What we think
What we learn, written down
Research, perspectives and field notes from our work. We publish what we find in the systems we build and run, including the parts that did not go to plan.
Our approach
We write about what we see in our clients' systems every week: where the money goes, what breaks, what lasts. Every piece starts from data we gathered or work we did ourselves, and says plainly what we do not yet know.
Two studies run every year: The maintenance dividend, on where engineering budgets go, and Platform pulse, on what technology leaders plan to fund next. Between them we hear from more than 450 leaders a year.
Perspectives are shorter. They are written by the partners and engineers who did the work, and they end with something you can do on Monday.
Latest
Latest thinking
Our most recent research, perspectives and announcements. Point at a card for the short version.
Announcement
KIASA launches Canopy, a managed platform team for mid-size enterprises
A standing team that runs your cloud platform, keeps it secure and reports back each month in plain language.
Perspective
Why the second year of a cloud migration matters more than the first
The move itself is the easy part. Costs, habits and ownership settle in year two, and that is where most of the promised value is won or lost.
Research report
Platform pulse: what engineering leaders will fund in 2027
Budgets are flat; expectations are not. Our annual survey of 320 technology leaders shows where the money moves next year.
Research report
The maintenance dividend
We asked 140 engineering leaders where their budgets go. On average, 61% is spent keeping existing systems running. The best performers spend half that.
Research report
AI in the back office: where the first real savings are showing up
Across 60 finance, claims and supply teams, the returns so far come from four unglamorous tasks. We name them, with numbers.
Film series
Grown with KIASA
The people who run the systems we helped build tell the story in their own words. Six short films, hosted by our managing partner.
Perspective
Green software is mostly just good software
The code that wastes the least energy is usually the code that is simplest to run. A practical look at carbon as an engineering measure.
Research report
Security debt: the quiet risk on the balance sheet
Unpatched systems behave like unpaid loans: the interest compounds. A way to measure the exposure, and a plan for paying it down.
Research programs
Three bodies of research, renewed every year
Each program asks the same core questions every year, so the answers can be compared over time.
The maintenance dividend
Where engineering budgets actually go, and what the teams that spend least on standing still do differently. 140 leaders in 2026.
Read the 2026 reportPlatform pulse
Our annual survey of what technology leaders will fund next year, and what they will cut to pay for it. 320 leaders this year.
Read Platform pulse 2027Field studies
Close studies of a single question, measured inside client teams: what AI saves in the back office, and what unpatched systems really cost.
Read AI in the back office
Behind the research
Where our numbers come from
We publish our method with every report: who we asked, when, and which answers we could check against budgets and logs.
- 320
- Technology leaders surveyed for Platform pulse 2027, across ten industries.
- 140
- Engineering leaders who shared their budgets for The maintenance dividend.
- 60
- Finance, claims and supply teams measured before and after they put AI to work.
- 52
- Security assessments analyzed to put a number on security debt.
KIASA research programs, 2025 to 2026. Methods are set out in each report.
How we write
Written by the people who did the work
Our authors are practitioners. The partner who led a migration writes about migrations; the engineer who cut a client's compute bill writes about carbon. Nobody writes from a brief they did not live through.
We name what failed as well as what worked, we show our sample sizes, and we correct a piece in public when a later study changes the answer.
See how we workClient stories
From our client work
The research starts here: systems we helped build, and how they are working today.
Insurance
How Halden Mutual settles claims in two days, not nine
A claims core replaced one product line at a time, without a freeze.
Read the case study
Logistics and Transport
Osprey Freight plans 4,000 routes a night on one platform
Three planning tools became one, and the evening shift got four hours back.
Read the case study
Healthcare
Tessera Health brings 38 clinics onto a single patient record
One record for 420,000 patients, moved clinic by clinic over weekends.
Read the case study
Energy and Utilities
Varda Energy reads two million meters without a mainframe
96 million reads a day, and a mainframe switched off without a billing error.
Read the case study
Explore
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Get new research when it is published
Choose the topics you care about and we will send each new report on the day it comes out. No more than two emails a month.