The Disciplines Plate V Cloud Infrastructure
Cloud
Infrastructure.
Set up and written down. Hosting, architecture and uptime for people who'd rather not learn Terraform.
Servers and cloud accounts set up carefully, monitored, and handed over with runbooks written in plain English. IONOS, AWS, DigitalOcean or Hetzner - I don't have a favourite, and I'll recommend whichever suits the job.
Return to the workshopA website or application is only as good as the server it runs on. When that server goes down it costs you money, and looking after it yourself takes time away from the work you are good at.
I design, build and look after cloud infrastructure that stays up and grows when you need it to. I stick to open standards and use EU hosting when it matters where the data lives. You are never locked in - the keys are yours, and anyone can follow the runbooks.
§ What I provide
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I.
Managed hosting
Web, application and database servers looked after for you: setup, security patches, backups, monitoring and maintenance. It runs on whichever provider you already pay, or a new one if that turns out cheaper.
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II.
24/7 monitoring
Uptime, performance, disk space and security are checked around the clock, and the alert comes to me before you notice anything is wrong. Automated checks and live dashboards sit behind it.
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III.
Security hardening
Servers locked down from the first day, with firewalls, SSL certificates, automatic security updates, intrusion detection and regular audits.
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IV.
Automated backups
Databases, files and configuration backed up every day, stored offsite and tested regularly, with the recovery steps written down. I have had to restore from them, and it worked.
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V.
Performance optimisation
Server settings tuned, caching in place, a CDN where it helps and slow database queries fixed. Pages load faster, and a well-tuned server often needs a smaller plan.
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VI.
Scalability
Start small and grow when you need to, either with a bigger server or with more of them. A busy day should not take the site down.
§ Typical architecture
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Layer 1
Web server
NGINX or Apache, tuned for speed, with SSL/TLS from Let's Encrypt or a commercial certificate, HTTP/2, security headers and DDoS protection.
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Layer 2
Application layer
Your application in its own isolated environment, whether it is Node.js, Python, PHP or something else. It restarts itself if it falls over, and resource limits stop it taking the server down with it.
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Layer 3
Database
PostgreSQL, MySQL or MongoDB, tuned for your data, with sensible indexes, backups, and replication if you need it. Slow queries are logged so they can be fixed.
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Layer 4
Monitoring
Uptime checked every 60 seconds, plus performance metrics, collected logs and alert rules, using open-source tools such as Uptime Kuma, Prometheus and Grafana.
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Layer 5
Backups
Automatic daily backups, stored offsite and kept for at least 30 days. I test restores, and the recovery steps are written down.
Questions, answered
Will we be locked into a particular cloud?
Not unless there is a reason to be. The default is ordinary, portable technology that will run in more than one place, because the cost of moving later is the thing nobody prices in at the start.
What happens after it is set up?
You get runbooks written for whoever is on duty at the time, so they make sense to someone who didn't build it. Ongoing support is there if you want it, and the handover is written so that you don't have to.
What will it cost?
The prices on this page are starting points, so you can tell in a minute whether you are in the right range. Each job is then quoted after a conversation, because the price depends on the shape of the job and nobody knows that yet. The first half hour is free, and it usually settles whether this is a small piece of work or a large one before any money is discussed.
Who owns the code when it is finished?
You do, outright, including the source. It is handed over with the runbooks needed to keep it running, and there is no licence to renew and no seat to pay for. Where this page quotes a monthly figure, that pays for hosting or ongoing support, which is optional and can be stopped without taking anything away from you. Commissions, not subscriptions, is meant literally.
What happens if you are unavailable?
Everything is built so somebody else could pick it up: common technologies, readable code, written runbooks and nothing proprietary. It is a fair question to ask of a one-person business, and the answer is in how the work is built.
Do you work outside Suffolk and Cambridgeshire?
Yes. Local work gets the option of somebody in the room, which is worth more than it sounds for the first conversation and the handover. Everything after that is done remotely for most clients anyway.