Make Your Next Cloud Decision On Evidence, Not Guesswork.
3Shadz Cloud Consulting turns cloud strategy from a platform pitch into an engineering decision, assessing what you run today, designing the architecture and governance model that fits where you’re actually going, and giving you a cost picture you can trust before a single workload moves.
$ 3shadz cloud-assess --workload checkout-api
> scanning current environment… done
> recommendation: AWS, multi-AZ landing zone
confidence: high · 12 signals evaluated
The Decision That Shapes Everything You Build Afterward
Most cloud problems trace back to a decision made too early, under too little information: the wrong account structure, a region picked for convenience, a migration that copied on-premises habits instead of rethinking them.
Cloud Consulting is where we help you avoid that. We assess your current workloads, data, and growth plans, then recommend a platform (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or a deliberate multi-cloud mix) before designing the account structure, network, security, and cost baseline everything else gets built on.
It’s one of four connected capabilities inside our Cloud & DevOps practice. Findings from a consulting engagement flow directly into our Cloud Migration, DevOps & Automation, or Managed Cloud Services teams, whichever the roadmap points to.
Six Ways We Turn Cloud Uncertainty Into a Plan
Every engagement draws from the same six building blocks, scoped up or down depending on how much ground you need to cover.
Cloud Readiness & Workload Assessment
We inventory current workloads, dependencies, and constraints, and score what’s genuinely ready to move against what needs work first.
Platform & Architecture Strategy
An evidence-based recommendation on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or a deliberate multi-cloud mix, reasoned from your workloads, not a partner incentive.
Landing Zone & Governance Design
Account structure, network topology, and organizational guardrails designed before the first resource is provisioned.
Cost Modelling & FinOps Baseline
A realistic cost picture, modelled against your actual usage patterns, before you commit budget to a platform or a migration.
Security & Compliance Architecture
Access controls, encryption, and audit requirements built into the target architecture, not retrofitted after an audit finding.
Migration & Modernization Roadmapping
A sequenced plan for what moves as-is, what gets replatformed, and what gets rebuilt, so it hands cleanly to our Cloud Migration team.
There’s No Single Right Answer, Only the Right Fit
We help you choose the operating model that matches your risk tolerance, team, and regulatory footprint, not the one that’s easiest to sell.
Single-Cloud
One provider, one set of tools, one team building deep expertise instead of spreading thin.
- Your team is small or building cloud skills for the first time
- Workloads don’t need strict data-residency splits
Hybrid Cloud
Cloud and on-premises or private infrastructure working as one estate, not two separate ones.
- Some data or systems must legally stay on-premises
- You’re migrating gradually, not all at once
Multi-Cloud
Different providers for different strengths: best-of-breed services, deliberately integrated.
- Specific workloads benefit from a specific provider’s service
- Avoiding provider lock-in is a board-level requirement
Sovereign & Regulated Cloud
Architected around data residency, sector regulation, and audit requirements from day one.
- You operate in healthcare, finance, government or similarly regulated sectors
- Data residency is a legal requirement, not a preference
Six Pillars We Score Every Architecture Against
Before we call a design finished, we hold it against the same six pillars, regardless of provider, workload, or how the conversation started.
Cloud architecture opinions are easy to state and hard to defend. We hold every recommendation against six pillars, so a design that scores well on cost doesn’t quietly fail on reliability six months later.
Security
Identity, encryption, and access controls designed in, not layered on after.
Reliability
Redundancy and recovery sized to what an outage would actually cost you.
Cost Efficiency
Spend that maps to real usage, with waste visible before it compounds.
Performance
Latency and throughput budgets set for real user and workload patterns.
Scalability
Capacity that grows with demand without a re-architecture along the way.
Operability
Monitoring, alerting, and runbooks that keep the system explainable at 2 a.m.
From First Workshop to a Roadmap Your Team Can Execute
The same five-phase approach carries every engagement, scoped up or down to how much ground you need to cover.
Discover & Baseline
Stakeholder workshops, workload inventory, and a current-state cost and architecture baseline.
Architect & Design
Target architecture, landing zone, and network/security design, evaluated against the six pillars.
Model & Validate
Cost modelling, risk review, and validation against real workload data before anything is finalized.
Roadmap & Governance
A sequenced roadmap with governance framework and budget guardrails, ready for leadership sign-off.
Enable & Handover
A clean handover into Cloud Migration, DevOps & Automation, or Managed Cloud Services, whichever the roadmap points to.
Pick the Entry Point That Matches Your Timeline
Start narrow with a single workload, or go wide across the estate: every model feeds the same roadmap format.
Cloud Readiness Assessment
Best for: a single workload, application, or environment.
- Workload & dependency inventory
- Readiness scoring & quick-win shortlist
- Lightweight cost snapshot
Architecture & Landing Zone Design
Best for: greenfield builds or full estate planning.
- Full platform & architecture strategy
- Landing zone & governance design
- Cost model & migration-ready roadmap
Fractional Cloud Advisory
Best for: teams who want a standing cloud architecture advisor.
- Monthly architecture & cost review
- Vendor & service evaluation support
- Direct line into our build teams
Advice From People Who Also Carry the Pager Afterward
A lot of cloud advice ends at the diagram. Here’s what keeps ours connected to what happens after go-live.
Platform-Agnostic Recommendations
We’re not paid on a cloud partnership, so the recommendation follows your workloads, not a reseller margin.
Governance Built In From Day One
Account structure, budgets, and policy guardrails are part of the design, not a follow-up project.
Cost Visibility Before You Commit
You see a workload-level cost model before infrastructure is provisioned, not after the first invoice.
One Team From Strategy to Build
The architects who design the landing zone are the same practice that migrates, automates, and operates it.
Migration-Ready Roadmaps
Every roadmap hands cleanly into execution: no re-discovery, no lost context.
NDA-Friendly, Confidential by Default
Every engagement can run under NDA, with clear scope and no lock-in dressed up as convenience.
Platform and Framework Agnostic, By Design
We recommend the platform, landing zone tooling, and cost stack that fit your constraints, not the vendor relationship that’s easiest for us.
Cloud Platforms
Landing Zone & IaC
Cost & FinOps
Governance & Security
Cloud Consulting: Frequently Asked Questions
Cloud & DevOps is the full practice: Cloud Consulting, Cloud Migration, DevOps & Automation, and Managed Cloud Services. Cloud Consulting is the first of those four: the assessment, architecture, and governance work that usually starts an engagement and shapes everything the other three do afterward.
Neither by default. We evaluate your workloads, team, and constraints first, then recommend single-cloud, multi-cloud, or hybrid based on what actually fits, not a partnership incentive.
A target architecture and landing zone design, a workload-level cost model, a governance and security baseline, and a sequenced roadmap for migration or build: presentation-ready for leadership sign-off.
No. Many engagements start as a focused readiness assessment for one workload or environment, and expand into a full architecture and roadmap engagement once the findings justify it.
We model cost at the workload level against your actual usage patterns, including reserved versus on-demand options, so the estimate reflects how you’ll really run, not a vendor’s list price.
You can take it anywhere, but most clients continue directly into our Cloud Migration, DevOps & Automation, or Managed Cloud Services teams, who build from the same roadmap instead of starting over.
Let’s Design a Cloud Foundation That Still Makes Sense in Three Years.
Book a working session with our Cloud Consulting team and leave with a clear view of the right architecture, governance model, and cost picture for your business, not a generic slide deck.