Top 10 Concepts That Every Software Engineer Should Know!!

Last Tuesday, RWW carried an article on the concepts that a software engineer should know. Interested ones' can read the article here. The concepts enumerated were pretty obvious except for one that caught my attention; & that was the inclusion of what is being referred to these days as "Cloud Computing". Such has become the power of network and computing these days that they are an inseparable part of us.

Cloud computing, at its simplest, refers to the relocation of data & computation from the users' personal computers (notebooks, laptops & desktops) to servers hosted in the internet cloud. The users are oblivious to the practical manifestation of the cloud. With the ever increasing demand for accessing & sharing data independent of the geography, cloud computing is only going to grow in scale!!

For those still wondering about cloud computing, if you have ever used Google Docs or Windows live spaces, you have already had a taste of what cloud computing can offer!!!

Back to the topic! As much a good write-up it is, I wasn't personally much impressed with the article. Most things mentioned are what we read/gather during our academics. What is important rather, is material which can help prepare/transition a software wannabe to real world software engineering. In that regard, I should acknowledge, that I found "Pragmatic Programmer" a very good book. It makes for a light reading but packs a lot of really useful material & holds true to it's name; being pragmatic in its coverage. I am thankful to KD, my mentor at my previous employer, for having handed me a copy of the book just about the right time; when I was trying to firm my step in the industry. It helped a lot in tuning my approach to software. One can take a better peek on the book here. I guess it's available for download too!! :)