We handle
- Monitoring, alert triage, patching, and change execution
- Incident response within the agreed hours and expectations
- Maintaining infrastructure as code and change records
- Quarterly review and forward planning
Managed Operations Retainer
Ongoing operations for infrastructure you own, on a monthly retainer.
What this tier is
Hiring an operations engineer is expensive and hiring half of one is not possible. A retainer is the shape that fits a business with real infrastructure and not enough of it to justify a full-time role.
The retainer covers infrastructure you own, whether it runs on our estate, on a cloud account you hold, or on hardware in your own building. We work through automation and keep configuration in a repository you keep, so ending the retainer leaves you with something, not a gap.
Specification
| Coverage | Infrastructure you own, on our estate or elsewhere |
|---|---|
| Included time | 16 engineering hours per month |
| Patching | Monthly window with a written change record |
| Monitoring | Alerting routed to us during agreed hours |
| Incident response | Initial response expectation agreed in writing |
| Review | Quarterly capacity, cost, risk, and debt review |
| Artefacts | Infrastructure as code in a repository you own |
| Term | Monthly, cancellable at the end of a paid period |
What is included
- Monitoring with alerting routed to us during agreed hours
- Monthly patching window with a written change record
- Change execution: deployments, configuration, and infrastructure changes
- Incident response with an agreed initial response expectation
- Infrastructure as code held in a repository you own
- Quarterly review covering capacity, cost, risk, and technical debt
- Named engineer contact rather than a shared queue
Typical use cases
- A business with real infrastructure and no operations hire
- A development team that would rather not carry the pager
- An estate inherited without documentation that needs stabilising
- Covering operations during a hiring gap or parental leave
Responsibility split
Written down so there is no argument about it later.
You handle
- Application code and product decisions
- Access, credentials, and authority to make changes
- Deciding priority when two things want the same window
How provisioning works
Starts with a scoping conversation and a written statement of what is covered, what the response expectations are, and what falls outside. Retainers usually start at the beginning of the following month after an onboarding period.
Order
Other tiers in Engineering and consulting
One-time
Advisory Block
Five hours of engineering time against a problem you name.
$375 one-time
- Five hours, scheduled with you, against a problem you define
- Written findings and recommendations, not just a conversation
- No obligation to buy hosting afterwards
View details
One-time
Migration Engagement
Move off the old host without a weekend of guessing.
$950 one-time
- Inventory, rehearsal, cutover, and verification as separate steps
- A documented rollback position before anything moves
- Fixed fee for the scope agreed in writing
View details
Background reading
- Small host, big context Continuity of context, real change control, and honest diagnosis.
- English-speaking teams, anywhere on the clock Asynchronous updates, clear handoffs, and scheduled windows.