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Stackit Fibre Optics
April 5, 2026 |

STACKIT 2: STACKIT vs AWS Core Services Compared

STACKIT 2: STACKIT vs AWS — Core Services Compared If you have built your infrastructure on AWS, the first practical question when looking at STACKIT is simple: what replaces what? This post maps STACKIT’s core services against their AWS equivalents. STACKIT does not mirror every service in the AWS catalogue, but for standard production workloads, the coverage is strong. Compute: EC2 → STACKIT Compute Engine STACKIT Compute Engine provides virtual machine instances built on OpenStack Nova. The configuration model is familiar: you choose vCPUs, RAM, and a boot image, much like you would with EC2. Flavours, which are the OpenStack
Stackit Fibre Optics
April 2, 2026 |

STACKIT 1: The Case for German Sovereign Cloud

STACKIT 1: The Case for German Sovereign Cloud — Why STACKIT Exists STACKIT is not a startup cloud provider trying to catch up with AWS on features. It is the cloud infrastructure built and operated by Schwarz Digits, the technology arm of the Schwarz Group, the German company behind Lidl and Kaufland. The Schwarz Group operates in 32 countries, serves hundreds of millions of customers each year, and processes a volume of transactions that puts it among the largest IT operators in Europe. STACKIT was built to support that scale, under German law and on German soil. Opening it up
Old school floppy disk drive data storage
September 6, 2025 |

Migration 6: Why Legacy Database Projects Take Longer Than You’d Expect — And Why That Works in Your Favour

Migration 6: Why Legacy Database Projects Take Longer Than You’d Expect — And Why That Works in Your Favour A Question We Get Asked a Lot How long will this take? The honest answer is: longer than you might expect. A straightforward migration from a legacy system to a modern cloud-hosted application will usually take several months, from the first conversation to go-live. A larger or more complex project may take longer. Before that puts you off, it is worth explaining what that time actually involves – and why the timeline often works in your favour. The Complexity Is on
Old school floppy disk drive data storage
August 29, 2025 |

Migration 5: Still Running on Access, FoxPro or an Old Bespoke System? You’re Not Alone

Migration 5: Still Running on Access, FoxPro or an Old Bespoke System? You’re Not Alone You Are in Good Company If you are still running a legacy database system, it can feel as though you are the last organisation on earth still doing it. You are not. Many charities, NGOs, professional bodies, and voluntary organisations across Ireland and the UK are in exactly the same position. These systems were well built for their time. They did the job, and because they did, nobody replaced them. Now the world has moved on, and they have not. Here is a plain-language guide
Old school floppy disk drive data storage
August 22, 2025 |

Migration 4: If the Server Dies on Monday, What Happens on Tuesday?

Migration 4: If the Server Dies on Monday, What Happens on Tuesday? The Question Nobody Wants to Answer Ask yourself this: if the system your organisation relies on every day stopped working tomorrow morning – crashed, corrupted, or refusing to start – what would you do? Not in theory. In practice. Who would you call? What would you do for the people who need that data today? How long could your organisation function without it? Most people, when they think it through, do not like the answer. How Legacy Systems Fail Legacy database failures are rarely dramatic. More often than
Old school floppy disk drive data storage
August 15, 2025 |

Migration 3: What Happens When Your GDPR Officer Opens Pandora’s Box

Migration 3: What Happens When Your GDPR Officer Opens Pandora’s Box The Audit That Changes Everything More charities and voluntary organisations across Ireland and the UK are now hiring GDPR officers or undergoing external GDPR audits as a condition of funding or accreditation. For most organisations, the day-to-day systems seem fine. The website has a privacy policy. Staff understand the basics of data handling. Email is managed appropriately. And then the auditor looks at the database. What They Typically Find In legacy systems – Access databases, FoxPro, and bespoke systems built in the 1990s or 2000s – GDPR officers often
Old school floppy disk drive data storage
August 8, 2025 |

Migration 2: What Does It Cost to Migrate a Legacy Database?

Migration 2: What Does It Cost to Migrate a Legacy Database? Let’s Talk Money First Most people only get to the pricing conversation at the end of a long process, after discovery calls, requirements gathering, and proposals. By that stage, they may have spent hours only to discover the budget does not match the reality. We would rather save everyone from that frustration. So here are some honest ballpark figures. Ballpark Figures Simple system migration:  (Access, FoxPro, Excel, dBase to a modern cloud-hosted web application): from €6,000 ex VAT Larger system: with reports, APIs, integrations, and complex workflows: from €12,000
Old school floppy disk drive data storage
August 1, 2025 |

Migration 1: Your Charity’s Oldest Database Might Be Its Biggest Risk

Migration 1: Your Charity’s Oldest Database Might Be Its Biggest Risk You Know the One Every organisation has one. The database that has been there since before most of the current staff joined. The one that only runs on a specific laptop. The one where everyone knows not to click the wrong button. The one built by someone who retired years ago, leaving nobody quite sure how it works. It holds your member records. Your client files. Your financial history. Your grant allocations. In some cases, it holds information about vulnerable people – children, patients, or service users – that
User Experience Accessibility
June 29, 2025 |

WCAG Accessibility 8: Summary of Accessibility Improvements for Rainbows Ireland

WCAG Accessibility 8: Summary, Outcomes & Ongoing Commitment  This is the final post in our WCAG Accessibility series, where we summarise the improvements made and outline our ongoing approach to accessibility. View the full WCAG Accessibility Series In this final post in our WCAG accessibility series, we summarise the work carried out on the Rainbows Ireland website and outline our ongoing commitment to accessibility. This series has explored the practical steps taken to improve accessibility across the site, aligning with WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards. In the previous post, we focused on improving image accessibility and ensuring proper use of
User Experience Accessibility
June 22, 2025 |

WCAG Accessibility 7: Improving Alt Text and Image Accessibility on a WordPress Website

WCAG Accessibility 7: Images, Alt Text & Media Accessibility In the previous post, we focused on improving screen reader accessibility using semantic HTML and ARIA. In this post, we look at images and media, and how proper use of alt text improves accessibility for screen reader users. Read WCAG Accessibility 6: ARIA & Semantic HTML In this seventh post in our WCAG accessibility series, we focus on images and media — and how they can either support or block accessibility depending on how they are implemented. Images play an important role in communicating content, but without proper alternative text (alt
User Experience Accessibility
June 15, 2025 |

WCAG Accessibility 6: Improving Screen Reader Accessibility with ARIA and Semantic HTML

WCAG Accessibility 6: ARIA Roles & Semantic HTML In the previous post, we focused on keyboard navigation and improving focus visibility across the site. In this post, we look at how semantic HTML and ARIA help improve the experience for screen reader users. Read WCAG Accessibility 5: Improving Keyboard Navigation In this sixth post in our WCAG accessibility series, we focus on improving the experience for screen reader users by using semantic HTML and ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes. While visual improvements such as colour contrast and layout are important, accessibility also depends heavily on how content is structured
User Experience Accessibility
June 8, 2025 |

WCAG Accessibility 5: Improving Keyboard Navigation on a WordPress Website

WCAG Accessibility 5: Keyboard Navigation & Focus Management  In this fifth post in our WCAG accessibility series, we focus on keyboard accessibility — a critical requirement for users who cannot use a mouse. In the previous post, we focused on improving colour contrast to enhance readability and visual accessibility. In this post, we look at keyboard navigation and how ensuring full keyboard access improves usability for all users. Read WCAG Accessibility 4: Fixing Colour Contrast Issues   Ensuring that a website is fully usable via keyboard is a core part of WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance. It benefits users who
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