Services
Journey to (Sovereign) Cloud
What you get
Cloud readiness assessments, advise on landing‑zone design and migration factories for AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, including EU‑sovereign cloud blueprints for data residency and regulatory compliance
Outcome
Regulatory‑ready cloud adoption, faster time‑to‑market, elastic scalability, cost‑optimised consumption
My Lessons learned in Journey to Cloud
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Lift-and-shift can be a useful first step, especially when facing tight deadlines due to outdated infrastructure, contracts, or data center closures. This method buys time ⏳ and reduces immediate operational risks. However, it rarely delivers the expected cost savings and, if used as the only solution, simply moves existing problems rather than solving them.
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A critical turning point for value is achieved when we transition from managing basic infrastructure (IaaS) to leveraging managed platforms and software (PaaS & SaaS). This shift is key to reducing operational burden, accelerating project delivery, and enabling teams to concentrate on core priorities.
To unlock agility and realize economic benefits, prioritize moving from IaaS to managed services:
🔸 PaaS should be adopted for elements like databases, message queues, container platforms, eventing, and serverless runtimes. This approach minimizes undifferentiated heavy lifting and allows for a greater focus on product development.
🔸SaaS is ideal for commodity functionalities such as collaboration, monitoring, CRM, and identity extensions, where market leaders consistently out-innovate internal development efforts.
This strategy effectively reduces toil, shortens lead times, and enhances reliability.
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Technology is the easy part when moving from on-premise to cloud. The real transformation happens when you evolve your team structures, processes, and - most importantly - mindsets. 🧠 Preparing your people for this new way of working is the most critical investment you have to make.
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Make your progress visible to your stakeholders.
To get buy-in from across the organization, you have to show the tangible benefits. I focus on measuring and publicizing key improvements: faster time-to-market for new features, better reliability, and giving users self-service tools that make their lives easier.
IT Management, Strategy & Innovation
What you get
Executive‑level guidance on operating models, sourcing, governance and structured innovation programmes that translate emerging technology into measurable business value
Outcome
Balanced run‑vs‑change portfolio, accelerated value creation, cost and risk optimisation
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My take on a healthy and sustainable IT Budget split in economically challenging times, especially with the pressure to invest in the AI hype.
I’ve always found the 70/20/10 rule a great starting point:
• 70% to Run ⚙️ the business (operations, maintenance)
• 20% to Grow 📈 the business (enhancements, new capabilities)
• 10% to Transform 🚀 the business (true innovation, new models)
Organizations overspend on operational maintenance ("Run"), hindering growth. This "Run vs. Change" dilemma means urgent daily tasks ("Run") consume resources meant for strategic growth projects ("Change"). When "Run" budgets exceed 80-90%, innovation like AI adoption or platform modernization is impossible, leading to technical debt. Rebalancing means shifting resources from low-value maintenance to high-value innovation, enabling transformative technology investment without sacrificing stability.
That’s my 70/20/10 rule of thumb.
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An effective IT roadmap is more than just a list of technology purchases - it's a continuous cycle of planning, execution, and adjustment. This dynamic tool links IT strategy, operations, and innovation, ensuring that IT delivers tangible business results.
The best IT roadmaps align initiatives across these four key areas:
🧑🤝🧑 People: Build skills, ownership, and team engagement.
⚙️ Process: Streamline operations for faster, safer delivery.
📈 Customer: Drive user adoption and measurable business value.
💻 Technology: Maintain reliable, secure, and cost-efficient platforms.
A roadmap is only as strong as its goals. I recommend balancing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) targets with quality and capability goals.
SMART targets ensure accountability and allow for clear progress tracking during reviews. However, not everything that matters can be quantified. Quality targets focus on the maturity, capability, and overall health of your organization, which is especially crucial in a rapidly changing environment.
By combining a 4-quadrant approach with both SMART and quality targets, you can create a balanced, outcome-driven plan that delivers value across the entire IT-business ecosystem and keep your Team focused and motivated
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3 Common IT Pitfalls in Mid-Size Companies without a CIO
In many mid-size companies, IT is managed without a dedicated CIO. This often works in day-to-day operations, but over time I see recurring pitfalls that limit growth and create hidden risks:
1️⃣ Short-term focus only
Decisions are made to solve immediate problems, but without a clear IT roadmap. This often means missing opportunities to leverage Cloud and AI for efficiency and innovation. Instead of building long-term capabilities, IT becomes a cost center that reacts rather than drives value.
2️⃣ Compliance blind spots
Regulatory requirements such as NIS2 or ISO 27001 apply to more companies than many realize. Without strategic ownership, compliance is addressed too late - which can lead to high costs, operational risks, and reputational damage.
3️⃣ Technology not aligned with business needs
IT investments are sometimes driven by vendor offerings or the latest technology trends. Without proper alignment, projects consume resources but deliver little measurable value to the business. The result: tools and platforms that look good on paper but fail to support real priorities.
💡 The good news: mid-size companies do not necessarily need a full-time CIO to close these gaps. An experienced IT Advisor or CIO as-a-Service can provide the structure, strategy, and governance needed - ensuring that IT investments create business impact, not just technical outcomes.
Quality, Security & Compliance
What you get
Integrated quality‑management systems aligned to ISO 20000 / 27001 and NIS 2 cyber security directives; audits, remediation and continuous‑improvement coaching
Outcome
Audit confidence, reduced risk exposure, compliant‑by‑design processes, sustainable quality culture
AI-Driven Compliance Management Tools (SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc.)
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Vanta maximizes visibility through sheer volume of integrations. By connecting to over 90 services (AWS, GCP, GitHub, Okta), it runs 1,200+ automated tests roughly every hour.
The Mechanism: Continuous polling of your stack to detect deviations in real-time.
The Result: Instant visibility, ensuring that if an employee disables MFA or unencrypts a laptop, it is flagged immediatelyDescription text goes here
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Drata focuses on the quality and depth of integration. rather than just flagging every fail, it applies a risk-based engine to the data it ingests.
The Mechanism: It uses deep, often two-way integrations to score risks contextually. This reduces "alert fatigue" by prioritizing critical issues over minor misconfigurations.
The Result: A sophisticated GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) workflow that integrates compliance data directly into risk registers.
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CompAI represents the new wave of Agentic AI. Instead of passive monitoring, it deploys AI agents to actively "hunt" for evidence across 100+ integrations.
The Mechanism: AI agents autonomously navigate systems to take screenshots, draft policies, and even answer security questionnaires using your live data.
The Result: It aims for "100% automation" of manual tasks, effectively acting as a virtual compliance officer rather than just a monitoring dashboard.
Data, Knowledge & Generative AI
What you get
You get a practical, executive-led AI Adoption Framework that moves your organization beyond pilots and hype toward measurable business impact. I work with Senior Leadership teams to anchor AI to clear business value, establish the right operating model, redesign priority workflows, and put governance, data, and people enablement in place - without over-engineering or vendor bias. The engagement is structured, outcome-driven, and tailored to your industry, strategy, and operating context.
Outcome
You achieve measurable AI-driven business results, not experimentation. AI is embedded into core workflows, owned by leaders, and governed for scale - enabling faster decisions, higher productivity, and sustainable competitive advantage.