Thinking from the field.
Practical perspectives on cloud strategy, AI adoption, platform engineering, and digital transformation — written for technology leaders and their teams.
46 insights
Replit in 2026: what it is, who it's for, and where it fits in your development workflow
Replit in 2026 offers a unique, collaborative development environment that integrates seamlessly into modern workflows, catering to diverse teams and evolving needs.
Building for Africa: why cloud architecture here needs a different approach
African cloud architecture must address unique challenges like connectivity, regulation, and diverse business needs to succeed.
How to build a data strategy when your data is a mess
Building a data strategy amidst chaos requires prioritizing business goals, establishing governance, and leveraging technology to unlock data value.
Seven solution architecture mistakes that cost enterprises millions
Avoiding common solution architecture mistakes can save enterprises millions in unnecessary costs and improve efficiency.
Guides, Guards, Checks and Sensors: A Framework for Trustworthy Coding Agents
Most coding-agent failures aren't model failures — they're harness failures. A four-part framework for the context, constraints and feedback loops that make agentic engineering safe at enterprise scale.
Your Legacy System Is a Witness, Not Just a Liability
Most South African replatforming efforts fail because nobody can say, precisely, what the old system actually does. A disciplined approach to using coding agents for reverse engineering — before you write a line of the replacement.
Why 'Vibe Coding' Doesn't Scale in the Enterprise
Conversational prompting feels productive right up until it isn't. A practical look at spec-driven development — the discipline of using specs, contracts, examples and decision records to constrain what coding agents build, instead of hoping they guess right.
Keeping Systems Fit: Technical Debt in the Age of Cheap Code
Coding agents make change cheaper — but not all change equally. A framework for deciding which technical debt to pay down now, which to defer, and why the architect's job has quietly changed.
Buy, Build or Grow? Rethinking Procurement When Code Is Cheap
Cheap code is quietly rewriting the buy-versus-build decision — and the procurement processes South African organisations built around it. What 'Grow' means, and how to price exit cost instead of just entry cost.
Small Teams Need Better Decision Systems, Not More Tools
For small teams, improving decision systems is more critical than acquiring more tools, enabling strategic choices and efficient operations.
Public Digital Services Need a Service Model, Not Only an App
Public digital services require a comprehensive service model rather than just an app to effectively meet citizen needs and government objectives.
The B-BBEE advantage in tech procurement: what suppliers need to know
Understanding B-BBEE in tech procurement can unlock new opportunities for suppliers by aligning with South African socio-economic goals.
The Hidden Architecture of a Good Proposal
A well-crafted proposal goes beyond meeting requirements; it reflects an understanding of the client's business and positions your solution as the clear choice.
Agentic AI Needs an Operating Model, Not Just an Agent
Agentic AI requires a robust operating model to truly benefit organisations, focusing on integration, accountability, and adaptability rather than just deploying AI agents.
Zero trust security: a practical starting point for South African organisations
Implementing zero trust security in South Africa involves understanding organisational tensions, strategic planning, and practical trade-offs to protect digital assets effectively.
Containerisation for the South African developer: when Kubernetes is overkill
Containerisation offers flexibility and scalability, but overengineering with Kubernetes can be costly and complex. Assess your needs to choose the right container strategy.
Cloud migration in regulated industries: what banks and insurers need to know
Navigating cloud migration in regulated sectors like banking and insurance involves balancing innovation with compliance, risk management, and operational resilience.
Don't Migrate the Tool—Modernise the Software Delivery System
A repository move is not a DevOps transformation. Learn how to modernise the full software delivery system across code, pipelines, security, governance, people and operations.
TFS, Azure DevOps or GitHub: Choosing the Right Migration Destination
A practical decision framework for choosing between Azure DevOps Services, GitHub Enterprise, a phased hybrid model or deliberate retention.
The Repository Is the Easy Part: A Practical DevOps Migration Playbook
A phased playbook for migrating TFS, TFVC, Azure DevOps and GitHub estates across discovery, foundations, pilots, waves, cutover and stabilisation.
The architecture decisions startups always regret
Startups often make architecture decisions that seem cost-effective initially but lead to regret as they scale. This article explores common pitfalls and offers a framework for better decision-making.
Responsible AI in South Africa: beyond the hype, into practice
Explore how organisations in South Africa can implement responsible AI practices that balance innovation with ethical considerations.
CI/CD platform comparison: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI and Azure Pipelines for South African teams
The CI/CD platform you pick shapes your delivery speed, your security posture and your monthly bill for years. Here is how GitHub Actions, GitLab CI and Azure Pipelines actually compare for teams building and deploying from South Africa.
The SMME Guide to Cloud: Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure on a Startup Budget
Cloud is often sold to SMMEs as an enterprise product with an enterprise price tag. It isn't. Here's how growing South African businesses can get genuinely enterprise-grade infrastructure without an enterprise budget or a full-time cloud team.
Cloud Cost Audits: The 10 Things We Check Before Recommending Any Migration
Cloud waste is rarely one bad server. It's weak governance, unclear ownership, poor tagging and the absence of cost accountability, compounding quietly every month. Here's the 10-point checklist we run before any migration or optimisation recommendation.
How We Built TenderCity: Lessons From Building a South African Tender Intelligence Platform
Government tenders in South Africa are public, but winning them isn't. Here's what we learned building TenderCity — and how those lessons show up in every client engagement since.
Tender Response Automation: How Suppliers Can Stop Rebuilding the Same Documents Every Week
Most suppliers rebuild the same company profile, CVs and compliance documents for every RFQ and tender. A reusable capability pack turns that repeated effort into a five-minute assembly job.
SMMEs Don't Need More Tools — They Need a Digital Operating Model
Most growing South African businesses are already digital — WhatsApp, Excel, banking apps, social media. The problem isn't a lack of tools. It's that none of them talk to each other.
The 90-Day Government MVP: How to Build a Citizen Service Without Boiling the Ocean
Large public-sector digital programmes stall. A focused 90-day MVP — scoped to one service journey — can prove the model, test adoption and create the momentum to scale without the risk of a full transformation.
Public Sector Digital Services Are Not Websites
The biggest reason public-sector digital projects fail is not budget or technology. It is the assumption that building a website is the same as building a service. It is not.
South Africa's AI Policy Reset: What Businesses Should Do Before 2027
South Africa's AI policy environment is still taking shape. Organisations should not wait for final regulation to prepare their AI governance. The risks are already real, and the window for getting ahead of them is closing.
Data Foundations Before AI: Why Your AI Strategy Will Fail Without Clean Data
AI does not fail because the model is weak. It fails because the organisation does not have usable data, clear ownership, trusted processes or business accountability. Here is what you need to fix before AI delivers any value.
Public sector digital services: why they fail and what changes it
South African government digital projects have a poor track record — not because the problems are unique, but because the approaches are predictable. Here is what actually causes these failures and what the organisations that get it right do differently.
Infrastructure as code: why you need it and how to start small
Most South African organisations manage cloud infrastructure the wrong way — through the console, through memory, through one person who knows where everything is. Infrastructure as code fixes this. Here is what it is and how to start without a full platform team.
Building an MVP that won't embarrass you at Series A
The word 'MVP' has become permission to build things badly and call it strategy. Here is what technical decisions made in the first three months actually look like eighteen months later — and which ones will define how far your startup can go.
AI use cases that actually work in South African businesses right now
There is a significant gap between AI use cases that look compelling in vendor presentations and those that deliver measurable value in the South African business context. Here are the ones that actually work — and the conditions that make them work.
DevSecOps isn't a tool — it's a culture change. Here's how to start.
Most organisations that say they are doing DevSecOps are doing DevOps with a security scanner bolted on. That is not the same thing — and the difference shows up at exactly the wrong moment. Here is what the culture change actually looks like.
GitHub Copilot, Amazon Q and Kiro: which AI coding tool is right for your team?
Three serious AI coding tools, three different bets on how software development should change. Here is a practical comparison for South African development teams deciding which to adopt — and which to leave for later.
Cloud cost governance: the framework every South African organisation needs
Most South African organisations know they are overspending on cloud. Fewer have a governance structure that actually prevents it. Here is the framework that does — practical, provider-agnostic, and built for how SA organisations actually operate.
Amazon Kiro: what AWS's AI-native IDE means for development teams in 2026
Kiro is not another Copilot plugin. It is AWS's attempt to redesign how software gets built from the ground up — spec-first, agent-driven, deeply integrated with AWS. Here is what it actually is, what it changes, and whether your team should care.
Five signs your digital transformation programme is already off track
Most digital transformation programmes do not fail spectacularly. They drift — slowly, quietly, until the budget is gone and the outcomes are not. Here are five signs to look for before it is too late to correct course.
Azure in South Africa: what's available, what's not, and how to plan around it
Azure has two regions in South Africa, but not every service runs there. Understanding the gap between what Microsoft offers globally and what is available locally is essential before you design anything.
The case for platform engineering: why your dev team is slower than it should be
If your developers are spending more time managing infrastructure, configuring pipelines, and chasing access than writing code, you have a platform problem. Here is what platform engineering actually is and why it is worth solving.
What POPIA means for your data and AI strategy
POPIA has been enforceable for four years. Most organisations have compliance documents. Fewer have genuinely thought through what it means for how they build AI systems. Here is what actually matters.
Agentic AI: what it actually is, and why it matters for your business
Everyone is talking about agentic AI. Most explanations make it sound either trivial or terrifying. Here is a plain-language breakdown of what it actually is, what it can do today, and how South African businesses should be thinking about it.
Why South African businesses are still overpaying for cloud — and what to do about it
Most South African organisations moved to cloud with good intentions. Many are now paying significantly more than they should. The reasons are consistent — and fixable.
Coming up
- Why digital transformation fails without an operating model change
- A Go/No-Go Gate Is a Strategy Tool, Not Sales Administration
- Responsible AI Accuracy: Stop Promising a Single Percentage
- The case for multicloud: when to use Azure, AWS and GCP together — and when not to
- AI governance: the framework your organisation needs before scaling AI
- Practical cloud cost optimisation: 10 changes you can make this week on Azure, AWS or GCP
- Build on the Platform You Have, but Do Not Inherit Its Assumptions
- Who Supports the Solution After the Workshop?