As many businesses continue migrating to Microsoft Azure, the pace of transition can seem slow despite the platform's maturity. This blog explores the key factors influencing migration decisions, such as legacy investments, platform maturity, and strategic conflicts. It also discusses how businesses can overcome these barriers and successfully adopt cloud native solutions.

Welcome to our blog series "Meet the Herd!". In this section, we will give you a closer look at the wonderful people that make BlakYaks so great. By way of fun interviews and spotlights, you will get to see the faces behind the business and find out what drives and inspires them.

As organisations adopt cloud native platforms they must safeguard their environments against the pitfalls of organic growth, including cloud sprawl, misconfigurations, and technical debt. These challenges can hinder efficiency, increase security risks, and impact overall performance. In this blog, we provide several recommendations to help avoid these challenges, including implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC), right-sizing environments based on actual usage, and regularly assessing cloud platforms. By prioritising these practices, organisations can achieve a more secure, optimised, and resilient Azure deployment that supports their growth and innovation goals.

After a decade of experience building Azure hosting platforms, we have identified three key factors for cloud success: leveraging Azure’s native services, embracing automation, and establishing strong platform foundations. To meet evolving customer needs, we've developed Azure Accelerator Packs, which simplify and speed up cloud deployment while maintaining high-quality results. Read more.

We are excited to announce that BlakYaks has once again been recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces in Tech™ 2024 by Great Place To Work®! This recognition highlights our continued commitment to fostering a dynamic workplace culture where collaboration, innovation, and personal growth thrive.

Terraform has significantly evolved its testing strategies over time. Initially, testing Terraform code involved time-consuming manual checks or third-party tools, often leading to inefficiencies and errors. Recognising the need for better testing methodologies, HashiCorp have now introduced a native framework that streamlines the testing process by allowing test assertions within the Terraform codebase itself, using native HCL. This shift towards more integrated and less cumbersome testing is particularly useful within automated build pipelines and can be employed in both root and child module use cases.

Welcome to our blog series "Meet the Herd!". In this section, we will give you a closer look at the wonderful people that make BlakYaks so great. By way of fun interviews and spotlights, you will get to see the faces behind the business and find out what drives and inspires them.

Learn how to detect and clean up leaked secrets in your Git repositories. This how-to guide covers the use of tools like GitLeaks and Trufflehog for secret detection, and the BFG Repo-Cleaner for removing sensitive data from your Git history. Ensure your CI processes and repositories are secure with step-by-step instructions, all using Bash scripting.

YakChat’s fifth podcast episode is now available. In this episode, we are joined by Alex Durieu, Senior Sales Manager Azure Digital & App Innovation for Enterprise Commercial at Microsoft, for a discussion with BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, on the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in today's digital landscape. They explore various facets of AI, including advancements in machine learning, the evolution of Artificial Intelligence methodologies, the rise of OpenAI, and the accelerating rate of adoption across businesses.

We are proud to announce that BlakYaks has been included in the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development™ list, compiled by Great Place To Work® (GPTW®), ranking third place among 100 companies in the ‘Small’ category. New for this year, the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development List recognises companies making employee development a key part of company culture. These workplaces offer employees the chance to better themselves, to learn new skills, and to progress within the organisation.

YakChat’s fourth podcast episode is now available. In our new episode, Craig Hurt, Cloud and DevOps Lead, joins BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, to discuss why Azure automation is central to modern business transformation and a critical driver for digital success.

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.