Name: How to handle: API-first development; data encryption; & pre-production complexity
Rating: 4.9 (1624 reviews)
Author: mohanarpit

TL;DR style notes from articles I read today.

An API-first approach helps dev teams reduce the cost of developing apps, increase speed-to-market & ensure good developer experiences.
It involves developing APIs that are consistent and reusable for all platforms, devices and operating systems.
For other developers, APIs are the first & most important way to access & interact with your product. APIs need to be designed with these users in mind.
APIs should be a specification in the implementation, instead of just being a thin layer on top of your application.
User-friendly API documentation is of utmost importance.

Full post here, 6 mins read

The biggest challenge with data encryption is key management i.e - how do you safely store secret keys for either symmetric or asymmetric cryptosystem.
Symmetric encryption uses a secret key to encrypt data and uses the same key to decrypt this data when needed. Asymmetric encryption works with a multi-key system.
Handle key management by sticking to best practices & outsourcing the underlying cryptography as much as possible.
Amazon KMS is a good option if you need to safely encrypt data symmetrically. For asymmetric encryption, it is best to consult a cryptography expert.

Full post here, 6 mins read

With DevOps, do not get lost trying to create the perfect solution. Just focus on making continuous, small improvements.
When working with long pipelines break up changes into smaller chunks that are easier to develop, test, and deploy.
Deal with the complexity of distributed applications with a purpose-built tool
Specialized automation and insight tooling are helpful for detecting differences between staging and prod before they impact your uptime.
If minimizing the total number of environments is not realistically possible, look at specialized tooling to automate database management.

Full post here, 5 mins read