Articles

Build a REST API with Node.js and HarperDB

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If you are building an application using Node.js, it can get a little overwhelming since there are a variety of databases to choose from and different ways to build APIs. One way to reduce development time and focus on the problem you are trying to solve is to use a Database as a service to store the data. The advantage of this approach is to use a cloud database system without purchasing hardware which can be cost and time-effective.

One such database service is HarperDB Cloud. To build REST APIs rapidly this service allows us to perform all database operations using a single endpoint. It supports a variety of programming languages such as JavaScript, Java, Python, and so on. Some of the features of HarperDB are the following:

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Celebrating 20 Years of Wikipedia

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20 years ago, Wikipedia was started with the ambitious aim of creating a free encyclopedia for the whole world.

Looking back 20 years, the world was a very different place: the Dot Com Bust had just passed; the average US house price was just $136k; Jack Bauer was only 24 hours into saving the world; President Obama was several years away from the US Senate; Destiny’s Child were topping the charts; the appalling events of 9/11, and everything that followed, were still months away.

Some startups from the same era have gone on to raise billions of dollars, a few have even turned a profit, while most have slipped into the realm of permanent 404s, Wikipedia has determinedly stuck to its original altruistic intent.

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Wikipedia is highlighting some of the 280,000 volunteers who edit entries every month, keeping the site on point.

With 21,000,000,000 searches per month (give or take) Wikipedia has become an unparalleled authority for the web. With most-viewed articles from the past ranging from Darth Vader to Avengers: Endgame, to COVID-19, humans across the planet have a source of news that is transparent, independent, and democratic.

So happy birthday to Wikipedia, may we be celebrating again in 20 years.

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AWS HIPAA Compliance Best Practices Checklist

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Nowadays, most medical providers across the globe tend to implement cloud-based architecture for their medical services. And it’s not surprising, especially considering today’s pandemic reality; medical software is a must. However, to build a highly secure solution to deliver medical services, you must abide by the US 1996 law, namely the HIPAA Security Rule. This legislation represents a set of required and adequate protections for managing electronic confidential patient information and avoiding its disclosure without prior patient’s knowledge and even consent.

So, if you want to develop a medical solution and make your healthcare services cloud-based, you will have to apply the latest technologies for maintaining data compliance. To build cloud-based apps according to the Privacy Rule, most healthcare providers apply Amazon Web Services (AWS) due to its increased agility, security, and innovation potential.

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Upskilling et reskilling de vos effectifs : pourquoi est-ce important ?

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Combler les lacunes en matière de compétences est une responsabilité permanente des ressources humaines. Et à mesure que les conditions sociétales, business et macroéconomiques changent, les RH doivent réimaginer la force de travail de demain. Car le sol se dérobe constamment sous leurs pieds. Aujourd’hui, avec la crise du COVID-19, la vitesse à laquelle les RH doivent déployer les initiatives d’upskilling et de reskilling va en s’accélérant.

Upskilling et reskilling, de quoi parle-t-on ?

  • Définition de l’Upskilling (en français, « perfectionnement professionnel ») : former les salariés dans le but d’améliorer leurs performances dans leurs fonctions actuelles.
  • Définition du Reskilling (en français « requalification ») : former les salariés en vue d’une nouvelle fonction, en particulier lorsque les objectifs de l’entreprise ont changé.

La formation, une priorité renforcée par le contexte COVID-19

Malheureusement, il n’existe aucun plan reproductible pour une formation réussie. Chaque entreprise a des besoins spécifiques qui évoluent avec le temps. Dès mars 2020, les e-commerçants se sont empressés de recruter et de former (upskilling), afin de répondre à la hausse de la demande. Les services publics étaient, quant à eux, déjà engagés dans le reskilling. Avec l’introduction de technologies intelligentes permettant d’automatiser certaines tâches répétitives, ils ont pu donner une responsabilité accrue ou plus stratégique à leurs employés. Mais bien que l’intensité et la nature des efforts de formation aient varié d’un secteur à l’autre, le constat est général : le COVID-19 a forcé la main à toutes les entreprises. Reskilling et upskilling ne sont plus des mots à la mode : les efforts doivent être entrepris, et rapidement.

De nombreuses études montrent que les entreprises mènent une vraie guerre des talents, recrutant agressivement des candidats aux compétences identiques ou similaires. Pour certains postes il pourrait pourtant être plus économique, rapide et efficace de former les collaborateurs. Afin qu’ils puissent occuper des fonctions supérieures ou entièrement nouvelles. Mais il ne s’agit pas de choisir entre recruter et former. Ce qu’il faut, c’est un recrutement efficace associé à une stratégie de formation. Car investir dans les collaborateurs apporte plusieurs avantages : une réduction du turn-over ainsi qu’une amélioration de la productivité et de l’innovation.

HXM: The Importance of Continuous UpSkilling and Reskilling

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HXM: The Importance of Continuous UpSkilling and Reskilling

Aujourd’hui l’urgence est plus forte que jamais. S’engager dans l’upskilling et le reskilling peut être la clé de la survie à la crise du COVID-19. Aussi bien pour les jeunes entreprises qui doivent réussir rapidement que pour les organisations installées qui recherchent de la stabilité et une croissance à long terme. La difficulté étant que, maintenant et dans un avenir prévisible, les RH devront trouver le juste équilibre entre embauches, formations et licenciements. Et ce à chaque heure de la journée.

Comprendre les besoins organisationnels et être capable d’y répondre rapidement sera la clé, non seulement de la carrière des professionnels RH mais aussi du succès des organisations qui les entourent.

Du télétravail à l’upskilling et reskilling

Arrêtez-vous un instant et pensez à quel point tout a changé en seulement quelques mois. À la fin de l’année 2019, si un DRH était entré dans le bureau du PDG et lui avait recommandé de commencer à planifier un futur avec des salariés majoritairement en télétravail, on l’aurait sans doute sèchement renvoyé à son bureau. Aujourd’hui le télétravail est devenu normal, si ce n’est la norme.

Mais le principal enseignement est que les organisations se sont révélées plus agiles et réactives que prévu. Et si chacun a été capable d’adopter le télétravail tout en restant efficace, pourquoi les entreprises n’arriveraient-elles pas à former les employés à de nouvelles compétences, rapidement, afin d’atteindre les objectifs fluctuants de l’organisation ? L’upskilling et le reskilling dans un environnement de travail à distance est un défi mais également une nécessité. Et gardons aussi à l’esprit que l’apprentissage « sur le tas », par la pratique, fera partie du chemin. En effet, trouver l’équilibre demande aujourd’hui une adaptation continue, voire même à la volée.

Pensez-y de cette manière : il a fallu des décennies avant que les téléphones portables ne puissent être glissés dans nos poches. Puis le smartphone est arrivé. Aujourd’hui, une application ou un jeu mobile peuvent devenir viraux à l’échelle mondiale, en quelques minutes.

La fonction RH connaît la même évolution rapide. Il y a quelques décennies le passage des documents papier aux fichiers informatiques s’opérait lentement. Aujourd’hui les RH ont délégué les tâches répétitives à des intelligences artificielles ou à des portails en ligne et élaborent des stratégies d’e-learning et de modélisation des effectifs. Si leur fonction est d’aligner les objectifs de formation sur les besoins de l’entreprise, alors les RH ont, comme tout le monde, besoin d’upskilling. Une stratégie de formation pertinente et agile, prête à être déployée à tout moment, est la carte que les professionnels RH ont en main avec leur siège à la table des décisions.

L’avenir du travail est là

Pour les RH, le défi n’est pas simplement d’identifier les lacunes en matière de compétences et de décider s’il faut embaucher ou former. Il s’agit de quantifier l’impact, revoir le plan d’action, puis de quantifier encore, etc. Dans un monde où chaque décision repose sur un calcul de ROI, même subjectif, il est essentiel pour les RH de relier les initiatives de formation aux objectifs immédiats et long terme de l’entreprise. Prenons deux exemples :

  • Delaware Consulting (1700 employés), en implémentant des solutions logicielles de formation robustes, a pu réaliser des économies grâce à un suivi plus précis de ses dépenses. Delaware a ainsi réduit de 5 % les coûts liés aux annulations de formations et de 12 % le temps consacré à l’administratif RH.
  • Newcrest Mining, en Australie, a utilisé des solutions logicielles similaires pour économiser 1,6 million de dollars US en frais de formation au cours des six premiers mois et a également dégagé 3,2 millions de dollars d’économies par gains de productivité la première année.

Le défi, cependant, est le temps : quand et comment les employés peuvent-ils être formés ? C’est particulièrement délicat lorsque l’on sait qu’un employé dispose en moyenne de 14 minutes de temps libre par semaine pour se former. Trouver un moyen d’ajouter une formation à la journée de travail est plus compliqué que de décider s’il faut ou non former. De plus, toute initiative d’upskilling ou de reskilling doit plus largement s’inscrire dans une planification stratégique des effectifs.

Cela signifie que certains salariés seront sélectionnés pour développer de nouvelles compétences quand d’autres seront laissés de côté. Les employés sont intelligents et savent ce qui se passe autour d’eux. C’est pourquoi les initiatives de formation doivent être accompagnés d’un plan de communication solide. Afin que les rumeurs, notamment sur les réductions d’effectifs, ne s’ébruitent pas. Toute stratégie de reskilling ou d’upskilling doit également être associée à un plan de communication interne solide. Un domaine où les RH assument une responsabilité croissante. Dans le cadre d’un vaste effort à l’échelle de l’entreprise, il est essentiel de veiller à ce que chacun, qu’il participe ou non à l’effort de requalification, comprenne les objectifs de l’organisation et la manière dont son travail sera affecté.

Les pièges et obstacles de l’upskilling et du reskilling

Il est également important de garder en tête différents scénarios. Comme la possibilité pour les salariés requalifiés d’exporter leurs nouvelles compétences ailleurs, voire chez un concurrent. Le turn-over est toujours une préoccupation, même en temps normal. Mais si l’attrition peut affecter le ROI associé à un effort de reskilling ou d’upskilling, l’alternative consistant à ne pas former, et donc à ne pas répondre à l’évolution du contexte, serait bien pire.

C’est pourquoi il est essentiel de relier directement les efforts de formation aux résultats de l’entreprise. Par exemple : si l’objectif est de stimuler les ventes en formant de nouveaux commerciaux, il faut mesurer la hausse des ventes. Cherchez des partenaires dans l’entreprise qui peuvent s’appuyer sur des outils ou localisez des parties prenantes pour vous aider à mesurer l’impact de votre travail. Les craintes d’attrition ou de perte de temps équivalent, en fin de compte, à une paralysie par l’analyse. S’engager dans le reskilling et l’upskilling est une question de capacité de l’entreprise à faire face à la concurrence. C’est pourquoi les RH ne doivent pas être considérées comme une entité administrative mais comme une entité pouvant s’attaquer de front aux déficiences de l’entreprise.

Être compétitif dans le contexte business moderne exige à la fois de réimaginer la fonction RH et de créer une culture de l’apprentissage. L’un ne va pas sans l’autre. Les efforts de formation exigent également des RH qu’ils aient une stratégie claire sur les personnes qui recevront de nouvelles compétences et sur ce qu’elles sont censées apporter à l’avenir. Enfin, il faut tenir compte de la manière dont la technologie peut évoluer et avoir un impact sur l’efficacité de tout effort de formation. Un système de gestion de la formation (LMS) moderne peut vous aider à atteindre vos objectifs d’upskilling et de reskilling.

Alors que la pandémie de COVID-19 est un facteur de complication, il faut considérer la formation comme un facteur clé de stabilité et de croissance à long terme. Qui aide à pivoter face aux défis. Le COVID-19 a accéléré les tendances déjà en place et a mis en évidence ce que les entreprises savaient déjà : les organisations dont vous entendrez parler comme des « success stories » dans quelques années seront celles qui se seront activement engagées dans l’upskilling et reskilling de leurs salariés en vue des défis à venir. En raison de la pandémie, les entreprises doivent simplement évoluer à un rythme plus rapide. Et pour ce faire, elles doivent, de même que leurs employés, être plus « smart ».

Publié en anglais sur insights.sap.com

The post Upskilling et reskilling de vos effectifs : pourquoi est-ce important ? appeared first on SAP France News.

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Poll: Should Designers Stay Out of Politics?

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The Beazley Design of the Year for 2020 has just been awarded to US architecture firm Rael San Fratello & Colectivo Chopeke for their Teeter-Totter Wall project, a series of luminous pink seesaws built into the US-Mexico border wall in July 2019.

The 74 shortlisted entrants for the prize range from a poster for vegan burgers to a parody of Pantone’s Color of the Year. Most were self-consciously political.

As design has grown in stature, so has its ability to amplify the opinions that employ it. Most of us will never work on an actual political campaign. Still, there is little doubt that the design teams for both the Obama campaign in 2008 and the Ocasio-Cortez campaign in 2018 were significant factors in the resulting electoral success. And it isn’t just visual design, user experience across a platform has implications; last week, Twitter finally suspended the account of the outgoing US president, a decision that left CEO Jack Dorsey lamenting the platform’s “failure…to promote healthy conversation.”

As designers, our understanding of user experience — particularly the psychology of user experience — has grown immensely in the last decade. We’re very good and persuading people to do things, and that ability is a commodity, saleable to the highest bidder. As such, it is capable of undermining basic democratic principles by skewing debate and exerting disproportionate influence.

We frequently talk about Black Hat and White Hat techniques in the tech industry, but the truth is, almost all designers spend their days looking for ways to manipulate an audience.

When that manipulation extends into political events, do designers have an ethical responsibility to maintain an independent balance, just as we expect reputable journalists to?

Designers are — for now, at least — human beings. We have all of the prejudices, biases, and philosophies of any other human being. Do we have an obligation to use our skills to promote our ideals, or an obligation to resist doing so?

 

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What’s New in Ecommerce, January 2021

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Ecommerce design may seem fairly straight-forward; you build an online store that showcases a company’s products or services and gives customers a quick and pain-free way to purchase them.

While that formula will always hold true, ecommerce is undergoing some big changes, and web designers need to be prepared to keep up with them. This monthly ecommerce trends roundup will explore these new and evolving design, sales, and marketing trends.

1. Calmer Color Palettes

Although we’re not likely to see this trend go near the sites for big box stores, it’s something smaller ecommerce companies are adopting. And with good reason.

As consumers become wary about how much money they’re spending, they don’t need to feel pressured or rushed into a purchase. And ecommerce sites that employ calmer color palettes — like pastels and earth tones — will do a better job of putting their customers at ease.

Bicycle saddle manufacture Brooks England shows how this trend plays out in ecommerce design:

It’s not just outdoors or sporting goods companies that can use more natural-looking colors, either. CBD product vendor Cannaray is another company that uses a more subdued color palette:

Really, any store that wants to do a better job creating satisfying experiences for customers and gaining their long-time loyalty should consider toning things down with color.

2. No-rush Shipping Rewards

For years, we’ve seen consumers go crazy for brands that offer free and fast shipping. But thanks to the surge in online shopping in 2020, ecommerce companies, their shipping partners, and delivery service providers just haven’t been able to keep up with the pace.

When customers are unhappy with slow deliveries, they’re going to go to social media and review sites to bombard brands with complaints, as has been happening with Loft since November:

Although many ecommerce stores still don’t inform customers ahead of time about these delays, we’re starting to see a new checkout trend.

Here’s how Gap is encouraging and rewarding customers for choosing no-rush shipping:

Amazon is another ecommerce site that encourages no-rush shipping at checkout with a reward:

Not only does this set better expectations for customers before they finish their purchases, but it encourages everyone to slow down a bit so that ecommerce companies and their shipping/delivery partners can keep up.

3. More Human and Empathetic Assistance

Each year, design trend roundups suggest that AI will play a greater role in web design.

While that may be true for things like the search bar or personalized recommendations, ecommerce sites are pulling back the reins on automated support and assistance.

Best Buy, for instance, offers customers the option to “Shop with an Expert”:

After shoppers go through a quick survey, they’re given a variety of options — based on their own level of comfort and convenience — to work with the expert:

Something that might’ve been left in the hands of a self-service quiz or automated chatbot is being given the human touch once more.

We’re seeing a similar trend with retailers like Warby Parker. While it still offers a virtual AR try-on, the main navigation actually emphasizes the home try-on option:

Again, this is another example of ecommerce companies becoming less reliant on automated support to give their customers a better and more confident shopping experience.

Wrap-Up

Ecommerce trends are always evolving. Sometimes it’s due to new technologies. Other times it has to do with what’s happening in the world around us. And sometimes it’s simply to keep up with changing consumer expectations.

Stay tuned as we explore new and emerging ecommerce trends in the coming months…

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4 Predictions for the Web in 2021

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The start of the year is always a good time to reassess priorities and consider new approaches, but 2021 is more of a reset than we expected this time last year. 2020 is unlikely to go down in anyone’s autobiography as the best year of their life, but it has done something positive: it’s prepared the ground for rapid change in the next 12 months.

More than any other year in our lifetimes, 2021 is set to be revolutionary, with emerging trends that will last well into the new decade. Here’s what we think you can look forward to around the next corner.

1. The End of Minimalism

Minimalism has been the de facto approach to web design for the last decade because it works.

But design reflects the zeitgeist. Where minimalism once felt clean and fresh, it’s starting to feel dull and uninspired. There have been a few false-starts breaking out of the long-term trend, but thanks to the pandemic, 2021 will be the year minimalism finally folds — at least for a while.

Prior to coronavirus-mandated lockdowns worldwide, there were already signs of a more vibrant, more decorative, more joyful approach to design. Simple typefaces have been replaced with more decorative examples — faces that use ink-traps to fake 3D effects are surprisingly popular.

trends are cyclical, and the wheel always turns

One of the biggest aspects of this blossoming trend is the move away from Material Design-style flat color not just to gradients but to multi-color gradients and even animated gradients. Even Apple, the last bastion of the clean white-box approach, jumped on the gradient bandwagon with its Big Sur branding.

One of the few things COVID-19 hasn’t slowed is the adoption of new web technology, and CSS, in particular, has had some major developments in the last year. CSS Grid is now a practical technology, and our ability to code standards-compliant designs that aren’t dependent on hierarchical boxes is greatly enhanced.

After more than a year of pretty grim news for most people, much of the world will be vaccinated over the next twelve months, and life will rapidly return to normal. The last global crisis on this scale was the 1918 influenza pandemic, and it led directly to the decade known as the Roaring Twenties.

Minimalism was already dipping in popularity — trends are cyclical, and the wheel always turns — but lockdown, or perhaps more precisely the end of lockdown, is the catalyst for significant change.

2. The Decline of WordPress

In Autumn 2020, something entirely unexpected happened: The W3C announced the platform its new web presence would be built on, and WordPress — the previous choice of the web’s steering committee — didn’t even make the list of finalists.

Due to accessibility concerns, the W3C development team opted to migrate away from WordPress to Craft CMS. The decision was met with a mixture of glee and outrage. But whether you agree with the decision or not, it’s hard to see it as anything other than yet another symptom of WordPress’ decline.

WordPress faces a triple threat: there are web builders that do an adequate job for low-end web projects; there are newer rivals like Craft that outperform WordPress as a CMS; there’s a growing interest in alternate approaches, like Jamstack.

So will it all be over for WordPress in 2021? Not even close. There are myriad reasons WordPress will continue to be the choice of designers and developers for years to come. Tens of thousands of professionals worldwide have invested their whole careers in WordPress; there are millions of themes, plugins, templates, and build processes that are tightly woven into the WordPress ecosystem. What’s more, there are millions of sites with substantial content archives powered by WordPress [WebDesignerDepot is one such site].

WordPress reportedly powers approximately 37% of the web, and it will still be the dominant CMS in 2022. But it’s unlikely to grow beyond that 37%, and by 2030 its market share will be in rapid contraction.

2020 was the high-tide mark for WordPress

But for all its faults — and it’s undeniable that WordPress is full of faults — WordPress is the best of the web; it has given a voice to millions of people, launched countless careers, and empowered entrepreneurship worldwide.

2020 was the high-tide mark for WordPress, but it’s not an extinction-level event — even the much-maligned Flash, which was killed dead in a matter of months by the first generation iPhone, limped on until a few weeks ago.

WordPress will have to find a niche and accept a smaller market share; in doing so, it will address the single biggest complaint that anyone has about WordPress: that it’s trying to do too much.

WordPress is one of the great success stories of the web. In a decade, it may have to settle for powering just 10% of the web — a level of failure most of its rivals can only dream of.

3. The Digital Currency Explosion

2021 is undoubtedly the year that cryptocurrency goes mainstream. In 2020 Bitcoin grew by almost 400%; currently valued at around $35k, conservative predictions for a December 2021 valuation are $100k, with five-year predictions as high as $1m. And Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency; the value of developer-friendly Ether has jumped by more than 50% in the first few weeks of 2021.

In the US, the incoming Biden administration is preparing a multi-trillion dollar relief package, which many believe young Americans will invest in cryptocurrency. Perhaps more importantly, large investment banks are now pumping hundreds of millions in digital currencies. PayPal and Visa are both in the advanced stages of adopting blockchain technology.

The biggest threat to the new digital economy is the volatility of cryptocurrency. You cannot price services in XRP if XRP’s dollar price could crash at any time — as it did a few weeks ago.

And so there are two routes in which this trend will unfold for ecommerce. Either pricing will remain in dollars, and the equivalent price in various cryptocurrencies will be calculated in real-time. Or, transactions will make use of stablecoins like Tether that are tied to the value of the US dollar.

Cryptocurrency is the latest gold-rush, and whether you think it’s the chance of a lifetime or yet another Ponzi scheme, it will become increasingly high-profile in ecommerce throughout 2021.

4. No More Video Calls and also More Video Calls

2020 was the year of Zoom. Its growth from bit-player to overtaking Skype is a material lesson for entrepreneurs that every obstacle is an opportunity.

every obstacle is an opportunity

Over the last year, we’ve discovered two things: meetings are more creative in person, and office costs are significantly reduced when staff work remotely.

There’s going to be a shift in the business landscape this year. Remote working will continue to be normal for years to come as businesses enjoy rent savings. Video calls will still be common for quick update meetings. But expect to travel to physical meeting places periodically for in-depth strategic planning.

Expect to see major cities with deserted office buildings and a rapid expansion of co-working spaces, especially those with meeting spaces — if WeWork can hold on a little longer, there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

As a web professional, you’re in a unique position to thrive in the new business world, even more so if you’re a freelancer. Remember, if you’re working onsite, be mindful of your physical health, and if you’re working remotely, be mindful of your mental health.

What Do You Think?

No one saw 2020 coming. Sometimes world events are outwith our control, and we have to hang on and hope it gets better. It’s been a tough 12 months, and the truth is we’re not through it yet.

But the 2020 coronavirus pandemic is the first pandemic in human history that we’ve had the technology to shorten.

2021 offers the opportunity for enormous change. Will designers look for new, more decorative approaches? Will we replace our technology stack? Will you be billing clients in Ether this year? Will you suffer the misery of a packed evening commute ever again?

 

 

Featured image via Unsplash

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How CentOS Became 2020’s Final Victim

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If you were paying close attention to your IT department around the 8th of December, you might have heard some quiet sobbing and the occasional wail of, “Why? Why?! WHY?!” Now, it was the year 2020, so this might have seemed normal to you, but it’s actually something of a problem that could affect your business: CentOS is pretty much dead.

For the non-total-nerds among us, here’s the skinny: CentOS is a Linux-based operating system, typically used on servers. CentOS has been incredibly popular, and quite a few businesses run on it. But now, that’s changing.

CentOS is a Linux-based operating system, typically used on servers…But now, that’s changing

CentOS used to be released in thoroughly tested versions, the latest being CentOS 8. CentOS 8 was released in September of 2019 and was supposed to be supported for ten years. Now, it’s been decided that CentOS will no longer have versioned releases, opting for a rolling-release style of updates. That means there’ll be one version that constantly gets new software.

That’s cool in theory, but it means the operating system will be less stable overall. Essentially, it’s going to be used as a development branch of / testing ground for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and is no longer its own OS. If you have CentOS-based servers, you should migrate to another OS sooner rather than later.

And I just got my own CentOS-based VPS set up the way I wanted it.

Wait, What Does Red Hat Have To Do With This?

Here’s the short, short version of the history of CentOS: Red Hat (an OS developer) has two Linux distributions of its own and has had for a long time. There’s the free and community-focused Fedora and the business-focused highly expensive Red Hat Enterprise Linux (AKA RHEL).

Funny story: RHEL, despite its expensive licenses, is still mostly made from open source code, which anyone can access and use. And it’s a good OS, particularly for people who like stability.

In 2004, some smart people took all the open-source parts of RHEL and made a brand new, nearly identical operating system with it: the Community Enterprise Operating System, or CentOS. Basically, people could download and use an enterprise-level server OS for free. All the documentation for RHEL was compatible, and you could get support from the community.

It was the perfect alternative for anyone who didn’t have the budget for expensive software licenses.

In 2014, Red Hat offered to partner with the CentOS community. The idea was basically this: “It’s pretty much the same software. If our company and your community work together, both our products will be better! We make our money from enterprise customers, anyway.”

Most importantly, with Red Hat doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of updates and support, the CentOS community could focus on growing in other ways.

Red Hat pinky swore [citation needed] that they were in this for the long haul, and CentOS did continue to flourish. You know, until 2020.

Well, So Much For Pinky Swearing

Red Hat must have eventually decided that having a popular free version of its own enterprise software and managing it themselves no less — wasn’t that good for business. So they all but shut the project down.

Well, technically, they just changed how it operated. Instead of producing tested, production-ready versions, CentOS is merely a testing ground for RHEL. It is no longer, in my opinion, a good option for anyone who wants to run a stable server.

Current and Future CentOS Alternatives

So if you jumped on the CentOS 8 bandwagon, what should you put on your physical and virtual servers now? Well, you’ve got options.

Debian / Ubuntu

For those who don’t mind going to a very different kind of Linux, Debian has been the picture of OS stability and sysadmin-friendliness for a long time. If you want more frequent software updates, the Debian-based Ubuntu Server is popular and pretty good.

Oracle Linux

Yes, that Oracle has a RHEL-compatible Linux distribution of its own. But it’s not a clone, exactly. I mean, this is Oracle. It’s set up to use their tools and ecosystem, so I hope you like Oracle products. But hey, the OS itself is free!

ClearOS

ClearOS is another RHEL-compatible OS that’s mostly doing its own thing, though I’m not entirely sure what that thing is. Does the company have some deal with Hewlett-Packard? Anyway, they do have a free community edition and paid editions for home and business use.

The CloudLinux RHEL Fork

This is an upcoming release from the makers of CloudLinuxOS. It looks like they intend to load the new RHEL-based OS with some of their own tools, such as reboot-less server update tech. The first release is intended to be a more or less drop-in replacement for CentOS 8.

Rocky Linux

So the community that made and loved CentOS in the first place is, to say the least, ticked. They are so ticked that Greg Kurtzer (a co-founder of CentOS) has decided to do it all over again by making Rocky Linux and keep it in the community this time.

Again, the goal is to make a re-build of RHEL, a drop-in replacement for CentOS (at least for now). Eventually, the goal is to migrate from CentOS to Rocky Linux as easy as using a single, one-line command. The ETA for initial release isn’t quite set in stone, but I can personally vouch for how hard the community is working.

[See, full disclosure here… after writing this article, I joined the Rocky Linux documentation team.]

So Yeah, You Have Options

Some are out now, and others will be soon. Again, CentOS 8 will be supported until the end of 2021. CentOS 7, weirdly, will be supported until June 2024.

Migration shouldn’t be too complicated. Still, a pain in the rear that we have to do this at all, though.

Source

The post How CentOS Became 2020’s Final Victim first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.


Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

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