About
One senior specialist who can see the whole system.
I'm Nik Kerry, director of Bristol Internet Ltd, trading as bristol.digital.
I rescue, maintain and modernise legacy PHP applications. I've worked with PHP and web technology for around 25 years, long enough to have seen most of the ways a system can age badly, and long enough to know that old doesn't mean bad.
I'm based near Bristol and Bath and work with businesses across the UK, and remotely with organisations in France and Spain.
Why I do this work
I didn't set out to specialise in legacy systems. They found me. As a contractor, I was often brought in to the project nobody else could move: a pharmaceutical company's multi-language platform where I was the first of five developers to take control of a poorly written, undocumented codebase; a GOV.UK site upgraded from PHP 5.4 to 7.2 and delivered five weeks early; around 200 university websites restored and secured after an attack.
The lesson from all of them is the same. Old code isn't the enemy. Not understanding it is. Almost every "unfixable" system I've inherited had a logic to it, once someone took the time to read it properly. Duplicated code can be merged, tests can be added around the parts that matter, and a system everyone was afraid to touch can be changed safely again.
I like this work because the results are so concrete. A business that was nervous about its own software gets its confidence back, and the knowledge that lived in one departed developer's head ends up written down, where it belongs.
What I bring
Depth. Twenty-five years of PHP means I recognise how old applications were built, why decisions were made, and what's likely to break. That judgement is what makes AI-assisted speed safe to use.
Breadth. I work across application development, databases, servers, deployment, security and the front end. Legacy problems don't respect technical boundaries: a failed checkout might begin in JavaScript, pass through twenty-year-old PHP, depend on a database query and fail because an external API changed. I can follow the problem through the entire stack, so you don't need three suppliers arguing about whose problem it is.
Directness. I work directly with clients. The person you explain the problem to is the person investigating it. No account managers, no handoffs, no juniors learning on your system.
Modern tooling. I use AI-assisted analysis to do in hours what used to take days, and I wrap it in tests, human review and staged rollouts. How I use AI
Business sense. I run my own company, so I understand cost, risk and the fact that software exists to serve a business, not the other way round.
Experience
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25+ years of full-stack web development
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Laravel and the TALL stack (Tailwind, Alpine, Livewire) with Filament for administration, alongside long experience of older and custom PHP codebases
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Linux servers, databases, deployment and security, from hosting to browser
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I build and run my own software products, including FormifyPro and BeRentalReady, so I know what it takes to keep a real system alive
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Y Combinator Startup School graduate
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Public sector and enterprise: contract work inside around 40 organisations, including the Planning Inspectorate and Defra on GOV.UK
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Hundreds of client web applications, in Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, Zend Framework, WordPress, Magento, Joomla and bespoke PHP
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Security: penetration-test findings implemented, servers hardened, and sites recovered after attack
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Certified ExO Consultant and ExO Sprint Coach (OpenExO), and Google Cloud Platform specialisation
My portfolio has selected work, with the stacks and methods behind it.
How I like to work
- Understand before changing. I don't assume a rewrite is needed, and I don't assume it isn't.
- Honest assessment. If I'm not the right person for the job, or the job doesn't need doing, I'll say so.
- Published prices. You shouldn't have to guess. Pricing
- Safe changes. Backups, tests, staging and rollback. How I work
- Everything documented, so you're never dependent on me.
A one-person business: the honest version
Being a sole specialist means you get senior attention and direct communication. It also means limited capacity, so I'm upfront about availability and don't over-promise. Everything I learn about your system is written down, so the knowledge belongs to you. More on availability and continuity
Company
Bristol Internet Ltd, trading as bristol.digital Company No. 12513890 · VAT Number GB406744302 Registered Office: Suite 173, 179 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol, England. BS8 2AG.
Tell me what you've inherited.
If you've got an old PHP application that matters to your business and nobody quite understands, that's exactly what I'm here for.
Book a free conversationLegacy System Assessment, from £2,500