Ampersand

Articles

Notes from
the workshop.

Practical writing on building software, using AI at work and keeping products healthy after launch. Written for founders and teams, not for other engineers.

AWS vs Azure for Swiss IT Teams: Decide with a 2–4 Week Pilot

Swiss IT teams: model identical workloads, run a 2–4 week pilot, and choose AWS or Azure based on cost, identity integration, and AI fit.

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Founders: 12-Point Web App Security Checklist, Exact Proof to Request

Nontechnical checklist for founders hiring agencies. What exact evidence to request, which controls block go live, and how often to verify.

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A checklist on a metal clipboard, a rubber stamp, a brass key and a small steel deposit box on a 1980s bank vault counter, with an amber lamp behind.

AI Email Triage for Tech Teams: Senior Led Vendor Agnostic Pilots

Practical plan for tech teams to deploy AI email triage safely: senior led, vendor agnostic pilots, 10–30 category taxonomies, and governance guardrails.

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When 5+ Years Matters: Build or Buy Software for Product Leaders

Scoring matrix and Swiss case study to help product leaders decide whether to build, buy, or blend software. Covers TCO, 30–90 day timing, and 5+ year...

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Keep the Monolith Until 150 Engineers: Why Microservices Cost 30–50%

Default to a modular monolith. Use team-size gates and the 30–50% distributed-system tax as the decision gate, with a migration checklist and readiness...

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Six Patterns Architects Use to Prevent Salesforce Integration Outages

A pattern-first playbook for architects: use the six core Salesforce integration patterns, default to asynchronous designs, and follow a runbook and...

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Avoid Costly Replatforming: Choose a CMS by Governance, TCO, and AI

An operational-first approach to choosing a CMS: prioritize governance, build a real TCO, and enforce AI auditability. Practical PoC steps and...

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Senior Led Playbook: Protect Revenue During Ecommerce Platform Migration

Senior led migration playbook from a Zurich studio. Checklist-first runbooks for data parity, 1:1 redirects, staged rollouts, and SEO to protect revenue.

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