Back-end

Explore what an API is and learn the tools and methodologies we use to ensure APIs are being utilized in the best way possible.

Moving into 2021, we’ll see nimble, streamlined responses to evolving user needs as application use and development continues to scale. Here are the top application development trends to watch this year.

Recovering from a production site outage during peak hours can be a daunting task. While everyone wants a 100% uptime, it can be near impossible because of things out of our hands. However, we can plan for these potential outages and architect the application and infrastructure to allow for a quick recovery.

Feature flags are a powerful tool with many uses, they should be thoughtfully considered as a development tool. Feature Flags allow developers to achieve continuous deployment and clients see great value in the speed at which issues can be resolved.

WebJobs and Function Apps are both services in Azure to run triggered or scheduled tasks. This blog posts compares the two services and outlines cases where one solution may be preferred over the other.

As a relatively new architect-level hire at Mercury, I have spent a large amount of time exploring code bases that are new to me. In that exploration, I have come across a variety of source code peculiarities and problems related to issues with naming conventions. These are fairly rare situations and as such can take a while to diagnose and get to the true root problem. The issues I will describe below are specific to situations in Mercury’s development process, but might help to identify possible pitfalls in yours.

A lot of women in tech, including myself, don’t like to spend a lot of time talking about being a woman in tech. The topic is controversial, usually uncomfortable, and comes with a negative connotation similar to “oh boy, what is she complaining about now?” Fortunately when you’re like me and work with a company that doesn’t just employ women in IT but empowers them, you can feel confident to speak on an issue that still persists.

Learning how to improve our functional testing capabilities one step at a time

I started my journey here at Mercury as an intern, fulfilling a credit requirement towards my computer science degree. The stress and uncertainty associated with an internship is hardly an uncommon sentiment among students and those just starting out in the tech world or any profession for that matter. I would like to offer those that are in the humble beginnings of their computer science careers my positive account of growing from an intern to an application developer. The impact a technologically diverse, tenacious and structured company like Mercury can have on one’s progress is invaluable.

Are you working towards your MCSD: Web Applications Certification like me? If so and you are getting ready for the last exam in the series, Developing Microsoft Azure and Web Services (70-487) check out this post about getting familiar with WCF and the Azure Service Bus.