Q&A
What inspired you to start this company?
I had worked for consultancy firms for several years, working primarily in AWS environments and it felt like the right time to take the next step. I feel my background across various private sector industries, such as Tax, Insurance, Retail and E-Commerce stands me in good stead to lead and inspire others to work alongside Digital Endeavours.
What sets your company apart from other cloud consultancy firms?
Haha! That’s easy, some of the agencies around are getting a reputation for not delivering quality. We believe in being transparent, we won’t promise to deliver the unachievable, we will show better ways that will increase performance, reduce costs and make processes seamless.
How do you ensure that your team stays up-to-date with the latest AWS developments and best practices?
It’s important to keep up with developments in the tech world but implementing the latest technologies rarely happens, businesses want stability and there’s always a balance between delivering value and not endorsing legacy technologies.
Can you describe a recent project where Digital Endeavours made a significant impact?
For this one it’s hard to pick one but I’m proud of the work we provided to MDRxTech. We took the project from nothing to a cost effective and scalable architecture incorporating business requirements at every step of the way. One of the smaller pieces of work we heavily influenced was the Alpha release of the National Archives project An Archive for Everyone.
What are the core values that drive your company’s mission and vision?
I’ve always felt my approach to others in the world is distinctive, rather than focusing on what I can get out of something, I look at what I can provide for others. Digital Endeavours takes that approach to everything we do and will always strive to adhere to that.
How do you approach customising solutions for different clients’ needs?
As our contact page mentions, we provide a free consultation period for new clients. The point of this is to discuss requirements as to what each business needs and whether we are the right fit to provide them.
What are some common challenges businesses face when migrating to AWS, and how do you help them overcome these challenges?
The biggest of these is to realise treating the cloud like on-prem won’t be efficient. AWS can become complex and this is why specialists like us build infrastructure in the cloud. The simplest explanation of this is to work with AWS services rather than a lift and shift approach. The other major factor is that AWS can become expensive if not managed well. Businesses should make use of the cost planning and optimisation tools.
What future trends do you see in the cloud industry, and how is your company preparing to address them?
It’s common to see emerging trends around every 5 years, of course new technology arrives more frequently. A few years ago, Docker became prevalent in the industry and a push towards more containerised applications, making use of AWS services such as ECS and EKS. as we’re around Autumn 2024, AI has emerged onto the scene, whilst not being new - the Turing Test was published in 1950, followed by Ferranti Mark 1 in 1951 Recently, OpenAI and other tools have become common, AWS has a plethora of tools, as detailed on our blog pages.)
How do you measure the success of your consultancy projects?
There’s a simple approach to this one, we ask ourselves “Why would the customer keep coming back?”. As with any business, customer satisfaction is key. As a consultancy, how the client feels, both during and after working with us is an assessment of our success.
How can potential clients get in touch with your team to discuss their needs?
There’s a contact page with details and there’s an email address at the footer of each page.
What are your views on IR35?
Obviously, this is a business page and any contact via here should be deemed as intending to be outside IR35. That being said, I am open to working Inside IR35 under the right circumstances (an appropriate day rate and fully remote). As a principle I find IR35 is sometimes misunderstood by both companies and some recruiters, sometimes it is just manipulated by a company as contracts can be written as desired.
