encryption solutions, and rights management. The right data protection and privacy solutions encrypt sensitive data and prevents data loss from malicious cyberattacks.

So, to enable your digital transformation journey, remember these three key security principles: Monitor Everything (with cyber defense solutions), Verify Everything (with digital identity solutions) and Encrypt Everything (with data protection solutions).

Locks on Web Redesign: 5 Keys to Unlock

Locks on Website Redesigning: 5 Keys to Unlock

A website is the destination of your online business, and you should make sure your website is well-designed and compliant with the existing SEO guidelines. Year after year, new technologies, software, and ranking algorithms are introduced, which force website owners to make the necessary design changes.

Website Redesigning

When to Consider a Website Redesign | Mightybytes

If you are a website owner who is contemplating a website redesign, this article discusses five vital factors that you should consider for redesigning a website.

A Responsive Website Redesigning

Responsive Website Redesigning Services, With 24*7 Support, | ID: 6654188497

A clunky, laggy, and unresponsive design can turn off the visitors in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, a beautiful looking website that responds to the touches and actions immediately hook in the visitors. Moreover, Google has made it clear that a responsive design that increases session time would be one of the significant ranking factors.

Good website redesigning includes a clutter-free interface with plenty of white spaces and small but visible navigation buttons. A website with symmetric and well-organized pages catch the eye of all users and make an excellent first impression. A responsive design Also includes different landing pages optimized according to various devices that can give your website a significant boost in traffic, average session time, and rankings.

Summarizing, your website needs to satisfy these parameters for attaining an excellent, responsive design that impresses your visitors and improves your Google rankings.

  • Beautiful design
  • A lot of white spaces with small navigation icons
  • Diverse landing pages

Mobile Optimization

Mobile Optimization: Principles From Smart Marketers - Lander Blog

Apart from responsive design, a website should be compatible with all small screen and large screen devices. Around 50 percent of the total internet traffic is mobile traffic, and Google, in one of its recent algorithm updates, has mentioned that mobile compatibility is going to be one of the significant ranking factors for websites.

Therefore, your website should be well-optimized for mobile, tablet, and other small-screen devices. A website can be optimized for mobile devices by several methods like:

  • Updating robot.txt file
  • Updating the CSS code
  • Using mobile-optimization plugins
  • Creating a mobile version for your website

Speed and Performance

Good Performance is Good Design. It's time for designers to own… | by Mitch Lenton | UX Planet

Suppose you typed a search query on Google and clicked on one of the displayed search results. You’ve been waiting for ten seconds, but the page does not load. What will you do? Unless you are not a regular visitor to that website, you leave it in a flash. This behavior is standard and applied to all the users; therefore, a website must load fast.

The design of the website plays a vital role in determining its speed and performance. If a website has a dense, clumsy design with a lot of content, pictures, and videos on every page, it takes more time to load. On the other hand, if a website has a sleek and responsive design with minimal content and compressed images, it loads faster.

Luckily, you can access a lot of free tools like GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insights that allow you to determine a website’s load speed and tips to improve it.

Some tips to improve your website’s load speed and performance are:

  • Design plays a vital role in determining your website’s load speed. Your website design should be minimal, with only necessary items and pieces of information on the page.
  • The presence of excessive multi-media elements like high-quality images and videos can significantly reduce the load speed of a website. Try reducing videos and pictures on your website, and compress the photos if they are relevant and provide the necessary information.
  • If your website does not have appropriate storage, bandwidth limit, or a right hosting provider, it affects its loading speed. Make sure to check these factors if your website takes time to load.
  • Check your website’s speed and performance regularly and act upon the recommended fixes and suggestions.

Accounts and Social Media Integration

Top Benefits of Social Media Integration in Online Marketing - Lander Blog

Social media integration enables you to multiply the number of visitors visiting your website without putting in any extra effort. Adding share buttons on your website allows your visitors to instantly share your content with their friends and family, which improves your reach, traffic, and rankings.

Adding your social media handles on the website can help you connect better with your audience and allows you to share content on different platforms and in various forms. Providing an option to register and login on your website enables you to provide your users with personalized user experience, which is essential for building trust and improving brand reputation. You can further simplify the login process by providing the feature of logging in directly from social media accounts.

Social media and account integration can help you in the following ways.

  • It allows your visitors to share your content over different platforms.
  • It enables you to connect your visitors with your social media handles.
  • It enables you to provide your users with personalized user experience.

Analytics

How to Utilize Google Analytics to Improve Your Restaurant's Website

Analytics tools allow you to analyze the performance of your website and make necessary improvements. Different websites have different visitors of varying age, gender, country, device, and more. Analytics tools like Google Analytics and Monster Insights allow you to access all the information about your visitors, enabling you to understand their behavior and requirements.

Analytics tools also allow you to track conversions, funnel performance, session time, bounce back rate, back off rate, and other necessary information that can be vital for improving your website’s performance.

Some advantages of using analytics tools are:

  • It provides in-depth information (demographics) about the visitors.
  • It identifies the underperforming areas of your website, helping you take targeted actions.
  • It enables you to analyze your conversions, backoffs, bounce back rate, and average session time.
  • It helps you optimize your campaigns and strategies according to the visitors.

Conclusion

Website design is a significant ranking factor for websites as a responsive website design that provides visitors with a better experience. Although a good website design includes other elements like logo design & positioning and widget optimization as well, the aspects discussed above play a key role in determining the overall design and performance of your website.

Creating a safe networking of linked devices

Creating a safe networking of linked devices

The number of connected devices is predicted to grow to 75 billion by 2025. This will create a massively connected ecosystem, and data security will be paramount.

Many of these devices will be cyber-physical systems, which closely integrate computation, networking and physical processes. The devices consist of a physical entity and its cyber twin, which can replicate the behavior of the physical machine and give insights into how the machine will react when prompted by various actions. Connect these devices to the internet, for data transfer, and the result is the internet of things. Smart grids, autonomous vehicles and medical devices are examples of cyber-physical systems.

In cyber-physical systems, digital and physical components interact with each other in a variety of ways that change with context. For example, an offshore drilling facility transmits sensor values from devices to check that machinery is functioning; the alerts from the devices will vary depending on whether it is a normal scenario or an emergency. Similarly, a connected medical device will send an alert based upon the patient’s condition.

In all contexts, it is imperative to maintain security and privacy of the data. This is particularly true in a data-sensitive field like healthcare, where there is growing concern about cybersecurity in connected medical devices.

A secure framework for cyber-physical systems

Cutting off stealthy interlopers: A framework for secure cyber-physical systems

We have created a secure framework for connecting cyber-physical systems by leveraging distributed ledger technology (DLT). DLT is a digital system for recording asset transactions in multiple places at the same time, making fraud and manipulation difficult.

Our framework addresses:

  1. Two-way tamper-proof device communication
  2. Financial transactions between devices (e.g., machine-to-machine micropayments using crypto currencies)
  3. Message transfer and data storage between devices with minimal or no transaction fees and mining (network) fees

The framework integrates edge computing components, which are industry-specific (such as medical devices), and has DLT at its core for data transfer and communication.

Edge devices communicate with a central system, the Directed Acyclic Graph distributed ledger, which powers data storage, transfer and access and ensures data security and data privacy. Click image to enlarge.

 

Inside the framework

 

We developed the framework’s components using directed acyclic graphs (DAG) — specifically IOTA — as the underlying DLT technology. DAG architecture is well suited for scalability and does not carry mining fees.

IOTA uses an invention called “The Tangle” at its core. The Tangle is a new data structure, based on DAG, that takes care of data privacy needs by providing restricted and private storage and retrieval options.

safenetworking

We describe each component with an industry example but the components can be extended to other industries:

  • Financial transactions – This component stores all transactions and automates micropayments between machines without any manual intervention. This component can be directly applied to the automobile industry for vehicle charging, toll payments, parking place payments and more. Details are available in this earlier post.
  • Tamper-proof data transfer / two-way remote communication – The underlying DLT technology of this component ensures data security and privacy in transmission, storage and usage. One direct application is remote patient monitoring in healthcare. This can be extended to any industry that needs remote device monitoring or secure data communication (e.g., offshore drilling and its machines).
  • Track and trace of a device’s location with indoor positioning – This component helps track and trace sensitive assets, when knowing the status of a device or machine is paramount. For example, use this component to optimize x-ray machine use in a trusted hospital network and reduce patient wait times.
  • Secure over-the-air firmware updates – This component addresses the exponentially growing need to push secure firmware updates to connected devices, with tamper-proof audit trails made possible by DLT. It is applicable to all connected devices in almost every industry including automotive, healthcare, technology and energy, and utilities.

The components are designed to work online, offline and in mesh networking mode (when Wi-Fi or cellular networks are not available). For example, if connectivity is lost due to an emergency or an outage, these systems can still transmit messages in up to a 65-mile radius. This is critical because it means your medical device stays connected if Wi-Fi or cellular goes down.

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