What we have learned building these systems.

Infrastructure

Sovereignty is an operational question, not a political one

Every argument for hosting a national system abroad is really an argument about who you can call at 2am — and what happens when the answer is nobody.

Blockchain

When a ledger earns its place

Most systems described as needing blockchain need a database and an audit table. Here is the narrow case where that is genuinely not true — and how to tell the difference before you have spent the budget.

Engineering

Design for the worst connection

The most consequential data in an operation is entered furthest from the data centre — at a gate, in a field, at a gate. If it does not work offline, it does not work.

Procurement

Buying software that outlives you

A procurement checklist for public institutions, written by the people who keep being asked to rescue the result of the last one.