// Cloud Solutions, Sydney
Cloud solutions for Sydney business. Without the lock-in.
Here's the blunt version. Most cloud providers are resellers renting you space on someone else's computers, so every answer they give is "move it to the cloud". I run my own infrastructure and data centre, and I work with Microsoft and the big clouds too. That means you get straight advice: cloud where it wins, on-premise where it wins, hybrid where that's the honest answer. For most small businesses, it is.
After 18 years building and running IT for small business, my default recommendation is hybrid. Keep email, phones and the services you can't trade without hosted and bulletproof. Keep the rest in-house on gear you own, with cloud backup behind it. All-cloud and all-on-premise are both usually wrong, just wrong in different ways.
- Vendor-neutral advice, no licence markup and no sales quota to hit
- Hybrid cloud designed around your actual workload, not a template
- Microsoft 365 and Azure setup, migration and management
- Hosting on our own Australian infrastructure when the big clouds don't fit
- Cloud backup with tested restores behind everything
- Documented exit paths, your data stays yours
And I don't just talk about exit paths, I've walked one end to end. I've fully decommissioned an entire cloud account: everything switched off, every resource accounted for, nothing left quietly billing in a corner. It's genuinely harder than signing up. Resources hide across services and regions, and tearing it all down safely, without killing something still in use, takes real work. That's exactly why "no lock-in" isn't a slogan on this page. The lesson I take into every setup I build: know what it takes to leave before you sign up, and design for reversibility from day one, while it's still cheap to do.
// The cloud hub
Pick your path.
This page is the map. The detail lives one click deeper.
Cloud Migration
Planned, rehearsed and run out of hours. Email, files, servers and apps moved without losing a day of work.
Hosting on Our Infrastructure
Cloud servers, virtual desktops and websites on hardware we own and run in Australia. You deal with the person who owns the gear.
Backup & Continuity
Cloud only counts if you can get it back. Microsoft 365 backup and tested restores, because "it's in the cloud" is not a backup plan.
Managed IT
Someone has to run all this day to day. Monitoring, patching and a real human on the phone when something breaks.
// The honest default
Hybrid cloud. What I'd actually build.
If it were my business, and it is, this is the split I run: the things that must never go down live hosted, the things that are big, heavy or private stay in-house, and everything gets backed up to the cloud regardless. Cloud reliability where it matters, on-premise economics where it matters.
- Hosted and bulletproof: email, calendars, phones, and anything your customers touch
- In-house where it wins: big files, CAD and media, line-of-business apps, anything latency-sensitive
- Cloud backup behind both, with restores actually tested, not assumed
- One network, one login, and your team never needs to know where anything lives
Hybrid isn't hedging. It's putting each workload where it's cheapest and most reliable, and keeping the freedom to change your mind later because nothing is locked in.
// Cloud migration
Moving to the cloud without the drama.
Migrations fail in the planning, not in the copying. So the plan comes first: what moves, what stays, what it costs, and what happens if something goes sideways. Then the move runs out of hours. Your team finishes Friday on the old system and starts Monday on the new one, and nothing gets switched off until the new setup has proven itself. It's a scoped, fixed-price project, not an hourly adventure.
Five stages, in order, no skipping. The design goal is that every step is reversible until it's proven.
- Audit. What you run, what talks to what, and where the legacy weirdness hides. Surprises get found on paper, not mid-migration.
- Plan. The order of moves, a rollback point for every stage, and a fixed quote. You see the whole map before anything moves.
- Staged cutover. After hours, one service at a time: email, files, phones, then servers case by case. The old system stays live in parallel until the new one is proven.
- Verify. Your people actually working on the new system. "It pings" is not verification, "the whole team got through Monday without noticing" is.
- Decommission. Only after everything is verified. Old servers retired or repurposed, drives wiped properly, licences tidied up.
One more thing worth saying, because most shops only ever push work one way: I migrate in both directions. I've exported a production workload out of a major cloud and landed it back onto our own hardware. You can't cleanly export a running instance, you take a proper copy, rebuild it in its new home, and fix it up after landing, which is precisely why I verify before I decommission, in either direction. The exit path only counts if you've walked it.
// Microsoft 365 & Azure
Microsoft 365 and Azure, set up properly.
Microsoft 365 is the right call for almost every small business's email, calendars and documents. That's not controversial and I won't pretend otherwise. What matters is the setup: security switched on from day one, licences billed at RRP with no markup, and backup behind it, because Microsoft doesn't do that part for you, despite what most people assume.
- Migration from old email, Google Workspace or an ageing Exchange server, with no lost mail
- Security baseline as standard: MFA on, sensible sharing rules, no admin accounts left open
- Azure for the workloads that suit it: file servers, apps, remote desktops
- Licences at vendor RRP. You pay for management and support, not software markup
// Our own infrastructure
The alternative: cloud on gear we own.
Not every workload belongs on Microsoft's cloud or Amazon's. Some don't need the scale, some can't wear the monthly bill, and some just need to sit in Australia on hardware someone accountable owns. That's why we run our own infrastructure: cloud servers, virtual desktops and hosting on our own data centre kit.
It also keeps the advice honest. Because it works either way, I've got no reason to push you toward the big clouds when they don't fit, or away from them when they do. See Australian hosting and servers for the details.
// Backup & continuity
Cloud is not a backup.
Files in Microsoft 365 or on a cloud server are not backed up just because they're in the cloud. Deleted mail, ransomware and broken sync jobs travel to the cloud as happily as everything else. Every cloud setup I build ships with real backup and tested restores behind it. The details live on the backup and disaster recovery page.
// Who this is for
Sydney small business, mostly.
The businesses that get the most out of this are small and medium operations across Sydney, including Parramatta and Western Sydney, that have outgrown ad-hoc IT but don't want an enterprise contract. On-site where it helps, remote everywhere else, Australia-wide.
And if someone is currently pushing you to "move everything to the cloud" and it smells like a sales quota, get a second opinion first. That's how a lot of my cloud work starts.
// Indicative pricing
What it roughly costs.
Real numbers, because "contact us for pricing" is code for "brace yourself." These are honest ballparks, your fixed quote comes after a free consult.
Indicative pricing ex GST. Licences billed at vendor RRP, no licence markup games. Fixed quote after a free cloud-readiness review.
// Questions
Cloud, your questions answered.
Should my business move everything to the cloud?
No, usually not. All-cloud suits some businesses and all-on-premise suits almost nobody, and most Sydney small businesses land in the middle. Keep email, phones and critical services hosted and bulletproof, keep the rest in-house with cloud backup behind it. We plan the mix around your workload and budget, not around what's easiest to resell.
What's the difference between a cloud provider and a cloud reseller?
A reseller rents you someone else's computers and adds a margin. We run our own infrastructure and data centre, and we also work with Microsoft and the big clouds, so each workload goes where it genuinely fits. When your provider owns servers, 'move it to the cloud' stops being the answer to every question.
Is the cloud always cheaper than owning a server?
No. Cloud turns a big upfront cost into a monthly bill, which is often the right trade, but a heavy workload running around the clock can cost more in the cloud than on hardware you own. That's why we quote it both ways before you commit, with real numbers, not a pitch.
Will moving to Microsoft 365 cause downtime?
No. We run email and data migrations out of hours with no lost mail. Your team finishes Friday on the old system and logs in Monday on the new one, none the wiser.
What usually goes wrong in a cloud migration?
The last 10% is rarely the data, it's the endpoints. The mailboxes and files move cleanly. What eats the time is the machines people sit at: sync clients wedge and need clearing, mail profiles need rebuilding, cloud-storage clients need resetting so they point at the new home. It's not dramatic, but it's fiddly, and a migration that ignores it is the one where your team logs on Monday to broken email and a spinning sync icon. I plan for the endpoints from the start, so the boring last stretch is scheduled work, not a nasty surprise.
What happens if we want to leave later?
You leave with your data. No lock-in is a design rule here: you own your accounts, you own your data, and every setup we build has a documented exit path. If we're doing our job you'll stay because it works, not because leaving is too hard.
Do you cover Parramatta and Western Sydney?
Yes. On-site across the Sydney metro including Parramatta and Western Sydney, plus remote support Australia-wide. Most cloud work is remote anyway; migrations and network changes get an on-site visit where it actually helps.
// Pairs well with
Want the exact number for your business?
Tell me what you're working with and I'll come back with a fixed quote. No pressure, no jargon, no probing.
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