Thinking from the field.
Practical perspectives on cloud strategy, AI adoption, platform engineering, and digital transformation — written for technology leaders and their teams.
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
- The SMME guide to cloud: enterprise-grade infrastructure on a startup budget
- CI/CD platform comparison: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI and Azure Pipelines for South African teams
- Responsible AI in South Africa: beyond the hype, into practice
- The architecture decisions startups always regret
- Cloud migration in regulated industries: what banks and insurers need to know
- How to build a data strategy when your data is a mess
- The B-BBEE advantage in tech procurement: what suppliers need to know
- Containerisation for the South African developer: when Kubernetes is overkill