A 12-step guide to AWS cost optimisation
This article outlines the pragmatic approach that weāve followed here at FreeAgent in our first 18 months of using AWS to increase our cost efficiency. Using this approach, weāve already cut our AWS spend by 50%, and we estimate we can save another 30% a year by implementing further efficiencies. Here are 12 things weāve learned along the way. Our strategy 1. Donāt optimise for cost too early We fully… Continue reading
In full flow: moving from Jenkins to Actions – Part 1
At FreeAgent a recent project to move our Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) workflows from Jenkins to GitHub Actions has brought some real benefits. In this post weāll cover the background of our CI/CD pipelines, why we wanted to change how they run, and how we decided on GitHub Actions. In the next post weāll cover how we handled the migration, and how we solved the challenges we encountered. But letās… Continue reading
How we structure our data teams at FreeAgent
Since joining FreeAgent back in April Iāve been both impressed and interested with how the Data organisation is structured. Iāve come from an enterprise world where you have lots of Data Engineers, a team of dedicated Data Architects and a separate Business Intelligence org. A few things that immediately struck me at FreeAgent were: No one has the title āData EngineerāData Analytics are part of the Engineering orgNo one has… Continue reading
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10 tips and tricks for a good intern job application
Weāve recently completed the hiring for this year's cohort of summer interns and as a result weāve processed hundreds of applications; just across our data teams we had over 600 this year! For many of these applicants, who tend to still be at university or have recently graduated, this is likely to be one of the first āprofessionalā roles that they are applying for. As such they might not be… Continue reading
The three skills you need to be a Data Analyst, and how to get them – Part 3
In the third blog in the series, we discuss the skills you need to become a Data Analyst, this time covering Data Evanglism. Continue reading
The three skills you need to be a Data Analyst, and how to get them – Part 2
In the second blog in the series, we discuss the skills you need to become a Data Analyst, this time covering Data Analysis. Continue reading
The three skills you need to be a Data Analyst, and how to get them – Part 1
In the first blog in the series, we discuss the skills you need to become a Data Analyst, this time covering Data Engineering. Continue reading
The legendary data warehouse application
In spring 2014, I created an internal Ruby on Rails app called data-warehouse. In this blog post Iām going to describe what it was, how it came to be and why, against what would appear to be all reasonable logic, it became the central part of our data infrastructure for about eight years. Continue reading
Hosting Women Who Code Edinburgh
Last week FreeAgent hosted Women Who Code Edinburgh. We welcomed more than 20 people from a range of backgrounds and locations - due to COVID restrictions we had to host online this time. After an introduction to Women Who Code, we gave three presentations. I gave a talk on Agile Estimation, explaining how Agile estimation works, estimating using relative rather than absolute measures such as time, and the benefits of… Continue reading
Trading the lab coat for the computer – my journey to data science
I became a data scientist just over two years ago. Itās not that long since I traded my lab coat for a computer job, and a few people have asked me how I made the transition, if I could help someone get into data or if I could just answer some questions about what itās like to work in data. So I figured I would put it all together in… Continue reading