Expert Product Reviews

We are pleased to share a comprehensive review of "The Aspiring CIO and CISO", published by Packt, and written by Ali Husamuddeen. This review offers an in-depth exploration of the book's key themes and insights, providing readers with a thorough understanding of its value.Please find the review below:This comprehensive book provides an authentic portrayal of the challenges and opportunities that come with being a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or Chief Information Officer (CIO). David candidly discusses the prerequisites for entering these roles, the responsibilities that come with them, and how to navigate one's career when in these positions.One of the most appealing aspects of this book is its honesty, which sets it apart from others in the genre. Rather than painting a rosy picture or using grandiose self-aggrandizing language, David acknowledges the stress and continuous learning required in these roles while breaking them down into smaller digestible pieces of wisdom. After having read all of it, one understands why it is important to be comfortable being uncomfortable.The book adopts a practical approach, prescribing SKEB analysis and Myers Briggs to help readers understand the nuances of CISO and CIO universe. Initially, some readers may find the format a bit unusual, however with David’s extensive experience, this style is well-suited to convey the subject matter effectively. The inclusion of technology risk management adds an extra layer of depth to the discussion, making it particularly interesting for those unsure about the CISO/CIO pathway.A standout section in the book is dedicated to "moments of truth," which offers valuable insights into the critical junctures that can define a career as a CISO or CIO. This part arrives at an opportune moment and is sure to resonate with readers on their own professional journeys. The particular story at the end of which it was impossible to tell who was the contractor, staff, or vendor, will always stay with me. I only wish I had discovered these lessons years ago.There is much to learn on how to be a good CISO / CIO in between these pages. The writing style is steadfast, making for an enjoyable read that feels grounded in reality. David also candidly delves into the topic of organisational politics and questions whether it's wise to bring one's former team to the new organisation. It was delightful to see it encouraging loyalty to the enterprise rather than individuals.Many CISO / CIO aspirants are bound to find this book re-assuring. Yes, honesty can exist at all levels. Yes, data based decision making can take precedence. Yes, objective hiring and retention can be aspired for. Yes, one can still have a work life balance. It serves as a source of inspiration, highlighting the possibilities available to those who pursue such career paths.And when one thinks one is done, thought-provoking questions in the appendix encapsulate its key takeaways and provide a solid foundation for further reflection.If one were to contrast this book with every LinkedIn post and a curated selection of books addressing the same subject, it would be evident that this book would stand head and shoulders above the rest because of its humble tone, genuine purpose, and demystifying content alone.

We are pleased to share a comprehensive review of "Systems Programming with C# and .NET", published by Packt, and written by Ankit Srivastava. This review offers an in-depth exploration of the book's key themes and insights, providing readers with a thorough understanding of its value. Unlock the full potential of C# and .NET Core in systems programming to secure, deploy, and maintain robust applications. With this book, you’ll focus on low-level APIs, memory management, and performance optimization.Please find the review below:What did you find most valuable in the book you've reviewed? The content is amazing i.e., It covers the very basics to advanced system programming. Author has tried multiple ways to interact with people by providing code snippets, assembly  conversion, decoding it, and getting a better understanding. A lot of books only focus on one area and don't teach us about the other things. This is one of the all rounder books for systems programming where we covered multiple areas e.g., Logging, Security, Performance, etc. How does the book compare to competitors in the field? Not many books are written in this area i.e., which focuses on system programming with C#. In the past people actually wrote books on kernel programming but mainly it was in either C or C++ and hence, this book became one of the out of league books which offer such learning in a .NET environment. Who would benefit the most from the book? A young college student to an experienced developer. All would learn something from this book. The content is extraordinary and the author has done an excellent job in articulating everything. Can you share a personal anecdote related to the content?   When I first got the chance to review a book on C# systems programming, I was genuinely excited. I’d been working on complex .NET projects for years, but diving into the systems-level side of things wasn’t something I’d really explored. As I started reading, what really impressed me was how the book made systems programming feel accessible. It seamlessly connected what I already knew about high-level application development with the more intricate, behind-the-scenes system interactions.   What unique insights or perspectives does the book offer? C# learning is offered by other books as well. Here the author considers that someone is already having hands on to C# and the unique things are Systems programming, Multithreading, Logging, Security, Deployment strategies, CI/CD, Risk mitigation, effective troubleshooting, profiling tools, etc. makes it one of the very few books. Reviewer BioAnkit Srivastava is a seasoned Senior Developer at Walmart; boasting seven years of extensive experience in software development. He specializes in .NET Development, Windows Development, WPF, WCF, REST API, .NET Core, .NET Standard, Python, and Linux. Ankit earned his Bachelor of Technology degree in Information Technology from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute and holds certifications in C#, C/C++, Python, Linux, Java, and SQL. Throughout his career, he has made signifi cant contributions to diverse domains, including Semiconductors, Automotive, Storage, Chemical Heat Exchangers, and Health and Wellness.

We are pleased to share a comprehensive review of the "​Spring Boot 3.0 Cookbook", published by Packt, and written by the reviewer Erica Ayala. This review offers an in-depth exploration of the book's key themes and insights, providing readers with a thorough understanding of its value. Please find the review below:I actually found this book before it was even released. I was searching for books on Java and Spring when I came across "Spring Boot 3.0 Cookbook", which wouldn't be released for a couple more months. 😩 I was so excited to get my hands on it that I literally set a reminder in my phone to order it the day it was released on Amazon. 😅When it finally arrived, I jumped right into reading about automated testing, mocking services, and implementing security protocols like OAuth2. (Not my favorite topics, to be honest, but they're my weakest areas and I'm trying to get better at them so 🤷🏽‍♀️, here we are. 😮‍💨😅)The book emphasizes the importance of automated testing over manual testing due to its scalability and efficiency. It covers the basics of unit and integration testing using Spring Boot's built-in testing starter. For the longest time, I didn't know the difference between the different types of testing (they're all just testing to me 🤷🏽‍♀️🥴), so this part was pretty helpful. 😅It also covers how to mock remote dependencies using Wiremock. The book explains how to configure Wiremock and integrate it with Spring Boot for testing, which I found pretty helpful because even though I've definitely created mocks for testing before, I used MockMVC to do it, so Wiremock was completely new to me. 🤯The security section is really detailed and covers setting up an Authorization Server, protecting APIs with OAuth2, and configuring different scopes and client authentication methods. It explains handling various OAuth2 flows, such as client credentials and authorization code grant flows.I found this part helpful since I'm still pretty new to OAuth2 and have mostly used JWT up until now. 😕 (Speaking of which, it also explains how to use JWT tokens for secure communication and validation. 😉)The book also mentions integration with social providers like GitHub and Facebook and even walks you through integrating Google Account login into your Spring Boot applications. Now this is the part I was excited about!! 🤩😁 By configuring your Authorization Server as an OAuth2 client with Google as the Identity Provider (IdP), you can enable users to log in with their Gmail accounts.It also explains how to configure the security chain using Spring Security's 'SecurityConfig' class, detailing the setup of 'Security FilterChain' beans to handle various security checks and the login process. This part was definitely helpful for me because 'Security FilterChain' was one of the things that my bootcamp just completely glossed over. 😕 It was kinda like "Paste these snippets of code into such-and-such class to implement security", and that was it. 🫤🤷🏽‍♀️There's a chapter where the book teaches you to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize your application. Now this stuff was completely new to me. 😳 Thankfully, it guides you through the entire process, from identifying issues to applying solutions like caching and runtime tuning.It clearly explains the impact caching has on overall performance. By reducing the load on the database through caching, the application can handle more requests efficiently, demonstrating the real-world benefits of proper caching strategies.The book also talks about monitoring and application health and covers metrics like CPU usage, heap memory, etc. explaining the importance of diagnosing and fixing performance issues.Overall, I think this book is a great resource for Java developers and it's packed with clear explanations and detailed examples to help you develop secure RESTful APIs with Spring Boot. 😊 I literally waited months for this book to be released and I can honestly say that it exceeded my expectations!! 😁