Notes on data, AI, IT
and security
No marketing fog. The way I think about real problems with founders and managers.
Remote work in a weekend: what broke and what held
First observations on how companies are handling the emergency shift to remote in March 2020.
Narrow AI in manufacturing: what actually works in 2020
An honest review of the tasks where AI in manufacturing already delivers measurable results - and where it does not yet.
Data leaks through contractors: how it happens and what to do
A breakdown of the mechanics of data leaks through external contractors, and practical access control measures.
A single source of truth in reporting: why it is so hard to create
Why numbers diverge across different reports in the same company, and what actually fixes it.
API versioning: why it matters and how to keep it manageable
A practical explanation for product owners and engineering managers: what API versioning is, why getting it wrong is expensive, and what a workable strategy looks like.
Monolith or services: how to make the call without an engineering background
A practical explanation for founders and executives: when splitting your architecture into services is justified, and when it just adds cost.
AI in 2019: what actually moved and what stayed a promise
A year-end assessment for people making adoption decisions. Without hype - what became a production norm, what is still on the way.
Event-driven architecture and data contracts: why data is no longer a by-product
Moving from synchronous integrations to event-driven architecture changes how data is treated. Data contracts become a first-class engineering artefact.
IT budget for 2020: splitting between maintenance and growth
Year-end is budget planning season. How to think about allocating IT spend between what already exists and what needs to be built.
NLP in production: the gap between a demo and a working system
Language models in 2019 deliver impressive demonstrations. Why the road from demo to a real working product is much longer than it looks.
Contractor and vendor access: an underestimated risk point
Third parties with access to your systems are one of the least-controlled security perimeters. How to think about this from a management perspective.
Russia's national AI strategy: what it means for industry adoption
In October 2019 Russia approved a National AI Development Strategy through 2030. I look at what is practically meaningful for companies thinking about adoption right now.