Writing
Field notes from the terminal
Working notes on DevOps, platform engineering and cloud security, with a New Zealand bias, on the frameworks, trade-offs and tools I run into building and running production infrastructure.
Build vs buy: when a few hundred lines of Python beat an RPA platform
A commercial automation platform was proposed to handle a set of HR workflows. I made the call to build instead, wrote the integration in Python against the system's API myself, and avoided roughly NZD 294,000 a year in licences, infrastructure and headcount.
Deleting a $300k API gateway: replacing Apigee with Kong
A consultancy had installed Apigee before I took ownership of the platform. I audited what it was actually used for, made the call to replace it, and re-architected the edge onto Kong myself, removing around USD 300,000 of annual licensing with no loss of capability.
Standing up an enterprise identity platform under a regulatory deadline
When our company was carved out of its former parent, I designed and delivered an independent identity platform from nothing, on a compliance deadline, with no disruption to users. Here is how I built out Okta end to end with SAML, OIDC and MFA, single-handedly, and what identity migrations really cost.
Mapping AWS to the NZISM and PSR: building tiaki, a New Zealand cloud readiness scanner
How I built tiaki, an open-source Go tool that checks AWS accounts against selected NZISM and PSR controls, and what mapping New Zealand's security frameworks to real cloud configuration taught me about honest compliance automation.