Writing

All posts

53 articles on product, technology, and innovation.

Application Modernisation — The Legacy Estate That Never Goes Away
2026-09-03·10 min read

Application Modernisation — The Legacy Estate That Never Goes Away

The average enterprise burns $2.7M a year just keeping legacy systems alive, and technical debt now eats 21-40% of total IT spend. This post covers why the legacy estate keeps growing instead of shrinking, the four real modernisation strategies (rehost, replatform, refactor, rearchitect) and when each one is the right call, and why most modernisation programmes stall before they reach the systems that actually matter.

→
DevSecOps — Security as Code, Not a Final Gate
2026-08-27·10 min read

DevSecOps — Security as Code, Not a Final Gate

For most enterprises, security still shows up at the end of the delivery pipeline — a final review, a penetration test, a gate that can stall a release for weeks. DevSecOps is the answer, but it is frequently implemented as a tool purchase rather than the operating model change it actually requires. This post covers what DevSecOps actually changes structurally, the shift-left tooling landscape, why mature programs cut both vulnerabilities and remediation cost dramatically, and what separates the organisations that make it real from the ones running security theatre inside a CI/CD pipeline.

→
API Strategy & Integration Architecture — The Connective Tissue of the Modern Enterprise
2026-08-20·12 min read

API Strategy & Integration Architecture — The Connective Tissue of the Modern Enterprise

Every enterprise application eventually needs to talk to every other enterprise application. How that conversation happens — REST, GraphQL, or event-driven — and how the resulting sprawl of integrations is governed determines whether an organisation's application portfolio functions as a coherent platform or a fragile web of point-to-point dependencies. This post covers the dominant API patterns, gateway architecture, and the integration platforms leading the enterprise market.

→
Agile at Enterprise Scale — What Changes When One Team Becomes Fifty
2026-08-13·12 min read

Agile at Enterprise Scale — What Changes When One Team Becomes Fifty

Agile practices that work brilliantly for one team routinely break down when an enterprise tries to run fifty teams the same way. Scaling frameworks exist to solve exactly this problem — but most scaled agile transformations fail, not because the framework was wrong, but because the organisation adopted the ceremonies without the underlying operating model change. This post covers SAFe, LeSS, and Scrum@Scale, the failure modes that repeat across enterprises, and what the organisations that succeed do differently.

→
The Diesel Bucket Brigade — How 25 People Carried a Data Center Through Hurricane Sandy, One Flight of Stairs at a Time
2026-08-12·9 min read

The Diesel Bucket Brigade — How 25 People Carried a Data Center Through Hurricane Sandy, One Flight of Stairs at a Time

When Hurricane Sandy flooded the basement of 75 Broad Street in October 2012, it took out the building's 20,000-gallon fuel reserve and the pumps that fed it — leaving a Manhattan data center's last working generator running on a 200-gallon day tank, 17 flights up, with no elevators. What kept roughly 100 companies online for the next 24+ hours wasn't redundant infrastructure. It was 25 people, five-gallon buckets, and a decision to not let the story end there.

→
FEAF — The Enterprise Architecture Framework Most Architects Have Never Studied
2026-08-06·10 min read

FEAF — The Enterprise Architecture Framework Most Architects Have Never Studied

FEAF governs the enterprise architecture practice of the entire U.S. federal government — one of the largest, most complex IT estates on the planet — and most enterprise architects outside government have never opened it. This post covers what FEAF actually is, its six Consolidated Reference Models, the Collaborative Planning Methodology, and why its shared-services philosophy is worth understanding even if you will never work on a federal contract. It also announces a new interactive study guide covering the full framework.

→
"Tier III+" Isn't a Real Certification — And a State Attorney General Once Proved Why That Matters
2026-07-31·9 min read

"Tier III+" Isn't a Real Certification — And a State Attorney General Once Proved Why That Matters

Colocation and cloud providers routinely market facilities as "Tier III+" or "Tier IV-ready." Uptime Institute has never certified a single one — because those tiers don't exist. In 2015, that gap between marketing language and certified fact nearly got one provider sued by a state Attorney General. Here is what tier certification actually verifies, why the industry's favourite marketing terms are meaningless, and the exact questions every enterprise IT leader should ask before signing a colocation contract.

→
Low-Code/No-Code & Citizen Development — Governing Innovation Without Losing Control
2026-07-30·11 min read

Low-Code/No-Code & Citizen Development — Governing Innovation Without Losing Control

A spreadsheet macro built by an operations analyst becomes the system three departments depend on to close the books. Low-code and no-code platforms formalise this instinct rather than fight it — but only if IT builds the governance model that keeps citizen-built applications from becoming the next generation of unmanaged technical debt. This post covers the citizen development model, the shadow IT risk, and the platforms leading the enterprise market.

→
DevOps, SDLC & Platform Engineering — How Elite Teams Ship Software
2026-07-23·12 min read

DevOps, SDLC & Platform Engineering — How Elite Teams Ship Software

Elite software organisations deploy multiple times a day and recover from failure in minutes. Most enterprises deploy monthly and take days to recover. The gap is not talent — it is the maturity of DevOps practice and the platform engineering discipline that supports it. This post covers the DevOps maturity model, the four DORA metrics that measure it, and why platform engineering has become the operating model for developer productivity at scale.

→
AI's Real Bottleneck Isn't Chips — It's a $40 Million Transformer
2026-07-22·12 min read

AI's Real Bottleneck Isn't Chips — It's a $40 Million Transformer

Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft are on track to spend more than $650 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 — and roughly half of the U.S. data centers planned for this year will be delayed or cancelled anyway. Not because of GPU shortages. Because of transformers, switchgear, and batteries that now take up to five years to deliver. This is the story of how the AI buildout hit a wall that capital cannot outrun, and what it means for every IT leader planning infrastructure around AI in 2026.

→
PMBOK 8 Has Arrived — What Actually Changed and What It Means for the PMP Exam
2026-07-19·11 min read

PMBOK 8 Has Arrived — What Actually Changed and What It Means for the PMP Exam

PMI quietly shipped the biggest structural change to the PMBOK Guide since the 2021 shift to principles — and the PMP exam that tests it changed eight days ago, on July 9, 2026. Here is exactly what's different in the Eighth Edition, why the exam's domain weighting just moved dramatically, and what it means whether you're studying now or already certified.

→
The Update That Crashed the World — What the CrowdStrike Outage Teaches Every IT Leader
2026-07-16·12 min read

The Update That Crashed the World — What the CrowdStrike Outage Teaches Every IT Leader

On July 19, 2024, a single software update from a cybersecurity company brought down 8.5 million Windows devices in hours. Airlines grounded fleets. Hospitals cancelled surgeries. Banks locked customers out of accounts. Emergency services went offline. The company responsible was not a careless startup. It was CrowdStrike — one of the most respected names in enterprise cybersecurity. This is the full technical breakdown and the governance lessons that every IT leader must act on.

→
Software & Development — How Modern Enterprises Build and Ship Technology
2026-07-14·9 min read

Software & Development — How Modern Enterprises Build and Ship Technology

The Infrastructure & Operations category established the foundation. The Data & Intelligence category built the intelligence layer. Phase 3 covers the category that determines whether any of it delivers value — how modern enterprises design, build, secure, and ship the applications their organisations run on.

→
The Generator Testing Paradox — Why Monthly Tests May Be Damaging Your Datacenter Backup Power
2026-07-09·10 min read

The Generator Testing Paradox — Why Monthly Tests May Be Damaging Your Datacenter Backup Power

Most datacenter operators run their backup diesel generators monthly to ensure they will start when needed. A 2026 white paper by Cummins engineers argues the opposite — that frequent short low-load test runs cause wet stacking, clog diesel particulate filters, and actually reduce reliability compared to a disciplined annual full-load test combined with targeted preventive maintenance. This is the full breakdown of what the research says and what it means for datacenter power strategy.

→
Why Broadcom Paid $61 Billion for VMware — And What It Means for Every Enterprise Running It
2026-07-04·11 min read

Why Broadcom Paid $61 Billion for VMware — And What It Means for Every Enterprise Running It

Broadcom's $61 billion acquisition of VMware in 2023 looked like an overpay for ageing virtualisation technology. Two years later, it looks like one of the most calculated enterprise lock-in plays in tech history. Perpetual licences killed. 80% of the product portfolio eliminated. Subscription bundles forced on every customer. This is what happened, why Broadcom did it, and what every IT leader running VMware needs to do right now.

→
MQ Spotlight: Analytics & BI — Tableau vs Power BI vs Looker
2026-06-28·13 min read

MQ Spotlight: Analytics & BI — Tableau vs Power BI vs Looker

The Analytics and Business Intelligence Magic Quadrant has three consistent Leaders — Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, and Looker — plus a field of strong challengers including Qlik, Sisense, and Domo. The right platform is never the one with the highest MQ position. It is the one that fits your data architecture, your users, and your organisation's analytical maturity. This MQ Spotlight goes beneath the quadrant to give you that decision framework.

→
TOGAF 10 vs TOGAF 9.2 — What Actually Changed and Why It Matters
2026-06-28·11 min read

TOGAF 10 vs TOGAF 9.2 — What Actually Changed and Why It Matters

TOGAF 10 was published in 2022, replacing TOGAF 9.2 as The Open Group's current enterprise architecture framework standard. For architects preparing for certification, organisations deciding which version to train to, and practitioners keeping their skills current — this is the definitive comparison of what changed, what stayed the same, and what the changes mean in practice.

→
AI, ML & Intelligent Automation — The New Operating System
2026-06-25·14 min read

AI, ML & Intelligent Automation — The New Operating System

AI has moved from pilot project to operating system. Enterprises that treat AI as a series of experiments will be outcompeted by those that have embedded it into their processes, governance, and delivery model. This post covers enterprise AI strategy, ML platform selection, intelligent automation, agentic AI, and the governance frameworks that make AI deployments sustainable.

→
Bottling Sunshine — The Ingenious Ways We Store Solar Power to Outlast the Night
2026-06-23·12 min read

Bottling Sunshine — The Ingenious Ways We Store Solar Power to Outlast the Night

The sun sets on every solar farm on Earth every single day — and electricity demand keeps rising long after it does. This is the comprehensive guide to every major technology humanity has built to catch sunlight during the day and release it after dark, from lithium-ion battery walls to gravity towers, molten salt, and compressed air caverns.

→
Business Intelligence & Analytics — Decisions Powered by Data
2026-06-22·13 min read

Business Intelligence & Analytics — Decisions Powered by Data

Most organisations have invested in BI platforms. Far fewer have built the analytical culture, data architecture, and self-service capability that makes those platforms deliver business value at scale. This post covers the modern BI stack — from data modelling and warehousing through to embedded analytics and the metrics layer — and an honest comparison of the leading platforms.

→
Spin vs Store — The Flywheel vs Battery UPS Battle Every Datacenter Must Get Right
2026-06-21·13 min read

Spin vs Store — The Flywheel vs Battery UPS Battle Every Datacenter Must Get Right

Every datacenter depends on a few seconds of bridge power to keep the lights on between a utility failure and the generator taking over. How those seconds are delivered — by a spinning steel rotor or by a bank of electrochemical cells — shapes everything from your maintenance contract to your sustainability report. This is the comprehensive, no-fluff comparison of flywheel and battery UPS systems.

→
Data Governance & Master Data Management — Trust Your Data
2026-06-19·13 min read

Data Governance & Master Data Management — Trust Your Data

Every AI initiative, every analytics platform, and every business intelligence investment delivers exactly the value its underlying data quality allows. Data governance and master data management are not prerequisites to the interesting work — they are the interesting work. This post covers the frameworks, operating models, and platforms that make enterprise data trustworthy at scale.

→
Data & Intelligence — Why Every Enterprise Is Now a Data Company
2026-06-16·10 min read

Data & Intelligence — Why Every Enterprise Is Now a Data Company

The infrastructure category of the Enterprise IT Blueprint established the foundation — compute, network, storage, and operations. The Data & Intelligence category builds what runs on top of it. This post introduces the second category of the series and explains why data has moved from a supporting capability to the primary source of competitive advantage in modern enterprises.

→
From Air to Liquid — The Cooling Revolution Reshaping the Modern Datacenter
2026-06-14·12 min read

From Air to Liquid — The Cooling Revolution Reshaping the Modern Datacenter

AI workloads have broken the thermal envelope of traditional air cooling. GPU clusters running at 300–700W per chip are physically impossible to cool with raised-floor CRAC units and hot-aisle containment. The industry is pivoting to liquid cooling faster than any previous datacenter infrastructure transition — and the organisations that understand what is driving it, and what the options are, will make significantly better decisions about their next facility investment.

→
Harmonic Filters in Datacenter Power Design — The Silent Guardian of Power Quality
2026-06-09·11 min read

Harmonic Filters in Datacenter Power Design — The Silent Guardian of Power Quality

Harmonics are one of the most overlooked threats in datacenter power design — silently degrading equipment, inflating energy costs, and creating failure modes that standard monitoring tools never surface. This post covers what harmonics are, why they matter at every level of the power distribution chain, and how passive, active, and hybrid filtering strategies protect modern datacenters.

→
Networking & Telecommunications — Connecting the Modern Enterprise
2026-05-31·13 min read

Networking & Telecommunications — Connecting the Modern Enterprise

The network is no longer a static layer that IT provisions and forgets. It is a dynamic security perimeter, a performance-critical component of every application, and the foundation on which hybrid work, cloud connectivity, and edge computing depend. This post covers the enterprise networking landscape, SASE, SD-WAN, and an honest comparison of the leading vendors.

→