09
Consulting
Software Architecture & Technical Consulting
Independent architecture and code reviews, technical due diligence and design advice, so big technical decisions rest on evidence, not habit.
From$2,200
Technology Consulting · Service 08
Cloud Strategy & Migration
Decide what to move, rebuild, keep or retire, model the real costs, then migrate in planned waves with a tested way back at every step.
Starting from
$2,300
- Discipline
- Technology Consulting
- Shortest timeline
- 2 to 4 weeks
- Clients
- Businesses, organizations & founders
- Delivery
- Remote, worldwide
What this service is
Moving to the cloud doesn't automatically make anything cheaper, faster or safer. With a plan, it can do all three. Rushed, it can make all three worse.
Cloud strategy and migration means deciding which of your systems belong in the cloud, which provider suits them, and how to move them without disrupting the people who depend on them. Each workload is judged on its own merits: some move as they are, some are worth rebuilding on managed services, some are better left where they are, and some should simply be retired. The plan comes with costs you can believe, not a provider's best-case estimate.
We're vendor-neutral between AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, and we take no commission on your cloud bill. We set up the foundations properly (accounts, identity, network, security baseline and backups), move workloads in planned waves with a tested rollback for each, and stay to tune costs once real usage data arrives. If your own team or another supplier is doing the moving, we can plan and oversee the work instead.
Problems we solve
The situations that bring people to us
Cloud projects tend to go wrong in predictable ways. If any of these is on your mind, it's worth talking before you commit.
The situation todayWhat changes
Your server hardware or hosting contract is ending and the clock is running
A dated migration plan that meets the deadline without a reckless rush
A provider's estimate looks cheap, but nobody has modeled your real usage
A cost forecast built from your actual workloads, storage and traffic
You've already moved some systems and the monthly bill keeps climbing
Right-sized resources, tagging, budgets and alerts that bring spend back under control
Nobody is sure who has access to what across your cloud accounts
Central identity, least-privilege roles and audit logging from day one
Backups exist, but nobody has ever tried restoring from them
Recovery targets agreed with the business and restores tested on a schedule
You've been told everything has to move at once, over a single weekend
Migration in small waves, each with its own rollback, so no single night decides everything
What you get
Deliverables
Not every engagement includes every item. Your proposal lists exactly what's in scope, and what isn't.
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01
Cloud readiness assessment
An inventory of applications, servers, data and dependencies, recording each one's technical fit, licensing constraints and importance to the business.
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02
Workload-by-workload decisions
A recommendation for every system: move as is, re-platform, rebuild, replace with a SaaS product, keep on-premises or retire, with the reasoning written down.
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03
Cost model and forecast
Projected monthly costs per workload, including storage, data transfer, licensing and support plans, compared honestly with what you pay today.
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04
Provider comparison
AWS, Azure and Google Cloud weighed against your workloads, your team's skills, the licenses you already own and your compliance needs, with no commercial bias.
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05
Landing zone and security baseline
Account structure, single sign-on, role-based access, network design, encryption, logging and guardrails, defined as code and in place before the first workload arrives.
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06
Migration runbooks
Workloads grouped into waves, each with step-by-step instructions, success checks, a rollback procedure, a go or no-go point and a named owner.
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07
Backup and disaster recovery design
Recovery point and recovery time targets agreed for each system, backups configured to meet them, and a restore test you've watched succeed.
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08
Post-migration optimization
Right-sizing, reserved capacity, tagging, budgets and alerts reviewed against real usage, so the bill reflects what you use rather than what was guessed.
Visual model
What a well-built cloud estate looks like
How the pieces typically fit together on this kind of engagement.
Moved workloadsMigrated in planned waves
Managed servicesDatabases, storage, queues
Kept on-premisesConnected securely
Landing zoneAccounts, network and guardrails
IdentitySingle sign-on and roles
Security baselineLogging and encryption
Backup and recoveryRestores tested regularly
Cost controlsTags, budgets and alerts by team
Common use cases
Where this work usually applies
Practical patterns rather than industry labels. The shape of the problem matters more than the sector.
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Use case 01
Leaving an on-premises server room
Aging servers, an expiring lease or a hardware refresh you'd rather not fund: a full move with a date, a budget and a decision for every system.
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Use case 02
Moving one critical application first
A single line-of-business system moved as a contained project, proving the foundations and the approach before anything else follows.
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Use case 03
Bringing a cloud bill under control
Spend broken down by team and workload, idle resources removed, and budgets with alerts so the next surprise is caught in days, not on the invoice.
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Use case 04
Rationalizing multiple providers
Workloads scattered across providers by past decisions or acquisitions, consolidated where it saves money and left alone where it doesn't.
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Use case 05
Cloud-based disaster recovery
Primary systems stay where they are, with the cloud as a standby recovery site and failover rehearsed rather than assumed.
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Use case 06
Oversight for an in-house migration
Your engineers do the moving. We provide the plan and the landing zone design, review the work, and sign off each wave before it goes live.
Our approach
How we handle this kind of work
The parts of our method that matter most for cloud & migration.
- 01
Decide workload by workload
There's no single answer for a whole estate. Each system gets its own decision based on cost, risk, effort and how much the business depends on it.
- 02
Model costs before committing
The forecast is built from your real usage and includes the items that tend to trip people up: data transfer, backup storage, licensing and support plans.
- 03
Lay the foundations first
Identity, networking, security and backups are set up and tested before the first workload moves. Retrofitting them under pressure is slower and riskier.
- 04
Move in small, reversible waves
Each wave is small enough to roll back, and the old environment stays available until the new one has proved itself under real use. No big-bang weekends.
- 05
Avoid lock-in by accident
Where portability matters, we favor infrastructure as code, open standards and data formats you can take elsewhere. Where a managed service is worth the dependency, we say so and record why.
Project stages
From first conversation to delivery
Each stage has a defined output and a review point, so you always know where the work stands.
How our process works-
01
Assess
An inventory of systems, data, dependencies and current costs, plus interviews with the people who run and use them.
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02
Decide
Workload decisions, a provider comparison and a cost model, settled with your team before anything is built.
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03
Plan
Migration waves, runbooks, rollback procedures, recovery targets and a calendar that avoids your busiest periods.
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04
Prepare
Landing zone, identity, network, security baseline and backups set up as code, reviewed and tested.
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05
Migrate
Waves moved and verified one at a time, by our team or by yours with our oversight, each one cleared by a readiness check first.
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06
Optimize
Cost, performance and security reviewed once real usage data arrives, followed by a handover of runbooks and dashboards.
Capabilities
What we bring to this work
Only the capabilities that matter for this service, and nothing we wouldn't actually recommend.
Assessment
- Application and server discovery
- Dependency mapping
- Licensing and contract review
- Current cost baselines
- Readiness scoring by workload
- Data residency and compliance needs
Planning
- Rehost, re-platform or rebuild decisions
- Provider comparison
- Cost modeling and forecasts
- Migration wave planning
- Recovery point and time targets
- Exit and portability planning
Foundations and oversight
- Landing zones and guardrails
- Identity and access design
- Infrastructure as code
- Tagging, budgets and spend alerts
- Migration oversight and sign-off
- Post-migration cost reviews
Delivery and engagement
Typical timelines
The number of systems, how tangled their dependencies are, licensing terms and any change freezes on your side shape the schedule. Each wave is planned and dated on its own, so a delay in one doesn't hold up the rest.
Readiness assessment and cost model2 to 4 weeks
Strategy, landing zone and a first migration wave6 to 10 weeks
Full estate migration12 to 36 weeks, delivered in waves
Who it's for
Typical clients for this work
We work with companies, organizations and individuals. The requirement matters more than the size of the buyer.
Businesses
- Companies with servers nearing end of life or a hosting contract ending
- Teams surprised by a cloud bill that keeps growing
- Firms on one provider by accident rather than by choice
- Businesses that need disaster recovery they can actually test
Organizations
- Nonprofits weighing a hardware refresh against cloud subscriptions
- Organizations with data residency or regulatory requirements
- Multi-site organizations still running a server in every office
Technical teams
- In-house IT teams who want a plan, a reviewer and an extra pair of hands
- Software teams moving an application they built onto managed services
Related services
Often commissioned alongside this
06
Development
Legacy Software Modernization
Make aging software safe to change again: an honest assessment, tests around what works, then upgrades or staged replacement with no big-bang cutover.
From$2,900
07
Consulting
IT Consulting & Technology Strategy
Independent, vendor-neutral advice on what to build, buy, keep or retire, turned into a roadmap and budget your leadership team can act on.
From$1,900
Service FAQ
Questions about cloud & migration
Will moving to the cloud save us money?
Sometimes, but not automatically. Savings come from retiring hardware, switching off what you don't use and paying only for the capacity you need. Copying oversized servers across as they are can cost more than staying put. The cost model shows the likely outcome before you commit, and if staying where you are is cheaper, we'll tell you.
Which cloud provider do you recommend?
The one that fits your workloads, your team's skills, the licenses you already own and your compliance needs. AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are all capable platforms. We take no commission from any of them, so the comparison is about fit and nothing else.
How do you avoid downtime during the move?
By not moving everything at once. Each wave is rehearsed, data is synchronized ahead of the switch, and the old environment stays ready to take traffic back. Where a short pause can't be avoided, it's agreed with you in advance and timed for your quietest hours.
Can our own IT team carry out the migration?
Yes, and it's a good way to keep the knowledge in-house. We can supply the strategy, landing zone design and runbooks, then review each wave and give a go or no-go before it runs. Your team does the work, with an experienced check at every step.
What does the $2,300 starting price cover?
A cloud readiness assessment for a small estate: an inventory of your systems, a decision for each one, a provider comparison and a cost model. Landing zone setup, migration and oversight are quoted separately against that plan, so you can stop after the assessment if the case doesn't stack up.
Starting from
$2,300
Final pricing depends on the number and complexity of your systems, compliance requirements and how much of the migration we carry out. Each phase is quoted in writing before it starts.
Have a project in mind?
Tell us what you're trying to achieve. We'll come back with a clear view of the scope, the approach and the cost, and if we're not the right fit, we'll say so quickly.