As organisations move more of their sensitive workloads to the cloud, the issue of security becomes increasingly important, particularly as they implement DevSecOps to formalise defences. Here are our top six security considerations as you strengthen your protections in the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Three years ago, BlakYaks embarked on a mission to support clients towards the adoption of cloud native technologies and away from outdated infrastructure. Our journey has been defined by innovation, with a focus on crafting cutting-edge Azure serverless solutions tailored to address the unique challenges faced by our customers. Discover our journey's highlights from the last 12 months and future plans in our latest blog, showcasing our commitment to innovation, growth, and client success.

We help clients to fill capability and experience gaps to accelerate Cloud and DevOps strategies bringing IP (e.g. designs, patterns, frameworks) to speed up deployments. With this engagement, customers will get a foundational view of their Azure DevOps and IaC maturity highlighting business problems, objectives and drivers.

YakChat’s third podcast episode is now available. In our new episode, Ollie Gayton, Head of Professional Services, and BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, discuss application modernisation on Azure and the critical role that platform modernisation and automation plays in modernising business services to support digital transformation.

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), initiated by the European Union, provides a specialised framework tailored to the financial sector, enforcing strict standards for maintaining digital operational resilience. In the next year or so, FSI businesses will find themselves grappling with the implications of DORA and its impact on their technological processes, policies, controls, and governance. With a keen focus on maintaining resilience amidst the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape, organisations will undergo significant changes, ranging from minor adjustments to substantial overhauls.

It is BlakYaks' third anniversary this month and as a growing organisation, one of the primary challenges we've encountered as we scale the business is the shortage of cloud native expertise in the market (including IaC, Terraform, Kubernetes). The scarcity of “ready-made” cloud native consultants and engineers, coupled with our core belief in the importance of personal development, led us to launch our BlakYaks Technical Academy, affectionately nicknamed 'Yakademy'.

We are happy to announce we have achieved “Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security” status, our fourth MS Partner Designation. Having already earned designations in three Azure solution areas (Azure Digital & App Innovation with a Kubernetes advanced specialisation, Azure Infrastructure, and Data & AI), this new accomplishment complements our recent Cyber Essentials+ certification, underscoring our dedication to safeguarding our clients' digital environments and ensuring the highest level of security.

Shortly after being recognised for the second year running as a Great Place to Work®, we are proud to announce that BlakYaks has been named again as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ 2024 by GPTW®, the global authority on workplace culture.

We really want to thank everyone who paid BlakYaks a visit at DevOps Live 2024. The turnout exceeded our expectations for our first in-person event and we're absolutely excited about the engaging conversations and new connections made.

YakChat’s second podcast episode is now available. In our second episode, Stuart Anderson, Chief Engineer, and BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, discuss the evolving landscape of container technology and why businesses are turning to container technologies to bolster their digital transformation and application modernisation strategies.

Exciting news! We're delighted to announce our participation in DevOps Live 2024! Join us at one of the largest gatherings of DevOps and cloud professionals in the UK and don't miss the chance to drop by Booth L80, where you can meet us, have a chat with the Yaks, or ask anything you'd like to know about cloud native.

Launching YakChat, a podcast by BlakYaks. In our first episode ‘Modern Cloud Operations’, Neil Allgood, Cloud Engineering and Operations Lead, and BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, explore the changing nature of cloud technology operations and how businesses can realise the full potential of their cloud deployments.

Our SpecOps team represents a forward-looking service function explicitly crafted to support the dynamic landscape of cloud platforms, workloads, and services. We understand the pivotal role that cloud technology plays in shaping the future of businesses. Our team takes on the responsibility of meticulously managing all Azure platforms, employing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to harness the full potential of Azure.

We are incredibly proud to have been selected as one of the finalists of the ‘New Business of the Year’ category at the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2023. While we didn’t win the category, being shortlisted was a great honour and a fantastic recognition of the hard work our team put in every day.

We are thrilled to share that BlakYaks has been certified as a Great Place to Work® (GPTW®) for the second consecutive year. In 2022, BlakYaks achieved this prestigious certification for the first time and we are delighted to announce that our dedication to creating a positive workplace environment has once again been recognised. Read more.

We are happy to share that we have attained the Microsoft Azure Data & AI Solution Partner designation. This achievement complements our existing portfolio of Microsoft Solutions partner designations, which includes Azure Digital & App Innovation with Kubernetes Specialisation and Azure Infrastructure. The Data & AI designation strengthens our teams’ ability to collaborate seamlessly with our customers and data engineering/analytics partners to deliver enterprise-grade platforms capable of supporting big data and AI-infused workloads.

We are pleased to announce that we have achieved the Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+) certification on our first attempt, following our earlier Cyber Essentials achievement. It's been an interesting experience, providing a good opportunity to reflect on our progress and how we went about achieving our goal.

BlakYaks have proudly become a signatory of the Tech Talent Charter (TTC), showcasing our commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. The TTC, a government-supported initiative, unites over 700 organisations to drive diversity and inclusion efforts. We actively promote gender diversity, continuous skills development and equitable career progression, ensuring all employees have equal opportunities to thrive. Read more about our recent partnership and our D&I commitments.