Cloud TL; DR: why open projects, how to treat developers and a few words about personal information security

We have one of the most active blogs on Habré, so already on our website we we publish only selected materials… Instead of the usual digests of such posts, today we are trying a new TL; DR format. In a couple of paragraphs, we will tell you the most important things so that you can get information from several habraposts here and now. If you want to study the proofs in detail and delve into any topic, we left links to the full versions in the subheadings.


Photo – Daoud abismail – Unsplash.com


Why developers are more valuable than money, how to save and increase them


61% of top managers believe that their business depends on those who create IT products and services. In companies where this is true, developers are paid 20% more than the market, but even this does not eliminate the problems with hiring… Those who do not spare money try to immediately attract “IT stars”, and then do not know how to integrate them into the team. The point is the lack of attention to soft skills of such employees, which is also true for juniors who have yet to develop these skills. If the atmosphere in the team allows for the opportunity to learn something new, even the stars will feel comfortable, and for the rest, the risk of earning a “loss of profit syndrome” or neurosis will decrease.

Developers are quite rational people. They want to understand how their work is valued in monetary terms. Therefore, it is important to know not only the level of psychological comfort in the team, but also the degree of the creative component in the work of each employee. It’s one thing to rivet template sites, it’s another to make an atypical product. Something suits everyone, and it is worth finding out what exactly, as early as possible. Then you can together define fair remuneration, measurable goals and development options in the company depending on their implementation.


Telecommuting is a well forgotten old thing


Peasant labor or the work of artisans before the industrial revolution could well be called homework. Even with the advent of factories, there were those who opened the pub and lived in the room above it.

This tradition continued, but for office workers it hardly worked until the 1980s. Then the United States introduced flexible schedules, thought about the problem of traffic jams and began to open branches of companies in the suburbs. The Internet helped speed up these processes and even led to the fact that telecoms began to be mostly associated with IT professionals.

Today, remote work should be seen not only as a way to fight the epidemic, but also as a social lift for people from the regions. Although not all professions can afford such a regime, they are growing – 34% of Americans aged 22 to 65 are even ready for a 5% salary cut in order to be able to work from home.


You can’t just pick up and get used to working from home


In remote locations, people devote 58 additional hours a year to work, but this engagement is difficult to achieve. You need to independently equip the workplace (this is plus 17% to efficiency), establish asynchronous communication (57% of millennials consider video calls to be evil) and maintain a work-life balance (without it, 66% of developers on remote control notice signs of burnout).


Photo – Charles deluvio – Unsplash

From the main life hacks: it is better to remove unnecessary things from the table and scattered clothes; It is also important to try to set unspoken rules of correspondence in order to completely exclude meetups and calls (for example, to determine the speed of reaction to a question in mail or chat accepted in the company); The most important thing is to choose a time of day when you are not distracted from your work and fill it with the most significant and difficult tasks. These recommendations cannot be called universal, but they help many to get used to working from home and experience the benefits of remote control.


Proper protection of personal data and personal information security


Sometimes it is worth revising the usual practices. For example, less use of password managers — instead of alphanumeric passwords, choose passphrases and simply remember them. The EFF and other organizations consider this approach more reliable. Password rotation often leads to unintentional use of parts of old pass-codes, so there is no point in updating them once a month. It is better to follow the news about leaks and compromise of services, and as “news” arrives, change passwords. By the way, if you haven’t logged into some accounts for a long time, it is better to delete them in order to close the extra vector of attack on yourself and your inner circle.

Of other ways to increase the level of personal information security, only reading electronic documents in the cloud stands out (for example, on a special OS on an IaaS provider machine). Also, don’t rush to install automatic updates. Sometimes fresh “patches” only harm, so it is better to wait for the first reviews and only then roll out serious updates.

By the way, here we have collected good books: about viruses, hackers and the history of the “digital” cartel


What does it give companies participation in open source projects


Open source projects are a good alternative to paid courses. This way, developers will be able to find tasks for themselves that will be of interest to them and with a high probability of being useful to the IT community.

Open source not only accelerates product development due to the growth of the community around it, but also helps to promote the project. If IT professionals from other companies participate in the development, they will most likely have no difficulty in recommending your product or paid services to their bosses. Such PR cannot even be called PR, it is simply better and much more organic than any advertising. And also – the larger the community around an open source project, the more eyes are looking for bugs. It is obvious.


Additional reading:

Unusual ways to post an IT job
Why the EU is eradicating cookie walls
Development team suggests switching to UTF-8


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