Category: Software Development

The promise sounds compelling: write what you want in plain English, let AI translate it into working code, and watch your application come to life in minutes instead of days.  This is "vibe programming”. Vibe programming is the practice of using AI to generate production code from natural language descriptions. Proponents claim it will democratize software development and reduce the need for traditional professional developers. The reality is far different and far more troubling. Vibe progr…

It’s hard not to admire confidence in marketing. Take Fortra, for example. Fortra is the new parent company of GoAnywhere, a Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution that’s been around for years. The Fortra website proudly declares, “We break the attack chain.” Catchy, right? Except… “break” might have been a little too on the nose. Because that’s exactly what happened recently: their security response came to a screeching halt. On September 11th, a new critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-10035) was d…

Welcome to the first episode of the Software Architecture Insights new podcast! The landscape of software development has notably transformed in 2024, with 62% of developers now leveraging AI in their workflows. While this integration has significantly boosted productivity, it has also raised concerns regarding code quality and complexity. The discussion reflects on findings from the recent 2025 GitClear AI Code Quality Research report, which analyzed over 211 million lines of code and reveale…

Not all applications are created equal. Some are built to process transactions and maintain state, while others focus on delivering content, data, or experiences to users. For software architects and engineering leaders, distinguishing between these core application types is critical for making sound decisions about scalability, infrastructure, security, and data management. Why? Because how you design, build, construct, and operate your application is different based on your customer use pat…

The software development landscape has shifted dramatically. In 2024, a whopping 62% of professional developers use AI in their development process. This has done wonders for the productivity of an average software developer, and has led many people to assume this means that either we need fewer software developers or, more likely, we can get more and better software developed with existing staff. However, there are issues with this shift. Last year, I read and loved the 2024 GitClear AI repo…

Software architects hold a unique and influential position in the product development lifecycle, guiding technical decisions that shape the product's future. Let me be clear - architects aren't just technical decision makers, they're risk managers who shape your entire product's future. I've seen this firsthand in my years at AWS, New Relic and other enterprises. When you're operating at scale, every architectural decision carries both opportunity and risk. Technical debt isn't just a burden - …

GitHub has published research on the growth and impact of AI on software development. Among their findings is that developers write code “55% faster” when using the GitHub Copilot code automation tool. But this finding doesn’t tell the whole story. Is this code high-quality? Is this code necessary? Is the code contributing to the long-term value of our applications? Does the code contribute to the operation of the application in a clear and concise manner? In other words, is Copilot (and simil…

Low code has received a lot of press recently. There seems to be quite a debate about whether the use of low code makes the application development process better or if it interferes with the development process, resulting in inferior applications. I read an article recently that talked about how an inevitable outcome of using Low Code was application complexity. Further, this application complexity leads to increased difficulty with security issues. This article got me thinking. I’ve been wri…

Architecting modern applications is a tough job, and architecting a solid data model for modern applications is one of the toughest, yet most important, parts of modern application architecture. Failure to create a reasonable data architecture can cause your application to fail in many bad ways, including issues related to performance, data integrity, data sovereignty, data safety, and scalability. Poor data architecture can leave your application and your company in bad shape. Building a pro…