Cloud, data and AI consulting, from architecture to production

We help payments and financial services, B2B software and commerce technology companies fix cloud architecture, cost, data and AI problems that are too important to guess at. Every engagement has a fixed scope and a price agreed up front, and the architect who scopes it stays hands-on through implementation.

Data platform
Illustrative reference architecture

What is going on?

Pick the situation closest to yours and we'll show you the engagement that fits.

Pick the closest one

Common problems

Data

AI plans, but the data isn't ready

63%

of data-management leaders say they lack, or are unsure they have, the data practices AI needs. Gartner expects 60% of AI projects to be abandoned through 2026 for that reason.

The model is rarely the hard part. Ownership and definitions are.

Gartner, survey of 1,203 data-management leaders, Feb 2025

Cost

Cloud costs growing faster than the business

84%

of organizations name cloud-spend management as their top cloud challenge, with budgets already running 17% over plan.

The fix is usually in the architecture, not in another discount.

Flexera State of the Cloud, Mar 2025

Platform

Architecture slowing down releases

Incidents, scaling limits and manual deployments add up. DORA's 2025 research found that AI amplifies both the strengths and the weaknesses of a delivery system.

Fix the delivery system before adding AI coding tools, or they speed up the problems too.

Google Cloud DORA, State of AI-assisted Software Development 2025

Production AI

An AI prototype that can't go to production

What's usually missing: evaluation, access control, monitoring, cost limits and a person approving the actions that matter.

Build these in from the first sprint. Adding them later costs more than the prototype did.

Aligned with NIST AI RMF and the AWS Well-Architected framework

From event to decision

Example: how a payments data platform fits together

01

Capture

Payment systems emit authorizations, captures, refunds and settlement files. Ingestion makes them durable, ordered and replayable, so any day can be rebuilt.

02

Trust

A governed lakehouse with data contracts, quality tests and lineage, so finance, risk and operations work from the same numbers.

03

Use

Analytics for reconciliation and unit cost. AI that explains exceptions from approved procedures, with every answer traceable to its sources.

04

Control

High-risk actions wait for a person. FinOps and resilience keep cost per transaction and recovery objectives visible to their owners.

How we compare

What you needIndependent contractorLarge integratorRibau
Who does the workOne senior personSenior lead, delivery pyramid belowThe architect who scoped it, hands-on through delivery, with specialists as needed
Scope and priceUsually hourlyPrograms, statements of work, change ordersFixed scope and price, agreed before work starts
Architecture, data and AI togetherDepends on the individualSeparate practices, handoffs between themOne lead across all three
Continuity and accountabilityKey-person riskInstitutionalCompany contract, documented method, defined acceptance
Best fitExtra hands on a known taskEnterprise-wide transformation, 24×7 operationsA focused, high-stakes problem

Who we work with

Payments and financial services, B2B software, and retail and commerce technology. We have the most depth in payments today.

Payments & financial services

Processors, payment-technology vendors, fintechs and financial-software companies. We know settlement and reconciliation, transaction analytics, bank-partner risk reviews and the controls auditors ask about.

  • Data & AI readiness for fraud, risk or service use cases
  • Resilience and cost on AWS
  • Reconciliation and analytics performance
  • Production AI where a person approves the decisions
Example engagement (illustrative): a mid-sized payments company wants to cut analyst time on reconciliation exceptions. A Data & AI Readiness Assessment establishes data ownership, exception definitions and success metrics. If funded, a Modernization Sprint fixes the pipeline and AI Production Readiness designs an assistant that explains each exception from approved procedures. It cannot post entries or move money.
Explore payments & financial services →

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Thirty minutes, no commitment. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.

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