Cloud Architecture · AI Implementation

Giving shape to
your sky.

Measurable cloud and AI outcomes from a Principal Architect with 30+ years of experience. 30%+ cost reductions, AI to production in 90 days, migrations that ship on time. Strategy and execution across AWS, GCP, and Azure.

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30+
Years in Tech
3
Cloud Platforms
9x
AWS Certs Earned
Fractional
Cloud & AI Leadership
AWSGCPAzure
Services

Four core engagements.
One Principal Architect, start to finish.

Public pricing. Fixed scope. No drawn-out proposal process. Pick the engagement that matches where you are, or describe a custom problem and we'll scope it within five business days.

Health Check
$15K
2 weeks · fixed scope · entry tier

Two-week fixed-scope review of your cloud or AI footprint. Pick one focus at kickoff.

  • Cost focus: spend analysis, waste map, 30-60-90 reduction plan
  • AI focus: use case prioritization, reference architecture, capability gap
  • Tactical document plus 60-minute walkthrough
  • Effort and cost estimates for implementation (internal, specialist bench, or follow-on)
Architecture Sprint
$40K
4 weeks · fixed scope · Principal-delivered

Four weeks of focused Principal Architect time on a specific cloud or AI problem. Scope flexes between planning, delivery, or a mix. We agree which mode on the fit call, before any contract is signed.

  • Plan, build, or mix: roadmap, refactor, security hardening, DR setup, AI strategy, or phase-one delivery
  • Principal Architect from kickoff to wrap, no hand-offs
  • Deliverables match scope: tactical document, working prototype, or hardened workload
AI Build
$125–225K
6–10 weeks · production deployment · scope-priced

Production-ready AI agent, pipeline, or integration on Amazon Bedrock or your preferred provider.

  • Knowledge base, prompt engineering, action groups, identity
  • Guardrails, observability, cost controls from day one
  • 30 days post-launch support included
Typical scopes
$125KPilot to production: one workflow, limited integrations
$175KEnterprise workflow: identity, observability, KB, action groups
$225K+Platform foundation: multi-system, governance, reusable patterns
Fractional Cloud & AI Leadership
$12K / mo
Always-on access · async-first · 30-day cancel

Principal Architect on retainer to own the tech vision and pressure-test every cloud and AI decision. Ongoing executive judgment, vendor-neutral guidance, and full accountability for the outcomes you commit to. The value is the judgment, not a meeting allotment.

  • Dedicated Slack or Teams channel, 24-business-hour async response
  • One scheduled monthly sync, one 4-hour deep-work block
  • Monthly written briefing on the state of your environment
Custom and annual options
Strategic Cloud Partner
$300–400K / yr
Annual embedded relationship · scope-priced · available on request

An annual embedded relationship combining multiple measurable outcomes under one agreement. Quarterly executive reviews, ownership of your cloud and AI roadmap, and accountability for the results across the year.

Typically includes
Quarterly executive architecture review
Monthly cost and risk briefing
Priority architecture support
2–4 fixed-scope initiatives per year
AI or cloud modernization roadmap ownership
Vendor and tool evaluation
Specialist bench coordination
Escalation support across cloud + AI
Custom Engagement
Scoped
Off-menu work · scoped within 5 business days

The four core engagements above cover most situations. If yours doesn't fit, describe the problem and we'll scope a fixed-price engagement, embedded advisor arrangement, or hybrid. Same commitments apply: Principal Architect, public pricing, no drawn-out proposal process.

Typical engagement flow · Mix and match
01 · Assess
Health Check or Architecture Sprint
→
02 · Execute
AI Build, Custom Engagement, or your team
→
03 · Retain
Fractional or Strategic Partner

Pick the stage that fits where you are. Execution happens with Skyform, your own team, or a mix. Retain keeps a Principal Architect engaged for ongoing strategy and decisions, with or without a prior engagement.

See full services catalog →
Why our prices look different

Same Principal Architect.
A quarter to a half of big consulting.

Big consulting margins run 45-55% to cover partner pyramids, bench cost, and sales overhead. Skyform is one Principal Architect with AI tools and a vetted specialist bench when scale is needed. Same seniority. Structurally lower cost.

Engagement Big Consulting Skyform
Cost optimization review$75–150K (team)$15K
Architecture or migration plan$125–200K$40K
Production AI agent build$400K–$1M+$125–225K
Fractional architect on retainerNot offered (team-only)$12K / mo

Prices for Health Check and Architecture Sprint sit deliberately under typical enterprise procurement thresholds. Engineering directors and VPs usually have signing authority up to $25-50K without RFP or vendor onboarding, so these engagements start in days, not 90 days.

Outcomes

What our engagements
deliver in production.

Real numbers from real environments, not slideware. Measurable outcomes are the deliverable. Technical depth is how we get there.

30%+ cost reductions in 60 days

Cloud cost audits with measurable savings targets, executed inside your existing AWS, GCP, or Azure environment. No rip-and-replace, no platform changes. Identified, agreed, and implemented within sixty days.

AI from idea to production in 90 days

Production-ready AI agents on Amazon Bedrock with knowledge bases, prompt engineering, identity, guardrails, observability, and cost controls. Operating in real environments today, not stuck in pilot.

Migrations that ship on time

Sequenced migration roadmaps with landing zones, stakeholder training, and zero unplanned downtime. Hundreds of workloads moved without missing the committed date and without surprises in production.

DR that recovers in under 15 minutes

Multi-region disaster recovery with automated failover testing, defined RPO and RTO targets, and runbooks your team can execute under pressure. Validated quarterly under real load, not lab conditions.

Darin Deters
About

Meet Darin Deters

30+ years building, migrating, and optimizing infrastructure. From the early days of the internet through enterprise networks to modern cloud and AI systems across AWS, GCP, and Azure.

Skyform is how that experience shows up for clients. Fractional cloud architecture and AI leadership for teams that need senior expertise without the overhead of a full consulting engagement. The person on the proposal is the person in the terminal. For larger initiatives, Skyform brings in vetted specialists to scale delivery while keeping senior oversight and accountability in place.

Hands-on with AI since late 2022, building and validating solutions across OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google platforms daily. Ranked in the top 1% of ChatGPT users globally in 2025 with 13.6K+ messages across 569 conversations. This is experience built by doing the work every day.

9x AWS Certifications Earned

Solutions Architect - Professional
DevOps Engineer - Professional
Security - Specialty
Advanced Networking - Specialty
Big Data - Specialty
Solutions Architect - Associate
Developer - Associate
SysOps Administrator - Associate
Cloud Practitioner
How We Work

Why Skyform

Enterprise-grade expertise with an independent delivery model.

⚖

Principal-Led, Always

Direct access to the architect leading your engagement. Clear ownership, informed decisions, and the ability to scale with vetted specialists when the work demands it.

⚙

Infrastructure First

Cloud and AI solutions built on solid foundations. Skyform starts from the systems layer, because reliable architecture is what makes everything above it work.

★

Vendor Neutral

Certified across AWS, GCP, and Azure. Recommendations are based entirely on what fits your environment and goals, with your best outcome as the only priority.

What Clients Say

Trusted by teams that
measure results.

“

More than just a consultant. Exceptional leadership and technical expertise, playing an instrumental role in managing our cloud migrations. A true partner.

VP of Technology
National Retailer
“

Super curious and proactive, always thinking about things that will help us.

Director of Cloud Engineering
Fortune 500 Retailer
“

Outstanding to work with and brings a very high skill level. Always finding creative approaches to complex challenges.

Executive Stakeholder
Telecommunications
“

An absolute expert when it comes to AWS. Established his value early and often to the point where leadership trusted him to guide key strategic decisions.

Engagement Lead
Financial Services Migration
“

Does not just provide industry solutions. He seeks to understand our environment and tailors everything to what actually works for us.

Director of IT
Fortune 500 Retailer
“

Dependable and always willing to do whatever it takes to solve an issue.

Cloud Platform Lead
National Retailer
Trusted across industries
Healthcare, financial services, SaaS, manufacturing, and retail
Global delivery, US business-hours coverage
Based in Southeast Asia, serving clients across North America, EMEA, and APAC. US Eastern and Central business hours via async-first delivery with scheduled overlap for live sync.
Production track record
Migrations, cost optimizations, and AI implementations in production environments
Work

What engagements
look like.

Representative examples of the types of engagements Skyform delivers. Every project starts with understanding your specific challenge, then building the right path forward.

Cloud Migration

Enterprise Cloud Migration for National Retailer

Led the architecture and execution of a multi-phase cloud migration across hundreds of workloads. Defined the migration roadmap, established landing zones, and trained over 300 IT stakeholders on cloud adoption practices.

Outcome: Hundreds of workloads migrated, 300+ stakeholders trained, on-prem retired on schedule with zero unplanned downtime.
AI Implementation

Production AI Pipeline on Serverless AWS

Designed and built a fully automated AI processing pipeline using serverless compute, workflow orchestration, NoSQL storage, and managed AI services. Event-driven architecture orchestrates multi-step workflows across integrations with real-time monitoring and alerting.

Outcome: Fully operational at under $35/month with zero manual intervention required.
Cost Optimization

Cloud Cost Reduction for Financial Services

Conducted a comprehensive cloud cost audit across a multi-account AWS environment. Identified underutilized resources, rightsized compute, and restructured reserved capacity to align with actual usage patterns.

Outcome: 30%+ reduction in monthly cloud spend, identified and implemented within 60 days.
Cloud + AI

AI-Ready Infrastructure Assessment

Evaluated an enterprise environment for AI readiness across networking, security, compute, and data layers. Delivered a prioritized roadmap for enabling production AI workloads while maintaining compliance requirements.

Outcome: Assessment to first production AI workload in under 90 days.
Disaster Recovery

Multi-Region DR Architecture

Designed and implemented a disaster recovery strategy across AWS regions for a SaaS platform. Automated failover testing, established RPO/RTO targets, and documented runbooks for the operations team.

Outcome: Sub-15-minute recovery validated quarterly, exceeding target thresholds.
AI Strategy

AI Readiness and Tool Evaluation

Helped a mid-market team evaluate AI platforms (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) against their specific use cases. Built proof-of-concept implementations and delivered clear recommendations with a prioritized roadmap for high-impact AI adoption.

Outcome: Two high-impact use cases in production within 8 weeks, with a clear roadmap for phased adoption.
Clients

Built for teams that are
ready to move forward.

01

Growing beyond the current team

Mid-market companies that need senior infrastructure expertise on demand, without the overhead of a full consulting engagement.

02

Looking for direct accountability

Organizations that value working directly with senior leadership, with clear ownership and consistent delivery from kickoff to production.

03

Need an independent perspective

Technical leaders seeking vendor-neutral guidance on cloud strategy, cost optimization, and architecture decisions.

04

Taking AI from concept to production

Teams with AI ambitions that need the infrastructure foundation to make it real, reliable, and cost-effective.

Insights

Cloud and AI perspectives from the field

Practical takes on cloud architecture, AI implementation, and the decisions that matter in production. Published on Substack.

Read on Substack

Let's shape
what's next.

Start with a conversation. A 30-minute call to understand your goals and where Skyform can help.

Book a Call hello@skyform.io