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Michael Earls
  • Leadership
    • Start Here
    • All Leadership
  • Strategy
    • Start Here
    • Enterprise Governance
    • Identity & Security
    • Platform Architecture
    • Multi-Cloud Strategy
    • Cloud Strategy Principles
    • AI & Agentic Systems
    • Cloud Cost Strategy
    • 7 Rs Modernization
    • Lift and Shift Isn’t Transformation
    • AI Agents + Cloud Spend
    • No One Owns – AI
    • Drinking the Future Water
  • Books
    • Start Here
    • Finding Direction in the Age of AI
    • Wired For Purpose
    • The Digital Compass
  • Change
    • Start Here
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    • Reflection
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Posts Tagged ‘Cloud Platforms’

Platform First: Paved Roads, Freedom, and the Cost of Both

By mearls | January 20, 2026
Platform-first cloud architecture showing paved roads with guardrails guiding teams toward scalable and secure cloud platforms

Platforms don’t fail when teams go around them. They fail when the road no longer leads where work needs to go.

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Leadership, technology, and the human side of change. Author of three books on finding direction in a world that won't slow down.

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