Hi Reader,

The reception to my StripeCon talk was encouraging as was the interest generated after about application security - something especially relevant to the PHP ecosystem recently which - like everything else these days - is also increasingly powered by AI.

So what if in addition to searching your whole portfolio for security vulnerabilities and EOL software, you could also just ask it questions? This is something we've been thinking about for over 12 months. Read on for how we're thinking about this today.

Metaport wouldn't be good stewards of EOL expiry mitigation if we didn't also practice the same ourselves. To that end, a major upgrade of the underlying Silverstripe framework is complete and due for release next week. As you'll know with any upgrade project, the work itself is the easy part, but when test suites, knowledge, or even docs are lacking then you may not know where your blind spots are.

Advanced warning of EOL expiry dates then is particularly useful for you, your customers and stakeholders.

Lastly, in late September it was announced that Dcentrica, Metaport's parent company was admitted into CreativeHQ's GovTech Activate program. To have been shortlisted from 50 applications into the final 10 was indeed a huge honour which we're excited to be part of.

We're still open to expressions of interest from companies offering EOL and upgrade support services for referral and listings packages. Hit 'reply' or email hello@dcentrica.com to find out more.

And with that, onward with with the report—thanks for reading!
​
—Russ

GovTech Activate As the name suggests, GovTech focuses on what New Zealand's startup ecosystem can do for the NZ government. With the increased attention paid to ICT security from the NCSC's Minimum Cyber Security Standards and elsewhere, we really think there's a place where Metaport is used on both sides of the traditional vendor and (govt) agency divide. We imagine a time when government agencies work better with vendors both during and after delivery to increase communication, retain portfolio health, and further reduce silos over time.

MCP The ability to query your tech stacks isn't new. At least one former employer of mine already had an in-house system using dorking to query a subset of theirs. But in light of questions asked of us during agency interviews around workflows and how Metaport fits into their existing ones, we think that coupling the now ubiquitous use of LLMs with Metaport's mission becomes particularly attractive: If Metaport already democratises access to application maintenance, health, and security data for entire teams and their orgs, then AI-powered portfolio querying addresses the workflow piece while also accelerating the mission. We think the question: "Show me my Laravel and DJango apps affected by an EOL date in the next 6 months" is a compelling one. More exciting still is AI's ability to convert that formerly hidden data into graphs and reports, which Leads and Execs can act on. Got any ideas on MCP and AI use within your own portfolios? Flick us an email, we're keen to talk: hello@dcentrica.com.

From end-of-life expiry and security vulnerability prioritization and notifications, to executive health reports and proactive portfolio-wide search. Metaport is the support and maintenance strategy and planning tool for agencies, studios, and in-house delivery teams.