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Platform & Cloud · FOUNDATION + SKYWAY

Cloud Architecture.

Multi-account topology, network boundaries, identity, IaC structure, and explicit cost ceilings, designed before deployment, in writing, by senior cloud architects who staff the engagement they wrote.

Practice
Platform & Cloud
Department
FOUNDATION + SKYWAY

The problem

Most cloud estates are a hand-managed emergency with a Terraform repo on the side.

The shape is familiar: a single AWS account that grew into a thousand resources, an IaC repo that drifts from production after the third quarter, an identity model that started with a few admins and ended with two hundred IAM users, a network topology nobody can draw on a whiteboard, and a monthly bill that keeps climbing without anyone able to explain why. The cloud part isn't broken. The architecture around it is.

We design cloud architectures the way bridges are designed: with engineering load specs, named tradeoffs, and an Architecture Decision Record that becomes the contract for delivery. Account topology, network segmentation, identity model, IaC structure, observability stack, and cost ceiling are settled in writing before the first resource is provisioned. The result is a platform that compounds value across workloads, not an emergency that takes a quarter to refactor every time you ship something new.

Where it ships

5 use cases, in production.

Specific applications we’ve built and operated. Not speculative: every example below is grounded in a real shipped engagement.

  • 01

    30+

    accounts orchestrated

    Multi-account / multi-subscription topology

    AWS Organizations or Azure landing zones with explicit account-of-purpose, transit gateway networks, and centralized identity. The topology survives tomorrow's workload, not just today's.

  • 02

    Greenfield platform foundations

    First-cloud customers building from scratch. We design the substrate every future workload will rest on: IaC modules, CI/CD, identity, observability, and policy-as-code from day one.

  • 03

    Architecture review and remediation

    Existing customer with cloud debt. We audit the estate, surface the architectural breakage, and produce a remediation roadmap with prioritized work and explicit dependencies.

  • 04

    Multi-cloud and hybrid

    Cross-cloud workload placement (regulatory frame, latency, sovereignty), hybrid extensions to on-prem, and cloud-to-cloud egress optimization. Honest tradeoff analysis, not vendor-driven recommendations.

  • 05

    −42%

    cost vs prior architecture

    Cost ceiling and FinOps architecture

    Workload-level cost ceilings, tagging that survives, Reserved Instance / Savings Plan strategy, and autoscaling shapes calibrated to real load. FinOps as architecture, not as a quarterly cleanup.

How we engage

4 phases, named in the SOW.

Each phase has a deliverable, an owner, and an acceptance criterion. Not slogans, operating rules.

  1. 01

    Discovery and load specs

    Two-week assessment: workload inventory, regulatory frame, identity model, current cost shape, observability gaps, and the engineering organization behind it. Output is the load spec the architecture has to meet, not a generic best-practices checklist.

  2. 02

    ADR and IaC structure

    Architecture Decision Record covering account topology, network, identity, IaC structure, deployment flow, observability, and cost ceiling. ADR is the contract the build phase implements; deviations require explicit approval and become amendments to the document.

  3. 03

    IaC build with policy-as-code

    Terraform / Pulumi modules that subsequent workloads inherit. Promotion through dev → staging → prod via CI gates with OPA / Conftest / Checkov enforcement. No clickops, no hand-managed drift, no untracked production resources.

  4. 04

    Operating cadence

    Monthly architecture review (cost, reliability, security posture). Quarterly architectural debt assessment. Annual ADR refresh. The architecture compounds value over time when it has a continuous owner. We run it under Managed Services or hand off with the documentation.

Capabilities

What’s in scope.

  • AWS, Azure, GCP: multi-account, multi-subscription topologies
  • Network architecture: transit gateways, hub-and-spoke, segmentation
  • Identity model: SSO, IAM, RBAC, just-in-time elevated access, audit
  • IaC modules: Terraform, Pulumi, CDK with library + reuse patterns
  • Policy-as-code: OPA, Conftest, Checkov, Sentinel, integrated in CI
  • Cost architecture: workload ceilings, tagging strategy, RI / SP planning
  • Hybrid and on-prem extensions where sovereignty or latency demands it

Stack

Tools we use in production.

Clouds
AWSAzureGCPCloudflareOCI
IaC
TerraformPulumiAWS CDKBicepCrossplane
Identity
AWS IAM Identity CenterMicrosoft Entra IDOktaAuth0
Networking
Transit GatewayAzure Virtual WANCloud InterconnectTailscale
Policy & cost
OPAConftestCheckovSentinelAWS Cost AnomalyVantage

Common questions

Asked before the first call.

  1. 01

    Are you cloud-agnostic or do you push a specific provider?

    Agnostic in principle, opinionated per workload. We design with patterns that survive a future cloud move (IaC, container abstraction, identity portability), but we recommend the cloud, and services within it: that fits your workload, regulatory frame, and skills. We tell you why we recommend what we recommend, in writing.

  2. 02

    Do you do architecture-only engagements or build too?

    Both. Architecture-only engagements are 4–8 weeks, fixed price, with the ADR as deliverable. Most clients then engage us for the build phase under the same ADR, but the ADR is yours to act on, including taking it to a different vendor for delivery.

  3. 03

    How do you handle existing cloud debt?

    Assessment first, then prioritized remediation. We audit account topology, identity, network, IaC drift, cost shape, and observability gaps. Remediation plan sequences work by risk reduction and unblocked-future-work value, not by 'fix everything in parallel'.

  4. 04

    What about FinOps?

    FinOps is architecture, not procurement. Cost ceilings per workload, tagging strategy that survives audit, Reserved Instance / Savings Plan strategy, and autoscaling shapes calibrated to real load. Most clients see 25–50% cost reduction within six months while improving reliability.

  5. 05

    Can you support on-prem or hybrid?

    Yes: when sovereignty, regulatory, or latency demands it. We've shipped hybrid topologies for healthcare, government, and financial services, including air-gapped deployments. We also tell you honestly when an on-prem requirement is solving for the wrong constraint.

  6. 06

    What does cloud architecture cost?

    Architecture-only engagement: 4–8 weeks, $80K–$250K. Architecture + foundation build: 4–6 months, $400K–$1M. Multi-account modernization for an existing estate: 9–14 months, $1M–$3M. Brackets published honestly so visitors self-qualify before the first call.

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Talk to us

Bring a cloud architecture problem. We’ll bring a senior engineer.

A senior engineer plus the FOUNDATION + SKYWAY department lead joins the first call. No discovery gauntlet, no junior reps.