Cloud Readiness Assessment & Workload Audit
We review your applications, data and skills to show what belongs in the cloud, so you invest with clarity.
- Readiness report
- Workload inventory
Cloud, DevOps & Infrastructure
Cloud Consulting Services
We assess your workloads, compare providers and design a target architecture, landing zone and operating model, so cloud decisions are backed by cost, risk and delivery trade-offs.
- Cloud strategy
- Target architecture
- Provider comparison
- Adoption roadmap
- Years of delivery
- 8+
- Years of delivery
- Projects shipped
- 350+
- Projects shipped
- Clients across US, UK, AU & SG
- 200+
- Clients across US, UK, AU & SG
What’s included
Everything You Need to Choose and Run the Right Cloud
From cloud readiness assessment to a governed, cost-aware operating model, we cover the full advisory journey.
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Cloud Provider Selection & Comparison
We compare AWS, Azure and Google Cloud against your needs and budget, so you pick a platform without lock-in surprises.
- Provider scorecard
- TCO comparison
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Target Cloud Architecture Blueprint
Your team gets a reference architecture covering networking, compute, data and resilience, ready for engineers to build from.
- Architecture diagram
- Design decisions log
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Cloud Adoption Roadmap & Business Case
We sequence the journey into phases with costs and benefits, giving leadership a plan they can approve and fund.
- Phased roadmap
- Business case
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Cloud Governance & Operating Model Design
We define ownership, tagging, access policies and team roles so cloud usage stays controlled as more teams join.
- Governance framework
- RACI model
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Cloud Security & Compliance Review
We check identity, encryption and network controls and help you prepare for audits such as SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR.
- Security gap analysis
- Control checklist
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Cloud Cost Forecasting & FinOps Guidance
We model expected spend and set budgets and alerts, so cloud bills stay predictable as you grow.
- Cost forecast
- Budget alerts
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Advisory Retainer & Cloud Health Checks
Your team gets on-call architects and periodic reviews to keep decisions sound as your estate and needs change.
- Quarterly review
- Advisory hours
Need something specific?
Why Kramate
Why Business Owners Choose Kramate for Cloud Advice
We explain every choice in plain words, and we do not sell you one brand.
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Advice Not Tied to Any Seller
Instead of
being pushed toward whoever pays the advisor
With Kramate
We do not resell any cloud, so we can tell you which one truly fits.
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Monthly Costs You Can Predict
Instead of: a surprise bill after the first month
With Kramate: You get an estimate of the monthly bill before you commit, with alerts if it climbs.
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A Way Out Built In
Instead of: being locked in with one company
With Kramate: We note how hard it would be to leave each choice, so you decide knowingly.
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Plans You Can Read
Instead of: reports full of words nobody understands
With Kramate: Every recommendation comes in plain language that you can share with your own team.
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Someone to Call Later
Instead of: advice that ends when the report is sent
With Kramate: After the plan is done, you can still ask our team questions as your needs change.
Our approach
How We Run Your Cloud Consulting, Step by Step
A clear path from where your systems are today to a cloud plan you can act on.
6 clear steps 6 deliverables you keep
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Current Setup Review
We go through the systems, costs and contracts you have today and note what suits the cloud and what does not.
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Business Goals Workshop
We sit down with your leaders to learn what you want from the cloud, such as savings, speed or safety.
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Target Design Options
We sketch two or three ways your systems could look in the cloud and explain the trade-offs in plain terms.
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Cost Comparison
We estimate what each option would cost to move and to run each month, so budgets are set early.
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Move Plan
We order the work into small phases, name the risks and set out who does what and when.
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Advice After Handover
We stay on call to answer questions and check your progress as your own team puts the plan to work.
Tools & technologies
Technologies We Use for Cloud Consulting
We compare platforms and cost tools against your goals, then recommend what fits.
- AWS: Amazon cloud hosting and services.
- Azure: Microsoft cloud hosting and services.
- Google Cloud: Google infrastructure for data, AI and applications.
- DigitalOcean: Simple cloud servers and managed services for smaller workloads.
- Cloudflare: Speeds up and protects sites with a global network and DNS.
- Kubernetes: Runs and scales containerised software automatically.
- Docker: Packages software so it runs the same everywhere.
- Terraform: Defines cloud setups as code so they can be repeated.
- Backstage: Developer portal that gives teams self-service tools.
- Infracost: Shows the cost impact of infrastructure changes before they go live.
- Kubecost: Shows what each Kubernetes team and app costs to run.
- Jira: Tracks work, priorities and delivery progress.
- Grafana: Dashboards and alerts for live system metrics.
- Datadog: Monitors applications, infrastructure and logs in one place.
- HashiCorp Vault: Stores passwords, keys and tokens securely for apps and teams.
Expert guide
Cloud Consulting Services: A Complete Guide for Businesses
Cloud consulting services help an organization decide what to run in the cloud, where, in what shape and under whose control, before money is spent on infrastructure. The output is a set of decisions and a plan: a target architecture, a provider choice, security and governance rules, and a sequence of work your team can execute.
Businesses usually look for this help when cloud use has grown without a plan, when a migration is on the horizon, or when leadership needs a defensible answer to the question "what should our cloud look like in three years?"
This guide explains what a consultant actually produces, how to judge readiness, which operating model fits, how governance and sustainability fit in, and what to ask before you hire. It stays vendor-neutral on purpose.
What cloud consulting services do, and what they do not
Cloud consulting services sit upstream of building. A consultant gathers facts about your applications, data, teams and constraints, then turns them into recommendations you can defend to finance, security and the board. Implementation can follow, but a good advisory phase is useful even if a different team builds the result.
The NIST definition of cloud computing (opens in a new tab) is a handy shared vocabulary here: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service, delivered as infrastructure, platform or software services. If a proposal cannot explain which of these service models each workload will use, the strategy is not yet specific enough.
Typical triggers for hiring cloud consulting services:
- Several teams each created their own accounts and nobody has a full inventory.
- A data center lease, hardware refresh or software contract is approaching its end.
- A merger, new product or new market changes where data must live.
- Cloud bills are rising and no one can explain which team or product causes them.
- Security or audit reviews keep finding the same gaps in cloud configuration.
Deliverables to expect from cloud consulting services
Insist on written artifacts. Advice that lives only in workshops disappears when people change jobs. A solid engagement leaves behind documents your own engineers can use directly.
| Deliverable | What it answers | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Application and data inventory | What exists, who owns it, what it depends on | IT leadership, security |
| Workload fit assessment | Which systems belong in the cloud, which should stay, which should be retired | CTO, product owners |
| Target architecture | How accounts, networks, identity, data and applications are organized | Engineering, security |
| Landing zone design | The secure, pre-configured foundation every new workload starts from | Platform and operations teams |
| Governance and cost model | Who may create what, how spend is tagged and reviewed | Finance, engineering leads |
| Roadmap | The order of work, dependencies, skills needed and decision points | Executives, program managers |
A landing zone deserves special attention. It is the baseline for identity, networking, logging and guardrails that makes later projects faster and safer. The cloud providers each publish guidance on this foundation, including the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (opens in a new tab) and the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure (opens in a new tab).
Checking cloud readiness before you commit
A cloud readiness assessment looks at people and process as much as technology. Ask these questions during assessment:
- Business drivers. Is the goal speed, resilience, cost structure, geographic reach or retiring hardware? Different goals lead to different designs.
- Application profile. Which systems are stateless and easy to move, and which hold long-lived state or depend on specialized hardware?
- Data sensitivity. Which data is regulated, and where is it legally allowed to be stored and processed?
- Skills. Who will run the environment after the consultant leaves, and what training do they need?
- Ownership. Which team funds each workload, and who approves changes?
Finish with an honest verdict per workload: ready now, ready after fixes, or not a cloud candidate.
Choosing a cloud operating model
The operating model describes who builds, who runs and who pays. It is the part most strategy documents skip, and the part that determines whether the cloud stays tidy after the first year.
| Model | How it works | Best suited to | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Centralized platform team | One team builds shared foundations and approves changes | Smaller organizations, regulated sectors | The team becomes a bottleneck |
| Federated with guardrails | Product teams self-serve inside rules enforced by automation | Mid-size and larger engineering organizations | Needs good automation and clear standards |
| Partner-operated | An external provider runs day-to-day operations | Lean IT teams, 24-hour coverage needs | Unclear responsibilities, reduced in-house knowledge |
| Hybrid of the above | Own the design, outsource selected operations | Organizations growing into the cloud | Needs a written responsibility matrix |
Governance, security and compliance foundations
Governance is the set of rules that keeps a cloud environment predictable as more people use it. Strong consulting work translates these into automated guardrails, not policy documents nobody reads.
- Identity first: single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, least-privilege roles and no shared administrator accounts.
- Account structure: separate production from development, and separate business units where billing or compliance requires it.
- Logging and monitoring: central, tamper-resistant audit logs from day one.
- Encryption and key management: encryption at rest and in transit, with a clear owner for keys.
- Tagging and ownership: every resource carries an owner and a purpose so cost and risk can be traced.
- Backup and recovery: tested restores, not only scheduled backups.
Independent frameworks make a good reference list for a consultant to work against. The Cloud Security Alliance guidance (opens in a new tab) and the CISA cloud security reference architecture (opens in a new tab) are provider-neutral starting points. Suppliers are also commonly asked for a SOC 2 report (opens in a new tab), which describes a supplier's own controls rather than your configuration.
Sustainable cloud choices
Efficiency in the cloud is both a cost lever and an environmental one. The same decisions apply to both: right-size what you run, switch off what is idle, choose regions with care, and design workloads that scale down as readily as up.
- Region choice: weigh latency and data residency first, then consider the energy mix and efficiency commitments each provider publishes for the regions you are considering.
- Right-sizing and scheduling: shut down development environments outside working hours.
- Retiring and consolidating: a strategy phase is the best moment to find systems that should simply be turned off.
- Measurement: use the tools your provider publishes to track emissions alongside spend.
The Principles of Green Software Engineering (opens in a new tab) describe the reasoning behind these habits, and the Green Software Foundation (opens in a new tab) publishes practical tools for teams.
Regional considerations: USA, UK, Australia and Singapore
Cloud strategy always starts with where data may live. Treat the following as a starting map and confirm specifics with legal counsel.
- USA: requirements vary by sector and state, for example HIPAA for health data, financial regulators for banks and state privacy laws. Federal agencies and their suppliers may face additional authorization programs.
- UK: the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 govern personal data, with rules on transfers outside the UK. Financial firms also face regulator expectations on outsourcing and operational resilience.
- Australia: the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles apply, with sector rules for finance and critical infrastructure.
- Singapore: the Personal Data Protection Act applies, and financial institutions follow regulator guidance on technology risk and outsourcing.
Choose regions deliberately, record where backups and support access originate, and agree support hours up front. UK and Australian buyers often call this work cloud advisory, and the scope is the same.
Cost factors and how to plan a cloud consulting budget
Cloud consulting services involve two budgets: the cost of the consulting itself and the running cost of the cloud design it recommends. Good advice keeps both visible.
For the consulting engagement, price moves with:
- The number of applications and data stores in scope.
- How well your current environment is documented.
- Depth of security and compliance review required.
- Whether the deliverable stops at a roadmap or includes a working landing zone.
- How many stakeholders must be interviewed and aligned.
For the cloud itself, the main drivers are compute and memory sizing, storage and its retention, data moving between regions or out to the internet, managed-service choices, support plans, licensing and the people needed to run it. Ask any consultant to explain these drivers for your design and to show where commitments or reservations make sense. Fixed-price suits a bounded assessment, a dedicated team suits a longer program, and hourly suits short reviews.
How to choose among cloud consulting services providers
- Independence. Ask how they decide between providers and whether any commercial arrangement affects their advice.
- Framework fluency. They should work from the published well-architected and adoption frameworks, not invent their own.
- Business-first questions in the first meeting, before any technology talk.
- Honest trade-offs, including when to leave a workload where it is.
- Documented deliverables your team can maintain without them.
- Handover and training built into the plan.
- Clear ownership terms for every document and script produced.
How Kramate delivers cloud consulting
Each engagement has a dedicated project manager, daily updates in Slack or Teams, and a progress review at the close of every two-week round. We sign an NDA before detailed discussions, and all intellectual property passes to you. Kramate can lead the work or join your team, and the steps are described in our delivery approach.
Implementation can follow through cloud migration services, cloud security services or cloud cost optimization, and you can start with a free consultation and receive a detailed estimate within 24 hours.
Frequently asked questions
What does a cloud consultant do?
A cloud consultant assesses your applications, data, skills and goals, then recommends architecture, providers, governance and a phased plan. The best ones also document trade-offs and hand over material your own team can maintain.
How do I create a cloud strategy?
Start with business goals, inventory your systems, classify data sensitivity, decide which workloads fit the cloud, design a secure foundation and agree an operating model. Then order the work into a roadmap with decision points.
What is a cloud readiness assessment?
It is a structured review of technology, data, security, skills and ownership to show whether workloads can move now, after specific fixes, or not at all. The output should be a prioritized list, not a generic score.
What is a cloud landing zone?
A landing zone is a pre-configured, secure baseline for accounts, identity, networking, logging and guardrails. New workloads start from it, so they inherit your standards instead of reinventing them, and security teams can review one design rather than many.
Do I need a consultant if I already have an in-house IT team?
Often an outside view helps with a one-time decision such as provider selection or a large migration, while your team keeps running daily operations. Consulting can also fill a specific skills gap for a limited period.
Is cloud consulting the same as managed cloud services?
No. Consulting produces decisions and designs. Managed services operate the environment day to day. Some providers offer both, so confirm which one a proposal covers. See managed IT services for the operations side.
Sources and further reading
- NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (opens in a new tab)NIST
- AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (opens in a new tab)Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure (opens in a new tab)Microsoft
- AWS Shared Responsibility Model (opens in a new tab)Amazon Web Services
- CSA Security Guidance for Cloud Computing (opens in a new tab)Cloud Security Alliance
- CISA Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture (opens in a new tab)CISA
- SOC 2 - Trust Services Criteria (opens in a new tab)AICPA
- Principles of Green Software Engineering (opens in a new tab)Green Software Foundation
- Green Software Foundation (opens in a new tab)Green Software Foundation
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Price depends on the number of applications in scope, whether you want strategy only or hands-on design support, and how many stakeholders we must align. Existing cloud maturity, compliance requirements and the need for proof-of-concept work also change effort. Send us your cloud strategy scope and a no-obligation estimate follows within 24 hours.
We begin with workshops and an inventory of your applications, then assess options, design the target architecture and produce a roadmap with costs and risks. Duration depends on how many systems you run, how available your stakeholders are and how clear your goals are. We confirm a schedule once scope is agreed.
You own them. Before detailed cloud strategy talks, Kramate signs an NDA and transfers IP and deliverables to you. That includes assessments, architecture designs, decision records and the roadmap. You are free to share them with other vendors or your internal team and act on them without us.
We work alongside your IT team, run joint workshops and document decisions in a form they can maintain. We use your existing tools for tickets, chat and documentation. The aim is that your team understands and owns the plan, rather than depending on outside advisors for every later step.
Look for a provider that is independent of any one vendor, explains trade-offs plainly and shows how it will work with your team. Ask for a sample deliverable, how access to your systems is handled and who does the work. Be wary of firms that recommend a platform before understanding your applications.
Public cloud suits variable demand and fast delivery. Private cloud or on-premise suits strict data control or steady, predictable load. Hybrid mixes both. The choice depends on data sensitivity, latency, regulations, existing hardware and team skills. We compare options against your applications and explain the trade-offs in plain terms.
Common mistakes are moving without a business case, lifting everything unchanged, ignoring running costs and skipping governance. Another is choosing a provider before understanding the workload. A short consulting phase prevents these by ranking applications, setting guardrails and agreeing an operating model before any large spend.
Taking new projects
Let’s talk about your Cloud Consulting Services needs
Tell us about your project and get a free consultation and estimate within 24 hours.
- We reply within 4 business hours A real consultant reads your brief — no bot, no queue.
- 30-minute discovery call We dig into goals, constraints and budget. NDA signed on request.
- Proposal in 24 hours Scope, timeline, team and price — clear enough to decide on.
NDA on request You own the IP No obligation Free estimate