Welcome to the StratusPhere: Here to Simplify Cloud

Welcome to the StratusPhere

Nonsense is pervasive! Whether it is misinformation, disinformation or outright bollocks we’re all being subjected to it right now. The domains of cloud, cybersecurity and digital transformation are no different. All too often these topics are shrouded in consulting technobabble. My purpose is to cut through all of that and provide straight-talking, simple insights to help anyone make informed choices. That is why I’ve created the StratusPhere, my blog!

A truth you won’t often read or hear, doing cloud and security right doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Nor do you need a team of 50 to do it! Equally, shiny and new isn’t always the answer. You wouldn’t crack a nut with a sledgehammer! OK, some might but, it’s overkill. In technical speak, it’s like building a fully-featured blockchain to solve issues a simple spreadsheet would fulfill.

There are no vendor white papers disguised as thought leadership here. Nor will you find “10 Enterprise Strategies for Blockchain-Enabled AI Cloud Synergy” bollocks either. The content you’ll find here is meant for everyone; from individuals to business owners, IT managers, and decision-makers who are tired of being talked at and need straight answers to questions like:

• Should we actually move to the cloud, or is our current setup perfectly fine?
• How do I know if we’re secure enough, or if we’re just hoping the hackers choose someone else?
• What does “zero trust” even mean, and do I need it, or is it just this year’s buzzword?
• We got a £12,000 cloud bill this month for infrastructure that cost us £3K on-premises—what the hell happened?
• This security vendor says we’re “at risk” but also happens to sell the solution, should I believe them?
• Our cloud consultant keeps saying we need to “right-size our instances” but won’t actually tell us how, is this a real thing or are they padding hours?

The above will often make it seem like you’re being sold to rather than helped! Assumptions (wrongly) are made based on you knowing more or being better informed than you are. If any of that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.

Why Do This

I’ve experienced everything from the truly inspirational overnight transformations to absolute bin-fires of projects.

Companies throw thousands, if not hundreds-of-thousands, at cloud migrations only to wonder why their monthly bills are multiples higher than their old data centre costs. Nobody notified them this was always going to be their fate if they didn’t size their environment correctly or if they left their virtual machines running when they could be turned off!

Enterprises happily throw millions at “trendy” consultancies to produce fancy slide-decks offering world-class this and best-in-class that. Ask them to deliver on any of it and well you know how it goes. Give a savvy IT Manager who gives a damn a fraction of that budget and they will make smart, focused decisions that run rings round anything a trendy consultancy can suggest.

The “enterprise solutions” pitched to businesses are all too often selling way more of a product than any business really needs. I’ve come to realise, honest guidance across the industry is a rare commodity indeed! The cost of bad advice, predatory pricing, and fear-mongering within the industry is astonishing:

• A successful manufacturing business with 45 employees stayed on-premises for three extra years because a “cloud expert” scared them with horror stories. This cost them opportunities for growth and remote work capabilities they desperately needed during COVID.
• A retail company rushed to a cloud vendor because “everyone is doing it.” They then bleed £8K a month on misconfigured resources, orphaned snapshots, and development environments that nobody remembered to turn off. Their consultant? Nowhere to be found once their contract ended.
• Meetings where security vendors showed small businesses slide after slide of nightmare scenarios. They conveniently have a £50K solution to problems that didn’t exist all while ignoring the fact the company they were pitching to wasn’t using multi-factor authentication. That free thing which would have protected them anyway.
• Finance directors paralysed by cloud cost comparisons that cherry-picked numbers to make on-premises look expensive, conveniently ignoring the fact their current setup was stable, paid for, and perfectly adequate for their needs.

Here’s the thing: strip away the jargon and that sales pitch and the stuff you’re left with isn’t that complicated. It’s deliberately obscured to benefit from the confusion that causes.

Everyone deserves far better. Understanding options to make informed decisions, and implement technology that actually moves things forward should be the primary focus, they shouldn’t be provided to tick boxes on some compliance form or make an IT person feel like they’re “on-trend.”

That’s it basically. No bullshit, just honest observations to help anyone who cares!

I’ll utilise my expertise and provide simple, down-to-earth explanations of cloud and cybersecurity topics which may have seemed intimidating or too complex to consider. It’s my way of giving a little something back!

What You’ll Find Here

This blog focuses on three main areas where I’ve spent most of my career, and the most conflicting (and expensive) advice is most prevalent:

Cloud - Whether considering AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or wondering if you even need to leave your current setup. I’ll cover strategy, cost optimisation, common pitfalls, and how to avoid the “lift and shift then panic” trap that is often sprung on unsuspecting businesses.

Cybersecurity - Real security for real scenarios. Not the “you need a £200Kpa SIEM system or you’ll definitely get hacked” fearmongering, but practical approaches to protecting data, customers, and reputation without breaking the bank. Yes, you need MFA. No, you probably don’t need that blockchain-based threat intelligence platform you’re being hounded into buying.

Digital Transformation - The buzzword to end all buzzwords, except when it’s done right, it actually means something. I’ll discuss how to modernise your business operations in ways that make sense for your size, budget, and goals, not just because analysts say it’s a “key trend” or your board read about it in the Financial Times.

I know “digital transformation” sounds like corporate wafflebollocks. Half the time it is. But the other half? That’s when a business figures out how to work smarter, serve customers better, and stop wasting time on manual processes that should have been automated years ago. That’s the half I care about.

Practising What I Preach

The thing that makes this blog different from most cloud and security advice out there: I’m not just writing about this stuff, I’m actively building it.

Alongside this blog, I’m developing real platforms, making real technology decisions, and dealing with real costs. I’ll be documenting that journey here — the good decisions, the bad ones, the surprises, and the actual numbers. When I tell you it’s possible to run a production web platform for £10 plus some minor incidentals per year without compromising on security or capability, it’s because I’m doing exactly that.

That means the advice here isn’t theoretical. It’s tested against my own projects, my own wallet, and my own mistakes. If something I recommended in an earlier post turns out to be wrong when I actually implement it, I’ll tell you. That’s the kind of honesty you won’t get anywhere else.

The Promise

My promise to you:

1. No BS If something is overhyped, I’ll tell you. If you don’t need it, I’ll say so. If a vendor is talking rubbish, I’ll call it out. I’m not here to win friends, I’m here to help everyone make good decisions.

2. Written for you, not at you. Every post considers the reality of business constraints: budget, time, expertise, and risk tolerance. I won’t tell you to “hire a dedicated cloud architect” when you’ve got one IT person who’s also fixing printers. Solutions will fit your world, whatever size that world is.

3. Practical over theoretical. You’ll get actionable advice you can implement this week, not academic discussions about architectural patterns you’d need a PhD to decode. Theory matters, but only when it helps you do something useful.

4. Vendor-neutral. I’m not here to sell you on a specific platform or tool. I’ll give you the pros and cons, tell you what works where, and let you decide. I’m not affiliated with any vendor, they do not pay me. That being said, if they’re offering beneficial affiliate terms, they can always reach out to me.

5. Real talk about costs. Because “contact us for pricing” is the most annoying phrase in technology, and anyone who won’t tell you roughly what something costs is hiding something. I’ll discuss actual numbers, real-world bills, and where the money actually goes.

6. I’ll admit if I don’t know. Cloud and security are vast fields. Nobody knows everything, and anyone who claims to do so is lying. If I don’t know something, I’ll tell you, and I’ll either find out or point you in the direction of someone who does know.

These aren’t marketing promises. This is how this blog works, full stop.

What’s Next?

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be publishing posts that build from the basics to more advanced topics. I’m starting with the fundamentals because, incoming controversial opinion, you can’t optimise what you don’t understand, and you can’t secure what you haven’t properly built.

The first few posts will cover:

• What cloud actually is (and why half the people using the term can’t define it)
• Why you should consider cloud (and, more importantly, when you probably shouldn’t)
• Cloud economics that make sense (because surprise bills aren’t a feature, they’re a failure)
• How to evaluate cloud providers (AWS vs Azure vs Google, without the marketing fluff)
• Migration without the madness (because “lift and shift” is not a strategy)

After those fundamentals I’ll get into the good stuff: cost optimisation strategies, security frameworks that actually work, compliance without the confusion, and real-world experiences from the platforms I’m actively building. That’s where the theory meets reality.

And if there’s something specific you want covered, a topic you’re wrestling with, a question that keeps you up at night, or a vendor pitch you want a second opinion on, let me know. This blog works best when it’s answering real questions from real people.

Let’s Build This Together

I won’t lecture from on high like some cloud guru on a mountain. I want this to be genuinely useful to everyone, which means it needs to address the problems you’re actually facing, not the ones I assume you have.

You can reach out through the contact form, and I’ll do my best to either write about it in an upcoming post or point you towards someone who knows more than I do. I’ll also be posting on LinkedIn in a mildly sarcastic tone to compliment what I write about here.

Before You Leave

There are hundreds of cloud and security blogs out there. Most of them are trying to sell something, consultancies trying to win contracts, or individuals trying to build personal brands.

This is none of those. My goal is simple: I want to provide real, actionable information for everyone, and if I can prevent businesses from being screwed over by expensive, ill-fitting advice that doesn’t address their concerns, then so be it.

Too many brilliant companies are held back by bad technology decisions, unfair pricing and “expertise” that was really just confident ignorance. The playing field is more level than it’s ever been, but only if you know how to navigate it.

So welcome to the StratusPhere. I’m glad to have you here.

The StratusPhere is the blog created by me, David Liddle, a Cloud Security Solution Architect with years of experience across cloud platforms, cybersecurity, and digital transformation projects. When I’m not helping businesses navigate their cloud journey, I’m probably explaining why “serverless” doesn’t mean there are no servers, or why that £200K “AI-powered security solution” is mostly marketing and a bit of machine learning from 2019, either that, or I’m busy playing dad taxi!