Six Stones of Practice
Each stone represents a discrete engineering discipline. All stones are carefully placed and maintained by specialist zen masters.
Stone I: Systems Architecture & Design
Implementation-ready architecture documents specifying every component, interface, data flow, and operational procedure. Formal trade-off analysis, capacity projections, and phased roadmaps.
- Distributed systems architecture with quantified RPO and RTO targets
- Weighted decision matrices across cost, performance, and security
- Capacity planning with growth projections and cost modeling
- STRIDE threat modeling integrated into component specifications
The Foundation Stone
Stone II: Cloud Infrastructure Engineering
Infrastructure-as-code across AWS, Azure, and hybrid environments. Version-controlled modules with peer review and CI validation. Multi-account governance with consistent security.
- Terraform and CloudFormation with automated CI validation
- Kubernetes platform with OPA policy enforcement and service mesh
- Multi-account governance with SCPs and centralized security
- Automated DR with scheduled failover testing
The Cloud Stone
Stone III: Systems Integration
Connecting legacy platforms, modern microservices, and SaaS into cohesive ecosystems. API gateway architecture, event-driven middleware with Kafka, and legacy modernization.
- API gateway design with versioning and developer documentation
- Kafka cluster with schema registry governance
- Phased strangulation with automated regression testing
- ETL/ELT architecture with data quality validation
The Bridge Stone
Stone IV: Cybersecurity Architecture
Security engineered as a system property from the first design decision. Threat modeling with STRIDE and attack tree analysis. SIEM with custom detection content.
- STRIDE and attack tree analysis with risk-ranked controls
- Zero-trust with micro-segmentation and identity-aware proxies
- SIEM deployment with custom detection rules
- Compliance mapping with automated evidence collection
The Guardian Stone
Stone V: Managed IT Operations
24/7 continuous monitoring with proactive maintenance and incident response. Operations engineers who understand your systems — specialists who diagnose and resolve complex issues.
- Intelligent alert routing with automated classification
- Runbook automation for common failure scenarios
- Risk-based patch scheduling with staged rollout
- Monthly SLA analysis and capacity forecasting
The Watch Stone
Stone VI: Digital Transformation & DevOps
Accelerating delivery velocity through modern practices and automated toolchains. DORA metrics baseline, CI/CD pipeline engineering, observability deployment, and GitOps workflows.
- CI/CD pipeline with automated testing and deployment gates
- DORA metrics baseline with gap analysis and roadmap
- Observability platform with dashboards and alerting
- Embedded pairing sessions throughout the engagement