Tech Insights

Articles by Zachary Sersland

Zachary Sersland

Zachary Sersland is a senior developer and team lead at DragonSpears. He earned his degree in computer science from Northwestern University and has been working in software development and consulting ever since. His focus is primarily in .Net and AWS, but he’s also taken on projects using Azure, PHP, and even Python. His favorite aspects of working at DragonSpears are the company’s development of leaders at every level and the opportunity to work with such talented teammates. He’s a movie fan, having seen every movie on the AFI and BFI Top 100 Films lists, and in high school, he earned money as a church organist.

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Speed Up Unit Test Coding with the Arrange-Act-Assert Test Pattern

 Zachary Sersland  Feb 16, 2023 6:00:00 AM  0 Comments

Writing unit tests is no developer’s favorite part of coding. Tests tend to be poorly written and maintained, and keeping them up to date takes time away from writing the features they should be testing. Fortunately, the Arrange/Act/Assert pattern (also called Given/When/Then) is a simple but valuable pattern that defines the order of operations for tests.

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Troubleshooting AWS Budgets to Reduce Cloud Costs

 Zachary Sersland  Apr 13, 2022 6:00:00 AM  0 Comments

After migrating to AWS or refactoring your current cloud architecture, you may be surprised by the size of your monthly AWS bill. Even with the breakdown of what you’re being charged, if your bill is higher than you estimated, it’s not always obvious what’s causing it. Every scenario is uniquely different, but here are some ways to troubleshoot your AWS budget and decrease costs.

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Self-Hosted Server vs. Microsoft-Hosted - Plus Azure DevOps Setup Tips

 Zachary Sersland  Dec 1, 2021 9:00:00 AM  0 Comments

Azure DevOps can be a powerful automation tool, but making decisions about your build server can be a complicated process. There are several factors to consider, such as security, speed, and flexibility. But, if it’s set up correctly, you’ll forget it’s even there. Here is a comparison of your options, as well as a guide to setting up a self-hosted server.

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Avoid These 4 Social Engineering Attacks in Your Organization

 Zachary Sersland  May 12, 2021 6:00:00 AM  0 Comments

When you envision a hacker stealing passwords and social security numbers, you likely picture someone in a dark room typing frantically into a computer, breaking through firewalls, and decrypting database records. But thieves tend to be lazy, and hacking through layers of security is much more complex than getting someone to hand over their password. That’s why every organization needs to be aware of “social engineering”, a blanket term that involves various techniques to exploit human psychology to gain access to an organization’s digital and physical assets. Below is an overview of the most common social engineering techniques and how to avoid them.

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Simplify and Automate Your Certificates with AWS Certificate Manager

 Zachary Sersland  Mar 10, 2021 7:06:52 AM  0 Comments

It’s every site administrator’s nightmare to access their website first thing in the morning and see the dreaded message, “Your connection is not private.” Your certificate has expired, and now you’re in a mad scramble to get everything into place before your users think you’ve been hacked. Fortunately, the AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) can prevent this from happening by simplifying and automating your certificates with these features and services.

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