Returning security back to the user

I am not a fan of apps encouraging users to sign up using their social network credentials. The other popular alternative is creating individual accounts on each service, but it has its own pitfalls. There are emerging techniques like password-less authenticators that help simplify and secure the process. This post reviews some of them.

Let’s talk cloud neutrality

Avoiding managed services, using Docker and running eight Mongo and twelve Kafka nodes does not make an application cloud neutral — it makes it costly to develop, Kafkaesque to architect, and impossible to maintain in production. You end up losing your weekends and quality time with family to DR exercises and production support.

What does a Chief Software Architect do?

For many years I couldn’t understand what software architects do. Early in my career, I thought they were useless. As a young developer, I felt that I could do the job of a business analyst, software architect, and developer all at the same time. Now, seventeen years into my post-college career I am one myself. I am trying to learn what it means to be a good software architect, and I hope to be one myself.