I am a New Zealand-based senior cloud and infrastructure engineer with more than 20 years' experience designing, modernising, securing, and supporting enterprise IT environments across Microsoft, Linux, macOS, virtualisation, networking, and cloud platforms.
My work sits at the intersection of infrastructure, identity, automation, and AI-assisted operations. Across my career I have helped organisations move from legacy, manual, fragile systems into modern cloud-first environments that are cleaner, more secure, easier to manage, and better prepared for what comes next.
My current role as a Senior Engineering Consultant at Business Technology Group involves Microsoft 365 migrations, hybrid Active Directory to Entra ID transitions, Intune and Autopilot deployments, PowerShell and Microsoft Graph API automation, and AI-assisted workflow optimisation.
I use AI as a practical engineering accelerator: to improve documentation, design scripts, troubleshoot complex systems, review logic, build repeatable processes, and explore better ways of delivering IT services. The goal is not to replace engineering judgement. It is to amplify it, with sensible restrictions, governance, and operational controls.
In plain English: I take messy, manual, half-documented IT environments and help turn them into something structured, repeatable, secure, and maintainable. I currently apply this experience in my role with Business Technology Group. This site is my personal portfolio and project archive — commercial consulting enquiries should be directed through BTG.
Personal project
SouthpawStrings — built end-to-end
For a working example of what I build in my own time, read how SouthpawStrings.com came together: a personal music technology project with OAuth and multi-factor authentication, encrypted user data, self-hosted Kubernetes, zero-trust ingress, and a disciplined release process — designed, coded, secured, and operated end-to-end, entirely outside employment.
About BTG
I deliver consulting work through Business Technology Group, a New Zealand managed IT, cloud, security, connectivity, and workplace technology provider. If this sounds like the kind of help your organisation needs, start with BTG and mention Andy Denley.
Engineer-led AI
One of my key principles for AI use is simple: a human engineer should always sit between clients and AI. I use AI to accelerate delivery, improve quality, explore options, and reduce repetitive work, but I do not treat model output as truth just because it arrived confidently.
I am deeply sceptical of what AI offers until it has been checked, constrained, tested, and made useful in the real operating environment. That scepticism is part of the value: AI can be powerful, but engineering judgement, client context, security boundaries, and operational responsibility still matter.
I have spent substantial time working with Claude, OpenAI and Codex, Google Gemini, locally hosted models, DeepSeek, image generation, music generation, and other AI systems. My interest is practical AI adoption: using these tools to build better documentation, scripts, troubleshooting workflows, infrastructure patterns, support processes, and engineering outcomes while keeping humans accountable for the work.
About this site
This is Andy Denley's personal website. Southpaw Strings and related projects are personal projects built outside employment using personal equipment, accounts, domains, licences, and hosting. No BTG confidential information, customer information, code, systems, or assets are used. While employed by BTG, commercial IT consulting enquiries should be directed through BTG.
Denley Dynamic Development is used for administration of personal projects and platform/developer account verification. It is not currently accepting private IT consulting work.