Cloud & DevOps
Cloud infrastructure that fits your team, not the trend
I plan, move and run your workloads in the cloud, with tooling a small team can actually maintain: Docker, CI/CD, DNS and delivery, and Kubernetes only when it earns its place.
What I do
From the first plan to the daily pipeline
Migration & architecture
Audit what you run today, research the options and design a scalable AWS environment around your needs.
Includes
- Audit of your current setup
- Architecture designed around your needs
- The move itself, onto a highly scalable environment
Docker & Kubernetes
Your applications packaged and deployed in containers. Kubernetes when your scale and team justify it, and something simpler when they don’t.
Includes
- Containerised deployments
- Kubernetes, when it is the right call
- A second opinion before you adopt it
CI/CD pipelines
Pipelines that test, build and deploy for a small software team, without a platform team to look after them.
Includes
- Automated build, test and deploy
- Only the stages your team will use
- Pipelines your developers can read and change
DNS & content delivery
Domains, DNS and delivery set up properly, including the free-tier services most teams never switch on.
Includes
- DNS with Route 53 or Cloudflare
- Content delivery with CloudFront or Cloudflare
- Caching, protection and redirects
Where I usually step in
Three starting points
Before you touch a provider
Starting from nothing
Most first cloud setups go wrong the same way: someone starts clicking, and two weeks later there is a server, a bill and an architecture that needs rethinking.
Think first.
When it grew faster than the setup
One server is not enough any more
One server holds everything until it doesn’t. Shared files, sessions and cron jobs quietly break the day you add a second one.
When it has always been this way
Hosted yourself for years
Many businesses self-host because it was the cheapest option years ago, not because they chose it.
Decide whether to keep it or move.
Related reading
On Cloud & DevOps, from the blog
The CI/CD Pipeline a Small Software Team Actually Needs
Most writing about CI/CD describes pipelines built for a large platform team. What a three-person team needs on a Tuesday morning is smaller.
The Impressive List of Cloudflare Free Account Services
What the free tier has grown to include, and which parts are worth switching on.
Legacy Systems Aren’t the Problem. The Plan for Them Is.
Old systems often still work fine. The real risk is having no plan for maintaining or replacing them.