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.

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.

Explore the transformative concept of Platform Engineering, bridging the gap between innovation and DevOps. It simplifies infrastructure provisioning, allowing developers to concentrate on code, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. While it offers simplicity, it complements, rather than replaces, DevSecOps strategies.

BlakYaks has been recognised as the 'Best Overall' company in the ‘Small’ category of the UK’s Best Workplaces in Tech™ 2023 List, as awarded by Great Place to Work® (GPTW®). This recognition underscores BlakYaks' commitment to fostering a transparent and inclusive workplace culture.

Microsoft has taken AKS ingress to the next level with the latest addition to its Application Gateway family. With its advanced traffic distribution, SSL termination, and MTLS capabilities, Azure Application Gateway for Containers ensures seamless and secure traffic routing, optimising and simplifying app delivery for Azure customers. Read our new technical blog by Craig Hurt, Cloud and DevOps Lead at BlakYaks, to discover how this update not only aligns perfectly with Azure and AKS but also elevates your cloud native platforms to new horizons.

BlakYaks has been shortlisted as a finalist in the prestigious Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2023, in the New Business category. This recognition highlights our exceptional growth, successful services, innovative approaches, and ethical practices. The awards program celebrates business brilliance and innovation, with the final ceremony taking place in November 2023.

Discover the exciting world of AI innovation at BlakYaks as we delve into the realms of Artificial Intelligence and explore the Azure OpenAI service. In this blog, we share our early insights and success with the YakBot OpenAI console, a seamless gateway to the Azure OpenAI service, tailor-made to enhance productivity within our business.

Short blog article on a couple of noteworthy features in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) that recently became generally available: Azure CNI Overlay & Azure CNI Powered by Cilium.