Today is International Women in Tech Day, a global celebration recognising the contributions of women in technology and championing gender equality across the industry. It’s a day dedicated to fostering a more diverse and inclusive tech community and to mark the occasion, we’re proud to shine a spotlight on Shashi, who we’re celebrating as the face of the day here at BlakYaks.

BlakYaks is celebrating its fourth anniversary this month, and what a wonderful ride it's been! Most companies can take pride in expansion, and in our case, it really does hold true.
As we reflect on this milestone, we wanted to share the four core principles that have shaped us along the way. These guiding values have been key to our growth and the strength of our team, and we’re excited to highlight them in this blog as we look ahead to the future.

We’re thrilled to share that BlakYaks is becoming part of Proact Group, a Nasdaq-listed company headquartered in Stockholm. This marks a significant milestone in our journey, and we couldn’t be more excited about what this means for our customers, partners and team.

As organisations adopt cloud native platforms they must safeguard their environments against the pitfalls of organic growth, including cloud sprawl, misconfigurations, and technical debt. These challenges can hinder efficiency, increase security risks, and impact overall performance. In this blog, we provide several recommendations to help avoid these challenges, including implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC), right-sizing environments based on actual usage, and regularly assessing cloud platforms. By prioritising these practices, organisations can achieve a more secure, optimised, and resilient Azure deployment that supports their growth and innovation goals.

We are proud to announce that BlakYaks has been included in the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development™ list, compiled by Great Place To Work® (GPTW®), ranking third place among 100 companies in the ‘Small’ category. New for this year, the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development List recognises companies making employee development a key part of company culture. These workplaces offer employees the chance to better themselves, to learn new skills, and to progress within the organisation.

YakChat’s fourth podcast episode is now available. In our new episode, Craig Hurt, Cloud and DevOps Lead, joins BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, to discuss why Azure automation is central to modern business transformation and a critical driver for digital success.

We help clients to fill capability and experience gaps to accelerate Cloud and DevOps strategies bringing IP (e.g. designs, patterns, frameworks) to speed up deployments. With this engagement, customers will get a foundational view of their Azure DevOps and IaC maturity highlighting business problems, objectives and drivers.

YakChat’s third podcast episode is now available. In our new episode, Ollie Gayton, Head of Professional Services, and BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, discuss application modernisation on Azure and the critical role that platform modernisation and automation plays in modernising business services to support digital transformation.

It is BlakYaks' third anniversary this month and as a growing organisation, one of the primary challenges we've encountered as we scale the business is the shortage of cloud native expertise in the market (including IaC, Terraform, Kubernetes). The scarcity of “ready-made” cloud native consultants and engineers, coupled with our core belief in the importance of personal development, led us to launch our BlakYaks Technical Academy, affectionately nicknamed 'Yakademy'.

We are happy to announce we have achieved “Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security” status, our fourth MS Partner Designation. Having already earned designations in three Azure solution areas (Azure Digital & App Innovation with a Kubernetes advanced specialisation, Azure Infrastructure, and Data & AI), this new accomplishment complements our recent Cyber Essentials+ certification, underscoring our dedication to safeguarding our clients' digital environments and ensuring the highest level of security.

Shortly after being recognised for the second year running as a Great Place to Work®, we are proud to announce that BlakYaks has been named again as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ 2024 by GPTW®, the global authority on workplace culture.

We really want to thank everyone who paid BlakYaks a visit at DevOps Live 2024. The turnout exceeded our expectations for our first in-person event and we're absolutely excited about the engaging conversations and new connections made.

YakChat’s second podcast episode is now available. In our second episode, Stuart Anderson, Chief Engineer, and BlakYaks CEO, Dirk Anderson, discuss the evolving landscape of container technology and why businesses are turning to container technologies to bolster their digital transformation and application modernisation strategies.

Exciting news! We're delighted to announce our participation in DevOps Live 2024! Join us at one of the largest gatherings of DevOps and cloud professionals in the UK and don't miss the chance to drop by Booth L80, where you can meet us, have a chat with the Yaks, or ask anything you'd like to know about cloud native.

We are incredibly proud to have been selected as one of the finalists of the ‘New Business of the Year’ category at the Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2023. While we didn’t win the category, being shortlisted was a great honour and a fantastic recognition of the hard work our team put in every day.

We are thrilled to share that BlakYaks has been certified as a Great Place to Work® (GPTW®) for the second consecutive year. In 2022, BlakYaks achieved this prestigious certification for the first time and we are delighted to announce that our dedication to creating a positive workplace environment has once again been recognised. Read more.

We are happy to share that we have attained the Microsoft Azure Data & AI Solution Partner designation. This achievement complements our existing portfolio of Microsoft Solutions partner designations, which includes Azure Digital & App Innovation with Kubernetes Specialisation and Azure Infrastructure. The Data & AI designation strengthens our teams’ ability to collaborate seamlessly with our customers and data engineering/analytics partners to deliver enterprise-grade platforms capable of supporting big data and AI-infused workloads.

BlakYaks have proudly become a signatory of the Tech Talent Charter (TTC), showcasing our commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. The TTC, a government-supported initiative, unites over 700 organisations to drive diversity and inclusion efforts. We actively promote gender diversity, continuous skills development and equitable career progression, ensuring all employees have equal opportunities to thrive. Read more about our recent partnership and our D&I commitments.