Technology know-how in the AI era
Articles from the Siri9 team on website maintenance, custom software operations, security, backups, AI-native systems and vibe coding for businesses.
The Hidden Costs of Running Your Own Website and Software: 7 Items Businesses Miss
Self-managing a website or custom software looks cheap until you count 7 hidden costs: owner time, downtime, security, infrastructure, single-person dependency, technical debt and delayed opportunities. Here is how to calculate and reduce them.
What Is an SLA, and Why Every Software Owner Should Care
An SLA is a written commitment on response time, resolution time and system availability. This guide explains the numbers inside an SLA, how to read one, what to demand from an operations partner, and a sensible template for small business websites and software.
A Backup Isn't Enough, Being Able to Restore Is What Saves You
Many businesses have backups but have never tested a restore, only to find the backup corrupt, incomplete or weeks old when it matters. This guide covers the 3-2-1 rule, the two metrics RPO and RTO, a restore-testing checklist, and how Siri9 handles backups for customer websites and software.
In-House Tech Team or Outsourced Operations? The Cost and Risk Math for Small Businesses
A real-number comparison in Vietnam between hiring an in-house engineer, using a freelancer and retaining a monthly operations partner for a small business website or custom software, with a comparison table, 5 questions to choose by, and the hybrid model.
AI for Small Business: The 4 Tasks to Automate First
Small businesses do not need a full "AI transformation". Start with 4 tasks that repeat daily, eat staff hours and already have data: answering customers, processing documents, compiling reports, and monitoring systems. Selection criteria, how each is done, costs, and how to run them afterwards.
Building a Data Platform for a Growing Business: What to Build, in What Order, and What to Skip
A data platform is the layer that gathers data from every system a business uses into one place where it can be trusted and reported on. This guide explains the 5 building blocks, the order to build them in for a company of 20 to 200 people, what a realistic budget looks like, the 6 mistakes that waste the most money, and how the platform becomes the foundation for AI later.
Building a Winning Go-to-Market Strategy: The 30-Point Technical Checklist Before Launching a Website or App
A go-to-market strategy is not only marketing. Launch day is when a website or app carries its heaviest load, receives its closest scrutiny, and turns every technical fault into a brand fault. This article provides a 30-point technical checklist in 6 groups (infrastructure, security, performance, measurement, content and SEO, operations), a 4-week pre-launch schedule, and a plan for the first 72 hours.
Machine Learning Fundamentals for Business Leaders: Enough to Decide, Not to Code
Business leaders do not need to understand algorithms, but they need 7 concepts to avoid being sold the wrong "AI": training data, models, predictions with probabilities, accuracy and how it is measured, overfitting, data drift, and large language models. Each is explained with business examples, plus 6 questions to ask before signing any AI project.
Why AI Agents Are Transforming Business Operations, and How They Differ from Chatbots
An AI agent does not just answer like a chatbot; it carries out a chain of tasks: reads a request, looks up systems, opens a ticket, sends a quote. This article explains AI agents through a real operations example, distinguishes them from chatbots and classic automation, lists 4 suitable tasks for small businesses, and the limits to know before deploying.