Insights
Notes from the work, not from a content calendar.
Self-hosted AI, leakage without a 'breach', browsers, VPN, and how public-sector teams actually buy digital services. Written so a non-specialist can use it.
AI models · 6 min
Self-hosted AI models: when the prompt should never leave the building
Public chat tools are fine for a first look. They are a poor place for case data, contracts or anything with a name on it.
Data · 7 min
Your data is leaving without a breach
Most leakage is not a hacker. It is a form, a tracker, a 'free' tool, and a company that sells the residue.
Cyber · 6 min
Which browser, and what else, if you want fewer tracks
The browser is the front door. Default settings are written for advertisers, not for you.
Cyber · 5 min
A VPN is not a disguise
It hides your traffic from the cafe Wi-Fi. It does not hide you from the site you then log into.
Cyber · 6 min
Cybersecurity that starts with the data, not the firewall
Perimeter tools matter. They do not tell you who last opened the record that would embarrass you.
Public sector · 7 min
How to buy and deliver GDS-shaped work without the theatre
G-Cloud 14 and DOS 7 are routes to market. The Service Standard is how the work should run once you are on it.
Cloud data · 8 min
Fabric capacity, Direct Lake, and the bill that arrives on Monday
Direct Lake is fast until a view, a duplicate key or a bursting SKU turns a 'live' dashboard into a capacity incident.
Quality · 8 min
Silent failures: watermarks, vacuum, and pipelines that look green
The job succeeded. The number is still wrong. That is the expensive kind of failure.
Analytics · 7 min
Near-live data without setting the compute on fire
Every extra minute of freshness has a price. Most boards do not need ten seconds. They need a number that is still true at 09:00.
Analytics · 7 min
Power BI and Tableau: tricks that stop a dashboard lying to a room
The visual is the last step. Grain, relationships and a filter that nobody sees do more damage than a colour palette.
Cloud data · 8 min
BigQuery slots, Oracle dictionaries, and the queries that quietly mint invoices
On-demand bytes, idle PX, and a dictionary nobody reads. Three ways to lose money while the dashboard stays green.
AI models · 7 min
AI agents on models that change every quarter
An agent is a loop with tools. If the model, the prompt and the data all move, you need a harness more than a demo.
Practice · 8 min
Migration, process flows, and the insights a board can actually use
We have done this for public and private clients. The pattern is the same: catalogue, grain, a path you can roll back, then a dashboard that uses the new meaning.