Leadership
What CTOs actually want from consultancies in 2025
Less theatre, more accountability. Notes from conversations with technology leaders this year.
Read article →The patterns in this article come from our work with large enterprises across regulated and fast-moving sectors. The aim is not to be exhaustive - it is to surface the handful of decisions we see making the biggest difference in practice.
1. The cost curve of security
A vulnerability discovered in design costs minutes to fix. The same vulnerability discovered in production can cost weeks, public trust, and - in regulated sectors - fines. Every practice in this article is an attempt to push discovery as far left as possible.
2. Threat modelling as a habit
Lightweight threat modelling at the start of every meaningful change adds a few hours and routinely catches design-level issues that no scanner will ever find. The trick is keeping it lightweight enough that teams actually do it.
3. Paved roads beat policy
Long security policies that nobody reads are no match for a paved-road platform that makes the secure choice the default. Pre-approved service templates, baked-in identity, automatic patching and central secret management remove dozens of decisions from individual teams.
4. Treat findings as you treat bugs
Vulnerabilities should flow into the same backlog as functional bugs, with the same triage rhythm and SLA discipline. A separate “security backlog” is where issues go to be ignored politely.
Where to start
If any of the above resonates with what you are working through, we are always happy to compare notes - without obligation. Email is the best way to reach us: customerservices@halfteck.com.