Long gone are the days where software had to be self-hosted, needed hundreds if not thousands of servers to run at a proper speed, and your enterprise needed to hire an entire IT department with specialized staff with the ability to configure, maintain and run updates on the various pieces of technology powering your business. Now, more than ever before, can modern enterprises benefit from distributing the various parts of their tech infrastructure without having to break their budget.

With Docker it’s much easier to create applications that are more environment agnostic than ever before with the use of “containers”. If you’re looking for a database that is fault-tolerant, can scale rapidly, and has the ability to be queried very fast, a distributed NoSQL database such as Cassandra is a good option.

We recently conducted a presentation covering this topic to one of our clients and have attached the slides below. There may be a chance we conduct a webinar covering this topic in more depth based on interest. If you’d like to hear more about this topic shoot me an email at arturs@anant.us!

Alternatively, have us come and give this presentation at your company and see how to build your roadmap to cloud software, you can sign up for a free no-hassle 30-minute introductory roadmap conversation with one of our experts here!

Please see the slides below:

Basic Steps:

1. Create a new Deployment in SearchStax
2. Upload a Custom Configuration to Your Solr Server
3. Install Drupal
4. Install Search API / Search API Solr plugin
5. Configure the Search API Solr Plugin
6. Add sample content
7. Optional – Manually Index Your Site

Step 1: Create a New Deployment in SearchStax

Assuming you have already created a SearchStax account and do not already have a deployment set up, click on the Deployments tab and then click on the Add Deployment button at the top.  Enter a Deployment name, and select the most appropriate Region, Plan, and Solr Version for your needs.  In the example below, we will be using Solr Version 6.4.2.

Continue reading →

As technology has continued to mature in the last two decades there have been many challenges overcome, obstacles faced, and solutions crafted. A recurring theme, in the area of obstacles (more specifically, self-imposed obstacles), has been the propensity for software companies to more often than not 1) turn to developing applications from the ground up for a particular problem or 2) take existing pieces of software that are perfectly fine for their specific use case and then tailor them to a different (but sometimes slightly similar) use case.

Software Algebra is essentially a best practice in software development to make sure that we are using 1) the tools best suited to a particular problem 2) while also dodging the trap of re-inventing the wheel by starting from scratch or trying to fit a tool into solving a problem it was never intended to address.

There are multiple cases in which this best practice is entirely ignored, most commonly so by inexperienced software architects who have the “my hammer can solve all problems” mindset. Often times, one of the best ways to avoid falling into this trap is to relentlessly focus on getting a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) out of the door in a time-boxed span of time and iterating multiple times on that MVP to steadily bring it up to support all use cases.

We recently spoke about this topic at the WebTech Conference in Washington, DC and will be doing so again on Tuesday, April 11th at 6PM at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, you can find additional details as well as register for the event here.

You’re headed to New York and you see a yard sale. Do you stop or not?

To achieve success and accomplish a significant objective it is critical to exercise discipline and define a purpose. Today, when many of us have not defined a goal or outlined a path to reach it, the importance of this necessary focus can not be emphasized enough with the myriad distractions surrounding us.

10,000 hours. It is widely circulated that it takes this long to obtain mastery in a given field. This equates to roughly five years of focused work to master your craft.

It is rare and pleasant opportunity to meet a true expert in their field. At Anant, we believe this boils down to a breakdown in orientation, decision, and action.

Orientation is the disciplined thought that goes into molding a purpose and mission for oneself. The purpose answers the question of why you are; whereas, the mission answers what you are doing. An engine’s purpose is to power movement ; however, the mission of the engine on the Apollo 11 is vastly different from the mission of the engine on your weekend Uber.

Decision is where you choose to invest your time in order to get the best bang for your buck and this choice is informed by the output of the orientation phase.

Action is the most important aspect of this concept. Without action, all ideas are but dreams. However, you must be wary to not be busy for the sake of busyness. You need to cultivate discipline and channel it into your daily actions by making sure to address  your priorities consistently.

Having a strong road map will help you to stay on track. Segmenting your life into different categories can be of tremendous help.

Our CEO, Rahul Singh, uses the following table in order to align his professional and personal priorities.

The following slides are from Rahul’s speech at the Washington DC chapter of the International Institute of Business Analysis. Learn how to align your professional goals with your personal goals, and find some recommended reading. 

Check out Anant’s upcoming events here and we hope to see you in New York (or at our office in DC…just not at that yard sale)!

Event Sponsor: IIBADC Washington Business Analysts Meetup Group

This group is an outreach of the IIBADC, the Chapter of the International Institute of Business Analysis for the Washington DC Metro area. The group is an informal way for BAs to get together to discuss our craft and spread the good news about how Business Analysis can help save the world.