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Comparison Between AWS and AZURE

The world of storage space is dominated by AWS and Azure with Google cloud slightly behind .In this section we will examine which features of AWS and Azure are good and what makes them appealing to user by using different parameters.

If we have to use Computing as parameter then below is differences between both of them

FeatureAmazon EC2Azure
Virtual machinesInstancesVirtual machines
ImagesAmazon Machine ImageVM Image (both boot-disk-only and full machine)
VM templatesAWS Cloud FormationAzure Resource Manager
Automatic instance scalingAuto ScalingAzure Autoscale
Supported VM import formatsRAW, OVA, VMDK, and VHDVHD
Deployment localityZonalRegional (equivalent to Cloud Platform zones)
Preemptible VMsYesYes
Incremental snapshotsYesYes

The next criteria that we shall use is Virtual machine types Below table will highlight the differences

Machine TypeAmazon EC2Azure
General Purposea1.medium – a1.metal t4g.nano – t4g.2xlarge t3.nano – t3.2xlarge t3a.nano – t3a.2xlarge t2.nano – t2.2xlarge m6g.medium – m6gd.metal m5.large – m5d.metal m5a.large – m5ad.24xlarge m5n.large – m5dn.24xlarge m4.large – m4.16xlargeA1 v2 – A8m v2 B1LS – B20MS D2a v4 – D96a v4 D2as v4 – D96as v4 D2 v4 – D64 v4 D2d v4 – D64d v4 D2ds v4 – D64ds v4 D2s v4 – D64s v4 D2 v3 – D64 v3 D2s v3 – D64s v3 D1-5 v2 – D5 v2 DS1-5 v2 – DS5 v2 DC1s v2 – DC8 v2
Memory-optimizedr6g.medium – r6gd.metal r5.large – r5d.metal r5a.large – r5ad.24xlarge r5n.large – r5dn.24xlarge r4.large – r4.16xlarge x1e.xlarge – x1e.32xlarge x1.16xlarge – x1.32xlarge u-6tb1.metal -u24tb1.metal z1s.large – z1d.metalE2 v3 – E64 v3 E2 v4 – E64 v4 E2a v4 – E96 v4 E2as v4 – E96as v4 E2d v4 – E64d v4 E2ds v4 – E64ds v4 E2s v3 – E64s v3 E2s v4 – E64s v4 D11 v2 – D15 v2 DS11 v2 – DS15 v2 G1 – G5 Gs1 – Gs5 M8ms – M128ms M32dms v2 – M192idms v2 M32ms v2 – M192ims v2 M208s v2 – M416ms v2 S96 – S576m S223 – S896oom DS11-1 v2 – M128-64ms
Compute-optimizedc6g.medium – c6gd.metal c5.large – c5d.metal c5a.large – c5ad.24xlarge c5n.large – c5n.metal c4.large – c4.8xlargeF2s v2 – F72s v2 F1 – F16 F1s – F16s
Storage-optimizedi3.large – i3.metal i3en.large – i3en.metal d2.xlarge – d2.8xlarge h1.2xlarge – h1.16xlargeL8s v2 – L80s v2 L4s – L32s
GPUp4d.24xlarge p3.2xlarge – p3db.24xlarge p2.xlarge – p2.16xlarge inf1.xlarge – inf1.24xlarge g4dn.xlarge – g4dn.metal g3s.xlarge – g3.16xlarge f1.2xlarge – f1.16xlargeNC6 – NC24 NC6 Promo – NC24r Promo NC6s v2 – NC24s v2 NC6s v3 – NC24s v3 NC4as T4 v3 – NC64as T4 v3 NP10s – NP40s NV6 – NV24 NV12s v3 – NV48s v3 ND6s – ND24s ND40rs v2
High performancen/aH8 – H16m H8 Promo – H16mr Promo HB120rs v2 HC44rs

Next criteria is Networking ,in this criteria we shall compare both

ProductAmazon Web ServicesMicrosoft Azure
CDNAmazon CloudFrontAzure CDN
Dedicated InterconnectionAWS Direct ConnectExpressRoute
DNSAWS Route 53Azure DNS
Load BalancingElastic Load BalancingAzure Load Balancer
Virtual NetworksAmazon Virtual Private CloudAzure VNet

The next criteria would be Locations around the world AWS cloud network locations are available in 24 regions, 77 zones, 210 network edge locations, and 245 countries and territories and corresponding number for Azure is Azure cloud network locations are available in 60+ regions and 170 network points of presence (PoP).

Next criteria is DNS service . A DNS service is used to convert human-readable domain names into the IP addresses used by servers to communicate.Below table will highlight the differences between both

FeatureAmazon Route 53Azure DNS
ZoneHosted ZoneDNS Zone
Support for most DNS record typesYesYes
Any-cast-based servingYesYes
Latency-based routingYesNo
Geography-based routingYesNo
DNSSEC signingYesNo
Private Zones / Split HorizonYesYes

Which is good way to build website

These days every business needs to be online and for this they need to have presence on the internet and the most basic thing that any business can do is to have a website.

Now Website can be build be mostly build through WordPress or PHP .In this article lets discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using either one of them .

Of course WordPress itself was build on PHP so its not really a comparison between the two but this argument is just from end user perspective

PHP is a programming language that helps in creating websites, web tools, and application. PHP framework is a foundation for website design and development, providing necessary elements at your end. Thus, to create a website in PHP, you must know coding for the site development process. So there you have it that for PHP you must know how to code .

PHP offers better functionality; it can help you give your website the exact shape you want to. WordPress can be a little rigid at some points. That’s where PHP prevails.

PHP is a framework that makes it more flexible and more suitable for building websites. Better tools and functions are built into PHP already. You can use PHP for creating dynamic websites

PHP itself has different frameworks like Lavarel ,codelgniter and Cake PHP , PHP successfully integrates with JavaScript, WML, XML and other programming languages,So it shows that PHP is very flexible and scalable

So if your requirement is to build very complex website then it makes sense to build website with PHP.

Now let’s see what are the advantages of building website with Word press.

First of all the biggest advantage is there is no need learn programming or coding to build website through WordPress. So this means that any person who does not have technical knowledge also is able to build websites .This is certainly helpful since not all people have the skills but still want to build websites

WordPress has some amazing plugins through which any specific feature can be added. For e.g. There is Woocommerce plugin for e-commerce requirements. Also, if the website is just single page website or personal blog then its better to build the website with WordPress.

From a SEO (Search engine optimization ) point of view also WordPress websites are very good since meta tags ,titles and headings at  the right places can be added and this will help the website in achieving high ranking 

So as we can observe that there is no definite answer to which is better ,it really depends on the requirement .

Why Django is the approved framework for Python development

There are a multitude of frameworks for creating RESTful APIs in just about every popular programming language. Today lets discuss how to create a framework using Django .

Django has a Model-View-Template (MVT) architecture. The MVT (Model View Template) is a software design pattern. It is a collection of three essential components Model, View, and Template. These three layers are responsible for different things and can be used independently

Django is highly secure framework The framework has protection against the most common security attacks like XSS and CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) attacks, SQL injections, Clickjacking, etc. The user authentication system of Django is also solid, to manage usernames and passwords.

Django REST Framework supports using Django’s built-in user model for API authentication and authorization 

Django also provides Default admin panel which is very useful so that you don’t need to create admin panel by yourself .

A software library is a collection of programs and software packages made generally available, often loaded and stored on disk, for immediate use. It includes prewritten code, classes, methods, configuration data, and more.

A software library helps to add more functionality to a program or to automate a process without manually writing a new piece of code. It reduces a lot of development time

Django has a great set of libraries like the Django REST framework (responsible for building application programming interfaces), Django CMS (designed to manage website content), and Django-allauth (an integrated set of Django applications for authentication, registration, account management, and third-party (social) account authentication).

Django is great from SEO point of view Django offers several useful SEO tools. Django provides a module called the Django SEO framework, which developers can use to reduce page loading time by using cached templates and compressing CSS and JavaScript.

Django is very good framework through which we can interact with relational databases .It provides ORM i.e. Object relational mapper which is a library that automatically transfers data stored in databases into objects commonly used in application code.

You don’t need to write specific SQL queries to create tables and insert data. When a class is defined, ORM generates a table for the class automatically. This table contains fields for all the variables inside the class. Also, the table adds rows automatically when we create objects.

Django saves lots of development time and is highly scalable and  can handle traffic and mobile app API usage of more than 400 million users, helping maximize scalability and minimize web hosting costs. Many third-party applications come with Django.It can handle any hardware changes and also is pluggable by nature . Developers can use plugins to extend the web application. Plugins are software components that allow developers to add a specific feature to an app, thereby providing a lot of scope for customization.

So we have seen How Django has so many advantages and why we at Sixth circle technologies use Django framework to develop solutions and build robust apps

Figma is becoming the tool of choice for UI designers

We saw how important UI/UX designing is for any product or service in the previous section .Now lets look at a tool in UI/UX designing which is making waves in the market .This tool is Figma and lets look at why Figma is becoming the go to tool for UI/UX designers .

Figma is web designing tool based on cloud, so now teams can work together and collaborate while working on a design in real time. This  feature is certainly  useful for designers .

Figma is robust tool for WordPress sites through which designers can make beautiful and appealing websites through WordPress. Also Figma can covert the design into code ,this is of huge advantage to developers to inspect the code and export the CSS files and design directly from Figma design files

Since its web based tool Figma is very easy to share data and design among the users

Figma helps in preparing the web prototypes most conveniently. This software is built with all the tools that are required for making the prototype design, and a user can access them readily so no need to buy multiple tools .

Figma has numerous plugins like Unsplash, Iconify, Content Reel, Component Replacer, Blobs Maker, Remove BG. All these plugins make sure that very aesthetic designs are created.

Another feature of Figma is that the all elements can be spaced as per the requirements in the website ,due to this gaps can be measured and elements  placed accordingly .

Figma is very good tool for design review and for giving feedback .Figma has good options for user to review the design and provide the feedback .

The design components can be inspected in Figma in very institutive way Figma displays code snippets on any selected frame or object in CSS, iOS, or Android formats for developers to use when reviewing a design file.

Thus we can see there are many reasons why Figma is now preferred tool for UI designers.

Importance of UI Design

One of the most underrated yet important parts of developing Any solution or app is User Interface Designing also known as UI designing .This is very important since however robust the application may be ,its look and feel that user initially sees and experiences so UI designing is very important component of  the software development .

Every Company these days must have a website to promote itself and give information about its activities .The website for the company is its show case to the world so not only the website must be fast and robust but it must be very appealing to the user .Only when the website is neat and appealing will the user want to find out more about the company .

If you’ve ever found yourself on a website wondering, “what are they trying to offer me here?” you’ve experienced poor user-friendly interface. A website with good user interface design is one that that a strong line of communication that not only extends from your visitors to the products, but also from the products to your visitors. It tells people exactly what you’re offering the second someone lands on your homepage. Poor UI design leads to higher bounce rates and fewer opportunities for revenue

Some of the qualities that any website with good User interface needs to have is

  • Easily navigable menus so that user can navigate around different sections of the website easily
  • User Control need to be well define so that user can give options to quickly and easily backtrack so they have more freedom to explore without any looming commitment over them. When visitors feel like they have to tip-toe around a website, their experience will be more anxiety ridden and often short-lived. Create clear undo or redo buttons that are prominently displayed. 

Quite Simply, Good website is the very first step that a company needs to have as its potential customers  or prospective employees will form an opinion about the company after visiting the company website

These days Social media is very important and almost every company needs to maintain Social media page which will give insights about the company and also give funny behind the scene videos and activities about the what the employees in the company are doing .

For this as well the page needs to be elegant to view but simple to navigate and for this UI designing is very important .

Now that we have seen why UI designing is very important ,in next part we will compare and see some latest UI /UX tools

Python is the new star among programming languages

Python has been gaining ground as a programming language in the  last few years and we at Sixth Circle technologies have using it for developing our World class Applications .Lets understand why Python is becoming the Go-to language for developers .

Firstly Python is portable and its supported by all platforms like Windows, Linux and Macintosh .This is certainly nice thing to have

Next thing important feature would be how easily we can integrate Python into other programming languages like C,C++ and JAVA.This feature is called extensibility .This feature of Python helps in cross language development .

An Amazing advantage of extensibility is from python we can invoke C ,C++ libraries so we can use  features in those libraries during development .Isn’t that a really cool thing ?

Like many other programming languages Python work on the principle of OOPS (object oriented programming language ).The benefits of OOPS are very well known like modularity where a large structure can be broken into small parts so that the program can be understood easily .

Also Python supports permits polymorphism and inheritance. Polymorphism is the provision of a single interface to entities of different types or the use of a single symbol to represent multiple different types. If we have to take real life example A man can be husband, Brother, Father and son all at the same time .This is Polymorphism .In Computer science lets look at example below

public interface Vegetarian {}

public class Bird {}

public class Dove extends Bird Implements Vegetarian {}

Still, as there are many inheritances, the Dove class is known to be polymorphic. For the examples listed above, the following is true:

A Dove is a Bird

A Dove is a Vegetarian

A Dove is a Dove

A Dove is an Object

Another feature of python is the libraries like Sci-kit learn python due to which complex calculations can be done with single statement .There are other libraries like Keras or tenarflow which is an excellent resource for those who want to work on Artificial intelligence .Python also has libraries such as open CV that helps in image recognition such as computer vision and another feature of python is in which we can detect face or speech recognition.

If you are game development enthusiast then python has Tkinter which is standard GUI library for python has come incredible features which will not leave you disappointed at all

Python is an outstanding language for automation testing it contains several methods ranging from its style and its code. Additionally the checked cases and code testing doubtless the foremost vital process of the code life cycle it’s also the difficult task for a code tester to settle on the simplest programming language for automation testing and also the python is that the best resolution for this downside thus it’s several integrate testing frameworks that covers debugging and quickest workflows currently there area unit several tools and modules to create the items a lot of easier like chemical element that is the style in automation tool and thus we’ve got splinter so it supports testing with cross-platform and cross-browser.

Unlike C based programming languages, Python does not come with specific pointers. With no pointers, the programming language is more reliable compared to alternative programming languages. As the programming languages have no pointers, it is evident that programmers would effectively observe the program crash errors.

The syntax architecture gives you information about learning convenience. Many young programmers are switching to Python compared to other programming languages because it is easy to learn and implement.

So get in touch with Sixth circle technolgies for Apps and solutions based on Python

Flutter is the Future

We at Six circle technologies use Flutter for building amazing apps. lets look at some of the incredible features of Flutter  and why Flutter is the Future

Flutter is one of the rising and most popular languages in the market today. There are many reasons for this. The main reason being its cross-domain development platform i.e. The same codebase can be shared between different target platform and nothing can be better for a developer than this. On a practical note it means Apps can be developed for Android and iOS from single codebase. It means same UI and business logic is used across Platforms. This means that there is no platform specific code written which means the time for taken is less to develop any app.

Flutter’s “hot reload” feature allows seeing the applied changes almost instantly, without even losing the current application state. And this is exactly what makes Flutter app development several times faster due to the increased development speed.

Flutter has set of very useful and productive widgets which can save lots of development time Flutter also has its own rendering engine .When app faces any error then only particular part of the app which has an error  does not work so its easy for the developer to fix the error

An interesting feature of Flutter it has   the ability to customize anything you see on the screen, regardless of how complex it may be. While it’s usually possible to do a very custom UI on the native platforms as well, the amount of effort required differs by the order magnitude but in flutter we can manage  the complexity very well .

Another Salient feature of Flutter is its editor portability , The ability for Flutter to run on not just Android studio but on both VS Code and IntelliJ is another win. Writing Flutter with any of these code editors allows auto-completion and real time code inspection to run perfectly in 100% of your code.

Flutter  has  amazing and well-detailed documentation to start with. There are code labs, cookbooks- which are like food recipes to customizing frequently used widgets and shows one how to make use of styles, animations, and possible manipulations

Flutter is the future since Google is believed to have been  building an operating system called Google Fuchsia .It is believed to be universal operating system  Stretching across all devices and this is based on Flutter

So  reach out to Six circle technologies who will build world class Apps using Flutter  for your needs

How to Configure Google Ads

We have seen in the last part how there are different types of digital marketing solutions available n the market which can be used .Now lets see how a MSME entrepreneur like Sharath can benefit from it

He can create a Google Ads or Facebook ad account ,Normally he  can associate existing Google account or Facebook account to the Ad accounts itself .Lets start with Google and for that he needs to go to Ads.google.com and sign in

Then he needs to start to identify different things like  who are his potential audience for which Google will ask an important question as shown below

So by answering this question he can define the purpose of his campaign

There are different options that Google gives as listed below ,He can choose what is appropriate for his business

Then he will get the below screen from where he can chose his budget .This is one of the most important features in Google ads ,that user can pre-define how much budget he wants to allocate to the campaign and based on that start his campaign

Then  there are different types of Ad  like Text Ad or Image Ad or video Ad .If he chooses Text Ad then listed below are his options

There  have 300 potentially visible characters (3 headlines, 2 descriptions, and URL path) to encourage a user click on your ad.

Character Limits

Headline 1: 30

Headline 2: 30

Headline 3: 30

Description 1: 90

Description 2: 90

Path 1: 15

Path 2: 15

Then You have 300 potentially visible characters (3 headlines, 2 descriptions, and URL path) to encourage a user click on your ad.

Character Limits

Headline 1: 30

Headline 2: 30

Headline 3: 30

Description 1: 90

Description 2: 90

Path 1: 15

Path 2: 15

Then there are Ad extensions which is nice feature to have as it enhances the Ad  .Some of the examples are

Sitelink – Link customers directly to areas of your website

Callout – Text based links to highlight benefits

Location – Encourages people to visit a brick and mortar business

Call – Allows people to call directly from your ad

Price – Shows the price of products or services

Promotion Extensions – Highlight promotions on your site.

So all  or some of these extensions can be made use of to improve the quality of the Ad and to make sure that main purpose of the Ad i.e.  the customer notices the ad and whatever call to action is undertaken by the customer .

Next part if very important when the Advertiser picks the Keywords .This is very important because when potential customers search for some thing  then relevant Ads need to shown . The goal when picking keywords is to choose terms that you think people will search for when they’re looking online for what you offer. In addition, you want your keywords to be as relevant as possible to the ad they trigger and to the landing page people will arrive at if they click that ad.

To help you get started, Google Ads comes with a free tool called the Keyword Planner, which can generate a sample list of keywords for your campaigns. The Keyword Planner can also help you estimate how much to bid on a particular keyword so your ad shows up in search results — this can give you an idea about whether certain keywords are too expensive for you to bid on, and which will fit within your budget. This is the flexibility that is unique to digital marketing ,can pick and choose the budget

Next thing would be Keyword match type  ,it could be any one  of the below

Broad Match

Phrase Match

Exact  Match

Each of these have specific uses and we shall go through them

Broad match: The “broad match” setting shows your ad for searches that contain your keywords in any order, and for related terms

Phrase Match: This option shows your ad for searches that contain your exact keyword, or for searches that contain your exact keyword plus words before or after it

Exact Match: When you choose exact match, your ad will only show if someone searches for the exact word or phrase you choose

There are also other type of matches like Negative match through which  match option allows you to exclude undesirable words or phrases from triggering your ad, weeding out irrelevant traffic.

Then the next step would be to setup a landing page i.e. when the customer or audience would land once they click on the ad .This needs to be configured

Once all this is done  ad can go live . In next part we shall see one of the biggest advantages of Digital marketing where target audience is defined .This is one of the biggest advantages of digital marketing due to which Ads will reach only specific target audience and not all audience

Digital marketing and its effect on MSME’s


Digital marketing is the new and dynamic way of marketing .It is the future of marketing .Digital marketing offers several low cost options specifically tailored at specific audience .Here lets look at why digital marketing is best way to market especially when you are  from the MSME sector

As we have seen from Sharath’s example he is very confident of the quality of his product and wants to expand his market and he is looking at various options

In the days gone by Sharath would have made paper leafs and put it amidst the newspaper in hope that when people read newspaper in that locality they would come to know about his product and contact him.This is tried and tested method  and this  method is certainly cost effective and cheap and can still be tried by Sharath. However there are some disadvantages .

These days the popularity of newspapers in slightly decreasing so in quite few households they are not buying newspaper itself .Then even if they buy the newspaper some people might not react very favorably to paper leafs i.e. may not take it very seriously especially if he wants to market his brand as premium brand .

Also he needs  to be prepared for very low conversion ratio i.e. out of many paper leafs he sends, a very low percentage of people will enquire and certainly  in that lesser number will buy.So he needs to generate large number of enquires for his sales to rise

Next option would be to advertise in local radio stations and regional television channels then he would obviously get larger audience but they don’t come cheap and for Sharath currently the finances is limited and would be a challenge .

So here is where Digital marketing is very useful for MSME’s .Now the Digital penetration is increasing

Digital marketing can be done in different ways placing Ads in Google,Facebook,Instagram or Twitter ,but more importantly Ads can be placed targeting the exact people and giving  them relevant message .

For example Google ads can be run targeting people specifically of particular demography and location .Also More importantly Ads can placed when people type a specific search and next to it they see ads so only relevant people are seeing the ads .

There are many features in Google Ads like Pay per click where Advertisers pay only when the viewer clicks on the Ad or the advertiser can choose Clicks per impression so the money is always well spend .Also Google Ads has different formats like Search campaign where mostly Text based Ads are placed next to relevant search .Another type is display Ads where visually appealing Ads are placed mostly to create brand awareness .Yet another type of campaign is video campaign where Video Ads can be shown when people view videos mostly on Youtube.

Apart from this there are also type of Ads like Shopping Ads where any Retailer who is looking to sell his company’s inventory might be interested in this type of Ads.

Ads from the platform can span across other channels too, including YouTube, Blogger, and Google Display Network.

Over time, Google Ads will also help you analyze and improve those ads to reach more people so your business can hit all of your paid campaign goals

There are many advantages of Google Ads like

Google Ads have a click-through rate of nearly 8%.

Display ads yield 180 million impressions each month.

For users who are ready to buy, paid ads on Google get 65% of the clicks.

43% of customers buy something they’ve seen on a YouTube ad

So how will this help Sharath market  his goods and why should Sharath choose Digital marketing rather conventional marketing

 

DEEP -Digital Enterprise engagement platform

In this part we shall look at some customizations that DEEP i.e. Digital  Enterprise engagement platform of Sixth Circle technologies offers to MSME

We have observed earlier that these solutions are based on Microservices architecture .The unique characteristic of Microservices Architecture  is that each module is independent of the overall service and can be scaled up and modified as per the requirements .

Now lets go back to Sharath’s case .As discussed before Sharath has a small company and he wants to have digital transformation but he finds the cost exorbitant and many  of the features unnecessary at this point of time So here is where DEEP comes into the picture

DEEP is based on microservices architecture so initially Sharath can choose anything that he needs and then scale up.

For example in financial and accounting module initially Sharath can choose only the features that he requires for his current requirements like general ledger and later on can scale up to other features when he expands his business

Similarly for supply chain management Sharath can choose basic services like inventory management and order management for his current needs and later on scale up to other requirements like Warehouse management and other features when he expands his business

DEEP can be customized and integrated onto any platform so people like Sharath can get all the benefits that he needs and also  as his business develops and grows he can keep adding more features.

Another important thing is the cost ,Already we have seen that the prices of these solutions are very exorbitant and some one like Sharath who has capital constraints will be hard pressed to raise funds for these solutions

DEEP can be offered at Rs 99/- per month for basic services and Rs199/-per month which means that for people like Sharath  it will not be a burden and they can join the digital revolution and enhance their productivity and improve their sales which will ultimately improve their bottomline and profits

DEEP will act as the bridge that will bring the next set of people into the digital mainstream