Azure DevOps is a modern-day tool used for version control and trouble-free team management. An individual can manage his entire team with a minimum of a browser as a requirement. The team can easily be part of different countries and manage their activities without any delay. The development team can be in one country, and the testing team can be working in another country. Even If the management has trust issues, the Azure Audit does an audit of each activity that the team is doing, and the management must only worry about cross-country chatting and financial management.

The following types of testing are mission-critical for ensuring the success and reliability of your software:

1. Unit Testing with Azure DevOps
2. Integration Testing with Azure DevOps
3. System Testing with Azure DevOps
4. Functional Testing with Azure DevOps
5. Acceptance Testing with Azure DevOps
6. Smoke Testing with Azure DevOps
7. Regression Testing with Azure DevOps
8. Performance Testing with Azure DevOps
9. Security Testing with Azure DevOps
10. User Acceptance Testing with Azure DevOps

1. Unit Testing with Azure DevOps

Unit testing is breaking the code into its parts and testing each separate code one by one. This testing technique should never be confused with any other testing technique. This is because unit testing is like laying a brick. Brick by brick, the developer will lay code and test each code unit; this is what unit testing is all about. Azure DevOps creates version-controlled parts of the project; they can be assigned, and the automation tests can be tested using a version-controlled build. It also provides the user with the ability to have a view based on recent pipeline activities and control access to various stakeholders.

Fig 1. Pipelines in Azure DevOps

2. Integration Testing with Azure DevOps

Integration testing establishes testing techniques for when the individual bricks of code are laid together to test the data movement and failure points when separate developers merge their code together. Since each developer is separate, they can make fatal flaws in how the code blends together. Terraform is a recommended tool from the Azure team for such chaotic activity. The tool allows the user to create their own customised configuration files and allows the developer or tester to test the ability of their code to work with these config files, along with an additional static code analysis feature. For more information regarding Terraform, visit their website, Terraform by HashiCorp. Another cool thing about Terraform is that it is Datadog-ready.

Fig 2. Integration Testing flow using Terraform

3. System Testing with Azure DevOps

System testing tests all the modules together and is closely related to integration testing in the sense that all modules are integrated together to do a full system QA. Azure DevOps allows integration with various service providers. The workings of this are already mentioned in integration testing. Another nuance of system testing is that the testers may not have the necessary understanding of how the code works. It is divided into functional and non-functional testing.

Also Read: Testing Assistive Technologies in a Product

4. Functional Testing with Azure DevOps

Testers like to fondly call functional testing feature testing because it’s exactly that. The tester tests all the features of the individual module and sees that the features that you intended to have in the software are there in the product. A few years of experience will tell you that Azure DevOps is a lifesaver in terms of linking manual test cases with bugs, PBIs, and feature requests. The Azure DevOps and its rich UI provide a very good mapping of individual features of the product, which allows newbies to join the team to understand the pros and cons of the product within a 60-day period for the development or testing team. Some of these details can be used again by automation to conduct regression testing.

5. Acceptance Testing with Azure DevOps

Code must be accepted in the context of business, user requirements, regulation, the vision of the developers, and feedback from the testers. Just like the Azure DevOps functional test. Azure DevOps is good at keeping track of users’ use cases, scenarios, and even edge cases. Every idea from every individual on the team can be tracked and used at any phase of the project to get a customer-centric product. Standardised tests in the context of regulations that will be applied to the product can also be added to plans in Azure DevOps when they need to be conducted.

6. Smoke Testing with Azure DevOps

This is simply to check or test whether the build is stable enough or worthy enough to do a sanity or regression test. The plan will mostly come from years of experience from previous releases or simply from a list of critical functionalities that should be working, based on the consensus made by the management on what should be working.

7. Regression Testing

Smoke tests and sanity lead to regression with regular intervals to submit a bug. The entire code is under scrutiny. Azure DevOps can help in creating manual tests in a flash based on queries from in-sprint QA and years of experience in testing the product. Azure DevOps helps in creating the test plan and managing it at the time of execution with the help of filters and neat charts that provide feedback to management and the tester about their progress. What shift managers fail to manage in factories, Azure DevOps does in a flash: employee engagement when the work is in progress.

8. Performance Testing

Performance testing is a test to know whether software performs at scale, on a good foundation for speed, and to remove bottlenecks whenever developers and testers identify bottlenecks. The example provided below is based on a tool of preference based on popularity. Ex: JMeter and test engines connected to the virtual machine and various other tools and app services to conduct performance testing using a dashboard from Azure DevOps Performance testing is simple with Azure DevOps.

Fig 3. Load testing flow in Azure DevOps

9. Security Testing

Test the HTML and JavaScript code; for other cases, it’s different, for vulnerability to threats, security loopholes, risks, and emulating an actual hack or attack. Pen testing is one example of security testing. Security testing involves adding common CVE-identifying tools to a Kali Linux machine, adding them to Azure DevOps using Azure agents, running security tests, and providing feedback using Azure charts using data available to Azure DevOps.

10. User Acceptance Testing

Code must be accepted in the context of business and user requirements, as well as based on regulations, by the end users. Support engineers love it because it integrates well with the sales force. Continuous cooperation among support engineers, in-sprint engineers, and regression of manual and automation can constantly happen. They can quickly interact with urgent changes and ensure that the code is stable after testing.

Conclusion

Based on the above description, Azure DevOps is a tool that allows a wide range of integration with tools of maximum importance in the development and testing of a new product. Along with it, it has control over the process of development and testing with neat features like version control based on Git and Team Foundation. Everything is audited. The dev team, management, and product owners can all be in sync with the latest features and details. Since Microsoft owns almost everything related to IDEs, Git, and cloud infrastructure, it is going to be the future of everything in development, at least for the foreseeable future.

The post Empowering Testing Excellence: Exploring the Synergy between Azure DevOps and Diverse Testing Techniques appeared first on Indium.

In this article, let us take Google applications as an example and see how deeply they have access to your personal life and the role of digital assurance/security testing.

Not so long ago, we did not need a mail ID to start our new Android phone, but these days we need a mail ID to configure a new Android device. What happens when we enter our email address? Google immediately comes to know the model of phone we have bought, and it definitely knows all the previous phones we owned because we might have entered the same email address in those devices as well.

Contacts

The next thing we do is add all our contacts from our previous phone or whatever. This task was very tedious in the past, but these days we can sync our contacts to our email ID and get those contacts to our new device with just a few taps. Any normal user will find this feature helpful as it saves a lot of time, but let’s understand how much data we are providing. We may have saved our father’s and mother’s names as Dad or Mom, by which they can identify our parents; they can know our siblings; as a matter of fact, they can even draw out our entire family tree; they can know our car’s or bike’s brand as we may have the brand’s service person’s number. Just by syncing our contacts, we are revealing a lot of things about ourselves.

Maps 

When we use Google Maps, we search for a location, get directions, and travel to that particular location. If we continue to leave ‘Location’ switched on in our phone, Google will now know every mall, shop, restaurant, and other spots we visit. Based on this data, Google can analyse it and get some ideas about our lifestyle and spending habits.

Payments

Google Pay, often known as GPay, is the company’s own payment app. We get rewarded for our transactions, it’s free to use, and it’s really simple to set up and use. Who would refuse to use such a program? Let’s take a moment to consider the issues involved. We provide Google access to information about our bank accounts, financial situation, spending patterns, and much more. As a result of tracking our financial transactions, Google can now analyse regional cash flows and make predictions about the financial health of countries and regions. It can forecast what month individuals prefer to shop for a particular type of product. For retailers and other businesses, this kind of information is a gold mine.

Also read:  The Ultimate Guide to Understanding IoT Sensing: Everything You Need to Know.

YouTube search

YouTube has become a part of our lives. Whether it be education or entertainment, we rely on YouTube for our needs. People also use it to earn some extra income or even as a full-time income source.

While we surf YouTube, we help YouTube learn about our taste in various fields; for example, one may frequently search for Italian dishes or Western outfit designs. These tastes of ours are recorded on their server, and these data are then used to give us recommendations specifically tailored for us.

Apart from this, let us see various other things YouTube knows about us:

1. YouTube knows about our health issues; we may have searched “remedies for back pain”, “remedies for neck pain”, “remedies for knee pain”, “solutions for insomnia” or “ways to tackle some sort of addiction,” which clearly conveys our problems to YouTube.
2. YouTube can guess the dish we are going to cook today, as we may have searched for that recipe.
3. YouTube might know our plans and destination for the tour, as we may have tried to research our destination on YouTube.
4. YouTube might know that someone in our friend or family circle is getting married; our YouTube search may be evidence of that.
5. YouTube knows about your favourite movie or TV series and the genre you are into.
6. YouTube knows about the skills we have been trying to learn.

Because we turn to YouTube for solutions, it is aware of the majority of our issues. There is a benefit to this as well. The YouTube algorithm assesses all the data it has gathered from us and provides us with the finest recommendations. The advice could be for a similar entertainment video, a product that might be beneficial for our health, or training programmes that can help us improve our skills. This makes us feel like we are being catered to.

Gallery

Let’s check to see if the same is true for the gallery.

Our phones’ Gallery app is more intelligent than ever. It may tag each photo with the location where it was taken, automatically make a collage for us, and highlight old memorable moments by unexpectedly displaying a group of pictures that read “One year ago today.” That’s not all; in the modern era, these apps are able to identify people in photos by their faces. The fact that our phone has learned to identify a person by glancing at their face gives me the creeps, even though this feature may be interesting and important to know about.

While the digital age has brought numerous benefits, it has also exposed us to certain security threats. Here are some common security threats associated with our digital footprints:

1. Identity Theft: Cybercriminals can exploit the information found in our digital footprints, such as personal details, social media posts, and online transactions, to impersonate us and commit identity theft. This can result in financial loss and reputational damage.

2. Phishing Attacks: Digital footprints can provide valuable information to cyber attackers, enabling them to craft sophisticated phishing emails or messages that appear genuine. By tricking individuals into revealing sensitive information, such as login credentials or financial details, attackers can gain unauthorized access to accounts or conduct fraudulent activities.

3. Data Breach: As we saw above, organizations collect and store vast amounts of data from our digital footprints. If these organizations fail to implement robust security measures, cybercriminals can exploit vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access and steal sensitive data, leading to data breaches. This can result in financial loss, legal consequences, and reputational damage for both organizations and individuals.

4. Location Tracking and Privacy Invasion: Like Google Maps, many other digital platforms and services also track our locations through GPS, Wi-Fi, or IP addresses. If this information falls into the wrong hands, it can be used for stalking, physical threats, or unauthorized surveillance, compromising our privacy and personal safety.

5. Online Harassment and Cyberbullying: Our digital footprints, including social media posts and online interactions, can make us vulnerable to online harassment and cyberbullying. Personal information shared online can be used to harass, intimidate, or defame individuals, causing emotional distress and potential harm.

To mitigate these security threats, it is crucial that we be cautious about the information we share online. We must regularly review privacy settings, use strong and unique passwords, enable two-factor authentication wherever available, and stay updated on the latest cybersecurity practises. Additionally, organisations must also focus on prioritising data security, implementing encryption, conducting regular security audits, and educating employees about potential risks and best practises for protecting sensitive information.

Conclusion

The so-called digital footprint is a topic that has only just begun to be explored in this article. Beyond what has been covered here, the origins of our digital footprint go far further back. Should we have any concerns? Do we have to take any action at all? There is no right or incorrect solution to this subject; all I can do is share my viewpoint. Since most of our lives now revolve around the internet, there isn’t much we can do to stop it. We might suddenly be cautious about our internet footprint and the traces we leave behind after reading this post when before reading it, we might not have given it any thought and felt at ease.

Let’s make a straightforward contrast. Before the invention of computers, if we were to live a typical day of going to work, eating supper after work, and returning home, investigators could really follow our footprints. Simply put, it means that no matter the age, we always leave a trace of ourselves behind. We are only able to exercise caution and prevent the internet disclosure of any sensitive information that might endanger us.

The post Unveiling the Shadows: Understanding the Reach and Possible Security Threats of Your Digital Footprint appeared first on Indium.

Introduction:

AMQP stands for Advanced Message Queuing Protocol, and it is an open standard application layer protocol. AMQP Message Protocol also deals with publishers and subscribers for the consumer.

One of the key features of AMQP is the message broker, which acts as an intermediary between sender and receiver. The broker receives messages from senders, stores them, and delivers them to their intended recipients based on predefined routing rules. The broker provides a range of features such as message persistence, message acknowledgment, and message prioritisation to ensure reliable and efficient message delivery. 

Several industries, including telecommunications, healthcare, and financial services, use AMQP. It has been widely adopted as a messaging protocol due to its reliability, interoperability, and flexibility.

Now there are four different exchange types:

• Direct Exchange
• Fan Out Exchange
• Topic Exchange and
• Header Exchange

Direct Exchange:

A direct exchange works by matching the routing key, when there is a match, the message is delivered to the queue. Each message sent to a direct exchange must have a routing key. 

If the routing key match, the message can be forwarded to the queue of the message.

For example, suppose there are three nodes named node A, node B, and node C, and a direct exchange named X. If node A is connected to X with a routing key of “key 1”, node B is connected to X with a routing key of “key 2”, and node C is connected to X with a routing key of “key 3”, then when a message is sent to X with a routing key of “key 2”, the message will be routed to node B.

Fan Out Exchange:

A fanout exchange works by sending messages to all of its bound queues. When a message is sent to a fanout exchange, the exchange simply copies it and sends it to all the currently bound queues.

For example, A real-time example of a Fanout Exchange can be a social media platform where a user posts a message that needs to be sent to all the users.

Topic Exchange:

When a message is sent to a topic exchange, the exchange will forward the message to all the queues. If queues have a binding key that matches the routing key, the message is routed to that queue, and finally each customer will receive the message from the queue.

Header Exchange:

A header exchange works by allowing the sender to attach a set of header attributes to each message. The header exchange looks at the headers and compares them to the header values specified in the bindings of each queue. If there is a match between the header of the message and the bindings of a queue, the message is delivered to that queue.       

Also read: Internet of Things in the Automotive Industry Blog.

Advantages of AMQP:

Message orientation, queuing, routing (including publish and subscribe and point-to-point), dependability, and security are the characteristics that set AMQP apart.

It employs techniques to ensure the secure transmission of critical data.

Flexibility:

AMQP includes publisher and subscriber request responses among the many message patterns it supports and point-to-point messaging, which makes it suitable for a variety of business use cases.

These services are provided using AMQP:

Healthcare services:

AMQP can be used to transmit medical data from wearable and implantable devices to healthcare providers, enabling remote monitoring and personalised treatment. It can be used to transmit patient data, test results, and other medical information securely and in real time. By using AMQP, healthcare providers can establish a reliable and secure communication channel to exchange data and messages between different services. The transfer of patient information among various healthcare providers, including hospitals, clinics, and laboratories

Financial services:

AMQP can be used to build reliable and secure messaging systems for financial institutions, including stock exchanges, banks, and trading platforms. It can be used to transmit market data, trade orders, and other financial information securely and efficiently. By using AMQP, financial services providers can improve the speed and efficiency of their communication systems and reduce the risk of delays or errors.

Internet of Things (IoT) services:

the AMQP protocol is designed for reliable, interoperable, and secure communication between different components of distributed applications, including Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Device-to-cloud communication:

The AMQP protocol enables IoT devices to transmit messages to cloud services for further processing and analysis. For instance, a temperature sensor can utilise AMQP to transmit temperature readings to a cloud-based analytics service.

Overall, AMQP provides a flexible and scalable messaging infrastructure that can support various IoT services, from simple device-to-cloud communication to complex event processing and analytics.

Security:

AMQP provides a range of security features, such as authentication and encryption, to protect messages and prevent unauthorised access.

Conclusion

AMQP is a powerful messaging protocol that enables different applications to communicate with each other reliably, securely, and flexibly. With its client-server architecture and components such as a broker, exchange, queue, producer, and consumer, AMQP provides a robust framework for message-oriented middleware.

The post Seamless Communication: Exploring the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) appeared first on Indium.