High-level design
An architecture for what you are about to build, with the trade-offs written down and the failure modes enumerated before anyone commits budget.
A second opinion from someone who has actually run it
High-level design, AWS bill review, migration planning, or an honest read on an architecture somebody is about to commit to. Scoped small, delivered in writing, and useful whether or not anything else follows.
Who a consulting engagement is for
This engagement exists for the decision before the build, and it is deliberately separable from everything that might follow it.
- OTT platforms
- Services with a cloud bill that has stopped making sense, or an architecture decision nobody internal can settle.
- Telcos and ISPs
- Operators evaluating whether to build, buy or peer, who want the arithmetic done by somebody with no stake in the answer.
- Enterprise network operators
- Teams holding a vendor proposal and wanting a second reading of it before signing.
Advice from operating, not from a framework
There is no shortage of people who will produce a streaming architecture diagram. There are fewer who have been woken up by one. The value here is eight years of operating streaming at the sharp end, and a platform that runs in production on owned hardware — which means the cost comparisons are informed by knowing exactly what both sides actually cost.
These engagements are deliberately small and self-contained. You get a written deliverable you can circulate, and no expectation that a build follows.
The engagements people ask for
AWS bill review
Twelve months of invoices read line by line, matched against measured traffic, and turned into a ranked list of changes with the saving attached to each.
Migration planning
The order of operations for getting off a rented platform without losing subscriptions, playback state or a weekend.
Architecture assessment
An independent read on a design or a running system — what will break first, what costs more than it should, and what is fine and being worried about unnecessarily.
How a consulting engagement runs
Scope the question
A short call to establish what is actually being asked, which is frequently not what the first email said.
Gather evidence
Invoices, metrics, diagrams, repositories — whatever exists. Findings are drawn from your data, not from general principles.
Analyse
The work itself, against the measured reality rather than against a reference architecture.
Deliver in writing
A document you can circulate internally, with findings ranked and each recommendation costed.
The things people ask first
Will the recommendation always be to build your platform?
No. Several of these engagements have ended with 'what you have is fine, fix these three things'. A consultant whose analysis always reaches the same conclusion is a salesperson.
How is it priced?
Fixed scope and fixed fee for a defined deliverable, or a day rate for open-ended work. Agreed before anything starts.
How long does a bill review take?
Usually a couple of weeks from receiving the invoices and the traffic data. The analysis is fast; assembling the evidence is normally the slow part.
Ask the awkward question
The most valuable consulting engagements start with a question somebody inside the organisation cannot ask safely. Send that one.