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Guides

Practical reference guides for teams that build, buy, and run software. Updated regularly, built to last.

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Each category covers a specific area of software delivery. Dive into the topic that matters most to your team right now.

25 guides

AI and Code

AI tools, IP ownership, attribution, and compliance for enterprise teams.

6 guides

API and Integration

REST, GraphQL, gRPC, Azure API Management, and integration patterns.

19 guides

Build, Buy, or Replace

Decision frameworks for build vs buy, SaaS replacement, and migration planning.

19 guides

Development Practice

DevOps, CI/CD, testing, estimation, and delivery patterns.

14 guides

Legacy Modernisation

Recognising hidden costs, choosing a modernisation strategy, and planning migration from legacy systems.

15 guides

Legal and Contracts

Software development contracts, IP licensing, liability, and the legal terms that shape bespoke build engagements.

9 guides

Teams and Support

Choosing partners, managing handovers, and outsourcing application support.

Recently updated

The latest guides from across all categories.

AI and Code 12 min read

Is Claude GDPR Compliant? Anthropic Assurance for UK Businesses

How UK businesses get GDPR and ISO 27001 assurance over Anthropic's Claude: commercial terms, the DPA, certifications, EU data residency options, retention settings, and a supplier due diligence checklist.

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AI and Code 12 min read

Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot for .NET Teams: A UK CTO's Guide

Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot for .NET teams: autocomplete versus agentic delivery, what Copilot running Claude models changes, and how UK CTOs decide.

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AI and Code 12 min read

Claude on Azure: Choosing Between Claude and Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry

Claude vs Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry: what Claude's GA on Azure changes for procurement, governance, and residency, and how UK teams should choose.

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AI and Code 12 min read

Deploying Claude-Powered Agents on Azure: Architecture Patterns

Deploying Claude agents on Azure: AKS and Functions hosting, Entra ID identity, where quotas and logging should live, MCP integration, and monitoring.

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Legacy Modernisation 22 min read

Modernising Legacy .NET Applications with AI: The Enterprise Playbook (UK, 2026)

A structured approach to modernising legacy .NET Framework applications using AI-assisted development. Four pillars, real migration patterns, and practical guidance for enterprise teams.

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AI and Code 13 min read

Secure AI-Generated Code: Controls for Regulated Teams

How regulated UK teams keep AI-generated web code secure: analysers and banned APIs that make injection unrepresentable, hooks, CI gates, and review policy.

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AI and Code

View all 25 guides

AI tools, IP ownership, attribution, and compliance for enterprise teams.

AI and Code

Is Claude GDPR Compliant? Anthropic Assurance for UK Businesses

How UK businesses get GDPR and ISO 27001 assurance over Anthropic's Claude: commercial terms, the DPA, certifications, EU data residency options, retention settings, and a supplier due diligence checklist.

12 min read
AI and Code

Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot for .NET Teams: A UK CTO's Guide

Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot for .NET teams: autocomplete versus agentic delivery, what Copilot running Claude models changes, and how UK CTOs decide.

12 min read
AI and Code

Claude on Azure: Choosing Between Claude and Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry

Claude vs Azure OpenAI in Microsoft Foundry: what Claude's GA on Azure changes for procurement, governance, and residency, and how UK teams should choose.

12 min read
AI and Code

Deploying Claude-Powered Agents on Azure: Architecture Patterns

Deploying Claude agents on Azure: AKS and Functions hosting, Entra ID identity, where quotas and logging should live, MCP integration, and monitoring.

12 min read

API and Integration

View all 6 guides

REST, GraphQL, gRPC, Azure API Management, and integration patterns.

API and Integration

Backend for Frontend (BFF): API Patterns for Mobile and Web Clients

When to use the BFF pattern, how it compares to a single API or API gateway, and how to implement it on Azure. Practical architecture for teams serving mobile, web, and internal clients.

18 min read
API and Integration

Mobile API Best Practices: Building Backends That Scale

How to design, secure, and operate APIs for mobile apps. Protocol choice, authentication flows, offline sync, push notifications, versioning, and Azure architecture patterns.

13 min read
API and Integration

REST vs GraphQL vs gRPC: Choosing the Right API Style for Enterprise Systems

A practical comparison of REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and tRPC for enterprise teams: when each style fits, the trade-offs, and a decision matrix.

17 min read
API and Integration

Extending a Ferry Reservation System: An API Layer Architecture

How to build custom apps, disruption tools, and analytics on top of a ferry reservation platform using an operator-owned API layer, without touching the core.

14 min read

Build, Buy, or Replace

View all 19 guides

Decision frameworks for build vs buy, SaaS replacement, and migration planning.

Build, Buy, or Replace

SaaS to Custom Software Migration: A 90-Day Playbook

How to migrate from SaaS to custom software: getting your data out, running both in parallel, cutting over safely, and exiting the contract.

10 min read
Build, Buy, or Replace

Build In-House with AI or Use a Development Partner? An Honest Decision Guide

AI coding tools make in-house builds genuinely viable. A balanced decision guide for CTOs: when to build with your own team, when a partner earns its fee, and how to compare total cost honestly.

14 min read
Build, Buy, or Replace

How franchise payments and payouts should work

How a franchise network collects payments and pays its franchisees: connected accounts with Stripe Connect, Direct Debit, and who holds the funds and the risk.

10 min read
Build, Buy, or Replace

Replacing Your Tuition Centre Management System

When a tuition network outgrows generic class-management software: the build-vs-buy framework, the size threshold, migration reality, and licence economics.

12 min read

Development Practice

View all 19 guides

DevOps, CI/CD, testing, estimation, and delivery patterns.

Development Practice

Claude Code for .NET Developers: A Practical Getting Started Guide

Getting started with Claude Code for C# and .NET. Installation, IDE integration, pre-approved command setup, cloud agents, and practical .NET workflows.

13 min read
Development Practice

Data Protection by Design: The Standard Features Every Compliant System Needs

Data protection by design is an engineering discipline, not a policy document. This guide sets out the standard software features every GDPR-compliant system needs, and how to build them in from the first line of code.

16 min read
Development Practice

Data Subject Rights, Retention and Erasure: The Engineering

Subject access, portability, and the right to erasure are software features with statutory deadlines, not favours. This guide covers how to build them, including retention engines, crypto-shredding, and erasure that keeps the audit trail.

16 min read
Development Practice

Configuring Claude Code for .NET: Settings, Hooks, MCP, and Cloud Agents

Claude Code configuration reference for .NET teams. Pre-approved command catalogue, hooks, MCP servers, skills, subagents, and cloud environments.

14 min read

Legacy Modernisation

View all 14 guides

Recognising hidden costs, choosing a modernisation strategy, and planning migration from legacy systems.

Legacy Modernisation

Modernising Legacy .NET Applications with AI: The Enterprise Playbook (UK, 2026)

A structured approach to modernising legacy .NET Framework applications using AI-assisted development. Four pillars, real migration patterns, and practical guidance for enterprise teams.

22 min read
Legacy Modernisation

Modernising SQL Server Stored Procedures with AI: From T-SQL to a Tested C# Service Layer

How to modernise SQL Server stored procedures with AI: classify a large T-SQL estate, move business rules into tested C#, and prove behaviour parity.

14 min read
Legacy Modernisation

WinForms to the Web: An AI-Assisted Rebuild Guide with Claude Code

WinForms to web migration with Claude Code: why conversion fails, rebuild versus strangler fig, salvaging business logic, and the delivery workflow.

14 min read
Legacy Modernisation

.NET MAUI vs React Native: Choosing a Xamarin Migration Target

An honest comparison of .NET MAUI and React Native for teams leaving Xamarin: support lifecycles, team cost, and when each one is the wrong answer.

16 min read

Legal and Contracts

View all 15 guides

Software development contracts, IP licensing, liability, and the legal terms that shape bespoke build engagements.

Legal and Contracts

Is REA Legal? AI Reverse Engineering, SaaS, and UK Law Explained

Is REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) legal? What UK copyright, contract, and computer misuse law allow when AI agents decompile and recreate software, including SaaS reverse engineering, licensed products, and systems you own.

13 min read
Legal and Contracts

Is It Lawful to Reverse Engineer a System From Recordings and Screenshots?

Ownership, licence terms, and UK data protection when recording a legacy system to recover its requirements. Where the line sits, and how to stay on the right side.

12 min read
Legal and Contracts

What You Can (and Can't) Legally Copy When Replacing SaaS: A UK Guide for CTOs

UK copyright law protects expression, not functionality. Learn what CTOs can legally replicate when replacing SaaS with custom-built software, including clean-room implementation, TOS boundaries, and data portability rights.

20 min read
Legal and Contracts

How to Protect Your Software When AI Can Reverse Engineer Anything: A UK Guide for Owners

Tools like REA let coding agents decompile and recreate software cheaply. What UK law protects, what it does not, and the contract, architecture, and evidence steps software and IP owners should take now.

11 min read

Teams and Support

View all 9 guides

Choosing partners, managing handovers, and outsourcing application support.

Teams and Support

Keeping Supported Software Secure: Advanced Security and AI Threat Intelligence

How managed support keeps software secure: GitHub Advanced Security, Detectify attack surface monitoring, AI code analysis, and threat intelligence, with reviewed remediation.

14 min read
Teams and Support

Tendering for a Long-Term Technology Partner: A Buyer's Guide

How to run a selection process when you need a partner to take over and develop a business-critical application estate, not just supply developers. Shortlisting, evaluation criteria, and the questions that separate suppliers.

14 min read
Teams and Support

AI-Augmented Application Support: Custom AI for Better Outcomes

How custom, system-specific AI augments managed application support: automated DBA, tailored telemetry, infrastructure analysis, and log analysis for faster, cheaper resolution.

14 min read
Teams and Support

Running .NET on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): A Production Support Guide

How to run and support .NET and SQL Server workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service: cluster upgrades, scaling, observability, security, cost, and AI-augmented operations.

15 min read

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