Cloud Architecture, Migration & Cost Optimisation Consultancy

Three questions worth asking before the next architecture review:

Do your cloud decisions still hold up in two years?
Are your costs going down or just moving sideways?
Can you walk away from any single provider if the regulator or the maths turns?

The work that pays back is at the architecture level, not the bill. The right architecture cuts spend and shrinks the compliance surface in the same move. Reserved instances are not a strategy, architecture is.

We work across whichever providers and on-prem footprint you already run, including the mainframe and co-location segment that the cloud-native framing tends to forget. The bulk of the regulated estate is still hybrid, and most of the interesting decisions live in the boundary between cloud and on-prem.

Cloud architecture designed for one regulatory regime rarely survives another unchanged. We bridge the gap between your home environment and UK or EU markets without rebuilding what already works.

Where the value sits

Cloud done well is the easy part. The hard part is the architecture decision you have to defend in five years.

Multi-cloud and hybrid by default

We do not arrive with a preferred stack. We work across whichever providers and on-prem footprint you already run, and we will tell you when adding another provider buys you optionality and when it just adds an integration tax.

Sovereignty by design

Where data sits, who can subpoena it (CLOUD Act, FISA 702, Schrems II reach through EU subsidiaries), and when "EU region" stops meaning EU control. The answer is rarely the marketing answer.

Efficiency at the architecture level

Right-sizing and reserved instances are tactical. The structural decisions are where compute lives, what fails to manual, what is retained on-prem because the cloud maths does not work for that workload.

Concentration, substitutability and exit strategy

DORA Article 28 requires that you can leave. Exit strategy is a deliverable, not a slide. Designing for substitutability on day one is materially cheaper than retrofitting it later. We use the Critical 19 analysis as input, not a sales prop.

Asset register as a working artefact

Most cloud asset registers are CMDB exports. A working one captures substitutability, ownership, dependency, recovery objectives and increasingly cryptographic properties. See asset management under DORA.

Repatriation analysis

When the maths or the regulator turns, the question becomes which workloads come back, where to, and who pays for the move. We have run that exercise from both directions.

We bring a solution, not a menu

Architecture and risk are not menus. We bring a solution that we will stand behind, not a row of options for you to evaluate. Push back where you have context we do not. The rest of the time, the value of senior advice is the conviction it produces, and pretending otherwise wastes everyone's fees.

Risk management runs alongside architecture. The architecture decision is also a risk decision: where to host, what to back up, what to fail to manual, what to walk away from. We treat risk as an operational input, not a quarterly slide.

What is table stakes

Given, not headline: architecture reviews, IAM design, network segmentation, secrets and key management, FinOps, migration runbooks (we use the 7Rs lens where it helps the conversation, it is a tool, not a doctrine), DevSecOps pipelines, infrastructure-as-code review, monitoring and alerting, backup and disaster recovery, container and Kubernetes security. We do these where they are needed. They are not where the engagement justifies itself.

What we deliver

Beyond the positioning above, the specific offerings inside our cloud practice.

Cloud infrastructure management

Platform management across whichever providers you already run (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, and the on-prem and co-location estate that often gets left out of cloud-only conversations). Infrastructure as code in Terraform or CloudFormation, monitoring and alerting, backup and disaster-recovery design and testing, security configuration and hardening, knowledge transfer to your own team so engagements end cleanly.

Cost optimisation that compounds

Detailed cost analysis and reporting, reserved-instance and savings-plan strategies, right-sizing recommendations, unused-resource identification, cost allocation and tagging, budgeting and forecasting. We run this alongside architecture work because the structural savings live there, not in a quarterly bill review.

Cloud migration end to end

Discovery and assessment, strategy and planning (the 7Rs lens applied where it helps), migration execution with controlled cutover and minimal disruption, post-migration optimisation. We have run large migrations in both directions, including out of cloud where the maths says so.

DevSecOps

CI/CD pipeline security with automated scanning and policy enforcement, container and Kubernetes security with image scanning, runtime protection and secrets management, infrastructure as code with policy as code, drift detection and automated compliance checks.

Selected Project Examples

Every engagement is tailored to the specific challenges and constraints of each organisation. Here are examples of how we've helped clients achieve their objectives.

Marketing Agency Cloud Migration

Migrated a leading marketing agency from Digital Ocean to AWS, involving multiple services across 3 environments with minimal downtime.

Complex organisational structure at AWS
Multiple VPC and transit gateways
Kubernetes orchestration
Several terabytes of storage migration

Outcome: Seamless migration completed with agreed downtime window, improved redundancy and 30% cost reduction through right-sizing.

Transport Solution Azure Migration

Legacy migration of a transport solution to Azure with comprehensive DevOps pipelines configuration.

Private NuGet feed implementation
Terraform-based server provisioning
Multi-region failover configuration
MS SQL clustering deployment

Outcome: Fully automated deployment pipeline with disaster recovery capability and zero-downtime deployments.

Serverless Escrow Platform

Built a serverless self-service solution for a leading escrow agent, enabling digital contract execution at scale.

DynamoDB database architecture
TypeScript-based API Gateway
eSignature integration
Payment processing integration

Outcome: 80% reduction in manual processing, fully automated contract lifecycle from initiation to completion.

Educational Provider AWS Migration

Challenging migration of a large educational provider from dedicated VPS to AWS, including environment separation and redundancy implementation.

MySQL redundant database cluster
Load balancing with SSL termination
Auto-scaling application servers
Real-time monitoring and alerting

Outcome: 99.9% uptime achieved, capacity to handle 3x peak load, and 40% infrastructure cost reduction.

Medical Device CI/CD Pipelines

Designed and implemented 6 standardised deployment pipelines for a medical equipment startup, bringing consistency across the engineering organisation.

Node.js framework deployment
Terraform infrastructure provisioning
Ansible configuration management
Integrated vulnerability testing

Outcome: Deployment frequency increased from monthly to daily, with automated security scanning in every build.

Hotel Chain Data Lake

Design, implementation and performance tuning of a Data Warehouse solution at Azure for a leading hotel chain.

MS SQL data warehouse
12 secured source system interfaces
Qlik analytics integration
Cloud Active Directory IAM

Outcome: Unified data platform enabling real-time business intelligence across 200+ properties.

Our Boutique Approach

We're not a body shop or a template-driven consultancy. Every engagement starts with understanding your specific situation.

Senior Practitioners Only

You work directly with experienced cloud architects and engineers. The person who designs your solution is the person who implements it.

Tailored Solutions

We design for your specific constraints, technology stack, and business requirements. No off-the-shelf architectures or generic recommendations.

Defined Success Criteria

Every engagement has clear, measurable outcomes agreed upfront. We define what success looks like before we start work.

Pragmatic Implementation

We deliver working solutions, not just recommendations. Our hands-on approach means we stay until the job is done and your team is confident.

Cloud Services