Break point: Apache Arrow 4.0.0, Rust for Windows, Qt Creator 4.15, Civio, Portworx, Red Hat and Splunk

Break point: Apache Arrow 4.0.0, Rust for Windows, Qt Creator 4.15, Civio, Portworx, Red Hat and Splunk

Apache Arrow has reached version 4.0.0 of the language-agnostic development platform for in-memory data analytics. This release covers 3 months of development work and includes 711 resolved issues.

Amid the changes Java applications can now enable zero-copy optimisations when writing data in Arrow Flight, while Arrow Flight itself was packaged for C#/.NET. A CSV writer has been added, which can infer timestamp columns with fractional seconds.

Arrow Datasets received various performance improvements and new features: new columns can be projected from arbitrary expressions at scan time, and read performance has been improved for Parquet on high-latency filesystems.

For full details of the changes, see the Apache Arrow blog and the Apache Arrow 4.0.0 changelog.

Rust for Windows hits v0.9

Microsoft has released Rust for Windows v0.9, delivering full consumption support for APIs, allowing developers to call any Windows API (past, present, or future) using the Rust language projection.

Microsoft has now added support for Win32 and COM APIs, unifying the Windows APIs available for consumption via the windows crate. The windows crate itself was published on crates.io and is now dual-licensed under MIT or Apache.

Along with this latest release, Microsoft has added new content to Microsoft Docs on developing with Rust on Windows. Developers with an interest can check out Rust for Windows on GitHub.

Qt Creator 4.15 adds usability enhancements

Qt Creator 4.15 is out, with a number of updates to the editing, project creating and debugging capabilities of the cross-platform integrated development environment.

The QML editor can handle inline components, and has received some fixes for advanced JavaScript features. The Qt client for the Language Server Protocol was given support for versioned diagnostics, progress messages, and new formatting options in protocol version 3.15.0.

This release fixed several issues that caused difficulties in successfully parsing CMake projects with special prerequisites. Qt 6-based CMake projects can also target iOS.

Qt Creator 4.15 added the option to show simple values of variables inline in the text editor, while debugging. Also added was a locator filter for opening files from anywhere on disk. This can be configured to use any external command line tool that returns a list of files.

The Qt Company is also changing its naming scheme so that Qt Creator 4.15 will be the last release in the 4.x series. The summer release will be Qt Creator 5, with the winter release Qt Creator 6. The open source version of Qt Creator 4.15 is available on the Qt download page.

Civio ready to go with managed K3S service

Civio has made available its managed Kubernetes platform based on K3S to early adopters, ahead of a full launch expected in June. The firm said it would offer a multi-region managed Kubernetes service from day one, built for speed and simplicity around K3S, a lightweight but fully compliant distribution of Kubernetes.

This would allow it to a launch a fully usable cluster that deploys in under 90 seconds, featuring high availability, managed persistent storage, and master back up, according to the firm. Civio is offering simplified billing, starting at $4 per month. Developers interested need to sign up from the Civio website.

Portworx PX-Backup 2.0 will backup all of Kubernetes

Portworx has launched PX-Backup 2.0, a new release of its data protection platform that is now designed to protect entire Kubernetes applications. It offers secure self-service with role-based access control and a self-service dashboard providing daily and monthly graphical views of backup activities.

The move to version 2.0 brings a change of architecture, according to Portworx, with a new internal metadata database that allows it to scale to millions of objects. PX-Backup 2.0 deployments has also seen three new pods spread across the user’s Kubernetes cluster to ensure high availability.

PX-Backup 2.0 includes backup and recovery support for a broad range of Kubernetes offerings, including VMware Tanzu and Microsoft Azure, by leveraging native CSI integration. It can also be purchased from the AWS Marketplace and IBM Cloud Catalog with unified billing.

Red Hat unveils its Developer Sandbox

Red Hat has released Developer Sandbox for Red Hat OpenShift, designed to allow developers to quickly get started with building applications using the same infrastructure and tools they will run in their production environment.

The platform provides a private OpenShift environment in a shared, multi-tenant cluster that is pre-configured with a set of developer tools. The infrastructure and tools are tightly integrated and designed to provide a safe environment for prototyping or building new applications, according to Red Hat.

Developers looking to try out the new Developer Sandbox can sign up for a free Red Hat account at https://developers.redhat.com.

Splunk gives it to you all in one

Machine data analytics firm Splunk has launched the Splunk Observability Cloud, an enterprise-grade analytics-powered observability platform aimed at IT and DevOps teams.

The new release is comprised of a suite of solutions for infrastructure monitoring, application performance management, digital experience monitoring, synthetic monitoring, log investigation and incident response.

Splunk said IT and DevOps teams can get answers about what’s happening in their infrastructure via Observability Cloud’s unified interface with metrics, traces and logs, all of which data is collected in real-time, without sampling and at any scale.

“Until now, the tools that IT and DevOps teams rely on to monitor and manage applications and infrastructure have been disconnected, often separated into two or three different platforms,” said Spiros Xanthos, Splunk veep of product management, observability and IT Ops, in a statement. “The Splunk Observability Cloud brings all the needed observability solutions together in a unified interface designed to help customers gain a comprehensive view across all their data and operate at enterprise scale.”