In the bad old days (pre all the aaS’s) enterprise architecture revolved around build versus buy. The crux of the decision was – does this capability provide us significant and lasting strategic competitive advantage and therefore justify the “build” choice? Today, the cost of “buy” is arguably hirer than ever before – with SaaS per… Continue reading Enterprise Architecture – Build versus Buy
Why Charcoal? That Sear!
Quest for the Perfect Salt
Salt is salt… except it isn’t. As part of my general obsession about quality ingredients I’ve been searching for the perfect salts. Maldon Sea Salt Flakes have been my go to high quality salt – but recently I discovered the San Francisco Salt Company. Not only do they offer high quality salt form a variety… Continue reading Quest for the Perfect Salt
Stop Calling Yourself a Developer
First and foremost, let’s be clear, the entire tech industry suffers from a distinct lack of specificity when it comes to roles and titles. That, however, is no reason to market yourself as a Developer. Developer implies that you just generate code. That, however, isn’t what (most) of us do. We create systems that generate… Continue reading Stop Calling Yourself a Developer
Is it ski season yet?
Mid-Town Summer
Chicken and Spinich Lasagna
Killer. The key is the Béchamel
Leadership: Risk or Opportunity Focused
As I’ve worked with teams engineering teams big and small – in both enterprise and startup contexts – over the last 20 years I’ve noticed two distinct patterns in leadership and their impact on the culture and productivity of those teams. Pattern: Risk Focused Leadership Risk focused leadership emphasizes the up front identification and mitigation of… Continue reading Leadership: Risk or Opportunity Focused
Big Data – Empowering the Age of Agile Analytics
Big data is a buzzword, no question. Given that it is incumbent on practitioners – in particular architects – to tie the new patterns available in a “big data” enabled infrastructure to practical business benefits. While there are a variety of business benefits that are enabled by big data infrastructure the single most tangible is… Continue reading Big Data – Empowering the Age of Agile Analytics
Data Architects – no one cares about your ERD…
Data Architecture has changed – massively – and most data practitioners haven’t caught on yet. In a SaaS world – where business users can sign up for and use powerful platforms by simply signing up we have to radically rethink what data architecture means. It certainly isn’t about your ERD – your elegant description of… Continue reading Data Architects – no one cares about your ERD…