Cloud consulting
Cloud consulting and architecture
Cloud strategy that survives contact with your budget, your bandwidth, and your team.
Overview
What this service is for
Cloud advice generated in a vacuum tends to fail in predictable ways. It assumes connectivity that is not there, headcount that has not been hired, and change appetite the organisation does not have. The result is a well-argued document that nobody executes.
Our consulting practice starts from constraints rather than ideals. What does your link to the outside world actually sustain at peak? Which applications are genuinely business-critical, and which are simply old? Who will administer this in eighteen months? What does finance need to see before releasing capital? The architecture follows from those answers.
We are Microsoft-led because that is where our deepest bench sits, but we are not Microsoft-only. Where AWS, Google Cloud, or a well-specified on-premises platform is the better answer for a workload, we will say so and explain the trade-off in cost, risk, and operational effort. Advice you cannot argue with is not advice — it is a sales pitch.
What you receive
- Current-state assessment with dependency mapping
- Target architecture diagrams and design decisions register
- Phased roadmap with effort, sequencing, and prerequisites
- Indicative cost model for build and steady-state run
- Risk register with mitigations and owners
Outcomes to expect
- A plan your engineers agree is buildable
- Investment decisions supported by a defensible cost model
- Fewer mid-project surprises from dependencies discovered too late
- Shared understanding between IT and the board about what is being bought and why
Capabilities
How AAG can help
The specific work covered by this practice area.
Cloud readiness assessment
Applications, dependencies, identity, connectivity, and operational maturity reviewed before any commitment of spend.
Target architecture design
Reference designs for hybrid and cloud-native estates, documented to a level your team can actually build and run.
Cost modelling and FinOps
Consumption forecasting, tagging discipline, budget alerts, and reserved capacity planning so cloud spend stays deliberate.
Security and compliance posture
Identity, network segmentation, data protection, and logging reviewed against practical baselines rather than aspirational frameworks.
Architecture workshops
Working sessions with your engineers and stakeholders so decisions are understood and owned, not handed down.
Executive and board briefings
The same recommendation translated into investment, risk, and timeline language for people who do not need the packet diagrams.
Delivery
How the engagement runs
Phases with clear entry and exit points, so you always know what is being decided and what happens next.
Discovery
Stakeholder interviews, technical inventory, and connectivity review across sites.
Analysis and options
Two or three credible options, each with cost, risk, and operational implications spelt out.
Design and roadmap
Agreed target architecture with a sequenced delivery plan and clear decision points.
Handover or delivery
Your team executes with our support, or we deliver the roadmap as a scoped programme.
Who this is for
The people who usually sponsor this work
CIOs and IT managers
You need architecture that your team can actually run, vendors consolidated, and a partner who escalates instead of deflecting.
CFOs and finance leaders
You need licence spend that reconciles, renewals without surprises, and a cost model you can defend in a budget review.
COOs and operations leaders
You need uptime, continuity that has been tested, and fewer working days lost to technology friction.
Founders and SME owners
You need enterprise-grade security and collaboration without building an internal IT department to run it.
Risk and compliance leads
You need identity controls, retention policies, and recovery evidence that stand up to an audit.
Questions
Frequently asked
The questions clients ask before committing to this service.
Most readiness engagements run between two and four weeks, depending on estate size and how quickly we can get access to systems and stakeholders. Larger multi-site organisations take longer, and we will say so before we start rather than after.
Works well with
Related services
These practice areas are commonly delivered alongside this one.
Like to know more?
Talk to us about cloud consulting
Send a short brief and we will come back with a considered response, not a generic brochure.