What we are thinking about
Insights from
the front line.
For those of us planning, designing, building and supporting software in high-regulation contexts.
Latest
It's never just a patch: the human side of a critical security fix
When critical PHP vulnerabilities were announced on 21 October, we checked every system we support and contacted every client, affected or not. This is how we kept clients informed, which decisions we left to them, and why no fix skipped our usual checks.
Gwen Vaughan · Strategy & Transformation Manager · 22 Oct 2026 
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Software Made Human
Our podcast explores how technology can be designed with empathy and purpose to meet real human needs across healthcare, public services, finance, and transport.
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Between the Wild West and the walled garden: how to build a trusted, secure agentic layer
AI agents will soon book appointments, switch energy, broadband and insurance for people. What CSOs, CTOs and CIOs need to settle first is identity, authority and trust. Marino Software has a track record in partnership with enterprise and organisations in regulated sectors. In this post, we look at a near future where people hand everyday admin to AI agents… and the security and trust decisions service providers need to make before they open the door.
Ed Melvin · 
The board wants AI governance evidence by Friday. Can you produce it?
Marino Software has a track record in partnership with enterprise and organisations in regulated sectors. This is the second post in our AI governance scenarios series - where we look at the pressure points AI is creating inside organisations, and what real and workable answers look like.
Ed Melvin · 
How many AI tools are actually running in your organisation?
Marino Software has a track record in partnership with enterprise and organisations in regulated sectors. In this new blog post series, we are addressing some of the pain points we are designing for, in a new world where unsanctioned use of AI is outpacing organisational policy and capability, with huge implications.
Ed Melvin · 
Right & ready first time with Peregrine from Marino Software
Point-in-time penetration testing can't keep pace with infrastructure that changes daily. Peregrine, Marino's continuous pen-testing platform, catches exposures as they appear, opens the fix and reruns the test, so the annual test confirms a secure system instead of surprising you.
Ed Melvin · 
EU AI Act risk categorisation: a practical breakdown for Irish and UK software teams
The EU AI Act sorts systems into four risk tiers based on whether AI makes a consequential decision about a person. A practical guide for Irish and UK teams on finding your tier, who carries the liability, and the deadlines that actually matter.
Gwen Vaughan · 
Preparing for Post-Quantum: the Application Agility Audit
Quantum computing threatens the mathematics behind today's digital trust, and "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks are already underway. Marino's Application Agility Audit helps regulated organisations decouple their cryptographic layers and prepare for NIST-approved post-quantum standards.
Keith Davey · 
Making Mission-Critical Systems move: platform migrations done right
Most platform migrations fail for organisational reasons, not technical ones. A disciplined, incremental approach, ship working software every sprint, own the data layer, migrate component by component, gets mission-critical systems modernised without the three-year timeline.
Ed Melvin · 
Agents as Adversaries: the need for "agentic AI containment"
A new paper argues today's AI guardrails assume the agent is cooperative, a broken threat model. When the agent itself is the adversary, containment has to be architectural. Keith Davey on the five requirements regulated teams should hold their agentic systems to.
Keith Davey · 
Agentic Software Explained
Agentic software goes beyond chatbots: it acts, decides, and logs every step within compliance guardrails. For regulated industries, partnering with an experienced, accredited firm is the fastest and safest way to get it into production.
Keith Davey · 
Intelligence Made Human: What Global AI Governance Means for Regulated Industries
Technology earns trust when it's built with people at the centre. That's part of our Software Made Human promise.
Ed Melvin · 
The Curb Cut Effect, with AI: how accessibility quietly designs the future
Captions, voice control, dark mode, autocomplete, all began as accessibility features and became things everyone uses. Aoife Kenny on the 'curb cut effect', why designing for the margins raises the floor for everyone, and how AI is accelerating the pipeline.
Aoife Kenny · 
What a Brazilian bank can teach Ireland about software made human
Lessons from Nubank, the world's largest digital bank, on what "intelligence made human" looks like in regulated financial services, and why Monzo's Irish launch only scratches the surface.
Ed Melvin · 
Why high-availability Drupal is now a public sector infrastructure question
Public sector websites and applications are critical service delivery infrastructure, not brochures. Whether it's a citizen checking their rights, a commuter planning a journey, or a business looking up licensing requirements, the expectation is the same, the site works, every time, immediately.
Ed Melvin · 
Designing Software in the Age of AI: What Could Go Right?
Cory Doctorow gave us "enshittification", the slow, deliberate degradation of software for profit. This post is about the opposite. How AI is shifting incentives, restoring makers to their highest purpose, and giving us a genuine shot at building software that actually serves the people using it.
Garrett Sheridan · 
Agentic AI is flooding into healthcare, who is validating it?
Agentic AI arrived at HIMSS 2026 in force, but the validation frameworks haven't kept pace. Marino's Cara Ludlow on how speed of deployment can be matched by the rigour of validation through critical architectural choices.
Cara Ludlow · 
Why AI Hallucinations Are Not a Bug to Be Patched
A new paper from OpenAI and Georgia Tech proves what regulated industries need to hear, hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not an engineering failure waiting to be fixed. Here's what that means for how you build.
Keith Davey · 
Marino Software to build breakthrough infrastructure for national cell therapy hub "CellConnect"
Marino Software has joined the DTIF-funded CellConnect consortium to deliver the critical digital infrastructure for a first-of-its-kind Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) supply chain in Ireland.
Ed Melvin · 
The AI Coding Boom: Balancing Rapid Innovation with Unwavering Accountability
Keith Davey dives into the critical distinction between probabilistic AI and deterministic systems. We explore why building responsibly with AI is not just good practice, it's a legal imperative.
Keith Davey · 
How UX Can Make the New Disability Strategy Actually Work
Marino Product Lead Aoife Kenny on applying a UX lens to Ireland's new strategy for disabled people.
Aoife Kenny · 
Building Responsibly: How Marino Software aligns with the EU AI Act
Marino CEO Keith Davey on Marino's regulation-compliant approach to the use of AI in the design & development cycle.
Keith Davey · 
Introducing (and manifesting) human digitalisation
A new wave of digitalisation is emerging, human-centred, AI-powered, and regulation-driven. It aims to fix the harm of past systems by prioritising user needs, clarity, and accessibility.
Ed Melvin · 
Native vs Hybrid Mobile App Development: Choosing the Best Approach for Outstanding Mobile Experiences
Michael, our Head of Software Development, explores what's needed to deliver outstanding mobile experiences in 2025.
Everything You Need to Know About Marino Software's ISO 27001 Compliance
We've achieved ISO 27001, the leading international standard for information security. What does it mean for our work?
Cara Ludlow · 
Better for all: the European Accessibility Act
The EAA Act comes into force in June 2025. This act ensures accessible software and services. We outline how to get there.
Ed Melvin · 
Using GenAI for better failure
We're using GenAI across the software design & development cycle. A great use case is in prototyping, as our latest GenAI training day illustrated.
Keith Davey · 
DORA, the Explainer
The EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), effective January 2025, aims to boost cyber resilience in the financial sector. Marino Software supports institutions like PTSB in achieving compliance and enhancing digital security.
Ed Melvin · 
How technology can help to tackle anti-social behaviour for safer public transport
Anti-social behaviour on public transport is rising. Technology like real-time reporting, AI surveillance, and smart lighting can help create safer, more accessible transit systems for everyone.
Garrett Sheridan · 
Delivering SMART on FHIR Applications
Marino Software is developing a SMART on FHIR app for Rotunda Hospital to improve VTE risk assessment, leveraging FHIR standards to enhance clinical decision-making and maternal health outcomes.
Keith Davey · How to port your iOS app to Android
A guide for app producers, choosing devices, OS versions, screen ratios, asset density buckets, UI conventions, distribution and submission.
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