DEV Community: aakash shrivas

The Developer’s Skill Map for 2026: What to Double Down On and What to Drop

aakash shrivas — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:01:44 +0000

As 2025 comes to a close, it’s clear the pace of change in tech isn’t slowing down — it’s accelerating.
AI is no longer an assistant. It’s a co-developer. Cloud is becoming edge-aware. And “framework fatigue” is real.

If you want to stay relevant (and valuable) in 2026, it’s not about learning more — it’s about learning smarter.

Here’s the Developer’s 2026 Skill Map — what to double down on, and what to drop or de-prioritize.

DOUBLE DOWN ON

AI-Augmented Development

Generative AI isn’t just for writing code snippets anymore. It’s becoming an integrated part of the development workflow.
From auto-summarizing pull requests to generating test cases and optimizing CI/CD pipelines — AI now acts as your pair programmer, debugger, and reviewer.

What to focus on:

Master prompting and context chaining for code tools (like GitHub Copilot, Cody, or Continue).
Understand how these models reason — so you can spot when they’re wrong.
Integrate AI tools safely in your dev workflows using company policies and version control.

AI won’t replace developers. Developers using AI will replace those who don’t.

Data + MLOps Fundamentals

Data is now a first-class citizen in software systems.
Whether you’re building a SaaS, an AI app, or a backend service, you’re dealing with data engineering — even if you don’t call it that.

Why it matters:
AI models, analytics, personalization — they all depend on clean data and continuous model delivery.

What to learn:

Data pipelines (Airflow, Dagster, Prefect)
Feature stores, model registries, and monitoring
Versioning and deployment of AI models (MLOps)
System Design Thinking

System design used to be for senior engineers. Now it’s for everyone.
In 2026, even frontend developers need to understand distributed caching, message queues, and event-driven architecture.

Focus on:

Trade-offs between latency, scalability, and cost.
Observability — metrics, tracing, and alerts as design inputs.
Thinking in services and systems, not components and routes.

This is the difference between “developers who code” and “engineers who build systems.”

Edge + Cloud Synergy

2026 will see a merge between edge computing and cloud orchestration.
With LLMs, IoT, and real-time data needs growing, workloads are moving closer to users — but managed centrally.

What to focus on:

Understanding serverless + edge runtimes (Vercel Edge, Cloudflare Workers, Fly.io).
Multi-region deployments, cold start mitigation, and edge storage.
Hybrid architectures combining local inference with cloud coordination.

DROP (OR DE-PRIORITIZE)

Framework-Hopping

Stop chasing the “next big JS framework.”
The 2026 dev market values depth over novelty.
Frameworks evolve — fundamentals don’t.

Learn one stack deeply and optimize your system-level thinking.

One-Size-Fits-All Tools

Every app doesn’t need microservices. Every model doesn’t need an LLM.
2026 developers build with context-awareness, not hype.

Ask: “Does this tool solve my problem or someone else’s marketing?”

Building Without Metrics

Code that runs is good. Code that performs and converts is better.
Start treating your app like a living system: track latency, usage, and outcomes.

Tools like OpenTelemetry, Grafana, and PostHog are must-haves in your toolkit.

TL;DR — The 2026 Dev Mindset

The next phase of software development is AI-augmented, data-aware, and system-driven.
It’s less about learning a new syntax and more about mastering orchestration — of tools, agents, and systems.

Developers who combine deep technical fundamentals with AI fluency and system awareness will shape the next era of technology.

Final Thought

2026 isn’t about coding faster.
It’s about coding smarter, safer, and systemically.

So as we move into the new year — ask yourself:

Am I building code… or capability?

Agentic Marketing 2025: How Autonomous AI Agents Will Transform Tech & Marketing

aakash shrivas — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 14:44:42 +0000

The recent announcement by Netcore Cloud about Agentic Marketing 2025 has sent ripples through both marketing and technology circles. On the surface, it’s a marketing innovation, but beneath the hood, it represents a paradigm shift in how technology orchestrates customer experiences at scale.

As a tech enthusiast, I can’t help but analyze the architecture, data flow, and technical implications of this new approach.

From Automation to Autonomy

Traditional marketing automation has been about creating rules, triggers, and scheduled campaigns. Marketers have spent countless hours defining “if this, then that” rules for every segment and scenario.

Agentic Marketing turns this on its head. Instead of manual oversight, intelligent agents learn, adapt, and act autonomously, executing campaigns in real-time based on user behavior and context.

How Agentic AI Works: The Technical View

1. Multi-Agent Architecture

At the core of Agentic Marketing is a distributed network of specialized AI agents:

Journey Agents: Orchestrate customer paths across multiple touchpoints.
Content Agents: Personalize messages dynamically for each segment.
Optimization Agents: Continuously A/B test and fine-tune campaigns.
Decision Agents: Make context-sensitive real-time choices based on analytics.

This micro-agent setup ensures parallelism and scalability, allowing campaigns to adapt to thousands of user behaviors simultaneously.

2. Reinforcement Learning at Scale
Unlike static automation, Agentic AI uses reinforcement learning to continuously improve outcomes:

Agents receive feedback from each interaction.
Models adjust messaging, timing, and channel mix autonomously.
Over time, the system converges toward optimal strategies for each audience segment.

This is marketing powered by dynamic AI, not pre-defined rules.

3. Event-Driven Data Pipelines

The technical backbone is real-time, event-driven architecture:

Every click, view, or engagement triggers an event.
Streaming pipelines process events on the fly.
Agents consume these events, update models, and execute actions instantly.

In essence, your marketing stack begins to look more like a distributed microservices system than a traditional CRM.

4. Scaling Intelligence

The impact of Agentic AI on campaign execution is staggering:

100x more customer segments can be addressed.
10–25x faster campaign launches.
2x higher conversions with minimal manual effort.

For tech teams, this means infrastructure must support low-latency processing, high-throughput event streaming, and robust MLOps pipelines.

Why Tech Teams Should Care

This isn’t just marketing; it’s a tech revolution:

Distributed AI Operations: Engineers will design, monitor, and maintain multi-agent systems that act autonomously.
Real-Time ML Pipelines: Data engineers must handle continuous learning loops and dynamic content deployment.
Reliability & Governance: As AI agents make autonomous decisions, system reliability and compliance are critical.

The intersection of AI, DevOps, and Marketing is where the next wave of technical innovation will happen.

The Future of Customer Experience

Agentic Marketing signals a shift in roles:

Humans: Focus on strategy, creativity, and governance.
AI Agents: Execute, optimize, and learn at scale.

This is where tech enables hyper-personalized, adaptive, and scalable experiences without requiring constant human intervention.

Final Thoughts

From a developer or data engineer’s perspective, Agentic Marketing 2025 is a call to rethink how we build intelligent systems for real-world impact. The future of marketing will increasingly resemble distributed, event-driven AI ecosystems.

For anyone in AI, ML, or software engineering, this is an exciting opportunity to shape systems that directly impact customer experiences at scale—where technology doesn’t just support business, it drives it.

References & Further Reading

Netcore Cloud – Agentic Marketing 2025

Reinforcement Learning for Marketing Optimization – Technical Whitepapers

Next.js Middleware Is Changing: What You Need to Know About the Move Toward Proxies

aakash shrivas — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 13:59:19 +0000

A few days ago, I watched an eye-opening video by Hitesh Choudhary on his channel Chai Aur Code about the latest Next.js update — and it got me thinking.

He mentioned that Next.js Middleware is being deprecated, with the framework shifting toward Proxy routes/files instead.

That caught my attention — because Middleware has been such a core part of how many of us handle authentication, logging, and redirects in our Next.js apps.

So… is Middleware really going away? Or is this just another evolution in how Next.js handles requests at the Edge?

Let’s unpack what’s really happening 👇

⚙️ What’s Actually Happening

After digging into the Next.js docs, Vercel blog posts, and several GitHub discussions, here’s the full picture:

Middleware still exists — but it’s evolving

As of Next.js 15.5, Middleware (middleware.ts or middleware.js) is still supported and officially documented.
It continues to handle rewrites, redirects, and lightweight request transformations.

🔗 Official Middleware Docs

However, recent Next.js releases are tightening how and when Middleware runs — especially on the Edge Runtime.
That means fewer full-Node APIs, and more limitations around headers, streaming, and WebSockets.

There was a major security issue (CVE-2025-29927)

In early 2025, a critical vulnerability was discovered — known as CVE-2025-29927.
It allowed attackers to bypass Middleware-based authentication using a specially crafted header (x-middleware-subrequest).

This triggered a huge response from the Vercel team, who patched the issue across multiple versions (Next.js 12 → 15).

🔗 Vercel Postmortem on Middleware Bypass

🔗 Security Analysis from ProjectDiscovery

The takeaway?
Vercel now explicitly recommends not relying solely on Middleware for security or authentication.
Middleware should be used only for light interception — not as your main guard.

The “Proxy” concept is the new direction

Many developers noticed that the Next.js team and community are pushing a migration toward Proxy files.
This isn’t a literal “replacement” yet — but it’s a shift in philosophy.

Where Middleware acted globally, Proxy routes handle requests closer to the endpoint level.
They make intent clearer (forwarding / modifying requests) and are easier to reason about for Edge deployments.

Example of a rewrite proxy pattern:

// next.config.js
module.exports = { async rewrites() { return [ { source: '/api/:path*', destination: 'https://external-api.com/:path*', }, ] }, }

This keeps API logic inside your route handlers, and avoids putting critical auth logic in Middleware.

The “middleware → proxy” migration isn’t mandatory (yet)

There’s no official announcement that Middleware will be removed in a specific Next.js version.

The Next.js 15.5 release notes even mention that the Node.js Middleware runtime is now stable — which implies continued support.
Still, there are deprecation warnings and new best practices being introduced in preparation for Next.js 16.

So think of it this way:

Middleware isn’t being killed — it’s being refocused.

It’s now meant for rewrites, redirects, and edge-side routing, not business logic or authentication.

🔮 What to Expect Going Forward

Based on the current trajectory and official communication:

🟩 Middleware will stay — but with stricter constraints and reduced responsibility

🟦 Proxy patterns will become the recommended approach for API interception and request forwarding

🟨 Authentication should move closer to API routes or server actions

🟥 Using Middleware for complex logic or sensitive security checks is now discouraged

In short: the future of Middleware is lighter, safer, and more focused.

🧠 My Take

This change actually makes sense.

When Middleware was introduced, it promised flexibility — but with Edge runtimes, some behaviors became inconsistent.
A “Proxy-first” design helps avoid those pitfalls, making your app more predictable across different environments.

If you’re maintaining an older Next.js project:

Keep Middleware for routing, rewrites, or caching logic.

Move security and heavy logic to API routes or route handlers.

Test everything on Edge deployments before shipping.

💬 Discussion: Middleware vs Proxy

I’d love to hear from other developers:

Have you migrated from Middleware to Proxy yet?

Did you see any performance or reliability improvements?

Are you still using Middleware for auth, or moving logic into your routes?

Drop your thoughts below 👇
Let’s learn from each other’s experiences — before this migration becomes the new standard 🚀

Private 5G in India: What It Means for Backend Engineers What is Private 5G?

aakash shrivas — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 15:28:54 +0000

Private 5G is a dedicated, secure wireless network built specifically for an enterprise (like a factory, hospital, campus, or logistics hub). Unlike public 5G, which telcos provide to everyone, private 5G gives organizations control over their own network performance, coverage, and security.

Think of it as WiFi on steroids — faster, more reliable, ultra-low latency, and customizable for mission-critical workloads.

India’s private 5G market is expected to grow from $30.6M in 2023 to $674.6M by 2030 (Tech Mahindra estimates). That’s not just growth — that’s the birth of an entire ecosystem. And it won’t just change telecom — it will deeply influence how we design backend systems and infrastructure.

Backend Shifts to Expect

Here’s how private 5G adoption will shape backend engineering:

1. Edge-First Architectures

Compute moves closer to devices — not just centralized in the cloud.
Expect hybrid patterns where APIs and microservices run at the edge for speed.

2. Ultra-Low Latency APIs

Private 5G promises 1–10 ms latency.
Backend engineers must optimize APIs, RPCs, and event-driven systems for sub-second responses.

3. Streaming Data Pipelines

Enterprises like manufacturing plants or hospitals will generate continuous streams of IoT data.
Backends need real-time ingestion + processing (Kafka, Pulsar, or cloud-native streaming).

4. Resilience and Failover

Apps must handle automatic failover between private and public 5G, without downtime.
Graceful degradation strategies will be key.

5. Network Slicing Awareness

Private 5G enables network slicing: allocating different bandwidth/latency/QoS levels to workloads.
Backends may need to prioritize requests depending on slice policies.

Real-World Applications

Smart factories: Robots and sensors exchanging millisecond-level data.

Healthcare campuses: Remote surgeries and connected medical devices.

Logistics hubs: Real-time tracking and coordination across fleets.

Universities & campuses: Seamless connectivity for AR/VR learning.

Why Backend Engineers Should Care

Private 5G feels like the “cloud moment” for edge computing. Just as cloud reshaped architectures a decade ago, private 5G will demand:

Re-thinking how we deploy APIs
Designing with latency budgets in mind
Making backends streaming-first
Building infra that can live across cloud + edge + private network

Final Thought

Private 5G isn’t only a telecom revolution — it’s a backend revolution. India has a chance to leapfrog global peers by building edge-first, private-5G-ready systems from day one.

💡 Question: If you were designing APIs or infrastructure today, how would you future-proof them for a private 5G + edge-heavy world?

Tags: #Private5G #BackendEngineering #IndiaTech #EdgeComputing #Innovation

Laravel Just Launched Laravel Learn – Here’s Why It Matters

aakash shrivas — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 14:36:45 +0000

If you’ve been meaning to dive into Laravel (or guide someone new into the ecosystem), there’s great news: Laravel has officially launched Laravel Learn, a free learning hub packed with beginner-friendly courses.

👉 Check it out here: https://laravel.com/learn

In this post, I’ll break down what Laravel Learn offers, why it’s such a big deal, and how it can change the way newcomers step into Laravel.

🚀 What Is Laravel Learn?

Laravel Learn is a brand-new, official learning platform by the Laravel team.
It’s designed as a gentle on-ramp for complete beginners, providing mini-courses that don’t overwhelm you with too many choices or tools right away.

The big difference? Unlike traditional tutorials that assume some PHP experience, Laravel Learn meets you right where you are — even if you’re completely new to PHP.

🎓 The Two Free Mini-Courses

Currently, Laravel Learn launches with two free courses, both created by experienced instructors.

1️⃣ Laravel Bootcamp (by Josh Cirre)

This is where you start if you’re brand new to the framework.
You’ll build a simple app step by step.
The focus is on learning Laravel without getting distracted by extra view-layer choices (like Livewire or Inertia).
By the end, you’ll actually ship something, which makes the learning feel practical.

Think of it as learning by doing — the fastest way to build confidence.

2️⃣ PHP Fundamentals (by Christoph Rumpel)

This course is perfect if:

You’re coming from a non-PHP background.
You’ve never written PHP before.
Or you just want a structured refresher on the basics.

Christoph breaks down PHP concepts in a way that’s simple, approachable, and tailored toward Laravel learners. This means you’ll understand the “why” behind PHP before diving into Laravel’s magic.

⚙️ How It Works

No login needed → Just jump in and start learning.
Progress tracking → Follow lesson by lesson and pick up where you left off.
Multiple formats → If you prefer video learning, both mini-courses are also available in long-form video format on YouTube.

This flexibility makes it super accessible: whether you want to binge the whole course in one sitting or learn in small chunks, you can.

💡 Why Laravel Learn Matters

There are already great resources like Laracasts
. So why does Laravel Learn feel different?

Lowering the barrier to entry
For someone completely new, Laracasts can sometimes feel overwhelming. Laravel Learn simplifies the start, making sure beginners don’t get lost.
Learning PHP alongside Laravel
Many people try Laravel before fully learning PHP. This can cause frustration. With PHP Fundamentals included, Laravel Learn fixes this gap.
Official guidance
Because it’s created and backed by the Laravel team, you can trust it’s aligned with best practices and modern conventions.
Free and accessible
No logins, no paywalls, no ads — just learning. This is huge for students, self-learners, and people testing the waters.

👨‍💻 My Take as a Developer

I remember when I first tried Laravel — it felt powerful, but also a bit overwhelming. I kept jumping between docs, Stack Overflow, and random YouTube videos.

If something like Laravel Learn had existed back then, I’d have saved hours (and a lot of confusion).

What I like most is how intentional it is:

Start with the framework basics.
Understand the PHP foundation.
Then explore the wider ecosystem (Livewire, Inertia, etc.) once you’re confident.

It’s like Laravel Learn is saying: “Don’t stress. Start simple. We’ll guide you.”

🔗 Where to Start

If you’re curious, you can check it out here:

👉 learn.laravel.com

Pick whichever course suits your level — Laravel Bootcamp if you want to dive right in, or PHP Fundamentals if you need to cover the basics first.

✅ Final Thoughts

Laravel has always had one of the most welcoming communities, and Laravel Learn makes that even stronger.

By lowering the barrier for new developers, it’s not just teaching code — it’s inviting more people into the ecosystem. And that’s good news for all of us.

If you’ve ever wanted to try Laravel (or guide someone else into it), this is the best starting point today.

💬 Question for you:
If you were starting Laravel today, would you use Laravel Learn first, or head straight to Laracasts?