Software Development insights, articles and news

How The Curve used Blecon’s low‑power BLE stack and gateways to deliver robust people and asset tracking in sparse, off‑grid environments—summarised from a conversation between our CTO, James, and Blecon’s CEO, Simon Ford.

Organisations are generating more data than ever before - through customer interactions, operations, financial systems, and digital products. Without the right approach, this information ends up siloed, inconsistent, or underused. A data warehouse provides a structured, centralised environment that brings all of this together. It doesn’t just solve technical challenges; it enables leaders to make better decisions, build trust in reporting, and create new opportunities for growth and innovation. In many cases, it also provides the foundation for more advanced initiatives such as automation, reporting dashboards and AI. There are many benefits to adopting a data warehouse, which I’ll cover below:.

Connected devices are everywhere — from smart speakers and security cameras in our homes to sensors, gateways, and wearables powering entire industries. But as our reliance on connected technology has grown, so too has the threat landscape. Vulnerabilities in consumer devices have become one of the most common entry points for cyberattacks, often due to poor security design, weak default credentials, and a lack of long-term support. To address this, the UK government has introduced the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act 2022 — legislation that sets legally enforceable security requirements for consumer connectable products. While similar in spirit to the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), PSTI is the UK’s standalone approach to raising the baseline for IoT security and ensuring manufacturers take responsibility for the products they sell.

In modern software development, particularly in connected devices and IoT systems, security isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s a fundamental requirement. As supply chains become more complex and regulatory standards tighten, understanding what’s inside your software is now just as important as knowing how it works. That’s where a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) comes in.

A Minimum Deliverable Value (MDV) is a lightweight, functional outcome that tests a core assumption or delivers operational insight without the bloat of a full MVP. This is ideal for validating a specific assumption, exploring a technical opportunity, or demonstrating early value before investing in a larger, traditional MVP or product build.

At a recent Sheffield AI meetup, I gave a talk that aimed to unpack a big question: Is AI coming for your job? Short answer? No. But not for the reasons you might think. Rather than fall into the trap of hyperbole, I approached the topic by stepping back and asking a different question: How have the skills and resources around building software changed over time?

Modern cloud environments provide several different mechanisms and services for deploying a web application. In a more traditional scenario, an application may be deployed to a bare metal server or a virtual machine (VM).

At The Curve we do a lot of talking about “The Internet of Things”, we offer IoT consultancy services, we even host IoT events, and at the office, there’s more often than not, a half-assembled “thing” sitting on a desk waiting for its life as a connected internet device to begin.

We’re often engaged by our clients to develop Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) of a given product or system. More often than not we see a common and recurring problem with the original brief – the “MVP” is packed full of features of varying shapes and sizes.

As a recently appointed Freeman at the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, The Curve were given the opportunity to attend their regular monthly Tuesday Breakfast members event, and present a topic which gives rise to some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing companies today.