Managed PostgreSQL vs. self-hosted PostgreSQL: Key benefits and trade-offs

By Dustin Ward

Summary This post is for technical decision makers evaluating where to run production PostgreSQL workloads. It compares two valid operating models—self-managed PostgreSQL and a managed database service—through business and operational outcomes: control, engineering capacity, resilience, security, cost predictability, risk tolerance, and access to specialist expertise. The right choice depends on which responsibilities the organization needs…

The Economics of Agent Optimization: Four ways to lower the cost

By Dustin Ward

This blog post is the second of a four-part series called The Economics of Agent Optimization which shares the strategies, capabilities, and proof points to help you optimize agent costs and run AI as a managed investment system on Microsoft Foundry. The first post set out the three decisions that system rests on: optimize each…

The patch window is collapsing: Why security needs a new control plane

By Dustin Ward

For decades, cybersecurity defenders have relied on a relatively straightforward model: a vulnerability is disclosed, security teams assess exposure, test available fixes, deploy patches into production, and ultimately close the risk before attackers can exploit it at scale.  That model increasingly reflects a world that no longer exists. Today’s enterprises operate thousands of interconnected workloads…

Happy 20th Birthday, Amazon EC2

By Dustin Ward

Twenty years ago today, Jeff Barr wrote a blog post that launched the Amazon EC2 Beta. That single post introduced resizable Linux virtual servers in the cloud, billed by the hour, with one instance type (m1.small) in one Region (US East). It was minimal yet useful, and it changed how the world thinks about computing…