Cloud Setup and Server Administration

Infrastructure set up correctly the first time, by someone who has been on call for the consequences.

Most small and mid-sized businesses do not need a platform team. They need their infrastructure configured properly once, monitored so problems announce themselves, backed up so mistakes are survivable, and documented so it is not a mystery.

I have worked with AWS and Linux servers for years, including under real transaction load, and that is the service I provide here.

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Cloud setup and server administration illustration

What I set up and maintain

The unglamorous foundations that decide whether your bad day is an inconvenience or a crisis.

AWS account structure and IAM permissions
Linux server provisioning and hardening
SSL certificates and automatic renewal
Backup strategy and - crucially - restore testing
Monitoring, alerting and log aggregation

CI/CD deployment pipelines
Staging and production environment parity
Database hosting, replication and tuning
CDN and caching configuration
Cloud cost review and reduction

How an infrastructure engagement runs

Assess, fix what is urgent, then make it maintainable.

1Audit what exists

What is running, where, on what, patched to when, backed up how, and who has access. This step routinely surfaces forgotten servers, expired certificates and backups that have not run since last year.

2Fix the urgent things

Security exposure, unpatched systems, missing or untested backups, single points of failure. Ordered by actual risk rather than by what is easiest.

3Make it reproducible

Configuration captured as code so environments can be rebuilt rather than nursed. A server nobody can rebuild is a liability with a countdown on it.

4Monitoring and alerting

So that you find out about problems from a notification rather than from a customer.

5Document and hand over

Runbooks for the routine operations, and a clear picture of what runs where, so you are not dependent on any one person - including me.

Backups, and the question nobody asks

Almost every business I audit has backups. A considerably smaller number have ever restored one. An untested backup is not a backup - it is a belief about a backup, and the moment you discover the difference is the worst possible moment.

So restore testing is part of the standard setup, on a schedule, with the result recorded. It is not expensive and it converts your disaster recovery plan from an assumption into a fact.

The other item worth flagging: cloud cost. AWS bills grow quietly through oversized instances, forgotten volumes, unattached IP addresses and data transfer nobody accounted for. A cost review is usually one of the fastest-paying pieces of work available, and it pairs naturally with a modernisation engagement where the underlying application is the reason the infrastructure is oversized.

Related services

Legacy Code Modernisation

Old codebases made safe to change again: upgrades, refactoring, tests and documentation, without a risky rewrite.

Web Development

Marketing sites, web applications and everything in between - designed, built, hosted and handed over working.

API Development

REST and GraphQL APIs, integrations and microservices that are documented, versioned and pleasant to consume.

Frequently asked questions

We do not have anyone technical in-house. Is that a problem?

No - that is the common case for this service. Everything gets documented in plain language and I handle the technical operation, either on a retainer or as needed.

Can you take over infrastructure someone else built?

Yes. It starts with an audit, because inherited infrastructure usually contains at least one thing nobody currently knows about.

Do you only work with AWS?

AWS is where I have the deepest experience, but the principles carry to other providers and to traditional hosting, and I work with those too.

Can you help reduce our cloud bill?

Often significantly. A review of instance sizing, storage, unused resources and data transfer is a well-bounded piece of work with a measurable result.