Fractional Azure & Application Architect
Production-grade Azure architecture for software companies — design, review, and ongoing governance from a senior practitioner with 10+ years hands-on experience.
Start a ConversationI design and review Azure environments for software businesses — from initial architecture through production migration, ongoing governance, and scaling. This isn't advisory-only work: I've architected and overseen environments running App Services, Functions, SQL Managed Instances, Azure Data Factory, Key Vault, Application Gateway with WAF, Azure Firewall, Redis Cache, and Application Insights.
Most engagements involve working directly with your development team to ensure what gets built matches the design — and establishing the governance patterns that keep it maintainable as your team grows.
When Your Cloud Environment Grew Without a Plan
Most Azure environments don't start with an architecture. They start with a developer provisioning a resource to solve an immediate problem — a web app here, a database there, a storage account someone created for a proof of concept that's now running in production. Over time, the environment grows, but it grows without a plan. Resource groups are organized inconsistently. Networking is flat or improvised. There's no clear separation between environments. The monthly Azure bill is higher than anyone expected, and nobody can explain exactly why.
This is what happens when a company moves to Azure — or starts building there — without a senior architect involved. The developers aren't doing anything wrong. They're solving problems with the tools in front of them. But cloud architecture decisions have long-term consequences that aren't obvious at the time they're made. Choosing the wrong service tier, skipping network segmentation, putting secrets in app settings instead of Key Vault, running everything in a single subscription — these are decisions that compound. By the time the problems surface, the cost of fixing them is significantly higher than doing it right in the first place.
The other common scenario is the company that's still on-premises and knows they need to move to Azure but doesn't know where to start. Nobody on the team has led a cloud migration before. The vendor proposals are confusing or overly aggressive. There's a real fear of getting it wrong — migrating to Azure only to end up with an environment that's more expensive, harder to manage, and no more reliable than what they had. Azure migration planning requires someone who understands both the source environment and the target platform deeply enough to design a path that's realistic, not just technically possible.
An Azure architecture review is often the fastest way to understand where you stand. It identifies the gaps in reliability, security, and cost efficiency — and produces a clear picture of what needs to change and in what order. For companies that haven't moved yet, it's the migration plan. For companies already on Azure, it's the course correction that prevents the environment from becoming a liability.
Whether you need someone to design the architecture from scratch, review what's already running, or lead a migration from on-premises infrastructure, the value of getting a senior practitioner involved early — someone with hands-on Azure cost optimization experience across production environments — is the difference between an environment that scales with your business and one that works against it.
What's Included
Architecture Design
End-to-end design of Azure environments for web platforms, APIs, and data workloads — built for reliability, security, and cost efficiency.
Architecture Review
Review existing or proposed architectures for gaps in reliability, security, cost efficiency, and long-term maintainability.
Migration Planning
Design the migration path from on-premises or other cloud environments to Azure — application, data, and networking layers.
Development Team Guidance
Work directly with your developers to ensure architectures are implemented as designed, not approximated.
Ongoing Governance
Define standards and guardrails so your Azure environment stays secure and well-managed as your team and workload grow.
How Engagements Work
Architecture engagements typically start at Tier 2 or Tier 3 during the active design and migration phase, then taper to an advisory retainer once the core architecture is stable.
Tier 2 — Core (2–3 days/month): Architecture ownership, regular team touchpoints, design and review cycles through an ongoing build or migration.
Tier 3 — Transformation (multiple days/month): Active migration or greenfield build phases that require close involvement in design decisions and implementation oversight.
Tier 1 — Advisory (~1 day/month): Ongoing governance and architecture review once the environment is stable — periodic reviews, standards updates, and escalation support.
Who This Is For
Companies planning or executing an Azure migration from on-premises or other cloud providers
Teams building or scaling a SaaS platform on Azure with no senior architect in-house
Organizations with a working Azure environment that has grown organically and needs a structured review
Companies in regulated industries (healthcare, financial, insurance) that need architecture designed for compliance
Experience & Proof Points
Led a full production migration to Azure for a SaaS platform serving enterprise customers — multi-region HA, zone redundancy, zero unplanned downtime.
10+ years of hands-on Azure architecture, migration, and security experience across business-critical production environments.
Architected platforms for healthcare and financial services that have remained in production for over a decade, meeting evolving compliance requirements throughout.
Ready to talk?
Tell me about your Azure environment or migration plans and I'll let you know what an engagement could look like.
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