On-Premises Hosting in 2026: Why It's 7x More Expensive Than Cloud
On-premises hosting costs £327-771/month vs cloud at £37-93/month. Only 3 scenarios justify self-hosting. Here's the full breakdown.
Topic
Architecture Decisions
Practical guidance on software architecture patterns, system design trade-offs, and technology choices. 22 articles
Render, Railway, Fly.io: When PaaS Beats Cloud for .NET Applications
PaaS platforms (Render, Railway, Fly.io) cost £44-96/month with zero infrastructure work. For small teams, they beat cloud on TCO.
European Cloud Providers: 50-80% Cheaper Than Azure with GDPR Built-In
European clouds (Hetzner, Scaleway, OVH) offer 50-80% savings over Azure. UK data centres available. Full GDPR compliance included.
Stop Paying for Kubernetes: 5 Providers with Free Control Planes (2026)
Azure, AWS, and GCP charge £45-58/month for Kubernetes control planes. 5 providers offer them free. Save £700/year instantly.
Azure Alternatives: UK Cloud Hosting Comparison for .NET Applications (2026 Pricing)
Compare Azure to 8 UK cloud providers. Save 50-85% on hosting costs with DigitalOcean, Hetzner, and OVHcloud. Includes 2026 UK pricing.
Retrospective on Experience at Spa Space
If you adopt only one agile practice, let it be retrospectives. Everything else will follow. – Woody Zuill, Agile coach, on Twitter Key...
Enterprise Architecture at Spa Space Inc
Spa Space Inc specializes in wellness solutions, offering a unique blend of technology and luxury spa experiences. They focus on...
Retrospective: What I'd Do Differently if I Rebuilt HCD Today
Looking back on my time at Holiday Caravans Direct (HCD), I'm proud of what I built. As a solo developer, I designed and implemented a...
The Booking Engine That Could: Handling Custom Pricing and Preferences at Scale
When I began developing the booking engine for Holiday Caravans Direct (HCD), I knew it would need to do more than just store bookings....
White-Labelling at Scale: The Challenge Behind the BenPal Portal
One of the most technically rewarding challenges I faced at JLT Development was architecting support for white-labelling within the...
Why I Push Back on SQL-Driven Architectures (and When They Still Make Sense)
If there's one architectural debate that seems to resurface in every project, it's whether business logic belongs in the application...
Designing a Booking Calendar That Doesn't Break Under Load
One of the most technically demanding features I built at Holiday Caravans Direct (HCD) was the booking calendar. It sounds simple on the...