Great People: Introducing Andy Lansdowne

If you've ever had the chance to work with Andy, either professionally or client side, then you'll know what an asset he is.

He's not only a Sitecore whizz with nearly two decades of engineering experience tucked under his belt, he's also a delight to work with. He's hard working, super friendly and has a penchant for 00s pop bangers. What's not to love?

Hello, Andy!

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Andy – I’m a Lead Software Engineer at Great State and I’ve worked here for an incredible 17 years. In that time I’ve witnessed all of the significant technological shifts that have changed the way we live and do business. One thing that’s remained consistent is that throughout that time I have always worked to deliver amazing solutions for clients by designing and developing back-end components like APIs, CMSs and cloud hosting.

How did you get to be here?

I studied Computer Science at university but when I graduated, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted out of my career. I did a work placement during university at Tyco Electronics where I got a taste for web development using ASP and ASP.NET. This made me interested to work in digital but I didn't plan on joining an agency until I came across the job ad for Great State which sounded (and was) so much fun. Back then they were advertising for a Junior Developer role and instantly, I loved being immersed in busy agency life and since then I’ve been working my way up gaining more knowledge and more experience with a broad array of clients.

What are you working on right now?

At the moment I’m woking on the Royal Navy’s new Sitecore 10 Headless website – it’s been really interesting and exciting to get to use all the shiny new tech! We're using Sitecore JavaScript Rendering SDK (JSS) for Next.js which is hugely innovative. It lets us develop and iterate components much more quickly than the traditional MVC approach. For hosting we're leveraging Sitecore's Managed Cloud so we can focus on building and supporting the application rather than managing the infrastructure.

What are the tech innovations that excite you the most?

Using new headless frameworks like next.js has been a game changer, websites are faster and more responsive than ever before. In the future I’m excited to see what happens with AR/VR technology.

How can intelligently designed tech deliver ROI for clients?

It’s so important to demonstrate ROI, and that goes beyond just results like sales figures or user stats. By integrating multiple services into one well-designed website we can measure and maximise impact on a more granular level. All whilst reducing cost by reusing components and evolving hosting with cloud services.

What excites you in life?

My family and I recently got into caravanning, so we are always looking forward to our next adventure in our mobile home-from-home.

What excites you about your work?

It's exciting to work with interesting and diverse clients, and using the latest always-evolving technology. Working in an agency like Great State means there is always something new around the corner whether it is working for projects using different technologies (e.g. serverless; headless; cloud; native apps) and with well-known clients from all different sectors. In the last year I've worked with Honda, MOD clients, The National Trust, London Fire Brigade, and more. You never get bored!

What is the future of tech looking like to you?

One day there will be a Metaverse worth visiting and who knows, maybe AR/VR will be integrated with our brains... That will be something either very scary or very exciting, maybe both?! I'm envisioning something a little like Ready Player One...

Ask a question back. What do you want to know?

Will the the anti-social media revolution ever come?!

Want to get to know Andy and the rest of our Engineering Team? Get in touch.