Lightening Tech Evidence, not opinion

Practice · 04 of 06

Platform, Security & Operations

The parts nobody sees until they fail: infrastructure, security, the systems a company runs on, and the testing that catches it first.

This is the least glamorous page on the site and the one that decides whether everything else survives contact with real traffic.

Services
35
Categories
4

Every service on this site is delivered by senior developers with ten to fifteen years in that niche. Whatever the brief asks for, it gets built.

01

Cloud, DevOps & Infrastructure

11 services

  1. 01

    Cloud migration (AWS / Azure / GCP)

    A move from on-premise or old hosting into the cloud.

    For
    SMEs, enterprises
    From
    $2,000–$40,000
    Time
    1–5 months

  2. 02

    Cloud cost optimisation (FinOps)

    The bill cut 20–50% without losing performance.

    For
    Cloud-heavy clients
    From
    $1,000–$12,000 or % saved
    Time
    2–6 weeks

  3. 03

    CI/CD pipeline setup

    Automated build, test and deploy — release friction gone.

    For
    Dev teams
    From
    $800–$8,000
    Time
    1–4 weeks

  4. 04

    Containerisation & Kubernetes

    Running and scaling applications on Docker and K8s.

    For
    Scaling products
    From
    $2,000–$25,000
    Time
    3–12 weeks

  5. 05

    Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)

    Reproducible, version-controlled infrastructure.

    For
    Dev teams
    From
    $1,500–$18,000
    Time
    2–8 weeks

  6. 06

    Monitoring & observability

    Logs, metrics, traces and alerts — problems seen first.

    For
    Any production system
    From
    $800–$10,000
    Time
    1–5 weeks

  7. 07

    Site reliability engineering

    Uptime SLAs, an incident process and on-call.

    For
    High-traffic products
    From
    $1,500–$8,000/mo
    Time
    ongoing

  8. 08

    Backup & disaster recovery

    Automated backups, restore drills, and an RTO/RPO plan.

    For
    Every business
    From
    $500–$8,000
    Time
    1–4 weeks

  9. 09

    Serverless architecture build

    Cost-efficient, auto-scaling systems on Lambda or Workers.

    For
    Startups
    From
    $1,500–$20,000
    Time
    2–10 weeks

  10. 10

    Managed hosting & server admin

    Setup, patching, SSL and uptime, on a monthly retainer.

    For
    SMEs
    From
    $100–$1,500/mo
    Time
    ongoing

  11. 11

    Domain, DNS & email deliverability

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC — mail that lands in the inbox.

    For
    Cold-outreach senders
    From
    $200–$2,000
    Time
    2–7 days

02

Cybersecurity

9 services

  1. 01

    Security audit & vulnerability assessment

    Systems scanned, then a risk report in priority order.

    For
    Any company
    From
    $800–$10,000
    Time
    1–4 weeks

  2. 02

    Penetration testing

    Ethical hacking — a real attack simulated, then reported.

    For
    Regulated, funded firms
    From
    $2,000–$25,000
    Time
    2–6 weeks

  3. 03

    Malware removal & site cleanup

    A hacked site cleaned, delisted and hardened.

    For
    Hacked site owners
    From
    $200–$2,500
    Time
    1–5 days

  4. 04

    Compliance readiness

    Gap analysis and controls for GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA.

    For
    B2B SaaS, health
    From
    $3,000–$40,000
    Time
    2–6 months

  5. 05

    Identity & access management

    SSO, MFA, role-based access and offboarding hygiene.

    For
    Growing teams
    From
    $1,000–$15,000
    Time
    2–8 weeks

  6. 06

    Security awareness training

    Phishing simulations and a staff training programme.

    For
    Every company
    From
    $500–$6,000
    Time
    1–4 weeks

  7. 07

    Incident response & forensics

    Containment, investigation and recovery during a breach.

    For
    Breached companies
    From
    $150–$400/hr
    Time
    emergency

  8. 08

    Endpoint & network security management

    Firewalls, EDR and patching, managed monthly.

    For
    SMEs
    From
    $500–$5,000/mo
    Time
    ongoing

  9. 09

    Privacy & cookie consent implementation

    Consent banners, data mapping and privacy policies.

    For
    EU / UK-facing sites
    From
    $300–$4,000
    Time
    1–3 weeks

03

Business Systems (CRM / ERP / SaaS Ops)

8 services

  1. 01

    CRM implementation

    HubSpot, Salesforce or Zoho set up, migrated and taught.

    For
    Sales organisations
    From
    $1,500–$25,000
    Time
    3–12 weeks

  2. 02

    ERP implementation & customisation

    Finance, inventory and operations in one system.

    For
    Manufacturers, distributors
    From
    $8,000–$150,000
    Time
    3–12 months

  3. 03

    HRIS & payroll system setup

    Onboarding, leave, payroll and compliance workflows.

    For
    Growing teams
    From
    $1,000–$20,000
    Time
    1–4 months

  4. 04

    Project management system setup

    Jira, Asana or ClickUp — workflows, templates, automations.

    For
    Any team
    From
    $500–$6,000
    Time
    1–4 weeks

  5. 05

    E-signature & document workflow

    Approval and signing pipelines, DocuSign-style.

    For
    Legal, sales, HR
    From
    $400–$6,000
    Time
    1–5 weeks

  6. 06

    Support desk setup

    Zendesk or Intercom — macros, SLAs, routing, knowledge base.

    For
    Support teams
    From
    $800–$10,000
    Time
    2–6 weeks

  7. 07

    Billing & subscription management

    Stripe Billing, invoicing, dunning and revenue reporting.

    For
    SaaS, agencies
    From
    $800–$12,000
    Time
    2–8 weeks

  8. 08

    Systems integration (iPaaS)

    Teaching a company’s separate tools to talk to each other.

    For
    Multi-tool companies
    From
    $1,500–$25,000
    Time
    3–12 weeks

04

QA, Support & Ongoing Operations

7 services

  1. 01

    Manual QA & test plans

    Structured testing, bug reports and release sign-off.

    For
    Product teams
    From
    $15–$45/hr
    Time
    ongoing

  2. 02

    Test automation

    Playwright or Cypress suites that run on every release.

    For
    Dev teams
    From
    $1,500–$20,000
    Time
    3–10 weeks

  3. 03

    Performance & load testing

    How much traffic the system holds — with the proof.

    For
    Launch-ready products
    From
    $800–$10,000
    Time
    1–4 weeks

  4. 04

    Helpdesk / tier-one support outsourcing

    Chat, email and phone support, staffed by the studio.

    For
    SaaS, e-commerce
    From
    $800–$4,000/agent/mo
    Time
    ongoing

  5. 05

    Managed IT services

    Devices, accounts, software and helpdesk, monthly.

    For
    SMEs
    From
    $500–$8,000/mo
    Time
    ongoing

  6. 06

    Content moderation

    User-generated content reviewed and policy enforced, at scale.

    For
    Platforms, marketplaces
    From
    $700–$3,000/agent/mo
    Time
    ongoing

  7. 07

    Virtual assistant & back-office ops

    Admin, data entry, scheduling and CRM hygiene.

    For
    Founders, SMEs
    From
    $500–$2,500/mo
    Time
    ongoing

Not sure which of these you need?

Start with the audit. It measures what is already there and says plainly what it could not check — which is usually the shortest route to knowing what is worth building.

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