Single-Cloud First: Discipline, Not Dogma

By mearls | February 1, 2026

Cloud architecture showing a single paved road versus multiple branching paths, representing discipline versus complexity in multi-cloud strategy

Cloud conversations often frame single-cloud and multi-cloud as opposing strategies. One sounds flexible.The other sounds limiting.But that framing misses the point. Single-cloud first isn’t about loyalty. It’s about discipline. And discipline is what makes control possible. Most environments don’t start as multi-cloud. They gradually become multi-cloud: a SaaS platform here, a new workload there, an…

Agentic AI Isn’t Breaking Systems — It’s Exposing What We’ve Been Ignoring

By mearls | January 27, 2026

Agentic AI exposes cloud architecture weaknesses if identity and platform controls are unclear

Agentic AI isn’t breaking systems — it’s revealing identity and platform weaknesses we’ve tolerated. Architecture becomes operational safety at machine speed.

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.

Identity First: The Only Control Plane That Survives Every Cloud Decision

By mearls | January 13, 2026

Identity isn’t plumbing — it’s architecture. User, device, and code identity form the only control plane that survives every cloud decision.