FinOps Handbook for Microsoft Azure. Empowering teams to optimize their Azure cloud spend with FinOps best practices

Maulik Soni

To gain a competitive edge in today's unpredictable economic climate, you’ll need to unravel the mystery of saving costs on Microsoft Azure Cloud. This book helps you do just that with proven strategies for building, running, and sustaining repeated cost optimization initiatives across your organization. You’ll learn how to collaborate with finance, procurement, product, and engineering teams to optimize your cloud spend and achieve cost savings that can make a significant impact on your bottom line.The book begins by showing you how to effectively monitor and manage your cloud usage, identify cost-saving opportunities, and implement changes that’ll reduce your overall spend. Whether you're a small start-up or a large enterprise, this book will equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to achieve cost savings and maintain a lean cloud infrastructure. As you advance, you'll find out how to benchmark your current cloud spend and establish a budget for cloud usage. Throughout the chapters, you’ll learn how to negotiate with your cloud provider to optimize your rate, allocate cost for the container, and gain a solid understanding of metric-driven cost optimization.By the end of this FinOps book, you’ll have become proficient in Azure Cloud financial management with the help of real-world examples, use cases, and scenarios.

Learning Predictive Analytics with R. Get to grips with key data visualization and predictive analytic skills using R

Eric Mayor

This book is packed with easy-to-follow guidelines that explain the workings of the many key data mining tools of R, which are used to discover knowledge from your data.You will learn how to perform key predictive analytics tasks using R, such as train and test predictive models for classification and regression tasks, score new data sets and so on. All chapters will guide you in acquiring the skills in a practical way. Most chapters also include a theoretical introduction that will sharpen your understanding of the subject matter and invite you to go further.The book familiarizes you with the most common data mining tools of R, such as k-means, hierarchical regression, linear regression, association rules, principal component analysis, multilevel modeling, k-NN, Naïve Bayes, decision trees, and text mining. It also provides a description of visualization techniques using the basic visualization tools of R as well as lattice for visualizing patterns in data organized in groups. This book is invaluable for anyone fascinated by the data mining opportunities offered by GNU R and its packages.

Vector Search for Practitioners with Elastic. A toolkit for building NLP solutions for search, observability, and security using vector search

Bahaaldine Azarmi, Jeff Vestal, Shay Banon

While natural language processing (NLP) is largely used in search use cases, this book aims to inspire you to start using vectors to overcome equally important domain challenges like observability and cybersecurity. The chapters focus mainly on integrating vector search with Elastic to enhance not only their search but also observability and cybersecurity capabilities.The book, which also features a foreword written by the founder of Elastic, begins by teaching you about NLP and the functionality of Elastic in NLP processes. Here you’ll delve into resource requirements and find out how vectors are stored in the dense-vector type along with specific page cache requirements for fast response times. As you advance, you’ll discover various tuning techniques and strategies to improve machine learning model deployment, including node scaling, configuration tuning, and load testing with Rally and Python. You’ll also cover techniques for vector search with images, fine-tuning models for improved performance, and the use of clip models for image similarity search in Elasticsearch. Finally, you’ll explore retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and learn to integrate ChatGPT with Elasticsearch to leverage vectorized data, ELSER's capabilities, and RRF's refined search mechanism.By the end of this NLP book, you’ll have all the necessary skills needed to implement and optimize vector search in your projects with Elastic.

Mastering Unity Game Development with C#. Harness the full potential of Unity 2022 game development using C#

Do you want to level up your Unity game development skills? Then look no further! This book is your one-stop solution to creating mesmerizing games with lifelike features and captivating gameplay.Written by a highly experienced Unity developer, this book emphasizes project organization, clean C# code, and Unity plugins, including the new Input System and Cinemachine. Mastering Unity Game Development with C# shows you how to structure projects effectively, write clean and modular code, utilize the power of Unity plugins, and design engaging game mechanics. You’ll also understand how to optimize user interfaces for a seamless player experience, manage game data efficiently, contribute to existing code bases, integrate third-party assets and APIs, and apply optimization techniques to enhance game performance.By the end of this book, you’ll have acquired the knowledge and skills that will empower you to create efficient and engaging games.

Getting Started with SketchUp Pro. Embark on your 3D modeling adventure with expert tips, tricks, and best practices

David S. Sellers

Owing to its ability to create models quickly and with high level of dimensional accuracy, SketchUp Pro has become a popular choice for many industries, including architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and video game design. If you are seeking to adopt Trimble's exceptional design software, Getting Started with SketchUp Pro serves as an ideal primer to prepare and equip you for its use.This book will help you lay the foundation of a project from scratch, set up appropriate units, and follow a guided path to structure your 3D models. You’ll explore the workflows used for creating designs from sketches, making CAD drawings (DWG), and even updating your existing 3D models. Finally, you’ll work with extensions and 3D Warehouse to find new workflows and models to add to your skill set.By the end of this SketchUp book, you’ll be able to confidently create and share models of your design through CAD drawings and 3D views, and even take them online through the 3D Warehouse

Practical Memory Forensics. Jumpstart effective forensic analysis of volatile memory

Svetlana Ostrovskaya, Oleg Skulkin

Memory Forensics is a powerful analysis technique that can be used in different areas, from incident response to malware analysis. With memory forensics, you can not only gain key insights into the user's context but also look for unique traces of malware, in some cases, to piece together the puzzle of a sophisticated targeted attack.Starting with an introduction to memory forensics, this book will gradually take you through more modern concepts of hunting and investigating advanced malware using free tools and memory analysis frameworks. This book takes a practical approach and uses memory images from real incidents to help you gain a better understanding of the subject and develop the skills required to investigate and respond to malware-related incidents and complex targeted attacks. You'll cover Windows, Linux, and macOS internals and explore techniques and tools to detect, investigate, and hunt threats using memory forensics. Equipped with this knowledge, you'll be able to create and analyze memory dumps on your own, examine user activity, detect traces of fileless and memory-based malware, and reconstruct the actions taken by threat actors.By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed in memory forensics and have gained hands-on experience of using various tools associated with it.

KnockoutJS Essentials. Implement a successful JavaScript-rich application with KnockoutJS, jQuery, and Bootstrap

Jorge Ferrando, Jorge F Ferrando

Fundamentals of Analytics Engineering. An introduction to building end-to-end analytics solutions

Dumky De Wilde, Fanny Kassapian, Jovan Gligorevic, Juan Manuel Perafan, ...

Written by a team of 7 industry experts, Fundamentals of Analytics Engineering will introduce you to everything from foundational concepts to advanced skills to get started as an analytics engineer.After conquering data ingestion and techniques for data quality and scalability, you’ll learn about techniques such as data cleaning transformation, data modeling, SQL query optimization and reuse, and serving data across different platforms. Armed with this knowledge, you will implement a simple data platform from ingestion to visualization, using tools like Airbyte Cloud, Google BigQuery, dbt, and Tableau. You’ll also get to grips with strategies for data integrity with a focus on data quality and observability, along with collaborative coding practices like version control with Git. You’ll learn about advanced principles like CI/CD, automating workflows, gathering, scoping, and documenting business requirements, as well as data governance.By the end of this book, you’ll be armed with the essential techniques and best practices for developing scalable analytics solutions from end to end.

Check Point Firewall Administration R81.10+. A practical guide to Check Point firewall deployment and administration

Vladimir Yakovlev, Dameon D. Welch

Check Point firewalls are the premiere firewalls, access control, and threat prevention appliances for physical and virtual infrastructures. With Check Point’s superior security, administrators can help maintain confidentiality, integrity, and the availability of their resources protected by firewalls and threat prevention devices. This hands-on guide covers everything you need to be fluent in using Check Point firewalls for your operations.This book familiarizes you with Check Point firewalls and their most common implementation scenarios, showing you how to deploy them from scratch. You will begin by following the deployment and configuration of Check Point products and advance to their administration for an organization. Once you’ve learned how to plan, prepare, and implement Check Point infrastructure components and grasped the fundamental principles of their operation, you’ll be guided through the creation and modification of access control policies of increasing complexity, as well as the inclusion of additional features. To run your routine operations infallibly, you’ll also learn how to monitor security logs and dashboards. Generating reports detailing current or historical traffic patterns and security incidents is also covered.By the end of this book, you'll have gained the knowledge necessary to implement and comfortably operate Check Point firewalls.

HTML5 Graphing and Data Visualization Cookbook. Get a complete grounding in the exciting visual world of Canvas and HTML5 using this recipe-packed cookbook. Learn to create charts and graphs, draw complex shapes, add interactivity, work with Google maps, and much more

Ben Fhala

The HTML5 canvas tag makes creating any plot shape easy, all you have to do then is fill it with exciting visualizations written in JavaScript or using other visualization tools. HTML5 Graphing and Data Visualization Cookbook is the perfect break into the world of Canvas, charts, and graphs in HTML5 and JavaScript. In this book we will go through a journey of getting to know the technology by creating and planning data-driven visualizations. This cookbook is organized in a linear, progressive way so it can be read from start to finish, as well as be used as a resource for specific tasks.This book travels through the steps involved in creating a fully interactive and animated visualization in HTML5 and JavaScript. You will start from very simple hello worldù samples and quickly dive deeper into the world of graphs and charts in HTML5. Followed by learning how canvas works and carrying out a group of tasks geared at taking what we learned and implementing it in a variety of chart types. With each chapter the content becomes more complex and our creations become more engaging and interactive.Our goal is that by the end of this book you will have a strong foundation; knowing when to create a chart on your own from scratch and when it would be a good idea to depend on other APIs.We finish our book in our last two chapters exploring Google maps and integrating everything we learnt into a full project.

Google Machine Learning and Generative AI for Solutions Architects. ​Build efficient and scalable AI/ML solutions on Google Cloud

Kieran Kavanagh, Priyanka Vergadia

Most companies today are incorporating AI/ML into their businesses. Building and running apps utilizing AI/ML effectively is tough. This book, authored by a principal architect with about two decades of industry experience, who has led cross-functional teams to design, plan, implement, and govern enterprise cloud strategies, shows you exactly how to design and run AI/ML workloads successfully using years of experience from some of the world’s leading tech companies.You’ll get a clear understanding of essential fundamental AI/ML concepts, before moving on to complex topics with the help of examples and hands-on activities. This will help you explore advanced, cutting-edge AI/ML applications that address real-world use cases in today’s market. You’ll recognize the common challenges that companies face when implementing AI/ML workloads, and discover industry-proven best practices to overcome these. The chapters also teach you about the vast AI/ML landscape on Google Cloud and how to implement all the steps needed in a typical AI/ML project. You’ll use services such as BigQuery to prepare data; Vertex AI to train, deploy, monitor, and scale models in production; as well as MLOps to automate the entire process.By the end of this book, you will be able to unlock the full potential of Google Cloud's AI/ML offerings.

Windows Server Automation with PowerShell Cookbook. Powerful ways to automate and manage Windows administrative tasks - Fourth Edition

Thomas Lee, Jeffrey Snover

With a foreword from PowerShell creator Jeffrey Snover, this heavily updated edition is designed to help you learn how to use PowerShell 7.1 effectively and manage the core roles, features, and services of Windows Server in an enterprise setting. All scripts are compatible with both Window Server 2022 and 2019.This latest edition equips you with over 100 recipes you'll need in day-to-day work, covering a wide range of fundamental and more advanced use cases. We look at how to install and configure PowerShell 7.1, along with useful new features and optimizations, and how the PowerShell compatibility solution bridges the gap to older versions of PowerShell. Topics include using PowerShell to manage networking and DHCP in Windows Server, objects in Active Directory, Hyper-V, and Azure. Debugging is crucial, so the book shows you how to use some powerful tools to diagnose and resolve issues with Windows Server.

Building an RPG with Unity 2018. Leverage the power of Unity 2018 to build elements of an RPG. - Second Edition

Vahé Karamian

In a role-playing game (RPG), users control a character, usually in the game's imaginary universe. Unity has become a top choice for developers looking to create these kinds of immersive RPGs.Building an RPG with Unity 2018, based on building some of the most common RPG features, teaches you tips, tricks, and techniques that can be applied to your own game.To start with, the book guides you through the fundamentals of role-playing games. You will learn the necessary aspects of building an RPG, such as structuring the game environment, customizing characters, controlling the camera, and designing other attributes such as inventory and weapons. You will also explore designing game levels by adding more features. Once you have understood the bigger picture, you will understand how to tackle the obstacles of networking in Unity and implement multiplayer mode for your RPG games.By the end of the book, you will be able to build upon the core RPG framework elements to create your own immersive games.

Squarespace from Signup to Launch. Build, customize, and launch robust and user-friendly Squarespace websites with a no-code approach

Kelsey Gilbert Kreiling, Mallory Ulaszek

You may have heard about Squarespace and even started a trial site, but launching it can be a real challenge for new users. While the basic features look simple enough, shaping Squarespace to fit your business needs requires expert help. That’s where author and Squarespace expert Kelsey Gilbert Kreiling can help. Squarespace from Signup to Launch is a comprehensive resource for customizing the most design-focused and user-friendly website builder in the no-code world.Enriched with insights and resources from Squarespace experts such as Christy Price, Will Myers, David Iskander, Kristine Neil, Kathryn Joachim, Beatriz Caraballo, Justin Mabee, Shelly Morse, and more, this book goes beyond a technical manual. It prepares you to build a website, explains the foundational knowledge behind Squarespace 7.1 and Fluid Engine, and fosters a professional designer's mindset. Throughout the book, you’ll learn how to build forms, use content blocks, optimize websites for mobile, build an online store, and become proficient in Squarespace's built-in SEO, marketing, and analytics tools.By the end of this Squarespace book, you’ll have the confidence to build professional websites with a developer's technical knowledge, project organization, and design intuition. You won’t just launch your site; you’ll be proud to share it with the world.

Learning ArcGIS Geodatabases. An all-in-one start up kit to author, manage, and administer ArcGIS geodatabases

Hussein Nasser

IBM Cognos TM1 Developer's Certification guide. Preparing for your COG-310 certification is more engaging and enjoyable with this tutorial because it takes a hands-on approach and teaches through examples. There are also self-test sections for each exam topic

James D. Miller

IBM Cognos TM1 is enterprise planning software that provides a complete, dynamic environment for developing timely, reliable and personalized forecasts and budgets. It is a real time, in memory tool that helps any sized business perform planning, budgeting and forecasting as well as other financial exercises. This book prepares you to master COG-310 certification using an example-driven method that is easy to understand.The IBM Cognos TM1 Developer's Certification guide provides key technical details and background to clear the current IBM Cognos TM1 Developer (test COG-310) certification exam.This certification book covers all the modules of the certification clearly and in depth.The initial chapters cover in detail the components that make up Cognos TM1 and designing and creating dimensions and cubes. The book then dives deep into basic and advanced scripting using TurboIntegrator and then we learn to understand and write basic Rules. We then learn about the drill-through functionality of TM1, virtual and lookup cubes and lastly Time, and presenting and reporting data