Notes on infrastructure, security and the GCC market.https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/en-gbhttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-14-dr-day2-operations/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-14-dr-day2-operations/Most DR I have seen was designed well. That was never the problem.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTDisasterRecoveryDay2OperationsCloudOperationsITLeadershiphttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-12-hidden-buying-process/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-12-hidden-buying-process/Nobody enjoys the admin. Mapping the decision process, finding the real approver, working out who actually holds the budget: it feels like paperwork that…Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTGCCMiddleEastEnterpriseSalesProcurementhttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-09-mfa-and-the-stolen-session/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-09-mfa-and-the-stolen-session/There's a comfortable belief doing the rounds in boardrooms: we have multi-factor authentication, so identity is handled. It's a good control and worth…Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCyberSecurityMFAIdentitySecurityInfoSechttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-07-the-brief-is-not-the-solution/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-07-the-brief-is-not-the-solution/The solution you ship rarely resembles the one you were asked for.Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTGCCMiddleEastPresalesSolutionArchitecturehttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-05-backup-isnt-dr/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-05-backup-isnt-dr/Two different problems, sold as if they were one.Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTDisasterRecoveryBusinessContinuityCloudInfrastructureGCChttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-02-ai-agent-is-an-account/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-07-02-ai-agent-is-an-account/Most of the noise about AI agents is about what they can do. The more useful question, and the one fewer people are asking, is what they're allowed to do.Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAIagentsCyberSecurityIdentitySecurityInfoSechttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-30-shared-responsibility/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-30-shared-responsibility/Is it secure?Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTCloudSecuritySharedResponsibilityCyberSecurityhttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-28-regulatory-deadline-urgency/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-28-regulatory-deadline-urgency/We need the proposal today. And the SAMA compliance questionnaire, completed. We submit tomorrow.Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTSaudiArabiaFinancialServicesComplianceCyberSecurityhttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-25-pricing-a-guess/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-25-pricing-a-guess/Procurement gets handed a spec: 32 cores, 256GB RAM, 4TB of disk. So procurement goes to market and asks four vendors to price 32 cores, 256GB RAM, 4TB of disk.Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTPresalesCloudMigrationFinOpsSolutionArchitecturehttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-23-repatriation/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-23-repatriation/We're moving everything to cloud." Said as if it's self-evidently the right answer for everything. It isn't.Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTCloudFinOpsCloudMigrationInfraStrategyhttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-21-data-residency/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-21-data-residency/In a lot of markets, you design the architecture and check compliance at the end. Here, that order gets you in trouble.Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTDataSovereigntyCloudSecurityGCCCompliancehttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-19-legacy-system/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-19-legacy-system/Is it just me, or has anyone else all but forgotten how to write by hand?Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTLegacySystemsDigitalHabitshttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-18-map-is-local/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-18-map-is-local/I spent years in the European market assuming I understood how business worked. Then I moved to the GCC and realised I understood how business worked *in…Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTGCCCareerJourneyhttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-16-ai-powered/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-16-ai-powered/AI-powered." It's on every security datasheet now. Which is roughly the problem.Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTAICyberSecurityAISecurityInfoSechttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-14-dubai-pace/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-14-dubai-pace/Dubai does not do "good enough for now.Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTDubaiGCChttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-11-spec-sheet/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-11-spec-sheet/In the UK, the spec sheet does a lot of the selling. Score highest against the requirements matrix, come in compliant on price, and you're usually in the…Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTGCCEnterpriseSalesMiddleEastB2Bhttps://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-09-pci-dss/https://www.mandeeps.co.uk/blog/2026-06-09-pci-dss/Does your datacentre have PCI DSS certification?Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTPCIDSSComplianceCloudSecurityCyberSecurity