Blog
Field notes from the cloud.
Case studies, deep dives, and engineering practice from the Ordinary Experts team.
Multi-Region Resilience: Patterns and Pitfalls
Multi-region architectures are more accessible than ever, but the operational and cost realities still surprise teams. Here are the patterns that work, the pitfalls that show up consistently, and a framework for deciding what level of multi-region you actually need.
Migrating from Heroku to AWS: A 2026 Playbook
An updated playbook for migrating Heroku applications to AWS, drawing on lessons from the Firstech migration and several engagements since. The mechanics have stabilized; the tradeoffs have shifted.
AI Agents in Your DevOps Workflow: What Actually Works
After a year of operating AI agents in DevOps workflows, we have a clearer picture of where they earn their keep and where they create more risk than value. Here's what's actually worked.
State of AWS DevOps, 2026 Edition
A year-ahead look at where AWS DevOps practice is heading: the patterns we expect to be standard by year-end, the ones that won't pan out, and what teams should invest in now.
re:Invent 2025: The DevOps Highlights
Our take on re:Invent 2025 - the announcements that matter for AWS DevOps teams heading into 2026, organized by the impact on day-to-day work.
re:Invent 2025 Preview: What We're Watching
A short preview of the announcement areas we expect to define re:Invent 2025, and the questions we'll be evaluating each one against.
What ECS Actually Costs: Real Numbers from Real Workloads
ECS pricing pages tell you the unit costs. They don't tell you what the bill actually looks like once a workload is running for a year. Here are anonymized numbers from three real client workloads, and the cost levers that mattered most.
Self-Hosting WordPress on AWS: Three Architectures Compared
We've helped clients run WordPress on AWS in three distinct architectures: Lightsail for simplicity, our marketplace pattern for production workloads, and fully custom designs for the largest sites. Here's an honest comparison of where each fits.
re:Inforce 2025: The Boring Security Wins
re:Inforce is where the unglamorous, load-bearing security improvements get announced. Here are the four updates from this year that we think are worth your team's attention.
GitOps with CloudFormation: How We Run It
GitOps usually gets discussed in the context of Kubernetes. We've been running a GitOps approach with CloudFormation for years across our marketplace patterns and client engagements - here's the structure that works.