Imagine a virtual replica of your entire factory floor, a power plant, or even a city – constantly learning, reacting, and predicting. This isn’t science fiction; it’s the power of digital twin technology.
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Industry 5.0 – this next phase ushers in an era of human-centric manufacturing and personalized automation. Imagine production lines that adapt to individual customer needs in real-time, crafting bespoke products or seamlessly integrating user preferences
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The concepts of “responsible AI” and “ethical AI” are central to this discourse, and while they often overlap, understanding their distinctions is vital for leveraging AI beneficially and safely.
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The integration of GPU-accelerated computing into data centers marks a significant milestone in the journey towards more intelligent and efficient data processing. For businesses leveraging AI and complex data analytics, GPUs offer an indispensable resource that enhances both performance and scalability.
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By integrating advanced technologies such as IoT and AI, digital platforms in industry 4.0 enable real-time data analysis and streamlined processes, empowering engineers to achieve groundbreaking outcomes
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Reverse Engineering an API: Testing without Documentation Author: J Saravana Prakash, ATMECS Content Team Introduction Testing APIs without documentation can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. Yet, you can find the information you require by doing some research. Since the use of APIs in software development is growing, it’s more crucial than ever to ensure that they function as intended. These days, a lot of applications exhibit practical functionality that lets users and developers use these services however they see fit, independent of a predetermined interface. Due to their versatility, APIs are now a necessary component of all companies. It’s essential to make sure everything functions as planned whether your team creates or maintains an API, whether it’s for internal usage in a single application or a publicly accessible service with thousands of users worldwide. Monitoring API Usage If an API is being tested by you or a member of your team, it is probably still being used and is probably still being actively developed. This means that you’ll have lots of chances to learn more about the API and obtain the understanding you need to start on your journey of exploration. There is no better way to understand an API’s functionality precisely than to observe it being used in practice. We are fortunate to have all the tools required to collect the different kinds of requests and responses required to test your APIs. Your browser has all the tools you require to gather this data for APIs used in web applications. Most contemporary web browsers, such as Chrome’s DevTools, Firefox’s Network Monitor, and Safari’s developer tools, offer means to examine network traffic. With the aid of these tools, you may look at requests and responses submitted to an API as well as the data and headers used in the exchange. It’s more difficult to record network activity for non-web apps like desktop or mobile apps, but it is still doable. Then, see if the application’s test builds are provided by your company’s development team. The majority of businesses that develop desktop or mobile applications produce early builds to aid in early testing. These test builds have a number of debugging options enabled, some of which might log interactions with external services. Not all hope is lost if you don’t have access to a test build or the test builds don’t give you the information you require. On your computer, you can set up a tool that can intercept network requests coming from any source. A good example of one of these tools is Telerik Fiddler, a web debugging proxy that will gather a bunch of data from your network traffic and let you examine everything that occurs when an application is running locally. You will receive sufficient information from these network inspection services to begin your testing. Exploring the Inner Workings of an API It may be intimidating for some testers, especially those without prior programming skills, to examine an application’s source code. The code repository, on the other hand, is a veritable gold mine of knowledge that can provide you with all you need to start your tests without any documentation. If a development team is still actively working on an API, that’s where you can obtain the most recent details on any application. The structure of an API can be learned by testers who are familiar with the fundamentals of programming by poking about in the codebase. Web application frameworks like Express JS, Angular, Ruby on Rails and Flask, for instance, often have a single location that specifies how requests are routed to various methods throughout the codebase. These files can be scanned to reveal available endpoints and their distinct actions, which you can use as a starting point for further exploration. It can supply practically everything you need to get moving, such as query parameters, request headers, and request bodies, if you look closely enough at these methods and their function signatures. Even if you have little to no knowledge of programming, a code repository can still give you a lot of useful information. Development teams typically use some sort of pull request workflow to keep track of significant bug patches or new features that were added during the software development lifecycle. Every time they deploy to production, some teams will compile a list of updates and create release notes. Those notes might give you an idea of what has changed in the API or give you a new lead for your tests. You should definitely look through the list of code commits and search for relevant messages for each change if you can’t find any other information. Getting Assistance from Developers If you encounter an API with incomplete or incorrect documentation and are struggling to understand its functionality, don’t hesitate to reach out to the developers for assistance. They have a deeper understanding of the APIs they created and can provide valuable insights and guidance. Developers can assist you by adding comments to the code or improving existing documentation to make it more comprehensive. If the developers are not available or the documentation is outdated, you can also seek help from online communities and forums. These communities often have experienced developers who can answer technical questions or provide guidance in testing an API. However, be cautious about sharing sensitive information about your company or API with strangers and prioritize cybersecurity. Keep in Mind to Leave Everything Better than You Found It Once you have successfully tested an API without documentation, it’s important to leave everything better than you found it. Consider creating documentation or improving existing documentation to avoid difficulties for future developers. Provide feedback to the developers about the API’s functionality and any issues you encountered during testing. Additionally, consider sharing your testing methods and techniques with your colleagues to promote knowledge-sharing and enhance the skills of your team. Conclusion Although testing APIs without documentation can be challenging, it is not impossible. By using techniques such as monitoring API usage, exploring the inner
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ChatGPT and its Impact on the IT Industry Author: Ravi Sankar Pabbati One of our team members had a wild idea long ago that one day there will be a technology to generate software applications given software requirement documents. To our surprise, we were astounded when ChatGPT came alive. We now had the capabilities of ChatGPT in generating code for a prescribed software programming task for example “In java how to split a list into multiple lists of chunk size 10”. What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is a conversational AI chatbot tool designed to understand user intent and provide accurate responses to a wide range of queries. It utilizes large language models (LLMs) trained on massive datasets using unsupervised learning, supervised learning, and reinforcement techniques. These models are used to predict the next word in a sequence of text, enabling ChatGPT to provide insightful and accurate responses to user queries. What is the impact of ChatGPT on the IT industry? ChatGPT has the potential to be a game changer for software professionals, improving their productivity and speeding up the software development process. Programmers can now ask ChatGPT to write code for a given problem, check the code for improvements, ask conceptual questions on any technical topic or technology, and seek best practices to follow for any specific technology or problem. Furthermore, ChatGPT is much more than a search engine for technical information. It can understand the nuances of information(what, why, how, when) and provide insightful responses to queries that are difficult to obtain from traditional search engines. As such, it is becoming a go-to choice for developers who seek to quickly and efficiently find technical information. While some may fear that ChatGPT will reduce jobs, it should be viewed as a tool to match the ever-increasing customer demand for producing high-quality software in less time and on a smaller budget. It will help companies and individuals to conceptualize any idea and build it faster. In terms of software development, ChatGPT is already being integrated into modern applications with built-in AI capabilities. This is likely to challenge and disrupt traditional software applications, with ChatGPT becoming ubiquitous in almost all applications used on a daily basis, including office suites, productivity tools, development IDEs, and analytics applications. In the near future, we could see built-in ChatGPT tools for development IDEs that will assist software developers in suggesting, fixing, and reviewing code. Imagine the tools maturing to help us walk through code, explain the flow, and query the code base in natural language instead of text search. The possibilities are endless, and the impact on the IT industry is likely to be significant. Limitations Although ChatGPT is proficient in generating code for specific, simpler problems, it may not be as effective in generating code for more intricate problems. To tackle more complicated problems, we might need to divide them into smaller subproblems and utilize the tool to generate code blocks that we can combine to solve larger issues. It is worth noting that not all answers and generated code produced by ChatGPT are necessarily accurate. Therefore, it is essential to exercise your own intuition and judgment to validate the answers provided by the tool. Conclusion ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize the IT industry by improving productivity and enabling faster software development. As the technology matures, we can expect to see ChatGPT integrated into more and more software applications, making it an indispensable tool for software professionals.
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End-to-End Testing With Cypress Author: Saravana Prakash J A positive user experience in any application is essential to keep customers loyal to the product or brand. End-to-end testing is done to evaluate this user experience as well as any other bugs in tasks and processes that any application might have. The testing approach starts from the end user’s perspective and simulates a real-world scenario. End-to-end testing and its benefits End-to-end testing covers parts of an application that unit tests and integration tests seldom cover. The primary reason is that unit tests and integration tests take a part of the application and assess the functionality of that part in isolation. Even if these isolated parts of the application work well individually, there is no guarantee that they will work seamlessly as a whole. Applying end-to-end testing allows you to test the functionality of the entire application. End-to-end testing is reliable and widely adopted because of its many benefits, such as: Reduction in efforts and costs Increase in the application productivity Detection of more bugs Expansion of test coverage Information on the application’s health Reduction in time taken for the launch of the application in the market Tests are done from the end user’s perspective Holistic approach As an application scales to a greater level of complexity with additional features, adding even a small padding or margin can break the application in several places. At this stage, it becomes expensive to hire test engineers who will test the flow of the application in different scenarios from an end user’s perspective. To mitigate this, automated end-to-end testing tools can be used to reduce the time taken to test an application and the costs related to software product testing. Studies suggest that global cybercrime costs will reportedly rise by almost 15% annually over the next four years. If you are not convinced about the importance of cybersecurity in curbing these threats, the following points will help you understand its significance. Choosing Cypress as your automated testing tool As applications evolve, so does the requirement for a testing tool that can handle different types of frameworks like Ruby on rails, Django, modern PHP, etc. There are many automated end-to-end testing tools available in the market, the most well-known being Selenium. But, in this article, we will focus on the capabilities of Cypress as the choice for an end-to-end testing tool. What is Cypress? Cypress is a comparatively new automated testing tool that is quickly gaining popularity. It is based on JavaScript and is built for the modern web. Contrary to the popular myth that Cypress can only be used to test JavaScript or node friendly applications, Cypress can actually be used to test any type of application. It was created to address the pain points QA engineers face while testing an application and is also developer-friendly. It operates directly in the browser and uses a unique Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation technique. Cypress allows you to create unit tests, integration tests as well as end-to-end tests. It is designed particularly for front-end developers. Pros of using Cypress Whenever you run a test on Cypress, it opens up a browser that allows you to see the tests being executed as well as the flow of the application in real-time, side by side. It also allows you to go back to the beginning and check which tests have failed and what that test’s output was, which is quite helpful in pinpointing and fixing bugs seamlessly. In addition to taking a screenshot of the test, Cypress also allows you to record a video of the entire testing process. This helps developers better visualize the bug and where the bug is occurring in the application. One of Cypress’ most powerful use cases is that it can run in your Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline. Anytime there is a change in your codebase, your CI pipeline will automatically run all your Cypress tests to ensure that nothing has broken in your application. Cypress also offers the option of parallelization, where different tests can run with multiple Cypress agents at the same time. The benefit is that it greatly reduces the overall time for running your tests. The code, the library, and the vocabulary used in Cypress are beginner friendly. Cons of using Cypress One of the main cons of using Cypress is that it does not allow testing of features which require the application to open another tab or browser. This is because, in Cypress, all the tests are performed in a single browser tab. At the moment, Cypress does not provide support for browsers like Safari and Internet Explorer. Conclusion Automated end-to-end testing tools have proved their benefits and are here to stay for the long run.Cypress is the next-generation testing tool, and its growing popularity is attributed to the fact that it is open-source and is constantly evolving. Its pros outweigh its cons, and is an excellent alternative to Selenium as an end-to-end testing tool.
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Cybersecurity: Its Significance And Top Trends ATMECS – Content Team Cybercrime had cost the world $6 trillion in 2021. The costs are expected to increase up to $10.5 trillion by 2025. Investing in cybersecurity is the best course of action to protect against or deter criminal activities like hacking, unauthorized access, and attacks on data centers or computerized systems. It helps safeguard connected systems like software, hardware, and data from multiple threats and defends computers, mobile devices, servers, networks, and other electronic devices from malicious attacks. The best cybersecurity strategies provide an efficient security posture against cyber threats and malicious attacks that aim to access, change, destroy, delete, or extort systems and sensitive data. Why is cybersecurity critical? Cybersecurity is vital to minimize the risk of cyberattacks, and secure data and systems. The proliferation of digital technology, increased dependence on the internet and smart devices, complex global supply chains, and critical digital economy data have led to an increased probability of cyberattacks. Individuals, organizations, governments, educational institutions, etc., are all at risk of data breaches and cyberattacks. No one is immune to the cyber threats of today. Studies suggest that global cybercrime costs will reportedly rise by almost 15% annually over the next four years. If you are not convinced about the importance of cybersecurity in curbing these threats, the following points will help you understand its significance. Increased exposure of organizations to attacks Cybercriminals try to access organizational data through employees, and the increased use of internet services and IoT devices worsens the problem. The criminals hack into the system by sending fraudulent messages and emails. Organizations with minimal or less than optimal security protocols cannot tackle such security threats. Organizations have to beat such threats 100% of the time while cybercriminals need to win only once to do irreparable damage. This is the reason why cybersecurity is critical in proactively preventing theft, hacking, fraudulent emails, viruses etc., before it happens. Increased cybersecurity threats to individuals Hackers may steal an individual’s personal information and sell it in unlegislated or unregulated markets like the dark web for profit. All data on personal mobile phones, computers, or other digital platforms is no longer safe. Individuals with high-profile identities or at-risk segments like senior citizens are the most vulnerable. Phishing, where the attacker sends fraudulent messages that appear to come from a recognized source, is one of the most frequent types of cyberthreats. Phishing algorithms run behind the scenes stealing login information and sensitive data and in many cases, installing malware on the devices. If you see a lot of emails in your inbox’s spam folder, chances are you received a phishing email. Expensive data breach costs Organizations cannot afford data breaches. Even the smallest data breach can amount to exponential losses due to litigation costs. Data breaches on average cost $3.62 million, leading many small organizations to go out of business. According to recent research, the cost of breaches has increased quite a bit, and new vulnerabilities have prompted hackers to launch automated attacks on systems. Modern day hacking Hacking and data breaches threaten network systems and make them vulnerable. Present-day cybercriminals range from privately funded individuals to activist outfits, from anarchists to well trained state sponsored actors. The scope of cyberattacks have also widened to include: Information systems and network infiltration Password sniffing Website defacement Breach of access Instant messaging abuse Web browser exploitation Intellectual Property (IP) theft Unauthorized access to systems Increasing vulnerabilities Malicious actors take advantage of everyone – from business organizations and professionals to educational and health institutions. Vulnerabilities are prevalent everywhere, and every system is facing a new security threat. Cybersecurity professionals are constantly playing catch-up to mitigate the risks related to data and system security. Which are the top cybersecurity trends? The year 2022 is all about digital business processes and hybrid work, making it difficult for cybersecurity teams to ensure secured individual or organizational networks. The hybrid working environment has highlighted the need for security monitoring to prevent attacks on cyber-physical systems. Identity threat detection and response will be on top of the list for security leaders across organizations that engage multiple vendors for their IT needs. Data suggests 45% of organizations will experience attacks on software supply chains by 2025, three times as much as 2021. Vendor consolidation leading to a single platform for multiple security needs will cause disruption in the cybersecurity market but offer respite to consumers through innovative pricing and licensing models. One of the most talked about trends is the emergence of the cybersecurity mesh. A cybersecurity mesh is a conceptual approach to a security architecture that helps distributed enterprises integrate security into their assets. It is expected to reduce the financial impact of security incidents by 90% by 2024. Many organizations still don’t have a dedicated Chief Information Security Officer. It is expected that the CISO role will gain significant traction and the office of CISO will emulate both a decentralized and centralized model for greater agility and responsiveness. It is time to pay close attention to the aforementioned trends and understand the risks/benefits associated with cybersecurity. Organizations and individuals investing in development of best practices with respect to data and information security will not only insulate themselves from today’s cyber threats but also lay the foundation for sustainable growth in the future. How can ATMECS help? ATMECS Cybersecurity Practice helps our clients protect themselves against today’s cyberthreats with both tactical and strategic solution offerings. Our practice follows a metrics-driven approach to providing resilient and reliable security services and preventing cyber threats. We understand business risks, evolve mitigation measures for data threats and attacks, and enable security posturing to ensure an efficient working system. We provide scalable services that handle all our clients’ cybersecurity needs. References 8 Huge Cybersecurity Trends (2022) – Link Alarming Cyber Statistics For Mid-Year 2022 That You Need To Know – Link 7 Top Trends in Cybersecurity for 2022 – Link TOP TRENDS IN CYBERSECURITY 2022 – Link DEFENDING THE EXPANDING ATTACK SURFACE
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When Should You Choose Edge Computing Over Cloud Computing? ATMECS – Content Team When Should You Choose Edge Computing Over Cloud Computing? Edge computing is a distributed IT architecture and computing framework that includes multiple devices and networks at or near the users. It processes data near the generation source and enables processing at a higher volume and speed resulting in real-time action-led results. Edge computing helps business organizations by offering faster insights, better bandwidth availability, and improved response times. The process enables organizations to improve how they use and manage physical assets and create interactive human experiences. How is edge computing different from cloud computing? Cloud computing involves the deployment of different resources like databases, storage, servers, software, networking, etc., through the internet. Edge computing, on the other hand, helps increase the responsiveness of the IT infrastructural resources by processing data near the generation source. Organizations and industry experts remain optimistic about cloud computing’s future growth, but a few others bet on the benefits of edge computing. Here is a breakdown of the differences between edge computing and cloud computing. Speedy and agility Edge computing uses computational and analytical powers close to the datacenter to increase responsiveness and perception speed and boost well-designed applications. On the other hand, a traditional cloud computing setup does not match the speed of configured edge computing networks. Edge computing solutions provide low latency, high bandwidth, device-level processing, data offload, and trusted computing and storage. In addition, they use less bandwidth because data is processed locally. Scalability Scalability, in edge computing, depends on device heterogeneity. This means performance levels vary across devices based on device specifications. However, cloud computing enables better scalability related to network, data storage, and processing capabilities through existing subscriptions or on-premise infrastructure. Productivity and performance The computing resources are close to end-users in edge computing, which means the client data can get processed through AI-powered solutions and analytical tools that require real-time streaming of data. The process helps ensure operational efficiency and heightened productivity. Cloud computing removes the requirement of patching software or setting up hardware related to onsite datacenters, which enhances IT professionals’ productivity, improves organizational performance and minimizes latency. Cloud computing offers IAAS, PAAS and SAAS models as offerings catering to the infrastructure needs of organizations regardless of size or IT staff/expertise. Examples of edge computing Edge computing helps bring storage capabilities and data processing closer to ensure an efficient ecosystem. As the costs of ‘storage’ and ‘compute’ have been reducing steadily, the number of smart devices that can carry out various processing tasks with edge computing is growing steadily as well. The variety of edge computing use cases are increasing along with the increasing capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Big Data, where volume, veracity, velocity and variety of data matters, is one area where edge computing is poised to have the best business applications and returns on investment. Here are some examples of edge computing use cases: Autonomous vehicles By collecting and processing data about the location, direction, speed, traffic conditions and more, all in real time, autonomous vehicle manufacturers use edge computing to enhance efficiency, improve safety, decrease traffic congestion, and reduce accidents. Remote monitoring of oil and gas industry assets To enable careful monitoring of oil and gas assets, petroleum companies use edge technology to observe the oil and gas equipment, manage cost-cutting, and enhance productivity. The process also includes visual inspection or monitoring of remote sites. As edge computing enables real-time analytics with processing much closer to the asset there is less reliance on good quality connectivity to a centralized cloud. Smart grid technology Smart grid technology collaborates with edge computing to enable side-based decentralized storage and generation, optimize energy efficiency, innovate business models, predict maintenance in product lines, and improve overall operational operational efficiency. In-hospital patient monitoring Use of edge computing can allow the hospitals to process data locally to maintain data privacy. It also enables real-time notifications to practitioners of unusual patient trends or behaviours, and creation of 360-degree view patient dashboards for full visibility. Content delivery Edge computing enables fast, efficient and secure content delivery by leveraging APIs, websites, SaaS platforms, mobile applications, etc. Benefits of edge computing Edge computing optimizes data-driven capabilities by enabling data collection, reporting, and processing near the end user. The framework incurs multiple benefits during the process. Speed and latency With edge computing, data analysis is confined to the source where it was created and thus eliminating latency. The process leads to faster response times and makes the data relevant and actionable. Security Critical business and operational processes rely on actionable data that may be vulnerable to breaches and cyber threats. Edge computing helps diminish the impact of potential system risks and analyze the data locally providing security to the entire organization. Cost savings Edge computing helps categorize data from a management perspective by retaining it and reducing the requirement of costly bandwidth to connect different locations. The framework optimizes data flow, reduces redundancy, and minimizes operating costs. Reliability Devices that utilize edge computing can store and process data locally to improve its reliability. It helps eliminate temporary disruptions in connectivity and ensures zero impact on smart device operations. Scalability Edge computing ensures scalability by deploying IoT devices with data management and processing tools in a single implementation. It forwards the data to a centrally located datacenter to analyze the information and execute actions for faster business growth. Future outlook Edge computing will continue to improve with advanced tech enhancements like 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), and satellite mesh in the foreseeable future. The framework will help commoditize advanced technology by enabling wider access to high performance networks and automated machines. From software-enabled improvements to advanced computing solutions – the edge computing framework will open up opportunities for achieving organizational IT efficiencies through powerful processors, cheaper storage facilities, and improved network access. ATMECS aims to bring visible transformation in systems through edge-integrated development platforms and automation services. The company partners with multiple
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