It’s 7 PM on a Saturday night. The restaurant is packed, orders are flying into the kitchen, and the energy is electric. Suddenly, the screens at the ordering stations go blank. The kitchen printer stops. The point-of-sale system, powered by a single SQL Server database, has failed. Every order taken in the last hour vanishes. The front of house is in chaos, the kitchen is at a standstill, and frustrated customers are starting to walk out.

The widespread service disruption experienced across Amazon Web Services' (AWS) US-EAST-1 region on October 20th serves as a stark reminder of the digital world's deep reliance on centralized cloud infrastructure. While AWS swiftly resolved the issue, the cascading impact affected thousands of companies globally.

Here is a detailed breakdown of the event, its causes, its global impact, and crucial mitigation strategies.

Introduction: The Problem with a "Flat" Network​

Imagine a massive, open-plan office where every single person is shouting at the same time. Important conversations get drowned out, productivity grinds to a halt, and chaos reigns. This is what happens on a large, unmanaged computer network. Every device—computers, printers, servers—is in one giant broadcast domain, all "shouting" at each other. As the network grows, this broadcast traffic can slow everything down for everyone.

You might think the solution is to buy more hardware, like extra routers or switches, to physically split the network into smaller, quieter rooms. But this is expensive, complicated to cable, and doesn't scale well. What if there was a better way?

Every SQL Server database fundamentally relies on two types of operating system files: at least one data file (containing tables, indexes, and objects) and at least one log file (containing transaction recovery information).

While most small or simple databases are fine with a single primary data file, mission-critical and large-scale applications need more control. This is where Filegroups come in, offering you a layer of administrative and allocation control that is crucial for high-performance and high-availability systems.

In the bustling world of software development, it's easy to get laser-focused on getting your application to compile and run. When the build process spits out a sea of messages, the temptation is strong to scan for "error," and if none are found, breathe a sigh of relief and move on. But what about those other messages – the warnings? Too often, these are dismissed as mere noise, a minor inconvenience. However, treating build warnings lightly can be a perilous path. They are the canaries in your coal mine, signaling potential dangers that, if ignored, can lead to significant problems down the line.

In the realm of cloud computing, where seamless data transfer is paramount, MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) has emerged as a robust and versatile protocol. While often associated with IoT, its capabilities extend far beyond, making it an excellent choice for a wide range of cloud applications.

Have you ever wondered how your computer knows where to find and run a program when you type a command in the terminal? Sometimes, it's not as straightforward as it seems. That's where "shims" come into play.

Notion, a leading productivity and note-taking platform, has gathered a dedicated user base exceeding 30 million users globally. In this post, we will explore the intricate technical architecture supporting Notion's platform, enabling seamless support for millions of concurrent users.

Agenda​

Big tech layoffs gathered widespread media attention in 2022 and 2023.

Nevertheless, at the time of writing this post in the beginning of 2024 software engineers are still in high demand and paid extremely well.

In this post, we will review software engineers’ salaries in the US at the beginning of 2024 and answer the following questions:

• What is the average salary of a software engineer?
• How do qualifications and years of experience affect the compensation?
• What are the most lucrative domains for software engineers?
• What to know when looking for a job in the current market?

There are many ways to make a taco​

As with many things in life, when it comes to deploying AWS Lambda functions, there is more than one way to get the job done. In this post, we will explore available methods for deploying code to Lambda functions and find out when it is more appropriate to use each method.