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Tag: remote working

  • 80% of Bosses ‘Regret’ Stopping WFH ¦ PSA: Disable STS!

    80% of Bosses ‘Regret’ Stopping WFH ¦ PSA: Disable STS!

    Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

    This week: Rethinking return-to-office mandates and a ridiculous, ancient Windows bug. (more…)

  • How Automation Enables Remote Work

    How Automation Enables Remote Work

    In recent years, the world has witnessed a significant shift towards remote working, largely driven by global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This transformation has necessitated the adoption of new tools and strategies, with automation emerging as a key enabler of effective remote work.

    So, what does automation mean in this context? Well, it’s the use of technology to carry out tasks with minimal human intervention. It’s a powerful tool that can streamline processes, boost efficiency and cut down on errors, making it an invaluable resource for companies navigating the complexities of remote work.

    The Rise of Remote Work

    According to McKinsey, a whopping 58% of Americans now have the opportunity to work from home (WFH) at least one day per week. And 35% have the opportunity to WFH for the totality of their work responsibilities.

    This shift has brought numerous benefits to both employers and employees. For employees, it means more flexibility, less commuting and a better work-life balance. For employers, it broadens the talent pool, cuts overhead costs and can even boost productivity. However, remote working also presents unique challenges, such as:

    ● Communication Barriers: In a remote work setup, maintaining clear and effective communication can be a challenge. Without face-to-face interactions, messages can be misunderstood or overlooked. This can lead to confusion, mistakes and a lack of cohesion within the team.

    ● Difficulty in Tracking Productivity: When employees are working from different locations, it can be difficult for managers to monitor their productivity. Traditional methods of tracking work, such as observing employees’ work hours, are not effective in a remote work setup.

    ● Maintaining Team Cohesion: Building and maintaining a strong team culture can be more challenging when employees are working remotely. Without regular in-person interactions, employees may feel isolated and disconnected from the team.

    ● Cybersecurity Concerns: Remote work often involves using personal devices and home networks, which may not have the same level of security as office networks. This can expose companies to increased cybersecurity risks.

    The Role of Automation in Remote Working

    Now, let’s delve into the ways automation plays a pivotal role in remote work.

    Automation and Communication
    In a remote work setup, effective communication is paramount. Automation tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams facilitate better communication by automating tasks like scheduling meetings, sending reminders and translating messages.

    These tools can also automate the process of organizing and archiving conversations, making it easier to retrieve information when needed. Additionally, they can automate the process of updating team members about project changes or important announcements. These features ensure that all team members are on the same page, enhancing collaboration, reducing the chances of miscommunication and ultimately leading to a more cohesive and efficient team.

    Automation and Human Resources
    Automation in human resources (HR) is a game-changer in remote work settings. HR automation software can streamline recruitment, automating resume sorting, interview scheduling and follow-up emails. It can also enhance onboarding, automating welcome emails and account setups.

    Performance management can be improved with automated feedback collection and goal tracking. Furthermore, e-learning platforms can automate training assignments, progress tracking and certification issuance. This ensures a consistent, efficient and effective HR process regardless of location, enhancing the remote work experience.

    Automation and Project Management
    Project management can be a challenge in remote teams due to the lack of face-to-face interaction. Automation tools like Asana and Trello simplify this process by automating task assignments, tracking progress and generating reports.

    These tools can also automate the process of setting deadlines, sending reminders for upcoming tasks and notifying team members about changes in project plans. This allows managers to keep track of projects in real time, ensures that deadlines are met and helps in identifying potential issues early on, making project management more efficient and effective.

    Automation and Employee Monitoring
    Monitoring employee productivity and performance is crucial in a remote work setup. Automation tools like Time Doctor and Toggl track time spent on tasks, providing valuable insights into productivity.

    These tools can automate the process of generating productivity reports, tracking breaks and even monitoring website and app usage. This data can be used to identify bottlenecks, improve processes and ultimately increase productivity. It also allows managers to provide constructive feedback and tailor their management strategies to individual employees’ work habits.

    Automation and Cybersecurity
    Cybersecurity is a critical concern in remote work setups, which often involve multiple devices and networks. Automation plays a key role in maintaining security by detecting threats, installing updates and performing backups. Cybersecurity tools can automate the process of scanning for viruses, blocking malicious websites and encrypting data.

    They can also automate the process of updating security protocols and alerting users about potential security threats. This ensures that data remains secure, protecting companies from potential security breaches and giving employees peace of mind to focus on their work.

    Final Thoughts

    Automation plays a crucial role in enabling effective remote work. By increasing efficiency, reducing errors and saving costs, automation not only makes remote work possible but also profitable. As the future of work continues to evolve, we should expect to see more and more of the remote working processes being handled by automation tools.

  • WTH? WFH is 6× Pre-Covid ¦ Plus: Agile Sucks (Redux)

    WTH? WFH is 6× Pre-Covid ¦ Plus: Agile Sucks (Redux)

    Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

    This week: Working from home is here to stay, and Agile is still a failure. (more…)

  • Dead Downtown: It’s YOUR Fault | Pentagon’s FOUR Cloud Vendors | Apple Adds MORE Price Flexibility

    Dead Downtown: It’s YOUR Fault | Pentagon’s FOUR Cloud Vendors | Apple Adds MORE Price Flexibility

    Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

    This week: Home working is ripping the heart out of cities, the DoD’s bizarre cloud strategy, and Apple adds a $10,000 app price option. (more…)

  • Rust in Linux 5.20 | Deepfake Hiring Fraud | IBM WFH ‘New Normal’

    Rust in Linux 5.20 | Deepfake Hiring Fraud | IBM WFH ‘New Normal’

    Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

    This week: Linus says next release will support Rust, FBI warns scammers are getting hired in deepfake interviews, and 80% of IBM staff stay at home. (more…)

  • IBM ‘is Ageist and Sexist’ | IBM Mainframe-aaS | IBM Vaccine Mandate

    IBM ‘is Ageist and Sexist’ | IBM Mainframe-aaS | IBM Vaccine Mandate

    Think! Welcome to Big Blue Week here at The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

    This week: IBM’s employment practices scrutinized, IBM z/OSaaS breaks cover, and IBM encourages staff back to the office.

    1. ‘Dinobabies’ and ‘Dated Maternal’ Workforce Woes

    First up this week: IBM’s defense in an employment age discrimination lawsuit looks to be shredded. Internal emails “appear to show high-level discussion about paring the ranks of older employees.”

    Analysis: Not a good look

    According to one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, unnamed “top IBM executives were explicitly plotting with one another to oust older workers … to make room for millennial employees.” On the face of it, they seemed to be doing the polar opposite of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

    Noam Scheiber: Making ‘Dinobabies’ Extinct: IBM’s Push for a Younger Work Force

    Top IBM executives were directly involved in discussions about the need to reduce the portion of older employees … sometimes disparaging them with terms of art like “dinobabies.” … Documents made public by a Federal District Court … show executives discussing plans to phase out older employees.
    …
    The newly unsealed documents, which quote from internal company emails … show top IBM executives specifically emphasizing the need to thin the ranks of older workers and hire more younger ones. [One] email refers to IBM’s “dated maternal workforce,” an apparent allusion to older women, and says: “This is what must change. They really don’t understand social or engagement.”
    …
    Adam Pratt, an IBM spokesman, [claimed,] “IBM never engaged in systemic age discrimination.” [He] said that some of the language in the emails “is not consistent with the respect IBM has for its employees” and “does not reflect company practices or policies.”


    Yikes, ageism and sexism? Experienced staff are valuable, says MrBanana:

    I did some time at IBM [and] remember being invited to a meeting with a new group, headed by a new “thinker,” who had something to present to myself and a colleague. We walked past the foosball table to the meeting room. Naturally the room had no chairs, and was covered in multi-coloured Post-it Notes. Once they had gone through their mood boards and the non-linear presentation of this new idea, I turned to the other old geezer in the room. “Didn’t we look at something like this 8 years ago?”

    “Yeah, we worked out that compute power just to run the UI for one session wouldn’t be available for a couple of decades.” The children were somewhat disappointed, and (fortunately) we were never asked back to their romper room.


    But experience can be both a blessing and a curse, learned aahortwwy:

    I experienced both sides of this in five years at a company in hypergrowth. … I learned so much at that job: … In year 1, I was determined to accomplish X and ignored the skeptical comments of some colleagues who’d been at the company longer than me. I failed and wasted some time. In years 4 and 5, new colleagues were determined to accomplish X and ignored my skeptical comments.

    2. IBM Wazi as-a-Service Confusion

    “Mainframe” is not a dirty word. It’s secure, vertically scalable, and it put the VM in VMware. Now, what IBM Wazi did for on-prem LPARs, Wazi aaS promises to extend to hosting z/OS instances.

    Analysis: Mainframe-as-a-service reinvented

    Mainframes and cloud-native DevOps need not be incompatible. To modernize legacy apps using hybrid cloud instances for dev/test—and even prod—can be a big productivity boost. But isn’t it weird that IBM spun out its mainframe-as-a-service zCloud offering only a few months ago?

    Mike Vizard: IBM Shifts Mainframe App Testing to the Cloud

    While many workloads over the years have been migrated off mainframes or simply retired, the applications that run on z/OS today are still among the most mission-critical that organizations run. … IBM this week revealed it has added the ability to set up testing environments on the IBM Cloud for z/OS mainframe applications.
    …
    IBM plans to make IBM Wazi as-a-Service (Wazi aaS) for z/OS generally available in the second half of this year, [which] will enable DevOps teams to self-provision an instance of a z/OS virtual server on a secure private space running on IBM Cloud. … At the same time, it will become easier to modernize mainframe applications by making them more accessible to other applications via a set of secure APIs … using a cloud-native set of DevOps tools that run in a Kubernetes environment.
    …
    Modernizing mainframe applications is a less complicated endeavor than migrating them. The challenge is that building, deploying, maintaining and securing all the APIs required to do so represents a significant amount of effort.


    OK, boomer, why are we talking about 1960s mainframes on devopsy.kinsta.cloud? Here’s ArchieBunker:

    Mainframes are different beasts altogether, almost alien when you compare them to PC hardware. You have binaries written for the S/360 system in the 1960s? Good news you can still run them natively without a recompile.

    You think virtualization and containers are a hot topic? IBM was running multiple OS instances inside a VM in the 1970s. … The engineering is incredible.


    But z/OSaaS? It’s déjà vu time for Beleagured Greybeard:

    “Cloud Managed Services for z” AKA “zCloud” has been around for over 10 years. … IBM offloaded it with the Kyndryl spin, so its odd that they now want to re-invent it.
    …
    If it’s a strategic platform, why didn’t they hold onto it instead of spinning it off to Kyndryl? Sounds like yet more daft leadership decisions.

    3. IBM’s Return to Work Plan has Vaccine Mandate

    IBM wants to “keep employees safe” as they return to office work after being fully remote. In practice, this means a vaccine mandate.

    Analysis: IBM Digital Health Pass is divisive to vocal minority

    Although there are exemptions on medical or religious grounds, IBM has promised to place dissenters on unpaid leave. As you might expect, the policy has a few employees up in arms.

    Cassie Werber: How Salesforce, IBM, and HSBC are approaching return to work

    When the pandemic hit, and IBM moved 95% of its workforce to fully remote, it was pleasantly surprised to discover no drop in productivity. … Still, they planned to return to offices.
    …
    The company saw this as a way to keep employees safe. … One example … is its development of the IBM Digital Health Pass as an alternative to vaccine cards or paper vaccine certificates, which they use to make sure all the staff that come into their offices are vaccinated.
    …
    Arvind Krishna, IBM’s CEO, meanwhile came up with what he called the IBM Work From Home Pledge. [It] included commitments to flexibility, kindness, sensitivity to family, setting boundaries, and acknowledged video fatigue. It concluded with a commitment to “be connected.”


    Tricky to “be connected” if you’re not allowed back in the building. Anne D’Innocenzio, Heather Hollingsworth, Tali Arbel, Mae Anderson, Ken Sweet, Matt O’Brien and Dee-Ann Durbin:

    IBM software engineer Justin Albano said his company recently notified employees that it would be revoking badge access to workers who aren’t vaccinated or haven’t proved that they are. “We’re not able to enter an IBM office at this time,” said Albano.
    …
    He said some workers have successfully sought religious exemptions but “my thought process was I shouldn’t have to explain to my company my faith” to get out of a policy that’s “immoral in its foundation.”


    What’s the alternative? With a perspective, it’s Chris Haney:

    Or, get the vaccine. Protect yourself and the people around you. You people really are detached from reality.

    The Moral of the Story: Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.


    You have been reading The Long View by Richi Jennings. You can contact him at @RiCHi or tlv@richi.uk.

    Image: Marcin Wichary—cc:by; leveled and cropped (ask your parents)

  • EEEWW—Green iMessage Bubbles | ‘Great Resignation’ Redux | Faster Firefox 96

    EEEWW—Green iMessage Bubbles | ‘Great Resignation’ Redux | Faster Firefox 96

    Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

    This week: iMessage lock-in lessons, attrition-rate fixes, and more on Mozilla.

    1. ‘Never Date a Green Texter’

    First up this week: The weekend story getting the technorati chattering was about how Apple iMessage denizens pour scorn on Android users—identifying them by their “icky” green chat bubbles. An iPhone user’s message gets a “proper” blue background, y’see.

    Amusing though the story was, the writer seemed to be hell-bent on proving some sort of Apple C-suite-led “conspiracy to lock in.” The reality is far more mundane—but it teaches important lessons for DevOps.

    Analysis: Unintended consequences FTW

    Could your DevOps team make a trivial engineering decision that pays unexpected dividends? While lock-in might be distasteful, seemingly irrelevant design or technical choices can have huge ramifications with users.

    Tim Higgins: Why Apple’s iMessage Is Winning

    [The] pressure to be a part of the blue text group is the product of decisions by Apple executives starting years ago that have … helped to cement the iPhone’s dominance among young smartphone users. [It] encourages people to pay the premium … and remain loyal to its brand.
    …
    Teens and college students said they dread the ostracism that comes with a green text. The social pressure is palpable. … Jeremy Cangiano, who just finished up his MBA, … tried to cash in on it last year by selling his own merchandise that touted, “Never Date a Green Texter.”
    …
    The blue iMessage bubble was born out of a simple engineering need, according to Justin Santamaria, a former Apple engineer who worked on the original feature. … The idea that it would keep users locked in to using Apple devices wasn’t even part of the conversation at the time, he said.


    And then the other shoe dropped—via Ron Amadeo:

    Google took to Twitter this weekend to complain that iMessage is just too darn influential with today’s kids. … The company is hoping this public-shaming campaign will get Apple to change its mind. [But it] probably has the least credibility of any tech company [because it] has released 13 half-hearted messaging products since iMessage launched in 2011.
    …
    Google … seems to have learned nothing from its years of messaging failure. Today … the situation is an incredible mess, and no single Google product is as good as Hangouts was in 2015.


    Ouch. With a sociological perspective, here’s Christina “filmgirlcw” Warren:

    iMessage is incredibly popular with certain demographics. … It’s an in-group signifier—the way teens have always had in-group signifiers (when I was in high school, it was AIM, a Nokia, and wearing Abercrombie). … It’s always fascinating for me to go to other countries and see a ton of iPhone users not using iMessage but something else because that app has become the in-group signifier. … Every teen I know uses Discord more than they use almost anything else.
    …
    It isn’t about lock-in or regulation or technology. It’s about fashion.

    2. How’s your Attrition Rate?

    A study published this week says DevOps orgs and other internet companies rank third for attrition in the 38 industries surveyed. And if you lump that category together with “enterprise software,” it would be in clear first place.

    Analysis: We’re #1! Oh, wait …

    But some companies get this right—how can you be one of them? Culture, innovation, recognition and remote work. It’s definitely not only about pay.

    Donald Sull, Charles Sull and Ben Zweig report their fascinating study: Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation

    Between April and September 2021, more than 24 million American employees left their jobs. [But] while resignation rates are high on average, they are not uniform … from less than 2% to more than 30%. … More-innovative companies … are experiencing higher attrition rates than their more staid competitors.
    …
    Pay has only a moderate impact on employee turnover. … A toxic corporate culture is by far the strongest predictor of … attrition and is 10 times more important than compensation. … Job insecurity and reorganizations are important predictors of how employees rate a company’s overall culture. … But it is surprising that … the more positively employees talked about innovation at their company, the more likely they were to quit. … Employees are more likely to leave companies that fail to distinguish between high performers and laggards [or] that tolerate underperformance.
    …
    Our analysis identified … actions that managers can take … to reduce attrition. … Lateral career opportunities are 12 times more predictive of employee retention than promotions [and] 2.5 times more powerful [than] compensation. … Company-organized social events, including happy hours, team-building excursions [and] potluck dinners … are a key element of a healthy corporate culture. … Unsurprisingly, when employees discussed remote work options in more positive terms, they were less likely to quit.


    And the flipside of resignation? Hiring replacements. Let’s turn to the equilibrium of Nash Reilly:

    It’s only gotten harder in recent months [and] I think I know why. … You need to offer engineers some combination of these three things to pique their interest: Cool stuff to work on, smart people to work with [and] some degree of repeatability.
    …
    You can’t really prove to an engineer that you can give them things like good management, minimal churn, and decision making authority [so] let them talk to your employees. … Also, figure out a way to let your team “backchannel” to the candidate. [If] your product is not that cool … play up the things you can offer them: smart coworkers, and a stable working environment. … You can afford to be honest about what it is that you do offer to a candidate, [so] pitch them the truth: that you want to do good work, sustainably, for as long as you can—ideally with them on your team.


    Perhaps the smart money is already skating to where the puck will be? Here’s echelon:

    Engineering salaries are … one of the biggest expenses. … Companies love that they can now hire remotely and pay adjusted cost of living. They’ll hire as many workers in middle America as they can, and once enough of the workforce is concentrated outside of expensive cities, you’ll see them stop hiring in SF and NY entirely. [And] startup capital is already beginning to shift to … emerging markets. Employment will eventually head there too.
    …
    Make your money now while the iron is still hot.

    3. Say Something Nice About Firefox

    After accusing Mozilla of jumping the shark last week, perhaps I owe the Firefox folks a positive inclusion this time? The release notes for Firefox 96 certainly sound good.

    Analysis: Improved sound; better perf; stronger anti-CSRF

    Outside the Apple walled garden, Firefox is about the only non-Chromium browser. A browser monoculture can’t be a good thing for anyone—not DevOps nor users.

    Michael Gariffo: Firefox 96 update focuses on noise improvements, main thread efficiency

    On the desktop side of things, Mozilla’s latest release made “significant improvements” to the browser’s built-in [sound] noise suppression and auto-gain-control features. These improvements are aimed at web-based video chat users.
    …
    The second tentpole feature in version 96 focuses on reducing main-thread load, which should help the browser function better on older, slower, or congested systems. [And] a new enforcement setting for cookies … will, by default, apply the “Same-Site=lax” policy. Mozilla claims this will help better defend users against Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks.
    …
    Mozilla also acknowledged that it is working on correcting the performance of detached videos being played in full screen on macOS devices. … No timeframe was mentioned for when it might be available again.


    Okay. Sounds good. But not to Tetch:

    Never mind all that fancy stuff. … Any reduction in crashes?
    …
    FF crashes for me several times a month. … I always take the trouble to fill in the “What were you doing immediately before the crash?” section of the crash submission dialog, and never hear another thing.


    But more efficiency on the main thread? Tell me more. ksec:

    Such an important detail that deserves at least few more sentences of marketing message or explanation. But the whole release note just feels like they couldn’t be bothered anymore.

    The Moral of the Story: A weasel wishing Happy New Year to a chicken harbors no good intention.


    You have been reading The Long View by Richi Jennings. You can contact him at @RiCHi or tlv@richi.uk.

    Image: Moritz Knöringer (via Unsplash)

  • Rails 7 FTW | WFH is SOP | 586M Passwords Dumped

    Rails 7 FTW | WFH is SOP | 586M Passwords Dumped

    Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

    This week: Ruby on Rails 7.0 is go, working from home is still de rigueur, and HIBP gets far, far bigger.

    DHH is Excited

    First up this week: Ruby on Rails version 7.0 is now in production. It promises less bloat, better security and even more developer efficiency.

    Analysis: Last chance for greatness

    Talk to devs about Ruby on Rails and you’ll hear a wide range of opinion—all the way from “obsolete memory hog” to “productivity secret weapon.” But its important promise seems to be to encourage devs to use better design patterns.

    Paul Krill: Ruby on Rails 7 rejiggers JavaScript support

    Ruby on Rails 7, the latest version of the web application framework, is now available as a production release. … It gives developers a “no-Node” approach to front-end development while still providing access to NPM packages and modern JavaScript.
    …
    Most Rails applications will not require Node.js, given the new defaults. … Other improvements:
    …
    Encrypted attributes have been added to Active Record, enabling applications to offer at-work encryption in addition to traditional at-rest and in-transit. … With asynchronous query loading, two unrelated queries can be run concurrently. … The Spring application preloader is no longer on by default, as faster computers have made it unnecessary.


    Let’s hear from Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson—AKA DHH:

    Seven is … the culmination of years of progress on five different fronts at once. … The part that really excites me … is how much closer it brings us to the ideal of The One Person Framework. A toolkit so powerful that it allows a single individual to create modern applications upon which [to] build a competitive business.
    …
    It’s been well over twenty years for me now, and a big release like this still makes me giddy. … What a glorious time to be working in web development.


    What a whatnow? Here’s bb_matt:

    I don’t pretend … it’s a “glorious time to be working in web development,” except for one important aspect: … Experienced programmers coming over from software development and starting to make amends [with] strong typing, robust CI/CD, a focus on TDD, a focus on domain modeling.
    …
    99% is still total **** though—but then again, so is most software.

    Home Working Ain’t Gone Away

    A month ago, my long-suffering editor permitted me to write, “WTH? We Wanna WFH.” And survey after survey says tech workers work better at home. After the last 21 months, there’s simply no denying it.

    Analysis: Genie out of bottle—no going back

    If you’re under the misapprehension that DevOps is somehow “special” and your workers will be glad to return—think again. Find a way to make it work, or work will stop—and your business will die.

    Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: How to lure employees back to the office? You can’t. Not now. Not ever.

    Months have gone by, and the great resignation keeps rolling along. … People don’t want to catch COVID-19 [but] bosses still think they can force skilled workers to return to offices. … That’s not going to happen.
    …
    The problem? Many executives and owners haven’t gotten the clue yet. [But] any doubts you may have about people not doing a good job unless you’re looking over their shoulders should have vanished by now. … The monthly academic WFH research.com survey has found almost six out of 10 workers reported being more productive working from home. … In the Dice State of Remote Work report … 53% of technologists listed greater productivity as one of the main benefits.
    …
    It’s simple: It works better for them and for your company. … Anyone who’s been paying attention … must agree. You can either go along with the flow, or you can fight it and first lose your staffers and then your company


    So what do DevOps managers think? One of them is kozikow:

    100% remote is not great either. … When there was a long period of 100% remote during Covid, there were some issues. … We developed a policy that Mondays are required, Wednesday are encouraged, rest is work from home. … It was shared decision of the team.
    …
    I think that most people who are strongly against hybrid work just have to live in a miserable place like SF. … It’s unfortunate that so many software companies are in the Bay Area.


    But you couldn’t pay some people enough to go back—people such as this Anonymous Coward:

    No way in hell they’d ever be willing to pay me … to come back into an office. … No having to go out in ****ed up weather, no fighting traffic and … dangerous drivers, plus I get all that commuting time back.
    …
    And I don’t have to put up with Linda cooking fish in the microwave.

    Have I Been Pwned? There’s a 38% Higher Chance

    This week saw a huge bump in the size of Troy Hunt’s already-massive database of stolen credentials. In case you’ve not seen it, HaveIBeenPwned.com is an amazing free service that lets apps securely check a user’s password isn’t already used elsewhere on a compromised site.

    Analysis: Build the API into your auth flow ASAP

    The UK’s equivalent to the FBI has donated a huge trove of credentials—after deduping, it’s added more than 225 million new passwords to the database. Frankly, if you still allow your users to rely on any of the 847 million passwords in HIBP, it would be negligent.

    Simon Sharwood: National Crime Agency finds 225 million previously unexposed passwords

    Troy Hunt, of Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) fame, yesterday announced … the NCA shared 585,570,857 [creds] with HIBP, and Hunt said 225,665,425 … he hasn’t seen before in the 613 million credentials HIBP already stored. [HIBP] lets anyone conduct a secure search of stolen passwords to check if their credentials have been exposed.
    …
    The NCA’s statement to Hunt did not reveal the source of the password trove [but said they] “were able to identify a huge amount of … passwords in a compromised cloud storage facility. … It became clear that these credentials were an accumulation of breached datasets known and unknown.”
    …
    [The] release brings the total Pwned Passwords count to 847,223,402, a 38 percent increase.


    How’s this relevant to DevOps? Troy Hunt explains:

    In the last month, there were 1,260,000,000 occasions where a service somewhere checked a password against … HIBP’s Pwned Password API. … There are all sorts of amazing Pwned Passwords use cases out there. For example … checking their customers’ passwords on every registration, login or password change to see if it’s previously been breached.
    …
    The UK’s National Crime Agency has done some wonderful work over the years to combat cybercrime. … Today’s release is about turning on the firehose of new passwords and making them immediately available to everyone for free. Having this open to the community, owned by the community and supported by the FBI and NCA is an enormously pleasing result.


    Time for a metaphorical thought experiment. LenKagetsu obliges:

    You were told by a reliable source that an unknown person … posted a high-res image of … your house key … on the internet. Would you change the locks?

    The Moral of the Story: Never switch horses in midstream


    You have been reading The Long View by Richi Jennings. You can contact him at @RiCHi or tlv@richi.uk.

    Image: David Emrich (via Unsplash)

  • WTH? We Wanna WFH | DoD Dual-Sources JWCC | More Nvidia ARM Woes

    WTH? We Wanna WFH | DoD Dual-Sources JWCC | More Nvidia ARM Woes

    Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

    This week: Working from home is de rigueur, JEDI redux, and more about Nvidia/Arm.

    Survey Says: Devs Stay Out of Office

    First up this week: GitHub’s annual survey of developers has some fascinating data on the workplace (ahem) “new normal.” The pandemic has radically changed devs’ expectations of where they can do their jobs.

    Analysis: WFH is SOP

    As with other roles, Dev people want to continue to work from home. But does this pose a threat to your DevOps culture? Make sure you can do Ops with equal flexibility.

    Paul Krill: Dev productivity is back to pre-pandemic levels

    GitHub’s “2021 State of the Octoverse” research … sees signs that work rhythm is returning to pre-pandemic levels. GitHub also found that 46 percent of developers who worked co-located with teammates now expect to work fully remotely or in a hybrid environment.
    …
    Based on data culled from more than four million repositories and surveys of more than 12,000 developers … JavaScript and Python remain the top languages, followed by Java and TypeScript. [And] GitHub found that development team performance can increase as much as 87 percent when reusing code and as much as 43 percent when using … CI/CD.


    Zeroing in on the WFH angle, it’s Richard Speed:

    Respondents who were in the office either full or part-time dropped from 42 percent before the pandemic to a mere 10.7 percent now. … That’s a lot of empty desks.
    …
    Fans of the ctrl-c, ctrl-v combo will be delighted to note that GitHub found that when code reuse was made “frictionless” at work, developer’s performance increased by up to 87 percent. … It’s all splendid stuff.


    But beware of statistical fallacies, thinks Henrik Ingo—@h_ingo:

    #WorkFromHome may have been more common than anyone realized. [But] is the population of GitHub users/respondents somehow skewed toward pioneers/early adopters? … This might be a case of correlation is not causation.

    Defense Dept. Orders New Clouds

    The DoD issued its latest cloud contract opportunity notice, with the snappy title of “Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability” (JWCC). Reading between the lines of the notice, it all sounds very DevOps-cum-Agile.

    The Pentagon has backed away from its previous insistence on a single supplier, and now wants at least two cloud providers.

    Analysis: JEDI redux, because AWS wants a do-over

    JWCC is the follow-on from the aborted JEDI procurement. Amazon Web Services was “disappointed” to have been passed over in favor of Microsoft. Now it appears the DoD wants them to share.

    What can you learn from such a multi-vendor DevOps strategy?

    Jordan Novet: Pentagon asks Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle for bids

    Amazon and Microsoft were the finalists for a single Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure. … Microsoft won it in 2019, Amazon filed a protest and the Pentagon canceled the contract in July.
    …
    The new effort [is] known as Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability. … JWCC differs from JEDI because it allows the Pentagon to rely on multiple cloud providers.
    …
    The U.S. General Services Administration … said only two U.S. cloud infrastructure providers, Amazon and Microsoft, appear able to comply with all of the Pentagon’s requirements. … The value of the new contracts is not known, but the Defense Department estimates it could run into the multiple billions of dollars.


    In summary, heed this Anonymous Coward:

    Competing suppliers will try harder than one non-competing supplier. The DoD has had a lot of problems with One-Ring-to-rule-them-all systems like the F-35. … JEDI would have been the same.
    …
    Smaller steps with upgrades while testing/using offers better returns. Done right they can get a better deal by making the companies compete against each other in making sure the products are actually useful.


    But look carefully at the DoD contract opportunity, says bustinbrains:

    They’ll all get contracts. Then DoD will simply use the one that they actually like the best. No one can complain because it’s open-ended with no guarantees.

    Arm/Nvidia Deal on FTC’s Radar

    Last week, we talked about Nvidia’s goal to acquire Arm Ltd from SoftBank, and the regulatory challenges it poses—notably in the UK, home of the chip architect. After we went to press, the other shoe dropped.

    Analysis: Just Give Up Already

    As we said last week, Nvidia can’t be allowed to do this. Not only are ARM chips found in 99% of smartphones, but they’re an increasing fixture in the datacenter—especially places that value “performance per Watt.”

    Richard Waters: What’s next for the tumultuous takeover of Arm?

    Nvidia’s acquisition of UK chip design company Arm from SoftBank has provoked serious opposition on both sides of the Atlantic. … The US Federal Trade Commission had its own worries. China, meanwhile, is waiting in the wings.
    …
    The deal has shone a spotlight on the unique position Arm plays in the chip industry. [Nvidia] offered a guarantee that it won’t block any other companies from licensing Arm’s designs. The offer has fallen on deaf ears, with both the EU and UK ruling it inadequate. … Post-Brexit politics have also come into play.
    …
    At what point might Nvidia and SoftBank call it a day? … A stock market listing [is] the most likely alternative, with the UK a favoured venue.


    How’s it viewed from the inside? Here’s a hint from fivemack:

    I was at ARM when Softbank bought them; it came as a surprise to everybody, because we were absolutely confident that we were unbuyable because anyone interested in us would want to use differential licensing as a weapon against their competitors, and we … were confident that regulators wouldn’t accept that.
    …
    Lots of people went home with a year’s pay check in free money. And not a few people … went home with a decade’s pay check in free money.


    More and more DevOps workloads are running on ARM silicon. Here’s Biophoton:

    The low power expertise of ARM has to be an advantage in the data centre (DC) market. … Plus Linux is available on ARM so architectural lock-in of Intel could be eroded in the DC market.

    The Moral of the Story: You are known by the company you keep


    You have been reading The Long View by Richi Jennings. You can contact him at @RiCHi or tlv@richi.uk.

    Image: Lukas Mann (via Unsplash)