Why I started this blog

I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for a number of years, and in fact, have made a couple of false starts in doing so. When I boil it down to why, I think it really comes down to being able to focus my own thoughts, and hopefully in the process, maybe help some other people when they face similar challenges.

But before I delve deeper into what I’ll probably be writing about and why, if you haven’t already, it’s probably worth reading the about me page, so you can know a bit more about myself, what I do and hopefully a bit about how I think.

What I’ll be writing about and why

Technical documentation/opinions/knowledge

TL;DR: sometimes documentation often lacking or scattered. Wish I had kept documentation from previous projects.

While there are plenty of areas where you can find technical documentation, how-tos etc, I often find that some of the areas I am working on are very sporadic in documentation or written documentation. There are plenty of things I’ve done in the past in which I wish I had kept some documentation around for - things like running Ping Federate in Kubernetes (which by the way, I really do not recommend) as it was incredibly challenging. A more recent example of this is trying to get Athena to work with Datagrip, and when I finally figure out how to get V3 of the driver working with AWS IAM roles, I’ll be writing about.

As anyone who has known, worked with or lived with, engineers are full of opinions. Some based on evidence, some based on “eh this feels right” - I am certainly no exception to this rule! I’ll be writing about upcoming trends, issues or challenges I face in my day to day or as I progress in my career. I’ll also be comparing different products and weighing up the pros and cons of each, in particular around security tooling, such as comparing DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) tools and more.

One of the things I enjoy most is helping others. My goal with this blog is to share my experiences and knowledge. If just one piece of information from this blog makes a difference for someone, that would be incredibly rewarding for me. So, if you find any of the information here useful or have any questions, please reach out!

Now, let’s have some fun and see what AI generates for the prompt of “engineers writing technical documentation”…

This actually is not bad at all, well done AI! I was surprised by how well this came out

I’m starting an MBA in Cybersecurity!

Taking a page from Ronseal’s book (enjoy the free advertising!), this blog will be exactly what it says on the tin: a journey through my MBA in Cybersecurity. I plan to write another post detailing why I chose to start an MBA, but for now, let’s focus on why I’m building this blog. My goal is to update this blog on a weekly basis throughout my MBA. By summarising what I’ve learned and notes from each week, this blog can serve as a resource not only for myself, but also for others who may be on a similar path (hopefully!).

However, I must be careful about the content I write about. I do not want to spread misinformation due to my incomplete understanding of a topic or making mistakes. I also need to be careful to respect academic integrity and privacy. Therefore, whatever I write about will likely contain high-level summaries of what I’ve learned rather than detailed notes.

In any case, I hope to write each week and hopefully you can join my on my journey!

Experience, stories and motorcycle adventures

On a more personal level, I want to share not just my professional journey and experiences, but also stories and some of my motorcycle adventures that shape who I am. Life isn’t just about work, you need to sprinkle a bit of something different into the mix!

To keep you interested, here’s a recent picture of me when I was on one of my most recent motorcycle adventures, when I managed to gain a puncture in Shropshire and had to wait 6 hours to get recovered!

It isn’t all doom and gloom, at least it was sunny and I had my headphones!

This blog will also be a tool for me to improve my writing skills. I’m very aware that it is an area that needs growth, and what better way to practice and improve than writing about all of the above!

What to expect

To summarise the above, I’ll be writing about

• Technical documentation/opinions/knowledge
• My progress on my MBA in cybersecurity
• Experience, stories and motorcycle adventures

My aim is to release a new post every week, while doing my MBA, but that isn’t guaranteed as life can get in the way!

If you want to get in touch, you can see my contact methods at the bottom left of the screen. For now, thanks for getting this far, and hopefully catch you on the next post!