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“We need to get off this old system” is one of the most common phrases I hear from new clients. They usually say it with a mix of embarrassment and dread, as if admitting to something shameful. Most of the time, though, the system itself is fine. It’s still doing what it was built to…
After chatting with a friend who also does DevOps, I revisited the Cloudflare dashboard to take another look at what’s included in the free tier. I’ve been using and recommending free Cloudflare accounts for years, primarily for domain and DNS management. This time, I was surprised by how much has been added since my last…
A founder with AWS startup credits and a product ready for launch is in a good position. They have twelve months of free computing power, genuine market momentum and the problem of how to actually run the thing on a platform designed for a much larger scale. By month six, some of them will have…
Self-hosting has many advantages. You have full control, costs are predictable, and you are not dependent on a platform you don’t own. For the right situation, it’s the right solution. However, most businesses that self-host didn’t make that choice deliberately. They chose it years ago because it was the cheapest option, and they’ve been stuck…
Most first-time cloud setups go wrong in the same way. Someone opens an AWS or DigitalOcean account, starts clicking around, and two weeks later has a running server and an unexpected monthly bill. They also have an architecture that already needs rethinking. I’ve helped untangle enough of these situations to know that the decisions made…
Every AI project I’ve worked on has started the same way. A client would come to us with an idea for a tool they had seen somewhere before. They also had a general sense that their team was spending too much time on a task that AI should be able to handle. That part is…
In the last eighteen months, I have had more conversations about AI tools than about any other topic. Most of these conversations follow the same pattern. A business leader has seen something impressive: a demo, a competitor’s announcement, or a LinkedIn post. They want to know if they should be doing the same. The honest…
For the past two years, the conversation about AI has mostly been about access. Which API? Which model tier? Which provider? The underlying assumption of most of that discussion is that the computing power is located elsewhere, accessible by calling it, and paid for by the token. This assumption is worth revisiting. What changed The…
I am asked about Kubernetes more often than I expected, given that most of my small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients don’t need it. The pattern is usually the same. Someone’s developer reads an article, a competitor mentions it, or they feel behind after reading a job posting. Then, they call me asking how quickly…