Sharing my thoughts, one coffee at a time.

Personal blog of Serge van Namen

Sovereign Cloud Isn’t a Migration Problem

Most teams treat sovereign cloud like a logistics problem. Spin up a local region. Wrap it in compliance. Copy the infra. Move the data. Done. But this isn’t about copying and pasting your stack into a new jurisdiction. It’s about accepting a new reality: the cloud is no longer neutral ground. A new law, a new sanction, or a new interpretation of “access” can ripple through your architecture overnight. Sovereignty means, besides control, knowing where your data lives, who can touch it, and what happens if the situation changes tomorrow. ...

April 9, 2025 · 164 words · Serge van Namen

The Cloud Vending Machine

There’s a metaphor I keep coming back to when I think about modern cloud development: the vending machine. Think about it. When you walk up to a vending machine, you don’t wonder how it was stocked or who maintains it. You just press a button and get what you need. Fast, predictable, and (usually ;-)) reliable. That’s how the cloud should work. But for most teams, building in the cloud still feels like assembling the vending machine from parts every time you want a snack. You’re setting up infrastructure, configuring pipelines, stitching together services, and navigating endless layers of DevOps complexity. Even with great platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP, the work behind the scenes can be overwhelming—especially when velocity matters. ...

April 7, 2025 · 255 words · Serge van Namen

Generative AI II(I): Rise of the Agents

2025 is all about Agentic AI. Organizations rushing to the digital riverbed for ‘artificial’ gold, only to find themselves observing others trying to yield the same value without the right knowledge and tools. While the (applied) technology has a lot of potential, generating business value out of it is still at very early stages. There are a lot of products who bring DIY Agentic AI capabilities, yet embedding it in an organization and yielding value is where organizations struggle. People simply don’t know how to deal with and oversee ‘it’. Is it a threat? Do I lose control? Will it have a heartbeat? Will it do my dishes? ...

March 31, 2025 · 288 words · Serge van Namen