Practical engineering articles about PHP modernization, Go migrations, private AI deployments, backend performance, architecture and senior B2B engineering.https://beliaev.dev/enhttps://beliaev.dev/blog/backend-contractor-paid-pilot/https://beliaev.dev/blog/backend-contractor-paid-pilot/Interviews show conversation. A paid pilot shows whether someone can work in your repository. Ten days is enough to see that, and too short to prove they should own the domain forever.Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineering Teamsengineering pilotcontractor trialpaid trialonboardinghttps://beliaev.dev/blog/local-ai-transcription/https://beliaev.dev/blog/local-ai-transcription/How to turn meetings, interviews and recordings into private transcripts, summaries and a searchable archive without sending the audio to a public API.Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTPrivate AIlocal AI transcriptionoffline transcriptionWhisperspeech-to-texthttps://beliaev.dev/blog/local-llm-for-business/https://beliaev.dev/blog/local-llm-for-business/Running a local model is easy. Running one that reliably improves a real workflow is not. This is the decision framework before anyone buys a GPU.Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTPrivate AIlocal LLMprivate AIself-hosted AIbusinesshttps://beliaev.dev/blog/php-modernization-audit/https://beliaev.dev/blog/php-modernization-audit/An audit is not a security checklist and not a rewrite proposal. It is a written answer to what hurts, what can stay, and what should happen first — including leave it in PHP.Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTPHP ModernizationPHP modernization auditlegacy PHP assessmenttechnical debthttps://beliaev.dev/blog/laravel-to-go-migration/https://beliaev.dev/blog/laravel-to-go-migration/Laravel is not the problem. This is a selective extraction strategy, which workloads leave, which stay, and how to run Go alongside Laravel without breaking auth, queues or the schema.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTPHP → Golaravelphpgomigrationhttps://beliaev.dev/blog/php-monolith-to-microservices/https://beliaev.dev/blog/php-monolith-to-microservices/Splitting a monolith trades in-process complexity for network complexity. Here is how to decide whether that trade is worth making, and how to make the first cut so it survives production.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTBackend Architecturephparchitecturemicroservicespostgresqlhttps://beliaev.dev/blog/php-performance-before-rewrite/https://beliaev.dev/blog/php-performance-before-rewrite/A rewrite is a very expensive profiler. This is the order I investigate a slow PHP application in, and the point at which changing language actually becomes the right lever.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTPHP Modernizationphpperformancepostgresqlredishttps://beliaev.dev/blog/php-to-go-migration-guide/https://beliaev.dev/blog/php-to-go-migration-guide/A workload-first approach to moving parts of a PHP system to Go, including what Go fixes, what it does not, and how to roll out changes without betting the product on a rewrite.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTPHP → Gophpgomigrationhttps://beliaev.dev/blog/senior-golang-contractor-europe/https://beliaev.dev/blog/senior-golang-contractor-europe/A practical guide to engagement models, interviews, total cost and B2B paperwork when you bring an experienced Go engineer into a European product team.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTEngineering Teamsgocontractingb2bhttps://beliaev.dev/blog/strangler-pattern-php-to-go/https://beliaev.dev/blog/strangler-pattern-php-to-go/How to route traffic, draw boundaries and move data ownership so a PHP monolith is replaced piece by piece instead of rewritten in one jump.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTBackend Architecturephpgoarchitecture