Over the years I’ve had to manage an increasing number of servers, and recently I was tasked with an entire organisation’s servers of which I knew nothing about. The institutional knowledge had been lost - but the clock needs to keep ticking over. After making sure everything was good and nothing would fall over, I decided to do some research into the best tool for the job. I came across Ansible, invested some time learning it, and have never looked back. »
It’s been so long since the last post it got to the point of awkwardness, “How do I reintroduce myself? Should it be a weekly update?”. The past six months have had some interesting developments. End of an era At the top of the list is the most recent development, I have left my previous employer CSG and am now a free man (or “unpaid” man depending on your view). »
At the end of every year, I do a review of the previous year and plan for the year ahead. I find this is far more helpful than general new year resolutions and more often than not super motivating. There’s something really great in seeing what were (at the time) audacious goals being met and often pushed beyond. I thought I’d drop a brief summary of last year and lay down some of the plans for the year ahead. »
This post is the first in a series on distributed banking. Over the last few months I’ve been seriously looking at the current banking landscape - the issues facing current banking institutions in playing catch-up with fintech startups eating revenue, the increasing revenue decline from current accounts and the risk-related incentive to maintain current core banking solutions. The focus of this post will be the movement of current accounts into a utility offering one possible implementation to this idea. »
In this post I will detail the most recent additions to the banking project: multiple accounts per user and merchant accounts. Multiple accounts per user When I first started developing the project, I decided to do a one-to-one on users and accounts. The logic was that this would be the most simple implementation I could do that would allow me to still work on the more complex parts of the system. »
The weekly updates have been sorely lacking lately. It’s been a busy period, and the main driver has been getting settled in to a new location - London. Move to London Over the last few weeks I’ve been organising a move to London with my girlfriend. Getting the place in Leeds rented, finding a place in London, settling all the fees, packing and finally moving has been pretty time consuming. »
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working mostly on the mobile application using React Native. The app is in a good state and I am currently getting it ready for store release. Screenshots I put a lot of effort into the design and UX of the application as this will be the first stop for any consumers. Overall I am really happy with the way it turned out. As always there are tweaks to be done, but for now a great starting point. »
The past few weeks have gone by quickly. dayJob is staying steady and side project development is picking up really nicely. Banking project Over the past while I’ve put more thought into the project and how to take it forward. These sessions are pretty important, I’m trying to weigh the place in the market and how this project could have the best impact. This is for everything from deployment to functionality. »
When I first got to the UK at the top of my to-do list was to get a bank account. Aside from it being nearly impossible without having any bills in your name at an address (this is harder than it sounds) I finally got an account with Lloyds. Why Lloyds? They had a nice font. Differentiators The biggest thing I noticed when I was bank shopping was the lack of differentiation between them. »
I’m finally starting to settle into staying in another country. Leeds is a pretty great city and I’m in love with the most awesome running route. Still getting used to it being light at 22:00 though. Bank project Slow and steady has been the name of the game here. I’ve been researching a few issues around the implementation of a distributed model. I’ve also been in touch with a few people in the banking sector who will undoubtedly bring some great insight to the project. »