Giving shape to your sky

Fractional forward deployed engineering,
AI implementation, and cloud architecture.

A Principal Architect with 30+ years of experience, working inside your accounts and repos until it runs. 30%+ cost reductions, AI to production in 90 days, migrations that ship on time. Your cloud, your model: AWS, GCP, and Azure, Anthropic or OpenAI.

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Forward deployed · AI BuildHow it runs

Outcome named, acceptance criteria writtenWeek 0

Named role in your account, scoped and loggedWeek 0

Evaluation suite built on your real dataWeeks 1–2

Code lands in your repos through your own PR reviewWeeks 2–8

Production, with alarms and cost caps liveWeeks 6–10

Then runbooks, IaC, evals, and a trained owner on your team. How forward deployed engineering works →

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 60–90 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 60 to 90 days, depending on how much waste exists at the start.

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

Active-active and hot-standby multi-region designs 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.

Run your own numbers

What does 30% look like for you?

Enter your monthly cloud spend. The estimate uses the 20 to 30% reduction range typical of Skyform cost engagements. Estimates, not promises: actual savings depend on how much waste exists, which is exactly what a Health Check measures.

Monthly cloud spend (USD)

Estimated monthly savings–

Annualized–

$15K Health Check pays for itself in–

Work

What engagements
look like.

Representative examples of the types of engagements Skyform delivers, plus one production system Skyform operates in-house. Every project starts with understanding your specific challenge, then building the right path forward.

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.

Read the case study →

AI Implementation

The AI Pipeline Behind Tech with Darin

Skyform's own production system, built on Step Functions, Lambda, DynamoDB and Amazon Bedrock to plan, write, render and schedule Tech with Darin. As of September 2026 it carries 22 CloudWatch alarms, and a person approves replies to other Substack writers and publishes the newsletter.

Outcome: About $60 a month in AWS cost in September 2026, down from $345 in July after a July 22 fix capped breaking-news volume and moved to a cheaper image model.

Read the case study →

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.

Read the case study →

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.

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.

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

Services

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

Public pricing. Fixed scope. No drawn-out proposal process. Build work is delivered forward deployed: the Principal works inside your accounts and repos until it runs, then hands it to your team. How forward deployed engineering works → Start with the free scan if you want evidence first.

Free Cost & Well-Architected Scan

2 business days · up to 5 AWS accounts · read-only · call optional

A read-only look at up to five AWS accounts. One-page note with the biggest sources of waste, an estimated monthly savings range, the top Well-Architected risks, and a straight answer on whether a Health Check would pay for itself. Easy onboarding with minimal permissions. We're here to help without a drawn-out sales process: start by email or a 15-minute call.

Request a free scan →

Health Check

$15K

2 weeks · fixed scope · entry tier

Two-week review of your cloud or AI footprint, with an AI readiness or cost focus picked at kickoff. You get a tactical document, a 60-minute walkthrough, and implementation estimates your team can act on.

See a sample deliverable →

Architecture Sprint

$40K

4 weeks · fixed scope · Principal-delivered

Four weeks of focused Principal Architect time on one cloud or AI problem: plan, build, or a mix, agreed on the fit call. The deliverable matches the scope, from roadmap to working prototype to hardened workload.

AI Build

$125–250K

6–10 weeks · production deployment · typically $125–250K

Production-ready AI agent, pipeline, or integration on Amazon Bedrock or your preferred provider, with guardrails, observability, and cost controls from day one and 30 days of post-launch support. Skyform is a registered partner in Anthropic's Claude Partner Network.

$125K+Workflow: one production workflow or agent

$225K+Platform: multi-system foundation with identity, governance, reusable patterns

Fractional Cloud & AI Leadership

$12K / mo

Always-on access · async-first · 30-day cancel

Principal Architect on retainer, up to 20 hours a month: dedicated Slack or Teams channel, monthly sync, a four-hour deep-work block, and a written monthly briefing on the state of your environment. The value is the judgment, not a meeting allotment.

Annual and custom work

Scoped

Strategic Cloud Partner · Custom Engagement · scoped within 5 business days

Strategic Cloud Partner is an annual embedded relationship with quarterly executive reviews and roadmap ownership, scoped after a Sprint or Build. Anything off-menu gets a fixed-price scope within five business days. Same commitments apply: Principal Architect, public pricing, no drawn-out proposal process.

Typical engagement flow · Mix and match

01 · Assess

Free Scan, 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.

Fractional forward deployed engineering,
AI implementation, and cloud architecture.