Books published by APress

Urgent deadlines, constant lack of time, permanent delays - these are the most faithful companions and, at the same time, the greatest enemies of the project manager. Even certified project managers, people with enormous knowledge and a lot of experience, find themselves in a situation where they need great mental resilience in order not to give up. The book is a complete manual for all critical situations a project manager might need to handle along the project¿s lifecycle. Written by a project manager with many years of experience, each chapter contains real-life examples with analysis and guidelines. Yoüll benefit from the down-to-earth knowledge that usually project managers learn over the course of years in critical and stressful situations with no preparation beforehand. It¿s not about academic methodologies ¿ it¿s about pragmatic solutions that work in real-life. Far too often, the wise theory of IT project management has nothing to do with reality. Managing IT Projects is your special compendium of knowledge, featuring "project management black magic,¿ chock full of proven recipes for project managers and IT organization managers, as well as advice on how to act in critical situations.What You'll LearnExamine the main reasons for delays in projects and see where they come from Review the key success factors in managing projects beyond project management methodologies and techniquesUnderstand the critical moments of projects and see how to prepare for themApply a pragmatic strategy and philosophy for successful project delivery and cooperation with customersWho This Book Is ForSoftware developers, project managers, engineering managers and software development directors, sales reps, executive and founders

Learn to write better automated tests that will dramatically increase your productivity and have fun while doing so. This book is a build-your-own adventure designed for individual reading and for collaborative workshops. You will build an xUnit automated test framework using JavaScript: initially a clone of Jest, but adding a couple of neat features borrowed from RSpec, the genre-defining tool for behavior-driven development (BDD). Along the way, you will explore the philosophy behind automated testing best practices. The automated test runner is one of the most important innovations within software engineering. But for many programmers, automated testing remains a mystery, and knowing how to write good tests is akin to sorcery.As the chapters of this book unfold, you will see how the humble test runner is an elegant and simple piece of software. Each chapter picks a single feature to build, like the "it" function or the "beforeEach" block. It picks apart the theory of why the feature needs to exist, and how to use it effectively in your own test suites. Every chapter ends with a set of ideas for extension points should you wish to explore further, alone or in groups. The book culminates in an implementation of test doubles and mocks¿one of the most difficult and misunderstood concepts within automated testing.By the end of the book, you will have gained a solid understanding of automated testing principles that you can immediately apply to your work projects. What You'll LearnBuild an xUnit automated test frameworkSee how an automated test runner worksUnderstand the best practices for automated unit testingEffectively use test doubles and mocksWho This Book Is ForSoftware developers with JavaScript experience who are seeking to master the art of automated testing.

Every day, successful software projects scale and sustain businesses of all sizes and across all industries. Unfortunately, the reality is that many software projects still fail. The reasons behind these failures are seldom due to the underlying technology. Misunderstandings and communication barriers lead to wrong decisions, missed opportunities, communication breakdowns, or worse¿huge economic loss.In this digitally connected world, business professionals can¿t afford to be hands-off on technical projects, but they also can¿t be expected to have technical certifications. They have first-hand knowledge of the business processes, are subject matter experts in software requirements, and they finance the projects. Even C-level management or board members need to rapidly gain just enough understanding of technology to make mission-critical decisions for businesses to survive and flourish. In most software projects the number of non-technical stakeholders far exceeds the numberof techies.This book distills the world of software projects into simple terms and relatable metaphors for even the most technically adverse reader. Real-life examples, entertaining analogies, and hand-drawn illustrations will stick with readers throughout their own software projects, bolstering their success. Business requirements, use cases, process flows¿the list goes on. It¿s all broken down in this game-changing book aimed at delivering for business and tech teams what DevOps has done for developers and operations.What You Will LearnKnow the importance of good business requirements and how to write themIdentify the most important business roles, key decisions, and critical activities involved in software projectsStrengthen collaboration between non-technical and technical teamsGrasp common software project terminology, required for non-techies Understand the software development life cycleGain insight on the common software project methodologies and how they differUnderstand what software developers do at a high levelWho This Book Is ForNon-technical business professionals (such as small business owners, startup founders, or employees of a business of any size or industry) who need to secure and implement a software solution. The reader may supervise or collaborate with technical teams, and may be a (beginning) software developer looking for practical insights and better ways to communicate with business colleagues.

Interested in giving Microsoft¿s new Multi-platform App UI (MAUI) a try? This book provides developers with a comprehensive set of tools and hands-on coding to build their own cross-platform applications.The book is a comprehensive end-to-end guide on creating, building, and distributing .NET MAUI applications. As you walk through each new concept, .NET MAUI expert and Microsoft MVP Shaun Lawrence will show the concept's value and uses, and then have you apply it in a build-along application. You will work with this build-along application right up until you are ready to ship it to the relevant stores (e.g., App Store, etc.).The underlying theme through the book is to explain a key concept, show how to implement it directly in order to reinforce your understanding, and then show potential simplifications (e.g., alternative libraries) that can help you reduce the complexities of an applications code base. What You Will LearnCreate a .NET MAUI applicationApply commonly required techniquesApply more advanced techniques to make applications stand outKnow what to consider when distributing applications to the relevant storesTake an application from concept through to productionWho This Book Is ForDevelopers who are new to .NET MAUI and cross-platform development. A basic knowledge of C# is required, but no prior knowledge using .NET MAUI is required. Experienced developers also will find the book useful as it covers topics key to modern day development (such as accessibility, performance, and distribution). Xamarin Forms developers will find the book useful as key features new to .NET MAUI that will aid in the migration from Xamarin Forms to .NET MAUI are explained.

Take a deep dive into the Azure SQL Database Hyperscale Service Tier and discover a new form of cloud architecture from Microsoft that supports massive databases. The new horizontally scalable architecture, formerly code-named Socrates, allows you to decouple compute nodes from storage layers. This radically different approach dramatically increases the scalability of the service. This book shows you how to leverage Hyperscale to provide next-level scalability, high throughput, and fast performance from large databases in your environment.The book begins by showing how Hyperscale helps you eliminate many of the problems of traditional high-availability and disaster recovery architecture. Yoüll learn how Hyperscale overcomes storage capacity limitations and issues with scale-up times and costs. With Hyperscale, your costs do not increase linearly with database size and you can manage more data than ever at a lower cost.The book teaches you how todeploy, configure, and monitor an Azure SQL Hyperscale database in a production environment. The book also covers migrating your current workloads from traditional architecture to Azure SQL Hyperscale. What You Will LearnUnderstand the advantages of Hyperscale over traditional architectureDeploy a Hyperscale database on the Azure cloud (interactively and with code)Configure the advanced features of the Hyperscale database tierMonitor and scale database performance to suit your needsBack up and restore your Azure SQL Hyperscale databasesImplement disaster recovery and failover capabilityCompare performance of Hyperscale vs traditional architectureMigrate existing databases to the Hyperscale service tierWho This Book Is ForSQL architects, data engineers, and DBAs who want the most efficient and cost-effective cloud technologies to run their critical data workloads, and those seeking rapid scalability and high performance and throughput while utilizing large databases

Use continuous Integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) to improve the speed of software delivery. This book presents a game changer¿how to use pipelines to automate the software delivery process. The theories about CI/CD are much the same, but the book covers what the development of pipelines looks like and how testing of pipelines themselves should be performed.Most teams just plunge into coding, without thinking about the CI/CD process itself. Why don¿t we use the same development method for pipelines that we use for apps? Pipelines code development undergoes similar stages as application code development, such as requirements analysis, development, testing, implementation, operations, and monitoring. This is the starting point of the book. It describes the current challenges with pipeline development and how this process can be improved and structured. It describes in detail how to design pipelines and shows examples in BPMN 2.0 notation.What Yoüll LearnKnow the shortcomings and challenges of current pipeline development such as misalignment between the pipeline engineer and the team¿s workflow, the use of infrastructure as code (IaC), and pipeline securityUnderstand the need for CI/CD requirements through the book's non-exhaustive list of more than 60 CI/CD requirements provided to inspire and increase awarenessSee how certain choices affect the way a pipeline is designed (and realized)Become familiar with branching strategy, build strategy, test strategy, release strategy, and deployment strategy that are explained in detail in the book, including their effect on pipeline designKnow how pipelines can be unit tested, using a real-world exampleKnow how performance bottlenecks in a pipeline occur, how they can be detected, and how they can be solvedView a complete implementation, including code, showing how the guidelines in this book are applied to a real use caseWho This Book Is ForDevOps engineers and solution architects involved with automating the software supply chain and using application lifecycle management (ALM)/integration platforms such as Jenkins, CircleCI, Bamboo, and Azure DevOps; intermediate and experienced DevOps engineers (developers, ops engineers, test engineers); and ICT managers interested in the CI/CD pipeline development domain

Prepare for the Azure AI Fundamentals certification examination. This book covers the basics of implementing various Azure AI services in your business. The book not only helps you get ready for the AI-900 exam, but also helps you get started in the artificial intelligence (AI) world.The book starts with a short overview of the AI-900 exam and takes you through the exam prerequisites and the structure of the exam. You will then learn basic and advanced AI in Azure. Principles of responsible AI, Azure Machine Learning (ML), Azure Cognitive Services, and Bot Services are covered, followed by a practice test. You will go through ML fundamental concepts, model training, and validation along with case studies and a practice test for better preparation. The book includes the fundamentals of Azure and computer vision cognitive services. Various vision services and face services are demonstrated as well as analyzing image and text using OCR. You will understand concepts of natural language processing (NLP) such as text analysis, language modelling, entity recognition, sentiment analysis, speech recognition, and synthesis and also learn how to leverage Microsoft Azure for NLP.After reading this book, you will be able to implement various Azure AI services and prepare for the Azure AI Fundamentals certification exam, AI-900. What Will You Learn Understand AI fundamentals and responsibilities Know the Microsoft Azure offerings for AI Understand foundational concepts for ML and Azure offerings for ML Understand Azure Cognitive Services such as Custom Vision, Face, Form Recognizer, Text-to-Speech, and Image Analysis Who This Book Is For Azure and AI users working with ML services

Using fun, hands-on projects, learn what a circuit is and how it works! This book uses a common tool in electronics, the breadboard, to build your way to an understanding of circuits, circuit components, and the basics of computers. You'll master current, voltage, and resistance. With that you can control outputs like lights and motors as well as inputs like switches and sensors. You'll also discover the difference between analog and digital electrical signals while studying both electricity and computers. Dabble in electrical engineering, whether you are interested in building things with electronics or learning to program simple, physical systems. Build your own electronic projects to learn how electronics work. And also how computers store information and process requests. You'll work with simple, low-cost tools like conductive tape before developing up to working with breadboards and discovering the components to build more complex systems. With Beginning Breadboarding, makers of all ages and backgrounds can learn to build real-life physical computing systems and projects. Have fun building something with tangible results while learning all the theory you need to make new projects of your own!What You'll LearnRapidly prototype circuits with breadboardsUse common components to make simple electronic devicesShare electrical energy and control the flow of electricity through componentsWho This Book Is ForMakers, seeking a fun, hands-on introduction to technology, electronics, and computers. Those who have little to no knowledge of the subject, but want to learn electronics or know more about computers.

Take a deep dive into perhaps the single most important facet of query performance¿indexes¿and how to best use them. Newly updated for SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL, this fourth edition includes new guidance and features related to columnstore indexes, improved and consolidated content on Query Store, deeper content around Intelligent Query Processing, and other updates to help you optimize query execution and make performance improvements to even the most challenging workloads. The book begins with explanations of the types of indexes and how they are stored in a database. Moving further into the book, you will learn how statistics are critical for optimal index usage and how the Index Advisor can assist in reviewing and optimizing index health. This book helps you build a clear understanding of how indexes work, how to implement and use them, and the many options available to tame even the most large and complex workloads.What You Will LearnProperly index row store, columnstore, and memory-optimized tablesMake use of Intelligent Query Processing for faster query resultsReview statistics to understand indexing choices made by the optimizerApply indexing strategies such as covering indexes, included columns, and index intersectionsRecognize and remove unnecessary indexesDesign effective indexes for full-text, spatial, and XML data typesWho This Book Is ForAzure SQL and SQL Server administrators and developers who are ready to improve the performance of their database environment by thoughtfully building indexes to speed up queries that matter the most and make a difference to the business

Develop powerful data models that bind data from disparate sources into a coherent whole. Then extend your data models using DAX-the query language that underpins Power BI-to create reusable measures to deliver finely-crafted custom calculations in your dashboards.This book starts off teaching you how to define and enhance the core structures of your data model to make it a true semantic layer that transforms complex data into familiar business terms. You'll learn how to create calculated columns to solve basic analytical challenges. Then you'll move up to mastering DAX measures to finely slice and dice your data.The book also shows how to handle temporal analysis in Power BI using a Date dimension. You will see how DAX Time Intelligence functions can simplify your analysis of data over time. Finally, the book shows how to extend DAX to filter and calculate datasets and develop DAX table functions and variables to handle complex queries.What You Will LearnCreate clear and efficient data models that support in-depth analyticsDefine core attributes such as data types and standardized formatting consistently throughout a data modelDefine cross-filtering settings to enhance the data modelMake use of DAX to create calculated columns and custom tablesExtend your data model with custom calculations and reusable measures using DAXPerform time-based analysis using a Date dimension and Time Intelligence functionsWho This Book Is ForEveryone from the CEO to the Business Intelligence developer and from BI and Data architects and analysts to power users and IT managers can use this book to outshine the competition and create the data framework that they need and interactive dashboards using Power BI

The Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) can be found in the majority of data centers across the world. However, getting hands-on practice to learn this infrastructure can be difficult, as many companies will push to have it production-ready as soon as possible. Home-labs are also cost-prohibitive, cumbersome, electricity-hungry, and noisy. So, how do you get hands-on experience? With Unified Computing System Platform Emulator (UCSPE) and this book. UCSPE is free and can run on a laptop. Using it along with this book, you will learn how to set up, manage and troubleshoot a UCS, including the fabric interconnects, chassis and IOMs, and servers through the GUI and the CLI. All from the comfort of your own home. Introducing Cisco Unified Computing System will show you how to set up a UCS (comparing the UCSPE to a real-world deployment), customize the hardware, configure the UCS system, and secure it. You'll start by creating an organization and then the policies to control storage, networking, boot options, maintenance policies, and server pools. Once you have the required policies you'll use them to create service profiles (using the policies) and templates and assign these to the blade and rack-mount servers in the virtual environment. You'll also be looking at real-life scenarios such as upgrades (and downgrades), northbound networking, and Storage Area Networking (SAN) connectivity. Using the GUI and the CLI you'll look at real-world examples that  data center engineers may encounter. What You'll Learn Set up the Cisco UCSPE on VMWareCreate UCS service profiles Secure the UCS system Troubleshoot the UCSWho This Book Is For Datacenter and network engineers and individuals studying for the CCNA and CCNP Cisco data center qualification.

Understand the power of dynamic arrays: a single formula can generate new and vastly more efficient spreadsheet possibilities. This book introduces spreadsheet users to dynamic array functions in Microsoft Excel 365, defines and details the distinctive ways in which they work, and shows how they can be applied to a wide swath of data-analytic tasks.While array formulas and functions have long held a place in the spreadsheet toolbox (although, for many of us, shunted to an obscure corner), the dynamic array engine offers a more user-friendly and intelligible set of means for manipulating spreadsheet data in the array mode. The single-formula, multi-cell capability of dynamic arrays has been extended to nearly all existing spreadsheet functions, offering a new, default way of working. As a result, many tasks can now be executed with dynamic arrays without having to resort to the new functions at all.After defining arrays and dynamic array formulas, this book helps you examine the dynamic array property of lifting and how it impacts the formulas, including those written with existing functions. Plenty of illustrations and formulas along the way help you get comfortable using them. From there, you will learn Excel 365's new dynamic functions, including the 14 currently in rollout, each accompanied by instructive examples. In many cases, the examples demonstrate how the new functions can work with long-available functions, such as MID, IF, COUNTIF, etc., which now also boast dynamic array functionality. What You Will LearnUnlock the dynamic array potential in Microsoft ExcelApply dynamic array functions and confidently direct them to real-world spreadsheet tasksKnow the distinctive ways in which arrays work and can be applied to numerous data-analytic tasksWho This Book Is ForUsers of Excel 365 and beyond who are comfortable with, but not necessarily expert in, formula writing, as well as those who are unaware of or not fluent with dynamic arrays. It is also valuable to data journalists and other professionals in need of spreadsheet skills who may unaware of dynamic arrays, and the time they could save by applying them to their work.

This book will teach you how to build recommender systems with machine learning algorithms using Python. Recommender systems have become an essential part of every internet-based business today.You'll start by learning basic concepts of recommender systems, with an overview of different types of recommender engines and how they function. Next, you will see how to build recommender systems with traditional algorithms such as market basket analysis and content- and knowledge-based recommender systems with NLP. The authors then demonstrate techniques such as collaborative filtering using matrix factorization and hybrid recommender systems that incorporate both content-based and collaborative filtering techniques. This is followed by a tutorial on building machine learning-based recommender systems using clustering and classification algorithms like K-means and random forest. The last chapters cover NLP, deep learning, and graph-based techniques to build a recommender engine. Each chapter includes data preparation, multiple ways to evaluate and optimize the recommender systems, supporting examples, and illustrations.By the end of this book, you will understand and be able to build recommender systems with various tools and techniques with machine learning, deep learning, and graph-based algorithms.What You Will LearnUnderstand and implement different recommender systems techniques with PythonEmploy popular methods like content- and knowledge-based, collaborative filtering, market basket analysis, and matrix factorization Build hybrid recommender systems that incorporate both content-based and collaborative filteringLeverage machine learning, NLP, and deep learning for building recommender systemsWho This Book Is ForData scientists, machine learning engineers, and Python programmers interested in building and implementing recommender systems to solve problems.

Interested in learning how to program with Java? Let's face it, the best way to learn to program is by writing programs. This can be a daunting proposition with the specter of hours of simple command line example programs hanging over your head. Fear not! Now you can learn to program in Java in a fun way by working on video games. With this book, you'll get to work with three Java game projects and have access to the complete game code for each project, including a full Java game engine. After completing Introduction to Java through Game Development, you'll be proficient in Java programming, having worked with the language's fundamental aspects throughout the text, and will be ready to further your Java and game programming expertise with confidence.What You'llMaster the fundamentals of the Java programming languageUse different data structures like arrays, lists, stacks, and queuesUnderstand game programming basics including the main game loopGain experience working with three different game projects via the book's coding challengesWork with the 2D game engine that powers the book's included games and learn to create your own new game projectsUnderstand advanced Java topics like classes, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphismWork with exceptions and how to use debugging techniques to trace through codeSharpen your skills with over a dozen coding challenges that test your abilities with a development task on a real game projectWho This Book Is ForThis book requires little to no programming experience to understand and benefit from the text.

This is a crisp, practical, and hands-on guide to moving mission-critical workloads to Azure. This book focuses on the process and technology aspects of Azure security coupled with pattern-oriented, real-world examples. You will implement modernized security controls, catering to the needs of authentication, authorization, and auditing, thereby protecting the confidentiality and integrity of your infrastructure, applications, and data.The book starts with an introduction to the various dimensions of cloud security, including pattern-based security and Azure's defense security architecture. You will then move on to identity and access management with Azure Active Directory. Here, you will learn the AAD security model, application proxy, and explore AAD B2B and B2C for external partners. Network security patterns and infrastructure security patterns are discussed next, followed by application and data security patterns. Finally, you will learn how to set up security policies and work with Azure Monitor and Azure Sentinel, and to create leadership support and training for a rigorous security culture.After completing this book, you will understand and be able to implement reusable patterns for mission critical workloads, standardizing and expediting the move of those workloads to Azure.What Will You LearnUnderstand security boundaries required to implement Azure's defense-in-depth security architectureUnderstand Azure Active Directory security modelMaster design patterns relating to network, infrastructure, and softwareAutomate security monitoring with advanced observability and gain practical insights on how this can be implemented with Azure Monitor and Azure SentinelWho Is This Book ForDevelopers and IT consultants/architects who are working on Azure.

Improve the video multimedia services you work on or develop using tools from video service technologies such as Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, and Skype. This book introduces you to the core technologies that enable Metaverse XR (eXtended Reality) services and advanced video multimedia streaming services.First, you'll find out about the current and future trends in Metaverse and video streaming services. XR is a combination of technologies that include MR, AR, VR, voice recognition systems, haptic and 3D-motion UIs, as well as head mounted displays) like Microsoft Hololens 2 and Oculus Quest 2. You'll review metaverse services XR applications and learn more about the core XR feature extraction technologies. With XR capabilities mastered, you can move into the main technologies for video streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and YouTube. You'll also about video formats, such as H.264, MPEG-4 AVC, H.265, MPEG-5, and MPEG-DASH. As well as online hosting services like content delivery network (CDN), mobile CDN, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Additional details on content aging and updating operations along with CDN popularity predictions and contents update techniques, such as, Least Recently Used (LRU) and east Frequently Used (LFU) strategies are introduced. All these technologies enable fast, efficient, reliable, and adaptable video streaming services. They also allow for video conferencing services like Zoom, Skype and WebEx. By the time you've finished reading, you'll understand how these technologies converge into the Metaverse and and offer a wide variety of development opportunities for video streaming. What You'll LearnIncorporate core AI techniques and extraction XR algorithmsEnable fast, efficient, and reliable video streaming in your product, service, or appUpdate content with CDN popularity predictionsExplore the Netflix Open Connect CDN model and characteristics  Understand the operations of modern video and multimedia systemsBecome a leader in metaverse and video multimedia services and products.Who This Book Is ForDevelopers, product managers, hobbyists, and students interested in learning how Metaverse XR and video streaming work and can be developed.

Learn how to use the features of Visual Studio 2022 and utilize the IDE correctly to make it your one-stop solution for creating quality code. Learn what's new in VS 2022 and explore the existing features of Visual Studio so you can become a more efficient programmer. This revised edition covers the latest features of Visual Studio 2022 and how to use them. The book includes new topics like Subword Navigation, Multi-caret Editing, how to enable Code Cleanup on Save, using breakpoints, and new debugging features such as temporary breakpoints and dependent breakpoints. The book also looks at some of the new Git features such as Multi-repo Support, Comparing Branches, Checkout Commit, and line Staging.Getting Started with Visual Studio 2022 begins with an overview of Visual Studio and explores features such as Visual Studio Live Share, Visual Studio Search, Solution Filters, and Intellicode. The author also provides a look at the different Visual Studio project templates and shows you how to create code snippets, as well as how to manage NuGet and nmp packages. You will also see how to create a cross-platform MAUI application as well as how to use SQLite in an MAUI application. Moving ahead, you will learn how to debug your code using breakpoints to step into specific methods, use data tips, and utilize the Debugger Display attribute. You will then move on to learn unit testing and explore the tools provided by Visual Studio to create and run unit tests. The book also covers source control integration in Visual Studio and how to use GitHub to implement a source control strategy for your projects.What You Will LearnCreate and use code snippets in Visual Studio 2022Use the new debugging features in Visual StudioUtilize diagnostic tools and the Immediate window for code debuggingGenerate unit tests with IntelliTestHarness the new Git features in Visual Studio to make managing source code easierWork with MAUI appsWho This Book Is ForBeginners and software developers working on the .NET stack.

This professional guide to Java-based cloud native apps DevOps dives deeper into building and deploying production ready cloud native apps using the increasingly popular open source Eclipse MicroProfile framework, Jakarta EE 10 APIs and the most popular Kubernetes container orchestration tool.After a quick overview of Jakarta EE and MicroProfile, Pro Cloud Native Java EE Apps starts you on your way by walking you through a cloud-native Jakarta EE-based application case study that will be forged piece-by-piece over the course of the book. Next, you'll interject dependencies and data persistence capabilities as microservices to go with the case study app that you are building.  Next, you'll employ the REST API using Jakarta REST APIs and the MicroProfile RESTClient. You'll also explore ways to add resilience to your app, keep count with metrics, check on your app's health, secure your app, and test and complete your production-ready cloud-native app.  Finally, you'll dive into migrating a monolith to become a production ready cloud-native app.  After reading this book, you'll be able to build your own production ready cloud-native Java app using Jakarta EE and MicroProfile. What You Will LearnBuild and deploy a production-ready cloud-native Java app using MicroProfile, Jakarta EE and KubernetesMigrate a monolith app to become a cloud-native appEmploy Jakarta EE APIs such as Persistence, CDI and moreLeverage the MicroProfile frameworkExplore configurations, resilience, metrics, health, security, and more for your cloud-native appsWho This Book Is ForThose software developers and programmers with at least some prior experience using Jakarta EE, MicroProfile. At least some prrior Java experience is expected.

Know how to use the new capabilities and cloud integrations in SQL Server 2022. This book covers the many innovative integrations with the Azure Cloud that make SQL Server 2022 the most cloud-connected edition ever. The book covers cutting-edge features such as the blockchain-based Ledger for creating a tamper-evident record of changes to data over time that you can rely on to be correct and reliable. You'll learn about built-in Query Intelligence capabilities to help you to upgrade with confidence that your applications will perform at least as fast after the upgrade than before. In fact, you'll probably see an increase in performance from the upgrade, with no code changes needed. Also covered are innovations such as contained availability groups and data virtualization with S3 object storage.New cloud integrations covered in this book include Microsoft Azure Purview and the use of Azure SQL for high availability and disaster recovery. The book covers Azure Synapse Link with its built-in capabilities to take changes and put them into Synapse automatically.Anyone building their career around SQL Server will want this book for the valuable information it provides on building SQL skills from edge to the cloud. What You Will LearnKnow how to use all of the new capabilities and cloud integrations in SQL Server 2022Connect to Azure for disaster recovery, near real-time analytics, and securityLeverage the Ledger to create a tamper-evident record of data changes over timeUpgrade from prior releases and achieve faster and more consistent performance with no code changesAccess data and storage in different and new formats, such as Parquet and S3, without moving the data and using your existing T-SQL skillsExplore new application scenarios using innovations with T-SQL in areas such as JSON and time seriesWho This Book Is ForSQL Server professionals who want to upgrade their skills to the latest edition of SQL Server; those wishing to take advantage of new integrations with Microsoft Azure Purview (governance), Azure Synapse (analytics), and Azure SQL (HA and DR); and those in need of the increased performance and security offered by Query Intelligence and the new Ledger

Apply best practices for deploying and administering HCL Workload automation (HWA) to meet the automation requirements of the digitally transformed platform. This book will provide detailed architecture and deployment options to achieve this goal.Workload automation focuses on real-time processing, predefined event-driven triggers, and situational dependencies. It offers centralized control of managing multiple tasks, making it possible to schedule enterprise-wide tasks. You'll see how it supports the timely completion of tasks and is beneficial for processes that need to happen at a specific time or need to occur as a result of another event. HWA increases efficiency, reduces the turnaround time for workflows, and reduces errors along with delays in end-to-end processes. You'll review proven ways to deliver batch optimization and modernization requirements, and see how solutions can be aligned with the DevSecOps delivery model. Workload Automation Using HWA presents information on how to use the tool and has numerous use cases and implementation procedures to guide every workload automation deployment requirement.  What You'll LearnAutomate and integrate your complex workload, workflow, and business processes across automation platforms, ERP systems, and business applicationsUnderstand event-driven batch automationPractice alignment of the workload automation solution with the DevSecOps principlesWho This Book Is ForSolution Architects, Infrastructure Architects, Technical Architects, Enterprise Architects, Workload Automation Tool Administrators or SME's, Schedulers, Application owners, Automation Specialists, Service Delivery Managers

Learn to use the Ansible open source IT automation tool to automate your VMware infrastructure. This book contains all of the obvious and not-so-obvious best practices of Ansible automation. Each lesson summarizes a specific use case for the modern VMware infrastructure and is focused on a single module from the most important parameter, including  live demo of code and real-life usage.You'll configure the Ansible Controller to interact with VMware infrastructure using the "e;community.VMware"e; Ansible documentation collection and the appropriate Python libraries. Next, learn how to automate the creation of a virtual machine manually and from a template, start and stop using the shutdown and forced-power off a Virtual Machine, take and delete and snapshot, add a new hard disk and expand a currently attached hard disk, as well as gather information for data centers, clusters, host systems, and virtual machines.By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed in efficiently maintaining a VMware infrastructure with Ansible Automation. You'll also be able to save time and reduce manual errors using simple human-readable automation technology.What You'll LearnAutomate your VMware infrastructure using Ansible codeInstall Ansible in operating systems such as RedHat, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.Write and execute your first Ansible Playbook code Troubleshoot the most common error messagesWho This Book Is For  IT professionals of every industry who would like a jargon-free understanding of Ansible technology, including VMware, Linux, and Windows Systems Administrators, DevOps professionals, thought leaders, and infrastructure-as-code enthusiasts.

Discover key information buried in the noise of data by learning a variety of anomaly detection techniques and using the Python programming language to build a robust service for anomaly detection against a variety of data types. The book starts with an overview of what anomalies and outliers are and uses the Gestalt school of psychology to explain just why it is that humans are naturally great at detecting anomalies. From there, you will move into technical definitions of anomalies, moving beyond "e;I know it when I see it"e; to defining things in a way that computers can understand.The core of the book involves building a robust, deployable anomaly detection service in Python. You will start with a simple anomaly detection service, which will expand over the course of the book to include a variety of valuable anomaly detection techniques, covering descriptive statistics, clustering, and time series scenarios. Finally, you will compare your anomaly detection service head-to-head with a publicly available cloud offering and see how they perform.The anomaly detection techniques and examples in this book combine psychology, statistics, mathematics, and Python programming in a way that is easily accessible to software developers. They give you an understanding of what anomalies are and why you are naturally a gifted anomaly detector. Then, they help you to translate your human techniques into algorithms that can be used to program computers to automate the process. You'll develop your own anomaly detection service, extend it using a variety of techniques such as including clustering techniques for multivariate analysis and time series techniques for observing data over time, and compare your service head-on against a commercial service.What You Will LearnUnderstand the intuition behind anomaliesConvert your intuition into technical descriptions of anomalous dataDetect anomalies using statistical tools, such as distributions, variance and standard deviation, robust statistics, and interquartile rangeApply state-of-the-art anomaly detection techniques in the realms of clustering and time series analysisWork with common Python packages for outlier detection and time series analysis, such as scikit-learn, PyOD, and tslearnDevelop a project from the ground up which finds anomalies in data, starting with simple arrays of numeric data and expanding to include multivariate inputs and even time series dataWho This Book Is ForFor software developers with at least some familiarity with the Python programming language, and who would like to understand the science and some of the statistics behind anomaly detection techniques. Readers are not required to have any formal knowledge of statistics as the book introduces relevant concepts along the way.

Get your daily work done efficiently using this comprehensive guide for SQL Server DBAs that covers all that a practicing database administrator needs to know. Updated for SQL Server 2022, this edition includes coverage of new features, such as Ledger, which provides an immutable record of table history to protect you against malicious data tampering, and integration with cloud providers to support hybrid cloud scenarios. You'll also find new content on performance optimizations, such as query pan feedback, and security controls, such as new database roles, which are restructured for modern ways of working. Coverage also includes Query Store, installation on Linux, and the use of containerized SQL.Pro SQL Server 2022 Administration takes DBAs on a journey that begins with planning their SQL Server deployment and runs through installing and configuring the instance, administering and optimizing database objects, and ensuring that data is secure and highly available. Readers will learn how to perform advanced maintenance and tuning techniques, and discover SQL Server's hybrid cloud functionality.This book teaches you how to make the most of new SQL Server 2022 functionality, including integration for hybrid cloud scenarios. The book promotes best-practice installation, shows how to configure for scalability and high availability, and demonstrates the gamut of database-level maintenance tasks, such as index maintenance, database consistency checks, and table optimizations. What You Will LearnIntegrate SQL Server with Azure for hybrid cloud scenariosAudit changes and prevent malicious data changes with SQL Server's LedgerSecure and encrypt data to protect against embarrassing data breachesEnsure 24 x 7 x 365 access through high availability and disaster recovery features in today's hybrid worldUse Azure tooling, including Arc, to gain insight into and manage your SQL Server enterpriseInstall and configure SQL Server on Windows, Linux, and in containers Perform routine maintenance tasks, such as backups and database consistency checks  Optimize performance and undertake troubleshooting in the Database EngineWho This Book Is ForSQL Server DBAs who manage on-premise installations of SQL Server. This book is also useful for DBAs who wish to learn advanced features, such as integration with Azure, Query Store, Extended Events, and Policy-Based Management, or those who need to install SQL Server in a variety of environments.

Understand and write programs in Go, a multi-paradigm language with built-in features for concurrent programming. This book enables developers to build software that is simple, reliable, and efficient. It'll also help beginners to start programming Go-based applications.Beginning Go Programming begins by explaining the programming fundamentals of the Go language, including basic syntax, data type and structures, and the use of functions and methods. Next, it covers string formatting, Unicode data handling, and how to use regular expressions in Go. Further, it discusses how to encode and decode JSON formatted data for Go applications, and how to work with HTTP in Go. It concludes by exploring concurrency and covering the most powerful features of Go, as well as tips and tricks related to it. After reading this book and working through its practical examples, you will be ready to begin programming your own Go-based applications.What You Will LearnUnderstand the fundamentals of the Go programming languageMaster the different features of Go and how to implement real-life scenarios using the languageWork with text in Go, such as string formatting and Unicode data handlingWork with HTTP in GoWho This Book Is ForProgrammers and developers looking to learn Go programming language concepts for efficient application building. 

Get a hands-on introduction to Transformer architecture using the Hugging Face library. This book explains how Transformers are changing the AI domain, particularly in the area of natural language processing.This book covers Transformer architecture and its relevance in natural language processing (NLP). It starts with an introduction to NLP and a progression of language models from n-grams to a Transformer-based architecture. Next, it offers some basic Transformers examples using the Google colab engine. Then, it introduces the Hugging Face ecosystem and the different libraries and models provided by it. Moving forward, it explains language models such as Google BERT with some examples before providing a deep dive into Hugging Face API using different language models to address tasks such as sentence classification, sentiment analysis, summarization, and text generation.After completing Introduction to Transformers for NLP, you will understand Transformer concepts and be able to solve problems using the Hugging Face library.What You Will LearnUnderstand language models and their importance in NLP and NLU (Natural Language Understanding)Master Transformer architecture through practical examplesUse the Hugging Face library in Transformer-based language modelsCreate a simple code generator in Python based on Transformer architectureWho This Book Is ForData Scientists and software developers interested in developing their skills in NLP and NLU (Natural Language Understanding)

Learn how to automate processes, visualize your data, and improve productivity using Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, SharePoint, Forms, Teams, and more. This book will help you build complete solutions that often involve storing data in SharePoint, creating a front-end application in Power Apps or Forms, adding additional functionality with Power Automate, and effective reports and dashboards in Power BI.This new edition greatly expands the focus on Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, and Teams, along with SharePoint and Microsoft Forms. It starts with the basics of programming and shows how to build a simple email application in .NET, HTML/JavaScript, Power Apps on its own, and Power Apps and Power Automate in combination. It then covers how to connect Power Apps to SharePoint, create an approval process in Power Automate, visualize surveys in Power BI, and create your own survey solution with the combination of a number of Microsoft 365 tools. You'll work with an extended example that shows how to use Power Apps and SharePoint together to create your own help ticketing system.This book offers a deep dive into Power BI, including working with JSON, XML, and Yes/No data, as well as visualizing learning data and using it to detect inconsistencies between Excel files. You'll also see how to connect to Remedy and to the help system you will have created. Under author Jeffrey Rhodes's guidance, you'll delve into the Power Apps collection to learn how to avoid dreaded "e;delegation"e; issues with larger data sets. Back on applications, you will create a training class sign-up solution to only allow users to choose classes with available seats. Digging deeper into Teams, you'll learn how to send chats, posts, and "e;adaptive cards"e; from Power Automate. Rounding things out, you'll save Forms attachments to SharePoint with Power Automate, create your own "e;Employee Recognition"e; app with all of the Power Platform and Teams, add or edit weekly status reports, and learn how to create reservation and scoring applications.After reading the book, you will be able to build powerful applications using Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, SharePoint, Forms, and Teams. What You Will LearnCreate productivity-enhancing applications with Power Apps, Power Automate, SharePoint, Forms, and/or TeamsTransform and visualize data with Power BI to include custom columns, measures, and pivotsAvoid delegation issues and tackle complicated Power Apps issues like complex columns, filtering, and ForAll loopsBuild scheduled or triggered Power Automate flows to schedule Teams Meetings, send emails, launch approvals, and much moreWho This Book Is ForBusiness and application developers.

In introducing the National Security Commission on AI's final report, Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, and Robert Work, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, wrote: "e;The human talent deficit is the government's most conspicuous AI deficit and the single greatest inhibitor to buying, building, and fielding AI-enabled technologies for national security purposes."e; Drawing upon three decades of leading hundreds of advanced analytics and AI programs and projects in government and industry, Chris Whitlock and Frank Strickland address in this book the primary variable in the talent deficit, i.e., large numbers of qualified AI leaders.The book quickly moves from a case for action to leadership principles and practices for effectively integrating AI into programs and driving results in AI projects. The chapters convey 37 axioms - enduring truths for developing and deploying AI - and over 100 leader practices set among 50 cases and examples, 40 of which focus on AI in national security. Emphasizing its impact and practical nature, LTG (ret.) Ken Tovo, former commander of U.S. Army special forces, characterized the book as "e;the Ranger Handbook for AI implementation!"e;Whether you are a senior or mid-level leader who lacks hands-on experience with AI, or an AI practitioner who lacks leadership experience, this book will equip you to lead AI programs, projects, people, and technology. As the Honorable Robert Work wrote in the foreword: "e;This book is not the last word on leading AI in the national security enterprise, but I believe it is an essential starting point."e;You will:Review axioms or enduring truths at work in six dimensions of AI: program, budget, project, data science, people, and technologyApply best practices-such as decision frameworks, processes, checklists-for leading work in each of the six dimensions.See how the axioms and best practices are contextualized to national security missions.

Learn the Spring Boot 3 micro framework and build your first Java-based cloud-native applications and microservices. Spring Boot is the lightweight, nimbler cousin to the bigger Spring Framework, with plenty of "e;bells and whistles."e; This updated edition includes coverage of Spring Native, which will help you speed up your Spring Boot applications, as well as messaging with Spring Boot, Spring GraphQL, Spring Data JDBC and reactive relational database connectivity (R2DBC) with SQL.This new edition also covers enhancements to actuator endpoints, MongoDB 4.0 support, layered JAR and WAR support, support to build OCI images using Cloud Native Build Packs, changes to the DataSource initialization mechanism, and how bean validation support has moved to a separate spring-boot-validation-starter module. This book will teach you how to work with relational and NoSQL databases for data accessibility using Spring Boot with Spring Data, how to persist data with the Java Persistence APIs (JPA), MyBatis, and much more. You'll learn how to enhance your native cloud or web applications with other APIs such as REST and how to build reactive web applications using Spring Boot with WebFlux. Finally, you'll learn how to test applications using JUnit 5, as well as how to secure and deploy your application or service to cloud providers like Heroku. After reading Beginning Spring Boot 3, you'll have the skills needed to start building your own Spring Boot cloud-native, Java-based applications and microservices with confidence, and to take the next steps in your career. What You Will LearnExplore the Spring Boot 3 micro framework using Spring Native for faster, better performanceBuild cloud-native Java applications and microservices with Spring BootWork with relational and NoSQL databases using Boot with Spring DataCreate reactive web applications using Spring's WebFluxSecure, test, and deploy applications and servicesWho This Book Is ForIT professionals such as cloud architects, infrastructure administrators, and network/cloud operators

In this handy, quick reference book you'll be introduced to several R data science packages, with examples of how to use each of them. All concepts will be covered concisely, with many illustrative examples using the following APIs: readr, dibble, forecasts, lubridate, stringr, tidyr, magnittr, dplyr, purrr, ggplot2, modelr, and more.With R 4 Data Science Quick Reference, you'll have the code, APIs, and insights to write data science-based applications in the R programming language. You'll also be able to carry out data analysis. All source code used in the book is freely available on GitHub..  What You'll LearnImplement applicable R 4 programming language specification featuresImport data with readrWork with categories using forcats, time and dates with lubridate, and strings with stringrFormat data using tidyr and then transform that data using magrittr and dplyrWrite functions with R for data science, data mining, and analytics-based applicationsVisualize data with ggplot2 and fit data to models using modelrWho This Book Is ForProgrammers new to R's data science, data mining, and analytics packages.  Some prior coding experience with R in general is recommended.  

New programmers start here...this book introduces students or aspiring professionals to the world of computer programming using JavaScript and related technologies. This book doesn't just teach the basics of programming, but also all of the tools that new programmers need to get started, including the basics of making web pages and how the Internet works. Programming for Absolute Beginners offers practice problems, activities, and a host of resources to get new programmers started, plus a large glossary of terms introduced in the book and that a new programmer might encounter when learning on their own. No special software is required; this book will help you regardless of what your computer setup is, and source code will be freely available via GitHub.What You Will LearnHow computers workHow computers communicate over networksHow web pages are built with HTML and CSSHow JavaScript worksHow JavaScript interacts with web pagesIntermediate JavaScript topics such as recursion and scopingUsing JavaScript for network communication Who This Book Is ForAnyone wanting to begin computer programming, including students who need to learn the fundamentals and early professionals who want to go back and revisit the basics.