# Mary Branscombe (@marypcbuk.bsky.social)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/marypcbuk.bsky.social
Headline: Independent Writing and Editing Professional
Location: London, England, United Kingdom

## About

I'm a technology journalist with over three decades of experience; I've worked in-house at a major magazine publisher and at AOL in the early days of online content. Now I'm a freelance writer contributing regularly to CIO.com, The New Stack, Computer Weekly, The Stack, AskWoody and a wide range of other titles. Over the years I've written for many outlets from the Guardian and the FT to SFX magazine, TechRepublic, ZDNet, Pocket Lint, Tom's Hardware and Data Center Knowledge, and I've contributed to the Linux Foundation's State of the Edge report for multiple years. I was also the launch and executive editor for IT Expert, a (short-lived) title covering small business IT consultancy.

I cover a wide range of topics but I specialise in Microsoft . I've co-written two books on Windows 8 and one O'Reilly book on Azure AI services with my writing partner, Simon Bisson. I've also published some folk stories and short mysteries about the world of tech on Amazon Kindle: that includes the Cassidy Smith series of technomysteries, The Vampires of Silicon Valley and The Lord of Death stories.

I cover consumer, small, business, enterprise and developer markets within technology, writing reviews, news, tutorials, interviews and features. I'm also available for commercial copywriting; I've written and edited white papers, case studies and other commercial editorial for a range of clients.

I'm always interested in new contacts for interviews and profiles, in new technology stories and in potential commissions for editorial or commercial work.

Specialties: researching, writing, editing, copywriting, mobility, flexible working, productivity software, development, consumer electronics, multimedia, gadgets, Web development and architecture, cloud native, enterprise development, smartphones, digital convergence, business IT, Windows, Microsoft Office

## Career

- **Writer and editor at Freelance** (Aug 2001 - Present)
  I'm a full-time freelance writer, covering mainly technology. I write for online titles, magazines, newspapers and commercial clients across a wide range of market areas.
- **Executive Editor at IT Expert magazine** (Mar 2008 - Sep 2011)
  I launched and edited IT Expert, a magazine from Agency Fish, aimed at consultants, value added resellers and system integrators who work with small business.
- **Producer/Editor, Technology channel at AOL** (Jul 1997 - Aug 2001)
  I joined AOL shortly after it set up in the UK and took over the Technology channel, building it up to cover home entertainment, digital media, mobile phones and gadgets and science as well as computing; I was responsible for content, design, partner relationships, budgeting, commissioning and publishing and I managed a team of two assistant produers who I recruited.
- **Features Editor, PC Plus at Future PLC** (Oct 1990 - Jul 1997)
  I started at Future as a graduate trainee on MacPublishing, moved on to the launch team for PC Answers, moved to PC Plus as a staff writer and moved from writing to commissioning and editiing, managing reviews, looking after our online section and our online presence.

## Projects

- **500 Words Into The Future** — http://www.zdnet.com/blog/500-words-into-the-future/ (Oct 2009 - Jul 2022)
  Our ZDNet column, on the unevenly distributed technology future that's just around the corner.
- **State of the Edge Report 2021** — https://stateoftheedge.com/reports/state-of-the-edge-report-2021/ (2020 - 2021)
  The 2021 State of the Edge report is an annual, vendor-neutral project from the LF Edge working group looking at today’s edge computing ecosystem with a focus on the increasingly interconnected domains of critical infrastructure, networks, software, and hardware. I contributed the section on the current hardware landscape and how this evolves in future, especially for AI acceleration at the edge.
- **BYODev** — http://www.citeworld.com/blog/byodev (Dec 2012 - Nov 2014)
  The Bring Your Own revolution has come to software development. New tools, APIs, and self-provisioning services like Amazon Web Services are bringing development outside of its traditional silos, to business leaders and individual end-users. What users bring to work isn't just devices; it's tools and technologies.
- **State of the Edge report 2026**
  Another year of contributing to the State of the Edge report. This time this year I got to go back to the predictions I'd made in a previous year about edge compute in space
  \- just as it became somewhere between timely and political. I spent a couple of months digging into why you might want to do compute in space, what the physics really says about cooling, radiation and the other restrictions, how much edge compute is already happening in satellites and whether that's useful, as well as whether lunar exploration and industrialising the moon will take space edge to the next level. The tensions over astronomy and the ever increasing number of satellites aren't going away, but what do we get out of compute in space?

## Publications

- The protocol proliferation problem: Making sense of the open agent stack — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Oct 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mxailpqgkk2v
- Key change: The arcane process that keeps DNS healthy is about to get a major update — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Sep 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mvj2ex53m22b
- Cedar: the access control building block that's perfectly timed for AI agents — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Sep 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mundyrbc3c2k
- Never mind clean data. Annotate as you collect it. — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Aug 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3msej3j2jdk2e
- Synthetic data’s fine line between reward and disaster — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Aug 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mseirtomhk2e
- When is data too clean to be useful for enterprise AI? — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Aug 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3msehyx5mys2t
- The rise of the agent runtime: The compute platform behind production agents — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jul 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mrs2lpaiek2i
- Why there is so much enthusiasm about Buildkite — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jul 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mqknkonpc227
- What is npm doing to protect the JavaScript ecosystem – and is it enough? — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jun 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3moj3d3hdvc2g
- How to secure Kubernetes in the age of AI workloads — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jun 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mnsmrt4fus2m
- Microsoft's new models give it a better moat — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jun 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mnslpdu2mk2w
- Majorana 1: Microsoft Makes Quantum Computing Breakthrough With New Chip — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jun 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mndcrjvi5c23
- Edera gives Kubernetes the missing metrics for more efficient AI scheduling — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jun 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mncyxlfns22n
- How Microsoft made its Answers forum less useful — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (May 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mmcs7d6d4k2f
- CIOs are put to the test as security regulations across borders recalibrate — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (May 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mltm4qxbac2t
- Yes, Java Still Matters in the AI Era — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Apr 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mizdjv4hu22a
- Copa: 'The missing piece' for automating patching containers at scale — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Mar 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mif677a2l22v
- Get off the never-ending vulnerability piñata that is Ingress NGINX — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Mar 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mhftqiumps2b
- All my posts about Temporal — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Mar 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mgsyxq3sz22r
- State of the Edge Report 2026: Space is the ultimate edge — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Mar 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mgninlanjk2q
- What AX can do to deliver cohesion and uniformity to AI agents — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Mar 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mg45yjfijk2x
- Control power to your display — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Feb 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mehboznfr22c
- What to do when your PC won't stay asleep — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Feb 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mehajzti3c2w
- Kata containers: the overlooked Kubernetes workload isolation for secure AI — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Feb 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3me2tofrpw225
- Secure messaging on Windows with Signal — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jan 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mdimanwwqk2l
- How File Explorer can show the files you want — quickly  — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jan 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mcalph73lc2d
- Delete your user profile to clean up Windows Settings and defaults — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Jan 2026) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3mcalfzhurs2b
- How Azure Copilot’s New Agents Automate DevOps and SecOps — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m5wk6kcvuk2d
- NATS: The event bus that tries to have it all — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m5uejaqxr22m
- Why a Linux distro becoming a CNCF project matters — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m5udqyf3u22g
- Do you want to run your own registry – and is Harbor the solution? — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m5udbsedes2g
- Aspire brings .NET the enterprise tooling it always needed — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m5ucskdsuc2g
- Is your platform engineering mature enough to need Radius? — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m5ubwfqg5s27
- Can OpenStack really replace VMware in organizations that still need to run their own virtualisation? — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m5ubfz3nwc2x
- State of the Edge 2022:Data centres in space — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m4swayomcs2n
- State of the Edge 2022: Is It the Cloud or the Edge? (It's Both) — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m4svrtlrts22
- State of the Edge 2022: Born in the cloud, works at the edge — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m4svk2k5jk2z
- State of the edge 2020: hardware — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m4sum53ptk2y
- Can Arduino teach Qualcomm how to talk to developers? — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Nov 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m4ohfwzon22b
- Talos Linux: Rethink running Kubernetes — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Oct 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m4bcl7s6x22q
- XSLT Debate Leads To Bigger Questions of Web Governance — marybranscombe.leaflet.pub (Oct 2025) https://marybranscombe.leaflet.pub/3m4766dqni22a
- The Vampires of Silicon Valley — Amazon Kindle (Jul 2017) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073PMFSZQ
- The True Coin of Dreaming — Amazon Kindle (May 2015) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YO160S2
- See-Through Security: A Cassidy techno-mystery — Amazon Kindle (Jan 2015) http://www.amazon.com/See-Through-Security-Cassidy-techno-mystery-Large-ebook/dp/B00SCMC07E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1424965886&sr=1-1
- Flight of the Contours: a Cassidy technomystery — Amazon Kindle (Dec 2014) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R0OX006
- Locate This! A Cassidy technomystery — Amazon Kindle (Nov 2014) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PEUZDV2?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=B00PEUZDV2&linkCode=shr&tag=bleeedgeoftec-20&linkId=P7GWABRVZLHIKY3L
- How To Do Everything Windows 8 — McGraw Hill (Jan 2013) http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=0071805141
- Windows 8 executive summary: what your business needs to know — Fair Trade DX (Dec 2012) http://www.ftdxbooksonline.com/9781938425042.aspx
- Windows 8: What Your Business Needs to Know — Fair Trade DX (Dec 2012) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Windows-insightful-technical-unapologetically-opinionated/dp/1938425103/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362485394&sr=8-2

## Skills

### Creative
- Copywriting
### Other
- Blogging
- Books
- Content Development
- Content Strategy
- Copy Editing
- Editing
- Editorial
- Feature Articles
- Fiction
- Fiction Writing
- Freelance Writing
- Journalism
- Magazines
- Media Relations
- Microsoft Office
- New Media
- Newsletters
- Newspaper
- Newspapers
- Online Publishing
- Press Releases
- Proofreading
- Publications
- Publishing
- Research
- Short Stories
- Web Content
- Windows
- Writing

## Education

- **University of Essex** — MSc, Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems (Master) (Sep 1989 - Sep 1990)
  AI, computer vision, machine learning, expert systems.
  Activities & Societies: secretary of the role playing games society
- **University of Oxford** — MA, Literae Humaniores (Master) (Oct 1985 - Jul 1989)
  Classics, concentrating on History and Literature, with special subjects in mediaeval latin and formal logic.

## Links

- linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marybranscombe