Architecture and Design
IT Architecture and Design
Many small and mid-sized environments were never designed. Something broke, something got bought, and three years later nobody can explain how it ended up this way. Design means deciding where you are going before you spend the money.
What we do
Design Work That Stands on Its Own
Sometimes the right recommendation is to keep what you have.
Architecture Review
A technical assessment of how your environment is built and where it will break as you grow. Usually the constraint is something nobody has looked at in years.
Network and Security Design
Addressing, segmentation, firewall policy, wireless, remote access and identity designed as one system and written down before anything is bought.
Technology Roadmap
A three-year view of what needs replacing, upgrading or retiring, with an estimated cost attached to each. Hardware failure stops being a surprise once it is a line in next year's budget.
Purchase and Vendor Evaluation
A technical read on a significant software or infrastructure purchase against your actual requirements. The recommendation comes before any quote.
Infrastructure and Security Due Diligence
Before you buy a company, we assess its network, security and cloud setup and estimate what it will cost to bring up to your standard. Timeline agreed at scoping.
Compliance Readiness
Practical preparation for cyber insurance questionnaires, customer security reviews or a sector framework. We help you build the evidence; we do not certify.
Retainer
A Fractional Architect, Business Hours
For businesses that need senior design judgment on a regular basis but not a full-time architect. Scheduled architect time, scoped and priced in writing, used for the work below. Requests are answered by the architect. Working sessions and vendor calls are booked in advance.
- Design review before any significant change or purchase
- Change review for work your internal staff or other vendors are planning
- Vendor and quote review, and scheduled vendor calls on your side of the table
- Keeping your network diagrams and architecture documents current
- A quarterly roadmap check against budget
Business hours only, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central. Scoped and priced in writing.
How a Design Engagement Runs
Scoped, time-boxed, and ending in a document you can act on.
Discovery
We learn how the business runs first, then the technology. Designs that ignore how the business works are the ones that get reversed.
Analysis
Current state assessed against where you are heading, with gaps, risks and constraints identified and ranked.
Design and Roadmap
Written design and roadmap with priorities, costs and sequencing. Yours to build with us, with someone else, or internally.
Need a Second Opinion?
Whether you are weighing a major purchase, questioning a design, or planning for growth, a second technical opinion is worth having before you commit.
FAQ
Architecture Questions We Get Asked
No. Design engagements stand on their own. You get a written design and roadmap you are free to build however you like, including internally or with your existing provider.
A design project answers one question with one document. The retainer gives you scheduled architect time for the reviews and decisions that come up as you go.
We will tell you what we find, flattering or not. Sometimes the honest answer is that your provider is doing solid work and the frustration is a communication problem. We would rather say that than invent a reason to replace them.
It depends on scope. A focused architecture review is a different exercise from a full roadmap with budget modeling. We scope and quote in writing before starting. No open-ended hourly billing.
Yes, and it is one of the most useful things we do. A few hours checking a large software or infrastructure purchase against your requirements can prevent an expensive decision that does not fit.
