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Articles

Field notes on cloud platforms, data engineering, and running engineering teams — written from the scars, not the slides.

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COST ENGINEERING · FEATURED

How we cut our cloud bill in half without cutting capability

No heroics, no migration to bare metal — just a methodical audit of what we were actually paying for, and the discipline to act on it.

Matthew Firth · Jul 12, 2026
Blueprint illustration of a founder at a drafting table, dashed lines fanning out to gears, a networked heart, documents, and a rocket

FOUNDING

Building NexSpark solo: what AI actually changes about being a founder

Two products, one matching engine, no employees. What held up, what didn't, and where AI earns its keep.

Matthew Firth · Jun 28, 2026
Blueprint illustration of a field of sensor devices with dashed signal lines converging into a large database cylinder

DATA PLATFORMS

What 14TB of IoT telemetry taught me about boring technology

We run one of the least fashionable stacks you could pick — and it's exactly why the platform works.

Matthew Firth · Jun 5, 2026
Blueprint illustration of a cracked monolithic block disassembling into an orderly grid of small cubes

MODERNIZATION

Escaping the monolith without a big-bang rewrite

Nine years modernizing a platform Fortune 500 clients depended on daily — while it stayed in production the whole time.

Matthew Firth · May 14, 2026