Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) lets LLMs deliver current, context-rich answers by fetching live data—customer records, knowledge articles, metrics—from SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Reports suggest RAG can boost answer accuracy dramatically (in some cases up to 90%), making it compelling for BI, support, and operations. The challenge: enabling on-the-fly retrieval without opening security, compliance, or scalability risks. Executive takeaway: Don’t let LLMs write SQL.

If you work with Elixir, chances are you've used structs plenty of times and are likely aware of Ecto schema. However, you may not have explored structs in depth or used Ecto schemas beyond the database context. In this post, we'll explore the ins and outs of structs and Ecto schemas.

Meet Emily. She’s an API product manager at ACME, Inc., an ecommerce company that runs on dozens of APIs. One morning, her team lead asks a simple question: “Who’s our top API consumer, and which of your APIs are causing the most issues right now?” For Emily, that’s not a simple question at all. She doesn’t have direct access to these insights. Instead, she has to reach out to the engineering team.

Many organizations turn to database subsetting for various reasons. For one, cloning entire terabyte datasets could bankrupt your cloud budget. And masked data could leave your teams fumbling with unrealistic test scenarios. Why wouldn't you just grab the data you need? Sometimes, it really is that straightforward. For certain use cases — like lightweight testing scenarios, proof-of-concepts, or applications with simple data structures — subsetting delivers exactly what it promises.

Financial institutions face growing operational demands in an environment defined by regulatory complexity, legacy system inertia, and the rapid evolution of customer expectations. At the same time, IT leaders are under pressure to not only maintain infrastructure but also demonstrate value to their operations counterparts. The opportunity is clear: use technology to drive operational agility without disrupting existing systems. This is where Appian excels.

At least, the old version of it, the painstaking, build-it-all-yourself, duct-tape-and-dashboards era. If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve seen this movie before. Remember when system engineers were the backbone of IT? Then AWS came along, and in a matter of years, many system engineers evolved into cloud engineers, shifting from racking servers to designing scalable cloud architectures. The role didn’t disappear. It transformed.