DevOps

Platform engineering used to be the title on a few job adverts at Spotify and Netflix. In 2026 it is the default shape of any infrastructure team larger than a dozen people. The shift is worth understanding, because it is not just a rebrand of DevOps - it is a different operating model, with different tools, different incentives, and a different relationship to the developers it serves. This post is a plain-language walk through what platform engineering actually is, why the industry has converged on it, and how the arrival of AI agents is reshaping the discipline mid-flight. ...

Amazon Web Services recently introduced AWS S3 Files, a service that addresses a persistent challenge in cloud computing - how to give file-based applications direct access to object storage without duplicating data or building custom connectors. The Problem S3 Files Solves Traditionally, applications designed around file systems faced a difficult choice when working with Amazon S3: Use object APIs - Build custom integration code and refactor applications Duplicate data - Copy data between S3 and separate file systems, creating sync challenges and increased costs Accept performance trade-offs - Work with slower, network-dependent access patterns S3 Files eliminates these constraints by providing a native file system interface directly over S3 data. ...

For years, DevOps has been about breaking down silos and automating the software delivery lifecycle. We moved from manual deployments to Jenkins scripts, then to YAML-defined pipelines, and eventually to Infrastructure as Code (IaC). But in 2026, the bottleneck is no longer the speed of the pipeline - it’s the speed of human decision-making within that pipeline. We are entering the era of Agentic DevOps. From Automation to Autonomy Traditional DevOps automation follows a strict “if this, then that” logic. AI-driven DevOps uses reasoning models to handle the “I’m not sure, let me figure it out” scenarios that typically stall a release. ...

Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and DevOps teams must understand the landscape to build resilient systems. This guide covers the most common attack types and practical defense strategies. Social Engineering Attacks Phishing remains one of the most effective attack vectors. Attackers craft deceptive emails or messages to trick users into revealing sensitive information or clicking malicious links. The 2015 Ukraine power grid attack, for example, relied on phishing emails to harvest login credentials before the actual infrastructure attack. ...

Most engineering concepts are easier than they look once someone explains them clearly. This page collects short explainer notes on the fundamentals I find myself re-explaining most often, each paired with the best external visual or video I have found on the topic. APIs An API is a contract: this is what I will accept, this is what I promise to return, this is how I will behave when something goes wrong. Everything else - REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets - is just a different way of expressing that contract over the wire. ...

“Best practice” is a phrase that should be treated with suspicion. What works for a fintech running 500 engineers rarely works for a five-person startup. The notes below are patterns I have seen hold up across multiple organisations - but always weighed against context, team size, and what the system is actually trying to do. Microservices Microservices solve organisational problems as much as technical ones. A service boundary is a team boundary in disguise. ...

Cheatsheets are one of the most under-rated learning tools in the DevOps toolbox. When you are three hours into debugging a broken pipeline, you don’t want a 400-page book - you want the one page that reminds you which flag does what. This page collects quick references I keep within arm’s reach. Cloud Computing A concise summary of the core cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), deployment patterns, and the shared responsibility model is a good starting point for anyone new to cloud infrastructure. ...

The AWS Summit London 2023 keynote was posted to AWS’s event channel shortly after the event, and it is the single best hour of content to watch if you are trying to calibrate where AWS is pushing the ecosystem. This post pulls out the session and the themes I found most useful. Keynote The opening keynote featured the typical mix of AWS leadership, senior AWS product voices, and UK customer stories. ...

Code Item Level AIM201 Building a data science platform on AWS to help Britain achieve net zero 200 - Intermediate AWS AIM202 Data-Driven Success: How INEOS Grenadiers Cycling Team Leverages No-code ML for Competitive Advantage 200 - Intermediate AWS AIM203 The AI Revolution: How Large Language Models are Shaping the Future 200 - Intermediate AWS AIM204 How Aviva built a scalable, secure and reliable MLOps platform on AWS 200 - Intermediate AWS AIM205 Solving global sustainability challenges using Geospatial ML with Amazon SageMaker 200 - Intermediate AWS AIM206 Transform your Enterprises with Generative AI industry accelerators 200 - Intermediate AWS AIM207 Accelerate Enterprise transformation with Amazon Kendra and LLMs 200 - Intermediate AWS AIM301 Implement MLOps Best Practices with Amazon SageMaker 300 - Advanced AWS AIM302 How to create delightful conversational experiences using Amazon Lex 300 - Advanced AWS AIM303 AWS DeepRacer: Get hands-on with machine learning 300 - Advanced AWS AIM304 AWS DeepRacer: Get hands-on with machine learning 300 - Advanced AWS AIM305 Unlock insights into your data with Amazon SageMaker Low Code No Code - Usage Patterns and Show Cases 300 - Advanced AWS ANA101 Beauty Bay and BJSS Make over Customer Experience using AWS 100 - Introductory AWS ANA102 Democratising Data at Direct Line Group 100 - Introductory AWS ANA201 Scaling Insights and Data-Driven Culture: a Modern Data Architecture Implementation 200 - Intermediate AWS ANA202 How Motability Operations built a Connected Vehicles Platform on AWS 200 - Intermediate AWS ANA203 Stages of a Data & Analytics Driven Startup 200 - Intermediate AWS ANA204 How Holland & Barrett built a “3-Michelin Star” data platform on an AWS modern data architecture to power insights at the speed of thought 200 - Intermediate AWS ANA205 Privacy-enhanced collaboration with AWS Clean Rooms 200 - Intermediate AWS ANA301 Running mission critical workloads on Amazon Redshift 300 - Advanced AWS ANA302 Building an Enterprise Data & Analytics Platform in AWS From 1 to 100 teams ARC302 Patterns and practices for building resilient applications 300 - Advanced AWS ARC303 Verify priority architecture characteristics to design well-architected applications 300 - Advanced AWS BIZ101 How Amazon Connect is helping deliver exceptional CX to Community Fibre, London’s biggest, fastest 100% full fibre broadband company 100 - Introductory AWS BIZ102 Contact Centre enabling Digital Transformation at speed with Amazon Connect and AI/ML Services 100 - Introductory AWS BIZ103 Lower risks and optimize costs with AWS Supply Chain 200 - Intermediate AWS BIZ301 Proactively engage your customers with Amazon Connect, using ML to improve your customer experience 300 - Advanced AWS BSI201 Simplify the path from data to action with Amazon QuickSight 200 - Intermediate AWS CMP201 How Ably optimised its compute costs and performance with AWS Graviton 200 - Intermediate AWS CMP301 Migrating latency sensitive workload to AWS Region and edge services 300 - Advanced AWS CMP401 AWS Inferentia2 – Making Generative AI predictions faster than ever 400 - Expert AWS COP201 Best practices for implementing observability in a modern application 200 - Intermediate AWS COP202 Cost Optimization as Culture 200 - Intermediate AWS COP203 How to implement AWS cost optimization strategy that works 200 - Intermediate AWS COP301 Unlocking Application Visibility with AWS Observability Tools 200 - Intermediate AWS DAT201 How to manage a Managed Service – A journey of ElastiCache at scale 200 - Intermediate AWS DAT301 Migrating Deliveroo’s Dispatcher Service to Amazon DynamoDB 300 - Advanced AWS DAT302 Amazon DynamoDB: Peeling the onion 300 - Advanced AWS DEV201 Maximizing Developer Productivity with Amazon CodeWhisperer 200 - Intermediate AWS DEV202 Catalyzing software development with Amazon CodeCatalyst 200 - Intermediate AWS DEV301 A deployment is not a release: Control your launches w/ feature flags 300 - Advanced AWS DEV302 Architecting multi-tenant SaaS workloads on AWS 300 - Advanced AWS DOP301 Create Modern and Sustainable Apps with Amazon CodeGuru 300 - Advanced AWS DOP302 Database DevOps on AWS: The Forgotten Automation 300 - Advanced AWS ENT201 Data Centre Migration to AWS & Navigating AWS Partner Programmes with Vitality Health 200 - Intermediate AWS ENT202 Cost as a Proxy for Sustainable Outcomes 200 - Intermediate AWS ENU201 Build and Grow your ClimateTech Startup at AWS 200 - Intermediate AWS EUC301 Picking the right AWS EUC service for your needs 300 - Advanced AWS FSI102 How NatWest and AWS worked together to boost personalised insight generation: A machine learning approach to transaction categorisation 100 - Introductory AWS FSI201 Amazon EKS production grade Kubernetes GMD-1 AWS GameDay - F1 League 2023 200 - Intermediate AWS GMD-3 AWS GameDay - New Frontier GameDay Challenge with LaunchDarkly 200 - Intermediate LaunchDarkly HLC101 Introducing artificial intelligence into IVF laboratories 100 - Introductory AWS IOT201 Scaling Connected Smart Homes with AWS 200 - Intermediate AWS IOT301 Building an IoT SuperNetwork on top of the AWS Global Infrastructure 300 - Advanced AWS ISV-01 Mega trends in SaaS 200 - Intermediate AWS ISV-02 The investor perspective on software 200 - Intermediate AWS ISV-03 Applying the power of AI Responsibly and Effectively within the Enterprise 200 - Intermediate AWS ISV-04 Delivering value via data monetisation 200 - Intermediate AWS KUB201 Accelerating your Kubernetes journey with Amazon EKS Blueprints 200 - Intermediate AWS KUB301 How Skyscanner Built a Resilient k8s Platform on EC2 Spot/EKS and Saved 73% of Their Cloud Spend 300 - Advanced AWS MGR201 Thinking Asynchronously: application integration patterns for microservices 200 - Intermediate AWS MGR202 Genius Sports: Migrating and modernising to a scalable cloud architecture 200 - Intermediate AWS MKT201 Digital Supply Chain Marketplaces, a gamechanger? 200 - Intermediate AWS MKT202 Modernize and govern your digital supply chain with AWS Marketplace 200 - Intermediate AWS NEA202 How AWS is making quantum technologies a practical reality 200 - Intermediate AWS NEA301 Quickly design and build serverless applications on AWS 300 - Advanced AWS NET201 Simplify and scale your hybrid global networking with AWS 200 - Intermediate AWS NET301 The power of cloud network innovation 300 - Advanced AWS OPN301 Speeding up the development of Containerized Applications 300 - Advanced AWS PAR-01 Streamlined AI/ML via Snowflake and Sagemaker 200 - Intermediate Snowflake PAR-02 Bridging the Gap Between Security and Development Teams in Less Than 7-minutes 100 - Introductory Trend Micro PAR-03 Building A Log Strategy So You Can Sleep Better at Night 200 - Intermediate Datadog PAR-04 How great leaders adapt to change with a Cloud-First mindset 100 - Introductory Deliotte PAR-05 Pending 100 - Introductory Reply PAR-06 How to secure your workloads from Ransomware attacks - VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery 100 - Introductory VMware PAR-07 Securing Applications from Code to Cloud with Prisma Cloud 100 - Introductory Palo Alto Networks PAR-08 Modernize faster with serverless and end-to-end observability 100 - Introductory Dynatrace PAR-09 Peeling the onion of Cloud Costs to achieve true business transformation 100 - Introductory Apptio PAR-10 Reducing the Fear of Releases and Technology Migrations 200 - Intermediate LaunchDarkly PAR-11 Intelligent Automation is nothing if it isn’t human-first 100 - Introductory Accenture PAR-12 How Wiz helps esure take a modern approach to cloud security 100 - Introductory Wiz PAR-13 Scaling Mobile Apps & Simplifying Payment Infrastructure to Enable Perfect Holidays 100 - Introductory MongoDB PAR-14 Securing Cloud Native Applications 100 - Introductory Snyk PS100 What’s next? Future tech trends for Public Sector 200 - Intermediate AWS PS101 Cloud-powered science: How UK research organisations are using the AWS Cloud to fuel scientific innovation. 200 - Intermediate AWS PS102 Accelerating datadriven transformation with AWS Modern Data Platform in-a-box 100 - Introductory AWS PS103 AWS Well-Architected for Secure, Sustainable, CostEffective Systems in Public Sector 200 - Intermediate AWS PS104 AWS legacy transformation methodology: Accelerating public sector modernisation 100 - Introductory AWS PS105 Transforming Customer Service with Amazon Connect: A Case Study of Citizens Advice 100 - Introductory SEC201 MoneySuperMarket journey to modernise customer identity solution with Amazon Cognito 200 - Intermediate AWS SEC202 Threat detection and incident response on AWS 200 - Intermediate AWS SEC203 Secure access to your internal applications on AWS with Zero Trust 200 - Intermediate AWS SEC301 Defending your Serverless App against the OWASP top 10 300 - Advanced AWS SER201 Small Teams, Big Ideas: Empowering Microservices with Serverless Architecture 200 - Intermediate AWS SER202 Building modern API architectures: Which front door should I use? 200 - Intermediate AWS SER301 Designing and deploying cloudoptimized Java applications 300 - Advanced AWS SER302 Adopting AWS serverless in your organisation 300 - Advanced AWS SER303 Refactoring to serverless 300 - Advanced AWS SER304 Building lowcode applications with serverless workflows 300 - Advanced AWS STG101 Optimising cost and performance of your data lake on Amazon S3 100 - Introductory AWS STG201 How to understand and improve the resiliency of your AWS applications 200 - Intermediate AWS STG301 Building ARMs Cost optimized Data Platform in AWS 300 - Advanced AWS SUS101 Decarbonising digital products & scaling sustainable innovation 100 - Introductory AWS SUS201 Architecting for Sustainability 200 - Intermediate AWS SUS301 How Channel 4 Optimize for Sustainability with AWS Well-Architected 300 - Advanced AWS SUS302 Carbon emissions reporting using AWS Modern Data Architecture 300 - Advanced AWS

Most of what makes a productive DevOps engineer is not hidden inside vendor portals - it lives in open source, on GitHub, and it is free. The projects below are the ones I return to most often, whether for learning, daily tooling, or reference implementations of patterns that would otherwise take weeks to work out alone. DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Resources to calibrate what good looks like in the discipline. ...