IT is asked to do more, and sometimes with more budget!
Also, updated stacks for platform engineers; the American smile; when we're all smart, "luck" is the edge; and links and oddities.
Updates to the VMware app runtimes
If you’re into platform engineering, the two VMware platforms have some announcements today that you’ll be interested in:
Tanzu Application Platform v1.5 - There’s faster ways to get it installed, security improvements, tighter integration with Spring Boot apps, and a lot more. Rita gives some highlights: “Enhanced IDE support for Visual Studio Code & IntelliJ; Automated developer namespace provisioning; Tanzu Application Platform on AWS QuickStart, now for multicluster deployments; Seamless Spring Boot app migration; End-to-end app security capabilities, including TLS auto-configuration out of the box, External Secrets Operator support, new scanner integration for Trivy OSS vulnerability scanner by Aqua Security, and more.”
Tanzu Application Server 4.0 - with Backstage, more Windows support, support for MySQL 8.0, and numerous other improvements, the new release of the Tanzu Application Service is packed. Here’s what Rita says: “anticipated for general availability this month, is packed with features focused on enhancing developer experience and improving platform engineering. New features include a new developer portal based on the open source Backstage portal builder, integrated Windows Authentication support for .NET framework, custom app metric rate limiting, and expanded developer marketplace offerings.”
You can check out an extended discussion of the Tanzu Application Server release in this week’s Tanzu Talk podcast (or watch the video of it).
But why?
Other than it being, you know, fun, here’s why you should care about getting a good platform in place? Despite all the gloom and doom, IT is being asked to innovate the business, including with some increased budget!
Those are from a recent survey of “837 IT leaders and 201 line of business (LOB) participants” as summarized by my pal Rita.
Relevant to your interests
"We're all Smart" - 'Luck' seems like the wrong word here. More of what you want is to find and set up systems where you get involved in things your competitors don't. You have to find new things that are a competitive difference. // "When people are competing in activities that involve both skill and luck, luck can become more important even as people get better at using their skills. This is called the "paradox of skill". It happens because when people are competing against each other, how good they are compared to each other is more important than how good they are overall. In some areas, like investing, the range of how skilled people are is getting smaller, so luck is becoming more important."
Parisians vote to ban e-scooters from pavements - No one likes a mess. // "The outcome was overwhelming, with 89 percent of votes cast in favor of the ban, though only 103,084 of Paris’s 1,382,322 registered voters participated – around 7.5 percent. In a summary of the vote, the Parisian government noted that the final decision on the ban fell to city officials, who didn’t appear to plan on countermanding the non-binding outcome.” // Also, just 7.5% turnout! One day when you can just vote from your phone, politics is gonna get buck wild.
What’s next for innovation and transformation centers? - the Center of Excellence!
The Cost of Craft - Management by metrics as an abstraction layer - that's a good metaphor. Also, a lot of commentary on scaling up software dev and design: you know, management and staff get obsessed with their own silos and metrics and you stop paying attention to customer value. I mean, it's because you started paying attention to shareholder value, so, like, what do you value more? (Yup, I coulda guessed.)
AI and the American Smile - How training data can bias AI results. Here, how “the American smile” crept out of American pictures. For business use-cases, this means you need to pay attention to cultural fit of your robots to customers.
The Netherlands has no plans to block ChatGPT for now - Well, this will be a huge mess. Hopefully the OpenAI people will put those annoying GDPR things in place so we can all get on with our lives. // "According to the regulator, the company behind the system, OpenAI, does not comply with the rules for collecting personal data. Also, the platform does not have controls in place to check the age of minors using the system, and the company does not properly explain to users what personal data is collected and what happens to that data."
Wastebook
Microsoft restricting access to an exciting new feature to only its GUI web browser has to be the most Microsofty thing to Microsoft since Microsoft.
"I peed in the sink one time." Here.
Also: "every six years there's a new revolution in 'what you're doing wrong.'"
I treat the word "interesting" as filler, sometimes even as ironic. Hearing Rick Rubin say it a lot in his reactions here makes me reconsider that. "Interesting" is what it's all about, really. So if something is interesting, if it sparks your curiosity, why not say it?
Logoff
I started looking at my KubeCon EU schedule. I’m there as “media” on behalf of my podcast, which is fun! There’s a press conference and few other media/press/analyst meetings. I’m also giving a few talks at our booth theater, like, five! Two are with a co-worker, and three on my own. Once I lock down the times, I’ll post them here.