Cloud consulting · Defined scope and accountable delivery
Cloud Improvement Retainer for AWS or Azure
Turn a defined cloud improvement backlog into reviewed changes, tested outcomes, and a maintainable handover. Work with one senior cloud/platform engineer within an agreed monthly capacity and workload boundary.
$8,500 / monthUSD · three-month initial term · $25,500 in initial-term retainer fees
- Monthly capacity
- Up to 40 total hours
- Initial term
- 3 months, billed monthly
- Environment
- 1 platform; up to 3 accounts/subscriptions
- Workload
- 1 production + associated nonproduction
For teams that know the problem and need delivery capacity
This engagement fits a team with an operating cloud workload, an accountable product or engineering owner, and a practical improvement backlog. Examples include a fragile deployment process, Terraform changes waiting for review, unreliable alerting, or infrastructure-cost questions that need engineering follow-through.
Initial onboarding and architecture assessment are completed and priced separately before the monthly work begins. If the environment or priorities are still unclear, start with the cloud architecture and systems review to establish a useful boundary and next actions.
One platform, a defined workload, and 40 total hours
The retainer covers one AWS or Azure platform, up to three accounts/subscriptions, and one production workload with its associated nonproduction environment. Capacity is up to 40 total hours per month, including implementation, meetings, analysis, reporting, and documentation.
The fee is $8,500 USD per month, with a three-month initial term billed monthly: $25,500 USD in retainer fees for that initial term. Initial onboarding and architecture assessment are separately scoped and priced. Delivery is remote during US Eastern business hours, with next-business-day acknowledgement. Acknowledgement confirms receipt; prioritization and completion depend on the agreed backlog, dependencies, and remaining capacity. Scheduling, unused capacity, and any additional work are settled in the written agreement.
| Workstream | Example bounded change | Evidence to agree before starting |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure as code | Improve a selected Terraform module or review an environment-specific configuration. | Reviewed change, validation/plan results, deployment outcome where authorized, and rollback notes. |
| CI/CD | Add a selected check or improve controlled promotion for one delivery path. | Known-pass/known-fail behavior and a documented receiving-team procedure. |
| Observability and reliability | Improve an alert, dashboard, or recovery procedure tied to a specific failure mode. | Synthetic alert/recovery exercise where approved, operating notes, and an assigned owner. |
| Cloud-cost improvements | Investigate a bounded usage/sizing problem and validate a suitable change. | Baseline, workload constraints, implementation record, and measured follow-up where available. |
The backlog is prioritized against available time. An item requiring more capacity or a different boundary is re-scoped or scheduled explicitly; the retainer does not promise completion of an unlimited list of work.
A weekly delivery discussion and a monthly evidence record
- Agree the next item: select work with a clear outcome, receiving owner, dependencies, and acceptance checks.
- Implement through your change process: prepare reviewable configuration or code and obtain the access and production-change approvals the work requires.
- Verify the outcome: use the agreed checks and preserve meaningful results. Record unresolved findings and any test that could not run.
- Review progress: discuss completed work and blockers weekly. The monthly baseline-and-progress report records delivery, time used, observed results, open risks, and the next priorities.
Documentation is part of the allowance so the receiving team can operate the result. The monthly record distinguishes a completed change from an expected benefit that still needs measurement.
Costs and responsibilities outside the retainer
Cloud consumption charges and software licenses are separate. Large migrations, additional platforms/workloads, 24/7 operations, and unlimited incident response require separate scope. The monthly engineering capacity is not an on-call service or an unlimited operations contract.
Your team supplies a decision-maker, an engineering owner, approved access, and the required change-review path. Work involving sensitive environments follows the agreed handling and procurement requirements. Formal certification or authorization outcomes remain with the applicable assessment and decision process.
Measure progress against the problem you hired us to solve
At the start of a work item, record the baseline and define how improvement will be checked. For a deployment problem, that may be reproducible promotion or recovery behavior. For a reliability issue, it may be an alert or restore exercise. For a cost investigation, measure the relevant usage and bill impact while preserving workload requirements.
Cloud savings are one possible outcome, not the sole value of engineering capacity. Report realized results separately from projections. Do not assume that every work item will produce a quantified saving or that an infrastructure change proves a full compliance control.
Define the first three months before work starts
The stated monthly price applies to the defined 40-hour commercial engagement. A written proposal confirms the scope, fee, scheduling, and separately priced onboarding/assessment before work starts. Broader delivery or a regulated-cloud workstream receives its own proposal.
Bring the platform and workload boundary, the existing assessment/onboarding material, a short list of desired changes, and your approval process. We use those inputs to agree the backlog, monthly fee, capacity, access, reporting, and review points.
See pricing and engagement models for the information a proposal needs, or compare the retainer with a standalone architecture review. For a dedicated hardening and evidence workstream, discuss regulated-cloud engineering separately.
Questions before you start
Do meetings and reporting use the monthly hours?
Yes. The 40-hour allowance includes implementation, discussions, analysis, reporting, and documentation. We prioritize work against that total rather than promising 40 implementation hours in addition to meetings.
Is onboarding included in the monthly fee?
Initial onboarding and architecture assessment are separately scoped and priced. Establish the workload, access, priorities, and operating constraints before monthly delivery starts.
Does next-business-day acknowledgement mean a fix by then?
No. It is an acknowledgement commitment during the stated delivery arrangement. Resolution and delivery are planned according to priority, dependencies, approvals, and capacity.