Architecting Your Future, From Core Strategy to Artificial Intelligence

Introduction:

I really don't like AI written copy where it shouldn't be, so this won't be that. So cards on the table, I'm one person. And I've been in the industry over twenty years now; architecting various systems on and off along the way. So Java, C#, DHTML, SQL, no-SQL, SOAs, APIs, Service Platforms, Credit Vetting Systems for major banks, re-architecting data-lakes for global financial clients, etc etc. You get the idea, I'm just saying, today, like all those other days: technology is the business.

If you're reading this you want to win more. More with what you currently have and then win even more with what you get. So you're past the stage of just responding to the market conditions and hoping for the best, you can see the way up and want to climb. For that you need a clear vision of what's at the top, and (here's my part) a robust and intelligent architecture, and (back to you again) the courage to transform.

I build things and solve problems. I can and will provide the strategic insight and deep technical expertise required to solve your most complex challenges and turn your goals into reality. I can also stay out of your way. My services are built on a commitment to engineering excellence, and most importantly ethics. I may use AI, but as you will see from our work together I never take a shortcut through A.I. And if you're wondering where the boundaries of those ethics are? Please work with a different firm, there are none.

Strategic Architecture & Technology Advisory

Pillar 1: Strategic Architecture & Technology Advisory

This is the foundation. The tedious - but vital - seatbelt-like foundation. Before committing to an unnecessary expense I provide the C-suite and board-level guidance you'll need to understand the lay of the land, answer any questions you have about dispositions and possible outcomes, and help explore, allay, or address any thoughts or concerns which arise. This is so your potential technology investments will be more likely succeed, and are de-risked, and future-proofed.

Key Offerings:

  • Enterprise Architecture Review & Uplift: Everything from a Spiral Arm Upgrade through to a thorough assessment of your existing architecture's capabilities, costs, risks, and maturity, measured against your planned business outcomes. For select clients we also offer conversions from Norwegian Blues to other varietals of architecture.
  • Technology & Innovation Strategy: Developing realistic, measurable, adaptable, and de-risked technology roadmaps based on your business and funding capabilities. Past the jargon this means you're going to have a much easier and more fruitful time making decisions throughout your projects.
  • Investment & Vendor Selection: Who deserves more credit than the spouse of an IT nerd? I'll help you pick out IT partners, vendors, and suppliers, based on your needs and that of your project, and also my experience of their underlying technologies, experiences of working with them, their relative strengths and weaknesses etc.
  • Digital Transformation & Business Case Development: Crafting the strategic narrative and business case for transformation, ensuring consensus and sign-off from senior stakeholders across the enterprise. I don't do politics, which makes it really easy to be fair to everyone, and having a background in formal logic is handy when you have a heart too. Generally, no promises, but if there's a win-win scenario to find, we'll get there.
  • Emerging Technology Analysis: Identifying and explaining the strategic application of emerging technologies—from server-less architectures to advanced clustering and caching—to create new business potential. What's possible today is truly radically different that what was possible when the pandemic officially ended. The global stock markets are not lying: those companies that do not embrace and master new technologies are dying out. Or worse, turning into YouTube fodder.

AI & Data Intelligence

Pillar 2: AI & Data Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is more than a feature; it's a paradigm shift. Having studied at doctorate level in AI on research focused on autonomous intelligent agents and extensive hands-on experience, I help organizations move beyond the hype and build a genuine, beneficial AI capability. This practice is grounded in ethics, transparency, and the core principle of making data and intelligence work for you. We do not work on projects which surveil. We do not work on projects which automate away existing roles. People are more important than machines.

Key Offerings:

  • AI Strategy & Readiness:
    • AI Readiness Assessment: Evaluating your current data infrastructure, skills, and processes to build a practical roadmap for AI integration. Handy to know what data you're using, and how, and what you're doing with it to deliver. This has a lot of added benefits in mapping out the terrain to be travelled.
    • Ethical AI & Governance Frameworks: Lowering the blood pressure of your board one meeting at a time, by designing and implementing actually useful policies for the ethical and transparent use of AI, helping you build trust with customers and staff. Heading off that recurring pitchfork wielding mob anxiety that may be rising.
    • AI Hardware & Platform Selection: Advising on the complex landscape of AI hardware and platforms, from cloud services like Google Cloud and Azure to on-premise solutions. Not all AIs are the same, not all tin is the same, and no way is all configuration or security the same. Choose wisely and stay out of trouble.
  • Implementation & Architecture:
    • Custom AI Agent & Knowledge-Modelling Systems: I build these from the ground up based on our agreed goals and principles, and ensure the system is stable, effective, and efficient before passing to you for testing.
    • Data Sovereignty & Intelligent Access: Architecting systems that give you back control over your data while enabling seamless and reliable access for authorized business units. This is as GDPR based data sovereignty initiatives spread globally, well, having these systems in place protects your investment.
    • AI-Powered Business Automation: Implementing intelligent automation for core business processes, such as credit decisioning and risk management, done efficiently and ethically. This is the biggie. We do this better than anyone else we've encountered, and we do it ethically in a way that when staff are aware of the automation project (and they should be informed) we bring both staff and management together and include them in deciding the benefits of automation. We don't automate people's jobs away. We automate to give everyone in the company, and the company itself, the Razormind Edge.
  • Trust, Safety & Measurement:
    • Bias & Discrimination Audits: Analyzing AI systems to identify and mitigate potential for bias and discrimination.
    • AI Content Verification: Developing strategies and systems to spot and handle synthetic or "fake" AI-generated content. We also help you automate this so you don't get swamped. This is the AI resistance, after all.
    • AI Performance & Effectiveness Measurement: Establishing metrics for the true effectiveness and ROI of your AI systems. Always handy for the next meeting.
    • Family-Friendly & Child-Safe AI: Advising on the specific architectural and data-handling requirements for creating safe AI applications for children and families. Super important. If you're worried what AI will take from you, imagine what effect it's having on children.

High-Performance & Resilient Systems

Pillar 3: High-Performance & Resilient Systems

For real business people, productivity isn't a property of the business—it is the business. From financial trading platforms to content delivery networks serving hundreds of millions of users, I specialize in architecting systems that are solid and 'tidy'. They have to be secure, scalable, and unfailingly resilient. That means proper real-time backup, and disaster recovery.

Key Offerings:

  • Global-Scale Architecture (CDN & Edge): Leveraging experience as an enterprise architect at Akamai, the world's largest CDN, to design solutions for 100% availability and massive scalability.
  • High-Frequency AI-ready Architectures: Architecting systems for real-time time-series analysis, capable of handling millions of transactions per second will become necessary to stay competitive as the volume and variety of data increases throughout the AI revolution.
  • Cybersecurity & Resilience: Designing and implementing upgraded cybersecurity systems to protect against internal and external threats. We do this ethically and efficiently.
  • Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity: Engineering proper, battle tested actual disaster recovery solutions with real-time monitoring and reliable seamless failover to ensure no loss of service for critical operations. And more importantly - no rise in blood pressure.

Digital & Business Transformation

Pillar 4: Digital & Business Transformation

I provide hands-on architectural thinking to guide transformation projects from start through to finish. That and I also sometimes end up managing technical teams and third-party vendors. Don't worry I'm not a consultant; I build things and solve problems. I also don't like jargon.

Key Offerings:

  • Legacy System Modernization: Re-architecting and refactoring legacy platforms (e.g., Java 1.4, Oracle RAC) to significantly boost performance, streamline integrations, and reduce technical debt. As with the iPhone, things have gotten slimmer and faster over time. Let go of the old expensive architectures and move forward to something faster, and more powerful, and easier and friendlier. It's time.
  • Enterprise Data Transformation: Leading the design and oversight of enterprise-wide data transformations, including data modeling, big data system integration (Riak, Cassandra, Hadoop), and separating transactional flows to boost performance. Clean thinking about Data and Knowledge can make or break any project, fresh eyes and respect for the work can work wonders.
  • In-House Architect Advisory: Acting as a contract Enterprise Architect to deliver or advise on an agreed project.