Metal Toad goes deep into the practice of Agile.  From XP to Scrum to SAFe we've got all kinds of brain share for you.  Buckle up and do some learning (you'll thank us for it).

 

 

 

As a Certified AWS Consulting Partner, we are big fans of AWS.  From cost optimizations to whiz-bang features we have drunk the AWS cloud Kool-Aid.  Learn more about the latest and greatest from AWS by reading these articles. Enjoy!

 

 

Metal Toad loves working with Android for mobile development. Yes, iOS is great too but we are big fans of Google.  We've cataloged our Android mobile development tips here for your reference.  Enjoy!

 

We love JavaScript and have worked with A LOT of JavaScript frameworks.  AngularJS no exception.  Learn from our mistakes and successes and become an AngularJS master yourself.  The JavaScript is waiting for you...

 

Apple changed the world with the launch of the iPhone in 2007.  At Metal Toad we've done a lot of mobile development over the year and we've cataloged our iOS learnings here.  Enjoy!

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming; simple artificial intelligence is already here.  Sometimes tracked as Machine Learning learn more about how to put AI to work for you!  Working through the ethical implications of AI?  We are too.

 

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are near and dear to the Ready-Player-One-loving hearts of the nerds at Metal Toad.  While we may be a ways off from AR/VR changing the way that we live, that hasn't stopped us from making it a theme at a hack-a-thon or two.

 

 

Learn more about AWS Amplify, one of the fundamental building blocks of an AWS Cloud Native CMS.

 

AWS AppSync allows the creation of a flexible API to securely access, manipulate, and combine data from one or more data sources.

 

Learn more about AWS CloudFront.

 

Learn more about AWS CloudWatch.

 

Learn more about AWS Comprehend.

 

Learn more about AWS EC2, Amazon's persistent storage.

 

AWS Elemental (or AWS Media Services) provides one of the most amazing suites of cloud services available today.  Learn all about AWS Elemental right here!

 

AWS Forecast is part of the AWS Machine Learning suite of products.

 

AWS IAM is Amazon's Identity and Access Management (IAM) - or single sign-on solution.  At Metal Toad all of our DevOps and deployment processes leverage IAM.

 

AWS Lambda is one of the most transformative AWS services out there.  You can learn more about the application and history on our AWS Lambda services page or browse our Lambda tips and tricks here.  Enjoy!

 

Learn more about AWS Media Services provided by AWS Elemental.

 

Part of the expanded universe of AWS Media Services, MediaConvert is a cloud-based video transcoder. 

 

Ever wish you could create your own live stream via a drone?  With AWS MediaLive this is the tip of the iceberg of possibilities.  The cloud-based AWS system replaces the need for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment for transmission and allows you to buy it, pennies at a time.

 

 

Learn more about AWS Personalize.

 

AWS re:Invent is the big annual AWS conference that takes place at the end of every year in Las Vegas.  Every year, Metal Toad attends and tracks the most interesting releases and news coming out of Amazon.  Enjoy!

 

One of the coolest AWS Services out there, AWS Rekognition does visual object recognition using a machine learning algorithm.  Check out our other top two AWS Machine Learning services as well!

 

One of the fundamental building blocks of AWS managed services, AWS S3 is their secure storage.

 

AWS SageMaker is the core of the AWS Machine Learning ecosystem. Just getting started? Read what is Amazon Sagemaker.

 

Learn more about AWS Shield.

 

AWS Snowflake is Amazon's cloud data warehouse.  Learn more!

 

AWS Transcribe is a voice-to-text engine that is completely cloud-based.  Unlike open-source algorithms that perform the same function, cloud-based solutions improve every day as they are used more broadly.

 

The AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a critical element of AWS Security.  Learn how to do it right!

 

Even though Metal Toad is an AWS specialist, working in the cloud space we've done a lot of projects on Azure as well.  The following is a catalog of our Azure tips, tricks, and other articles.  Enjoy!

 

Learn more about Bamboo continuous integration.

 

 

 

At Metal Toad we aren't just about technology - we've got business advice too!

 

Capistrano is a remote server automation and deployment tool written in Ruby.

 

Over the years Metal Toad has helped to launch a lot of careers in tech.  Our CEO and several of our former interns have written down their career advice.

 

HTML may make the web go around, but CSS makes it beautiful - and usable.  And Metal Toad is passionate about UX and the intersection of technology and design. Smack dab where CSS lands. Learn more from these nerdy posts about the ins and outs of cascading stylesheets.

 

Continuous integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) - collectively CICD refers to modern deployment processes that allows for isolation and atomic, streamlined deployment of code.  Read on to learn more!

 

At Metal Toad we believe in being an active part of our community.  We've documented our engagement over the years.

 

Learn more about the right way to implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN).

 

Successful content management is key to today's enterprise-level digital ecosystem. Finding a content management system (CMS) that is flexible and scalable with growing business needs is vital and, as luck would have it, we have advice on a wide variety of solutions. 

 

 

At Metal Toad we cherish our company culture.  Learn more about what we think is important in building a strong culture.

 

Learn more about data science with our articles on the subject.  

 

Metal Toad's database experience spans all kinds of systems: from MySQL to Postgres, to NoSQL systems like CouchDB.  We've collected all of our database advice and put it here for your reference. 

 

 

At Metal Toad we have a strong history of elevating awareness of the importance of design - an unusual position for technologists.  Based on the design roots of our founder and CEO, creating great experiences is one of our core values.

 

If you already know what devops is, you'll find this list of devops articles extremely useful.  

 

Metal Toad is a strong proponent of diversity & inclusion.  Over the years we have documented our activities and provided help and approaches to help interested companies increase diversity.

 

Django is a high-level Python web framework - read on to learn more!

 

Metal Toad has cataloged a tremendous list of top Drupal tips and tricks.

 

If you are still using Drupal 7 you'll find this repository of Drupal articles helpful.  If you are looking for a more curated list you can check out our all-time Top 20 Drupal Tips.  Or perhaps you are looking for Drupal 8 articles only...

 

You can find tips specific to Drupal 8 here.  If you are looking for a more curated list you can check out our all-time Top 20 Drupal Tips.

 

Metal Toad is a strong advocate for education, from our work on Mentorship Saturdays to our CEO's work on public education boards.  Learn more about our take on what makes for a strong education.  You may also want to check out our career advice.

 

Git has transformed how version control has been and Metal Toad has written extensively on how to leverage this powerful tool.  The following list includes CI/CD, porting to Git, and GitHub-specific hacks. Be sure to check out our top 5 Git tips and tricks.

 

Learn how Metal Toad leverages Github with our top tips and tricks from our blog.

 

Yes, we know we are an AWS Consulting Partner, but we still love Google! From search to G-Suite to Docs we use Google a lot!  In fact, you probably arrived here from Google, so take a load off and get meta!

 

Learn more about Google Cloud Platform (GCP) one of the best platforms for machine learning.

 

A huge part of Metal Toad culture is experimentation - and our bi-annual hackathons help to unleash our creativity.  From video streaming to AR/VR, to IoT and more - may this list of hackathon articles inspire you!

 

Metal Toad has lots of experience working with JavaScript and HTML5.  Semantic markup, browser animations - you name it: our pain is your gain.  We hope these articles will save you some time!

 

The future of the Internet is a connected everything - often summarized as the Internet of Things or IoT.  As a technologist Metal Toad has dabbled with all sorts of connected devices (Arduino, cars, etc.) and our catalog of research can be found here.

 

Metal Toad Interviews Metal Toad has launched a series of cross-industry CIO & CEO interviews, getting their take on the Cloud and the future of tech.  More interviews will be coming this year with Amazon Independent Software Vendors (ISV)s getting their take on where their industry is heading.

 

Metal Toad has done A LOT of JavaScript development over the years (our current favorite framework is ReactJS, but we've worked with AngularJS, Node.js, and more).  Sit down and learn some stuff about JavaScript from us - all for free and at your own pace.

 

JQuery is one of the many JavaScript systems Metal Toad has worked with over the years.  Our favorite currently is React JS, but you don't always get to choose!  Learn more tips and tricks below.

 

As an AWS Consultancy focused on Media & Entertainment, Metal Toad has a number of people in Los Angeles.  Additionally our CEO is on the Board of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and volunteers on several LA-based non-profit boards.

 

Machine Learning, or artificial intelligence is enabled by the cloud.  With all a business's data in one place, there's no limit to the insights that machines can provide to us.

 

As an Advanced AWS Consulting Partner, we've written a thing or two about managed services.  This is a list of all of our help articles on the topic. Please be sure to check out our AWS Managed Services page too!

 

Metal Toad has been building mobile applications for a while and we've found building iPhone and Android can be a lot of fun. Mobile development has significantly more gotchas so we've created a catalog of all of the mobile development tips and tricks we have cataloged over the years, sorted in order with the newest first. 

 

How do you know if your code is working properly even when you aren't there?  The answer is setting up the right monitoring and reporting.  There are lots of ways to do this, some of them just plain wrong.  Read how to get it right and what the best tools for the job are.

 

Node.js is one of the many flavors of JavaScript Metal Toad has worked with and documented over the years.  Not to be starting a holy war or anything, but our current favorite is React JS.

 

While Oracle services are not part of the Metal Toad offering, they represent a huge portion of software deployed in the world.  As Cloud advocates our relationship with Oracle's technology has not always been sympathetic but we don't ignore the impact their technology has on the world.

 

While not many programmers will cop to loving PHP, it is everywhere - which makes it an important tool to have in the tool belt.  PHP also underpins some of the most common content management systems (Drupal, WordPress, etc).

 

Did you know Metal Toad is headquartered in Portland, Oregon?  True story.  The locals call Portland PDX (after the airport) when they don't feel like saying a full 8 letters.  Plus it helps us to avoid being confused with the other Portland...

 

 

At Metal Toad Product Management is a serious area of practice. Sometimes referred to as Product Ownership within the Agile Scrum methodology, preserving the iron triangle while delivering what customers need takes time, attention, and skill.

 

Learn more about Metal Toad's approach to Project Management - Agile or otherwise we've learned a lot over the years and we are more than happy to share.  

 

Metal Toad loves configuration management, and our favorite system (by far) is Puppet.  We love Puppet so much that we are a Gold Partner and we built their website several years back (true story).  Learn more about the ins and outs of configuration management with us. 

 

Is there any language more fun than Python?  We don't think so and neither does xkcd.  Learn the ins and outs of programming in Python from Metal Toad's repository of Python articles. You will thank us!

 

Quality Assurance (QA) is at the heart of code quality; without good best practices in this area bugs in your live environment are a constant issue.  Metal Toad is passionate about code quality and sharing what we have learned about the art and science of QA.

 

Metal Toad has a LOT of XP when it comes to JavaScript and our current favorite is React, hands down.  We've done plenty of work with AngularJS, Node.js, and more but React is our strong recommendation.  Learn at your own pace and check out this totally awesome JavaScript framework for yourself!

 

The right way to do mobile development is to use the same content and adjust the screen size.  This is called responsive web design.  Learn more about this technique here. 

 

Ruby is an elegant programming language, capable of some meta-recursive programming that few other languages are capable of. Enjoy the posts!

 

From our work with the Golden Globes, the Emmys, Sony, and other Media & Entertainment giants, Metal Toad has had a lot of experience with scalable applications. Learn more about our tips, tricks, and war stories from Drupal to React, scalability is critical to application success.

 

Learn more about Metal Toad's best practices around security by browsing the following articles.  From AWS to Drupal we've got configuration and code covered.

 

 

As an AWS Consulting Partner, Metal Toad has posted a lot about the Cloud!  Despite our specialization in AWS we've done work with all the major providers: GCP & Azure. 

 

Now a relic of the past, the Metal Toad Podcast (the Toadcast) was a long-running series of interviews and reflections on culture and technology.

 

 

Metal Toad is passionate about User Experience - and about sharing what we know. Learn more about the ins and outs of UX and UI here.  

 

Learn more about video on the web - streaming, OTT, VOD, or specific AWS Media Services - and how to implement them technically!

 

Over the years at Metal Toad, we've done a lot of WordPress development (along with other CMS). This is a catalog of all of our WordPress development tips you may find useful. Enjoy!

 

 

Need more tips and tricks? Check out our Top 5 Git Tips & Tricks, Top 20 Drupal Tips, Top 10 React JS Tips, learn more about AWS Machine Learning, AWS Lambda, or check out Metal Toad's AWS Managed Services offering.