I help with software development projects. Stereotypically, my clients own or manage an application, and are subject-matter experts but don’t come from a technology background. They have hired a programmer or two and the application works – sort of. Frequently, I’m called in when something has changed (e.g., the technical co-founder leaves).
I act as a kind of “part time Chief Technology Officer” (virtual CTO) and help with things like:
- Translating feature requests into technical language and specific tasks
- Improving design/architecture which improves developer productivity
- Taking advantage of cloud hosting (Azure and AWS) in a cost-effective way
- Acting as technical representative on client/prospect calls to “speak Geek” with the other side’s technical staff
Recent Projects
- In May 2023, Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) carried the first astronauts from Saudi Arabia to the International Space Station. DreamUp needed an online portal (English and Arabic) to facilitate an event where the astronauts and students conducted experiments at the same time. After originally designing the portal to run on AWS, a requirement was added (just a few months before the event) that all data must remain in Saudi Arabia. There were no AWS (or Azure or Google Cloud Platform) data centers in the country, so the application had to be re-designed to run in Oracle Cloud (who did have a data center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia). The portal is visible on student tablets in this video.
- MedCompli is a SAAS application hosted in Azure with numerous integrations with 3rd party applications like Concur and Docusign. Latency was an issue for one of their clients in Thailand, so we had to replicate some of the environment into Azure’s Southeast Asia region. (I got to go to Bangkok with this client to coordinate translating parts of their application into several languages spoken in the region.)
- A consulting group was doing a project for AT&T, who required it to be hosted in Azure. The consulting group had expertise in AWS, but not Azure. I was able to help them translate AWS concepts into an Azure environment to host the application and meet with their client’s security team to get the design approved.
- I’ve helped several clients transition to use Entra ID (formerly Azure ID) for their application’s authentication, including enabling single sign-on (SSO) with client organizations.
These are just a few recent projects. Many more examples are listed on the About Jeff page.