This is one of a series of posts that explain Ably’s four pillars of dependability. The four pillars project at Ably is about making concrete, objectively verifiable, statements about the technical characteristics of the service. We aim to ensure that our claims about service performance are expressed clearly in terms of explicit metrics, and we explain in technical terms how those performance levels are met.

When running tests, it's a great feeling to see dozens of green check marks indicating that a test suite is passing. It's especially gratifying after tackling a tricky bug or slogging through a tough feature. But those passing tests may be giving you a false sense of security. Often, bugs lurk in passing tests, undermining trust in the test suite and your application. Such tests can cause more harm than good, giving you a hearty pat on the back while hiding broken functionality.

In the first part of this series, we set up a basic Rack app, learned how to process a request and send a response. In this post, we'll take over connections from Rack and hold persistent connections to enable pathways such as WebSockets. First, though, let's look at how an HTTP connection actually works.

Node.js is a powerful runtime environment that allows you to handle asynchronous I/O operations efficiently using its event-driven architecture. Asynchronous operations in Node.js rely heavily on the event loop, and understanding how certain functions like process.nextTick() and setImmediate() interact with the event loop is essential for building fast, responsive applications.

Serverless technology allows you to build and deploy efficient, scalable, and modern web applications. By going serverless, you can eliminate the need for server management and save time and money. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to utilize the power of serverless by building a full-stack web application using different technologies. If you are ready to take your web development skills to the next level and build a serverless web application, let's get started!

As we close out 2024, developer productivity and happiness continue to be a focus for many organizations. Platform engineering can play a pivotal role in shaping the developer experience. With the growing complexity of distributed systems and the ever-pressing need for faster delivery cycles, platform engineers are uniquely positioned to enable developers to focus on what they do best: shipping high-quality code.

Organizations today face complex data challenges as they scale, with more distributed data architectures and a growing number of teams building streaming applications. They will need to implement Data Mesh principles for sharing data across business domains, ensure data sovereignty across different jurisdictions and clouds, and maintain real-time operations.