Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

Developers often find it slow and difficult to search for specific parts of a string in SQL. Searching through large text can be time-consuming and make work more complicated. SQL Server CHARINDEX function helps by quickly finding the position of a SQL Server substring. This makes it easier and faster to work with text in SQL. In this guide, we’ll explain how CHARINDEX() works, highlight its uses, and walk you through a few simple examples to help you grasp it easily.

Few things are more frustrating than a SQL query that looks perfect but refuses to run. You double-check the syntax, scan for typos—everything seems fine. Yet MySQL keeps throwing an error. The culprit? A reserved word buried in your schema. Reserved words like ORDER, WITH, and GROUPS aren’t just ordinary terms—they’re fundamental to MySQL’s syntax. If you mistakenly use one as a table or column name without proper handling, your queries may break unexpectedly.

We are happy to announce our latest project at MetricFire: a brand-new CLI tool! Get ready to start monitoring your systems in one step - no need to modify any configuration files manually. Just run a terminal command, follow the prompts, and forward your system metrics to Hosted Graphite in minutes. In this article, we’ll share an overview of the Hosted Graphite CLI, why we’re making it, and how we’re making it.

Progressive Delivery strategies like Blue/Green deployments, canary releases, feature flag rollouts, and feature delivery platforms help teams release safely, limit risk, and accelerate learning. Each approach builds toward sustainable, high-velocity software delivery by minimizing downtime and maximizing feedback. Combining these methods enables faster innovation with greater confidence and control. Last week we walked The Path To Progressive Delivery. This week, we go deeper.

The fastest website is the website that is already loaded, and that’s exactly what HTTP caching delivers. HTTP caching is a powerful technique that lets web browsers reuse previously loaded resources like pages, images, JavaScript, and CSS without downloading them again. Understanding HTTP caching headers is essential for web performance optimization, but misconfiguration can cause big performance problems.

Every development team has a workflow. But if it’s not standardized, it’s quietly draining time, energy, and productivity—without you even realizing it. A lack of consistent processes in branching, PRs, code reviews, and deployments doesn’t just create friction—it’s a silent tax on your entire team. And the cost? Easily 20+ hours per developer per month spent fixing avoidable issues instead of shipping great code.

The recent introduction of the DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek) Large Language Model (LLM) has shaken up the AI landscape, suggesting that new low-cost and open-sourced providers could enter the market. This disruption creates huge opportunities for service providers to drive innovation and for their vendors and suppliers to enhance or innovate in economically feasible ways.

As software grows ever more complex, the growing trend of Internal Development Platforms (IDPs) is becoming undeniable. It doesn't matter if you are the next AI super company or a small tech startup—if you are building software, you should consider having a repeatable set of practices and tooling in place to remove developer friction and supercharge operations. IDPs can be used to solve a number of issues, from context switching and lack of collaboration to lack of visibility and security risks.

Nginx is widely known for its high performance and reliability. However, just like any software running in production, it requires continuous monitoring to ensure smooth operation. Issues such as high latency, unexpected crashes, or overwhelming traffic spikes can lead to performance degradation or even complete outages. Therefore, implementing a robust monitoring strategy is crucial to maintaining the health and stability of your Nginx deployment.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re already familiar with OpenTelemetry (OTel)—the open-source standard for collecting observability data. But what about OpenTelemetry agents? How do they work, and why do they matter? This guide unpacks everything you need to know about OTel agents—where they fit in your stack, how to set them up, and common pitfalls to watch out for. Let’s get into it.