Platforms are products. Engineers are their users.
Why successful internal platforms start with developer needs, useful paved roads and evidence that engineering friction is disappearing.
Field notes • david.collom.co.uk
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Things I've written
I've been writing here, on and off, since 2012. The subjects have changed over time, from configuration management and early DevOps meetups to Kubernetes, platform engineering, speaking and cycling.
London to Brighton: 54 miles for the British Heart Foundation
A public reflection on completing the 87 km London to Brighton Bike Ride in 32°C heat and raising £1,281 for the British Heart Foundation.
A new chapter - joining Komodor
Why David joined Komodor as a Solutions Architect for EMEA, and how the role connects platform engineering, Kubernetes troubleshooting and customer outcomes.
Five years at Jetstack - platforms, people and staying hands-on
A reflection on five years at Jetstack across Kubernetes consulting, customer platforms, open source, acquisitions, training and community.
Why local meetups make conference talks better
What bringing our Kubernetes cost talk from KubeCon to Fusion Meetup reinforced about useful technical speaking, audience context and community feedback.
Kubernetes cost confessions: from overspending to useful engineering signals
What Becky Pauley and I learned from turning familiar Kubernetes cost failures into a practical, vendor-agnostic framework at KubeCon North America.
How to avoid a Kubernetes doom loop
The anatomy of a runaway Argo automation incident, and the practical controls that stop retries, queues and controllers amplifying a failure.
The Road to Tour de Yorkshire
How cycle commuting grew into a 129 km charity challenge, improved mental health and established a relationship with cycling that still matters years later.
Leeds DevOps - Configuration Management panel
A reflection on an early Leeds DevOps panel about Puppet, desired state and the configuration-management ideas that still shape platform engineering.
Welcome to my new blog
The story behind David's route from a BBC Basic computer and PHP development into Ruby, infrastructure automation and modern platform engineering.
ActiveAdmin - Disable JSON/XML export
The original ActiveAdmin export monkey patch, why it existed, and the configuration-first approach supported by ActiveAdmin today.
Converting a locator into XPath in Capybara
A practical look at XPath and CSS selectors in Capybara, with the original 2012 snippet and the testing approach I would use today.