2026
Building a Custom Claude Code Statusline
I was watching a YouTube video about someone’s Claude Code setup and noticed their statusline was packed with information - context usage with …
Sovereignty Is an Option, Not a Default
Most of the sovereignty conversations I have with customers begin as one question and turn out to be three. Separating them matters, because the right …
How to Set Up Kiro with IAM Identity Center (And Why Your Credits Depend On It)
If you are an AWS Hero or Community Builder, you have AWS credits. Kiro can run on those credits. But only if you authenticate the right way, and the …
Vibe Coding: It's Not a Dirty Word
Vibe coding is quite often used as derogatory terminology by people who are opposing the rise of AI in software development. It’s become …
AWS User Group Finland re:Invent 2025 re:Cap at Vivicta
The first AWS User Group Finland meetup of 2026 followed tradition with a re:Invent recap event. Niklas Liljestrand hosted the evening at …
AWS Layoffs Hit the Community Where It Hurts
Yesterday’s large layoffs at AWS hit me harder than I expected. Not because of the numbers on a spreadsheet or the stock price implications, but …
Diversity of Thinking in a Box: Building an AI Advisory Board
This week I created a tool for us to use internally - a bit tongue-in-cheek. I created an external AI advisory board with personalities of well-known …
Building an AI-Native Company: Why Simplicity Beats Complexity
Building an AI-native startup gives possibilities to think different. Instead of acquiring a complex set of SaaS tools, building a shared AI memory …
Stop Overengineering AI Agent Pipelines
I originally wrote this observation in Finnish on LinkedIn, because I was frustrated after seeing yet another celebrated architecture diagram that …
2025
Why Elexive Skipped Slush This Year
Slush Day 2 wrapped up and the energy in Helsinki was electric as always. But Henri and I were not there. As founders of a young startup, you would …
From Startup CTO to AWS Contributor: My Kiro Powers Journey
Two things happened this year that I could not have imagined few years ago. First, contributing to an AWS Tier 1 AI product release. Second, seeing my …
Elexive Year One: Rule 1 Start, Rule 2 Stay Alive
We made through first year with Henri Peltomäki. A year ago we signed the founding papers of Elexive with the promise that in one year we will assess …
AWS re:Invent 2025 Watch Party
For those of us not in Las Vegas, the next best thing is watching the re:Invent keynote with fellow AWS enthusiasts. Nitor hosted the watch party at …
AWS User Group Finland November Meetup at Netlight
The November meetup brought 76 people to Netlight’s 4th floor office on Pohjoisesplanadi. Late November in Helsinki means it has been dark for …
Stop Prompting, Start Commanding: How Agent Armies Build Better Systems
I had the honor of speaking at the Vibe Coding Finland event on November 25th, hosted at the Helsinki Architecture and Design Museum. The venue alone …
Startup Founder Survival: Systemizing the Habits That Keep You Alive
Becoming a startup founder is like joining the Special Forces of work-life. That comparison is not hyperbole for dramatic effect. The days are …
The AWS us-east-1 Outage and the On-Prem Fallacy
The AWS us-east-1 outage has been the hot topic for the past few days, and predictably, everyone has an opinion about what it proves. The pattern is …
AWS Community Day Nordics - Learning to Step Back
Since I was part of the founding team for AWS Community Day Nordics back in 2018, I have personally attended every single event. This year is the …
Nordic Business Forum and the Seeds That Became Elexive
I am back at Nordic Business Forum in Helsinki, and the contrast with last year could not be sharper. Twelve months ago, I sat in this same venue …
AI in English vs. Your Native Language - It Actually Matters
Here is a question I have been thinking about: do you communicate with AI in English or in your native language? For me, the answer has always been …
AWS Finland September #2 Meetup at S-Group
The second September meetup was hosted by SOK at Ässäkeskus on Fleminginkatu, with Niko Kivela making it all happen on the host side. The turnout was …
Eighteen Years in AI - Old Enough to Drink
I recently came across an old photo of myself, young and full of enthusiasm, in what was my first AI job eighteen years ago. That means my AI …
AWS Finland September Meetup at Knowit
After the summer break, the AWS User Group Finland meetup season kicked off on Thursday September 4th at Knowit’s Helsinki office on …
Front-of-House Tech at an Outdoor Festival
Last weekend I spent as the Front-of-House main tech at an outdoor festival. Something completely different from my main business nowadays, but what I …
Building a New B2B Buying Experience
For the last half a year or so, I have been in conversations with several dozens of executives, leaders, and decision makers. Sometimes wearing a …
AWS User Group Finland May Meetup #2 at KONE
The second May meetup took us outside the Helsinki city center to KONE’s building in Keilasatama, Espoo. Doors opened at 16:30 and greetings …
Co-founder Doing Everything
When I started as the co-founder at Elexive, I did not plan or expect to dive back into developing software. I had spent years moving up the ladder …
AWS User Group May Meetup at Nitor
May was a big month for the AWS User Group Finland, and the first of two meetups this month was hosted by Nitor at their 6th floor office on …
Creativity Is a Muscle: Why I Still Play Music as a Tech Founder
Creativity is a muscle, which you can exercise. One of the things I train my creativity with is by playing music. Some people think that you are …
The Next Frontier: When AI Becomes the Advertising Medium
A lot of marketing content is now being created with AI tools by marketers. That’s table stakes at this point - if you’re not using AI to …
AWS User Group April Meetup at Brightly
I took the train to Helsinki on Wednesday to host the April meetup at Brightly’s office on Pohjoisesplanadi 37A. Doors opened at 16:45 and the …
AI in Helsinki: Big Tech, Bold Ideas, and a Reminder of Our Nordic Edge
Earlier this month, we joined the buzz at the Microsoft AI Tour in Helsinki together with my colleague and co-founder Henri Peltomäki. Finlandia Hall …
Stop Accommodating Toxic Leaders
During the past few days, a lot of leadership expert advice has surfaced on how to engage with a narcissistic and toxic leader. The advice essentially …
AWS Finland March Meetup at Nordcloud
March brought us to Nordcloud, an IBM Company, for the meetup on March 6th. Doors opened at 17:00 and the program kicked off at 17:30. We had opened …
Announcing Elexive: Transforming Good Leadership into Great Leadership
Today, Henri Peltomaki and I are officially launching Elexive. This has been months in the making – conversations, planning, honest debates …
AWS User Group Finland February Meetup at Accenture
The February meetup landed at Accenture’s Helsinki office on Aleksanterinkatu, with doors opening at 17:00 and content starting at 17:30. The …
Why I Read a Dozen Books a Month in the Age of AI
This is only a selection of books I’ve read recently. In total, I plowed through maybe a dozen books during January alone, including audiobooks. …
AWS User Group Finland re:Invent 2024 re:Cap at Gofore
The first AWS User Group Finland meetup of 2025 was all about looking back at re:Invent 2024. I had announced this event back in December as the last …
2024
AWS re:Invent 2024 Watch Party
We closed out 2024 with the biggest event of the year. The AWS re:Invent 2024 Watch Party at Epicenter Helsinki drew 135 people, making it the largest …
AWS GameDay Nordics 2024 (Helsinki)
AWS GameDay is always a highlight of the year, and the second AWS GameDay Nordics was something special. Gunnar Grosch, AWS Principal Developer …
AWS User Group Finland September Meetup - Sponsored by Yle
After the summer break, we gathered at Yle’s Iso Paja on Radiokatu in Helsinki for the September meetup. Yle, Finland’s national …
AWS User Group Finland May Meetup - Sponsored by KONE
For the May meetup we headed to KONE headquarters in Espoo on a warm spring evening, and over 50 AWS enthusiasts made the trip. This was the first AWS …
AWS User Group Finland February Meetup - Sponsored by Alma Media
The February meetup brought us to Alma Media’s office on Alvar Aallon katu in Helsinki for a sustainability-themed evening. With 91 people in …
AWS User Group Finland reinvent 2023 recap - Sponsored by Cloud2
We kicked off the 2024 AWS User Group Finland meetup year with a re:Invent 2023 recap, and Cloud2 stepped up to sponsor and host us at their new …
Graduating Executive MBA and Pivoting to Business: What the Future Looks Like
What does the future look like? At least for me personally, it looks a bit different now. Last week I concluded a major milestone in my professional …
2023
AWS Finland October Meetup - sponsored by Eficode
The October meetup brought us to Eficode’s office on Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu. Doors opened at 17:30 and the program started at 18:00, with Miska …
AWS Finland September Meetup - Sponsored by IBM
After the summer break, the AWS Finland community came back strong with our September meetup on the 28th, hosted and sponsored by IBM at their …
AWS Community Day Nordics 2023 announced
We are really excited to announce the AWS Community Day Nordics on April 20 2023 in Helsinki at Nordea Vallila Campus. Full agenda is to be announced, …
AWS Finland January Meetup - AWS re:Invent re:Cap - sponsored by Solita
The first AWS Finland meetup of 2023 kicked off with a bang as we gathered at Solita’s office on Etelaesplanadi to go through the highlights …
2022
AWS Finland - re:Invent 2022 Keynote Watch Party
re:Invent is the highlight of the AWS calendar, and not everyone can make the trip to Las Vegas. So we did the next best thing – a keynote watch …
Sustainability at AWS re:Invent: From Session Guide to Main Stage
I had the honor of writing the sustainability-focused session guide for one of the largest and most prestigious IT events in the world - AWS re:Invent …
AWS Finland October Meetup - Sponsored by Wärtsilä
For the second October meetup, we headed to Wartsila’s headquarters on Hiililaiturinkuja in Helsinki. Having a major industrial company like …
AWS Finland October Meetup - Sponsored by Gofore
October brought us to Gofore’s office on Urho Kekkosen katu in central Helsinki. Gofore is one of those companies that has been a steady …
AWS Finland September Meetup - Sponsored by Siili
Two meetups in September – why not? Siili Solutions hosted the second September event at their Helsinki office on Ruoholahdenkatu 21. Doors …
AWS Finland September Meetup - Sponsored by Cirit
September was a busy month for the AWS Finland User Group, with two meetups scheduled back to back. The first one was sponsored by Cirit Oy and held …
AWS Finland August Meetup - Sponsored by WithSecure / F-Secure
Summer break was over and we kicked things off with a bang. WithSecure (formerly F-Secure) hosted the August meetup at their office on Tammasaarenkatu …
AWS Finland June Meetup - Sponsored by Knowit and AWS
June’s meetup was hosted at Knowit’s premises with AWS as co-sponsor. Knowit provided the venue and AWS handled food and beverages, which …
AWS Finland May Meetup - Sponsored by Zalando
It felt good to be back. After a long stretch of remote everything, the AWS Finland User Group got together for a proper in-person meetup at …
AWS Finland March Meetup in Jyväskylä - Sponsored by Cinia
This was a special one. For the first time in a while, we took the AWS Finland User Group outside the Helsinki bubble and traveled to Jyvaskyla. …
Re:Invent Re:cap 2021 - AWS Finland Online Meetup
The first AWS Finland meetup of 2022 was the annual tradition of recapping the biggest announcements from the previous year’s re:Invent …
2021
AWS Finland November Meetup - Sponsored by Telia
This one was special. After nearly two years of online-only meetups, AWS User Group Finland finally gathered in person again on November 25th. Telia …
GameDay - Nordics v Benelux
September brought another AWS GameDay, this time with a twist – the Nordic AWS communities teamed up to take on the Benelux region in a …
The day for two topics: GDPR and Schrems II, and Video on Demand
The June meetup – our last one before the summer break – took an interesting turn by pairing two very different topics into one evening. …
AWS GameDay - AWS Community Nordics Edition
In May we joined forces with other Nordic AWS user groups for the first ever AWS GameDay Nordics, organized by AWS Community Nordics in collaboration …
Robust CI/CD pipelines for serverless applications
The March meetup of AWS User Group Finland drew a strong crowd of 112 attendees, all joining online via Amazon Chime as part of the AWS Community …
re:Invent 2020 week 3 recap - Don't look back in anger
The three-week segment is turning towards the end, and everyone is dialling down little by little towards the holiday season. Sure, we have some …
2020
re:Invent 2020 - Final Keynote with Werner Vogels
Today marks the beginning of an end for the re:Invent 2020. Sure, there are still some sessions lined up, and additional content is coming up in …
AWS Community Nordics: Werner Vogels Keynote Live Session
To wrap up a year that had been anything but ordinary, the AWS Community Nordics organized a virtual watch party for Werner Vogels’ re:Invent …
re:Invent 2020 week 2 recap - announcements keep on rolling in
Week 2 coming to an end. After two weeks of the virtual re:invent in 2020, it is certainly a bit a bag of mixed feelings. And probably it shows on the …
re:Invent 2020, Machine Learning Keynote - level keeps on rising
Machine Learning (ML) keynote is the third keynote of the re:Invent 2020, and today we join with Dr. Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of Amazon Machine …
re:Invent 2020 - week 1 recap and the new normal of being virtual
As the week turns towards Friday, the first week of AWS re:Invent 2020 is done. Now it is the time to do some reflection back on the first few days of …
AWS re:Invent 2020 officially opened
The AWS re:Invent 2020 in virtual format is officially opened. The next three weeks are going to be filled with virtual keynotes, leadership sessions …
Serverless Data Streaming at Scale
The October virtual meetup tackled serverless data streaming at scale, drawing 127 attendees who were eager to learn about processing real-time data …
AWS Community Nordics Virtual Meetup - CDK Crash Course
The September AWS Community Nordics virtual meetup was dedicated to the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), and it turned out to be one of the most …
AWS Game Tech - How Are Games Customers Running on AWS?
The June virtual meetup took a different direction with a focus on AWS Game Tech. This was the second online event organized across all Nordic AWS …
AWS Community Nordics Virtual Meetup - Building a Serverless Analytics Pipeline
With in-person events no longer possible due to the pandemic, the AWS community in the Nordics came together for the first pan-Nordic virtual meetup, …
Cloud Transformation Summit - With Jeff Barr
We had the honor to host Jeff Barr in Cybercom’s Cloud Transformation Summit. Big thanks for Jeff for making the trip, even though the …
AWS Finland March Special Meetup with Jeff Barr - Sponsored by AWS & Cybercom
This was a truly special one. Jeff Barr, the legendary Chief Evangelist of AWS and the voice behind the AWS News Blog, visited Helsinki for a …
AWS Finland February Meetup - Sponsored by Nordcloud
February’s AWS Finland meetup was hosted by Nordcloud at their headquarters on Antinkatu in Helsinki. Doors opened at 17:30 and the event kicked …
AWS Finland January Meetup - Sponsored by Sanoma
We kicked off the year at AWS User Group Finland with the January meetup at Sanoma Media Finland’s office on Toolonlahdenkatu in Helsinki. I …
2019
Featured video by Cybercom
Just a quick share of this video, I was happy to be part of in making:
First take on AWS Savings Plans
There was a huge announcement about a new service, or rather a feature, with the bit monstrous name " Savings Plans for AWS Compute …
AWS User Group Finland October Meetup - Sponsored by S-Group
On October 24th, 2019 we had AWS User Group Finland October meetup sponsored by S-Group. Here are my short notes about the event, where we had around …
Practical guide to re:Invent 2019
The annual AWS re:Invent is closing up and today (October 15th 2019) the reserved seating bookings open up at 10AM PST (that’s 19:00 Stockholm / …
AWS User Group Finland September Meetup - Sponsored by Digia
On September 26th we had the second AWSFIN meetup which was sponsored by Digia. We had around 50 people attending and came all the way to Pitäjänmäki, …
AWS Summit Stockholm 2019 - Are You Well Architected
Last week, on Wednesday May 22nd, the AWS global summits tour 2019 arrived in Stockholm. I had also booked time from my calendar to make a trip to …
ServerlessDays Helsinki 2019 - The Aftermath
ServerlessDays Helsinki was organized the first time ever last week, on April 25th. I had both the honor to be invited to be one of the members of the …
2018
AWS ReInvent 2018
First a disclaimer: I’ve had this article in the works for a long time. So if you are seeing this only right now, it’s because I’ve …
AWS User Group Finland October Meetup – Sponsored by New Things Co
Time for October AWS meetup! This time we were gathering at New Things Co. They had smaller premises, but really cool and modern office. Unfortunately …
Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service 2018
This year’s Gartner analysis on the Cloud IaaS is fresh out and there are few interesting pointers and easily worth your time to read it …
AWS Summit Stockholm 2018 - Stream recording and materials
Earlier this week, I wrote this short summary about my trip to AWS Summit in Stockholm. Here is a summary of relevant materials from the Summit, which …
AWS Summit Stockholm 2018
AWS Global Summits AWS organizes annually a series of global AWS Summits, and one of them for last years has been organized in Stockholm. As they …
Building Cloud Competence
So what is competence anyway? Simply put: Competence is one’s ability to execute given tasks successfully and efficiently. And without going too …
AWS User Group Finland March Meetup – Sponsored by Gofore
On March 8, 2018 we had AWS User Group Finland meetup, which was sponsored by by Gofore. Meetup venue The meetup was organized at Gofore’s …
AWS Dev Day Helsinki 2018 and Meetup
AWS Dev Day Nordics On 25th of January, AWS had it’s Dev Day summit in Helsinki, where there was a full day of technical talks produced by the …
2017
AWS User Group Finland December Meetup - Sponsored by Cybercom
On 13th of December, we gathered to restaurant Maxine in downtown Helsinki for AWS Meetup. This meetup was sponsored by my employer, Cybercom, so …
Reinvent 2017 - Some expectations and some predictions
Next week one of the main events of the IT and especially Cloud Services landscape takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada. I guess if you are planning to …
AWS CloudFront Expands to Helsinki
AWS just announced minutes ago, that they added six new edge locations to their CDN network. And that Helsinki is one of them. There are also three …
AWS User Group Finland November Meetup - Sponsored by Yle
On 16th of November we had the possibility to go to Yleisradio in Helsinki and use one of their main TV studio spaces as the premises for the AWS …
AWS User Group Finland October Meetup - Sponsored by Zalando
On October 26th we gathered to downtown Helsinki to Zalando office for a AWS meetup. I started the journey early in the morning from Tampere and was …
Me as AWS Community Lead
There is a short post (in Finnish) here about my role as AWS Community Lead for AWS User Group Finland. …
AWS User Group Finland August meetup at Alma Media
On the 29thof August 2017 we gather to Alma-building for AWS Finland August meetup, which was sponsored by Alma Media. They have a blog post about the …
And the results are in - Gartners Magic Quadrant for Cloud IaaS 2017
Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service 2017 The latest Gartner analysis on the Cloud IaaS is out and there are few interesting pointers …
AWS User Group Finland - May Meetup 2017
Last week we had AWS User Group meetup, which was this time sponsored by Solinor. The meetup was at Solinor’s office, which is located at …
Living on the Edge
Cloud services delivery endpoint is moving more and more to network edges and closer to clients little by little. Why is that? Because delivery of the …
AWS Summit Stockholm is just around the corner
The AWS Summit in Stockholm is very close, 3rd of May in the Waterfront Congress Center. If you are planning to come you should move fast with the …
Helping out in Cloudy Gothenburg
Cloudy Gothenburg - AWS meetup April 2017 Part of my job description is also helping out internationally the different sites we have around the …
AWS User Group Finland - March meetup
Real life IoT in Amazon The march meetup for AWS User Group Finland was a first try to have a event in Tampere. Cybercom was sponsoring the event and …
The Subtle Art of Upselling
I just had an experience (and actually not related to my work, or even to IT) where I clearly communicated that I wanted to buy certain service. The …
2016
re:Invent 2016 starting
I had the possibility this year to attend to AWS Re:invent, which is one of the largest IT conferences currently in the world. We had a team of three …
Microsoft and friends - cloud ecosystem partnership
Yesterday I attended a Microsoft Azure workshop in Keilaniemi, Helsinki. This was a joint session arranged by Arrow ECS and Microsoft to promote …
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
Now Professional Certified After couple of quirks in the road out of my control, I finally had the time slot for my certification. So, now I have the …
OpenStack Autumn 2016 meetup
OpenStack Finland User Group had it’s autumn meetup on November 2nd 2016. The topic for this event was OpenStack Operations and Operators. I had …
How to farm your servers
… or the cloud-tale of pets, cattle and … insects? There is quite an old anecdote in IT how to classify your servers running your services. And it …
Santa Monica - Security Day 2016
I attended Santa Monica security day on September 27th with one of our Chief Architects, Mika Ahoniemi. The event was held at Helsinki Messukeskus. …
The Golden Cage of Public Cloud
… and should you even try to avoid it? Cross-cloud portability, that one great argument against using specific cloud provider to it’s …
Public Cloud - Someone else's Data Center or something else?
There’s been some time this one internet meme has been going around. It says: " There is no cloud - it’s just someone else’s …
AWS Certified Architect - Associate
Today I passed the Associate level exam for AWS Certified Architect track. The licence number was AWS-ASA-20688 so I guess there starts to be quite a …
2015
