I’m a senior cloud and infrastructure engineer based in New Zealand. For more than 30 years I’ve designed, updated, secured and supported the IT systems that businesses run on. That covers Microsoft, Linux, macOS, virtual machines, networks and cloud platforms.
My work brings together infrastructure, identity (who can sign in to what), automation and AI. Over my career I’ve helped organisations move off old, manual, fragile systems and onto modern cloud services. What they end up with is cleaner, more secure, easier to manage, and ready for what comes next.
Today I work as a Senior Engineering Consultant. I move organisations onto Microsoft 365. I move their user accounts from Active Directory, which runs on their own servers, to Entra ID, Microsoft’s cloud sign-in service. I set up Intune and Autopilot, which let a company manage its laptops and prepare new ones automatically. I automate work with PowerShell and Microsoft Graph (the way programs talk to Microsoft 365), and I use AI to make everyday work faster.
I use AI as a practical tool. It helps me write better documentation, design scripts, track down faults in complex systems, check logic, build processes that can be repeated, and find better ways to deliver IT services. It doesn’t replace engineering judgement. It helps good judgement go further, with sensible limits, oversight and controls in place.
In plain English: I take messy, manual, half-documented IT systems and help turn them into something organised, repeatable, secure and easy to look after. This site is my personal portfolio and a record of my projects. My CV has the full career history.
Personal project
SouthpawStrings, built from start to finish
For a working example of what I build in my own time, read how SouthpawStrings.com came together. It’s a guitar practice site with secure sign-in (you can use an existing account, and add a second check such as a one-time code). User data is encrypted. It runs on Kubernetes servers I manage myself, with tight control over how traffic reaches them, and every release follows a careful process. I designed, coded, secured and run all of it myself, entirely outside my job.
AI, with an engineer in charge
One of my main rules for AI is simple: a human engineer should always stand between the client and the AI. I use AI to work faster, improve quality, explore options and cut repetitive work. But I don’t treat what an AI says as true just because it sounds confident.
I don’t trust what AI produces until it has been checked, limited, tested, and shown to work in the real systems it is for. That caution is part of what I bring. AI can be powerful, but judgement, knowing the client, security limits, and responsibility for keeping systems running still matter.
I’ve spent a lot of time with Claude, OpenAI and Codex, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, AI models running on my own computers, and AI tools that make images and music. My interest is practical. I use these tools to produce better documentation, scripts, troubleshooting, infrastructure designs, support processes and results, while people stay accountable for the work.
About this site
This is Andy Denley’s personal website. Southpaw Strings and the related projects are personal projects. I built them outside my job, with my own equipment, accounts, domains, licences and hosting. They use no confidential information, code, systems or assets from any employer or customer.
Denley Dynamic Development is the name I use to run my personal projects and to verify my developer accounts with platforms. It is not taking on private IT consulting work at the moment.