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Windows is still the desktop OS of choice for enterprises across the globe yet the vast majority of server operating systems are either Linux or BSD. Only a small contingent of server installations are Windows Server most of which host Microsoft specific applications such as Exchange. Doing development for Linux destined applications on a Windows desktop can be a huge chore, especially when you don’t have admin access to cheat your way via WSL or super user permissions.

Here’s a survival list that I’ve cobbled together covering both admin and non-admin setups.

Done is a relative concept. The majority of the project/programme/initiatives I’ve been part of have included effort towards agreeing the formal definition of done, whether that’s part of a Programme Kickoff or within a Statement of Work. However, where Statement of Work approaches are explicit and robust, project approaches are disconnected and occasionally delusional.

Serverless technologies are the greatest marketing achievement in cloud computing. They’re incredibly useful overall, but they’re also nearly as oversubscribed as VPN services and likely the most front loaded service type out there. How do you use serverless tech without getting bitten in a couple years?

Continuous Integration / Deployment / Development / Delivery are high level objectives found at most organisations. The majority of SoWs that I’ve worked to included CICD implementation or the implementation of continuous CICD improvement which is continuously doing whatever-is-being-done. My experience has been that firms just want better and more reliable pipelines. Everyone is sick of seeing pipelines mysteriously fail.

I’ve been wrestling a horde of Macs, herding them into a flock of standardised, well trained beasts that are able to handle iOS builds in a somewhat predictable pattern. It’s not my favourite experience but, like mortality, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. In order to get to this point I’ve fallen back on some old standbys like Ansible and Bash.

I’ve been on another loop around Infrastructure as Code tools, initiated by multiple explorations hunting for the appropriate tool to fit various clients culture and strategy. All of the below tools I’ve taken for a full run deploying to production, ie fully released commercial software has been deployed by all the tools below directly by yours truly. I thought it best to note down the impressions of each whilst I’ve still got the wounds.

Directory stores are ancient software that fit within a particular use case that’s not commonly found across the rest of software development - storing a directory of entities that are accessible by grouping and heritage. That’s a more mature way of saying that directory stores are digital phone-books. Primarily they’re used for things like Microsoft’s Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Jumpcloud’s LDAP, ForgeRock’s OpenDS and most other services that manage hierarchical data such as people. Directory Stores were originally designed for organising, categorising and grouping people. However, the way they store and manage data could be used for general data management for any number of applications. Let’s have a look.