AboutAnthony

I'm a software engineer, cloud architect and development manager based in Nottinghamshire, England. I started programming Atari BASIC on my 800XL when I was 8 years old... that feels like a REALLY long time ago, now!

I don't like to constrain myself to specific technologies, but my focus is primarily around reliable web-based systems. I have extensive knowledge and experience with PHP, MySQL, Javascript and CSS, as you'd expect from most people who have worked with web technologies for a long time. I also work with other languages where appropriate, and especially enjoy working with Go

Over the past few years I have worked on CTF platforms as the engineering manager for the world's leading cyber security training company, SANS Institute. Before that, I was the senior technical and systems architect for the world's most reliable cloud alarm receiving platform, webeyeCMS. Earlier still, I led the rebuilding of the Company Check website, where it was migrated from a legacy Yii application to a micro-service oriented architecture, using AWS services to handle scale and ensure reliability. The technology behind this rebuild included services written on top of the Slim PHP Framework, a Laravel front end, an ElasticSearch search engine, and a small number of Go services that handled long-running, highly concurrent jobs.

Going back further, I worked for TFC International, The Activ Group and A1Comms (owners of A1Comms.co.uk, BuyMobilePhones.net and MobileShop.com). Before that I worked for the Dixons Stores Group (PCWorld, Currys, Mastercare/The Tech Guys etc).

The intention has always been to keep this site up to date with the latest things that pique my interest, but the reality is that I rarely have the time to post anything. That said, I do appreciate all feedback, either via the contact form or using the comments at the bottom of every post. Maybe one day I'll make my contributions more frequent