A bill nobody can explain
Idle instances, oversized databases, forgotten snapshots and data-transfer charges add up when there is no cost model or tagging to attribute spend to a project.
Cloud & DevOps · Architecture
Cloud architecture services that plan for cost, failure and growth
We design the environment your applications will live in, and write down why each choice was made, so building, migrating and operating it later is predictable.
What is Cloud Architecture?
Cloud architecture services are the work of designing how an organization's applications, data and networks should run on cloud infrastructure: which provider and services to use, how environments are separated, how traffic flows, how identity is controlled and what it will cost to run. The output is a target architecture with diagrams and written decisions, not a running system. A sound design makes the later build, migration and operations work far less likely to need rework.
Many cloud environments are never designed. They accumulate. A developer launches a server, someone adds a managed database, a second project copies the first account's settings, and within a couple of years nobody can explain the network, the monthly bill or who has administrator access. Redesigning a live environment is far harder than designing a new one, which is why the architecture deserves attention before the first workload goes in.
How cloud environments drift without a design
Single points of failure
One server, one availability zone or one database without replicas means a routine hardware fault becomes a business outage.
Everything in one account
Production, staging and experiments sharing one account and one network make it easy for a test change or a leaked key to affect live systems.
Choices made by default
Provider, region, database engine and compute model are often picked by whoever set things up first, not by matching them to the workload, data residency or team skills.
Our Cloud Architecture service
Current-state assessment
An inventory of what runs today (servers, databases, storage, DNS, third-party services and access) with the risks and cost drivers we find, written in plain language.
Target architecture design
Diagrams and a written design covering compute, data stores, networking, identity, environments and how each application component maps onto them.
Provider and service selection
A reasoned recommendation between AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, DigitalOcean, Hetzner or a VPS host such as Hostinger, and between managed services and self-managed ones, based on your workload and team.
Resilience and recovery design
Availability targets agreed with you, then the zones, replicas, backups and recovery procedures needed to meet them, including the recovery point and time each option realistically gives.
Cost model and FinOps basics
An estimate of monthly running cost by component, a tagging scheme, budgets and alerts, and the reserved-capacity or savings-plan decisions worth considering.
Well-architected review
For an existing environment, a structured review across operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost and sustainability, with findings ranked by impact and effort.
Included capabilities
- Multi-account or multi-project landing zone layout
- VPC, subnet and routing design
- Separate production, staging and development environments
- Identity and access model with least privilege
- Managed database and storage selection
- Backup, replication and disaster recovery plan
- Tagging and cost allocation scheme
- Architecture decision records (ADRs)
- Diagrams kept as code alongside the design
- Handover document for your team or ours
What Cloud Architecture changes for your business
Predictable cost
You know roughly what the environment will cost each month and which components drive that figure.
Fewer surprises in production
Failure modes are considered on paper, where fixing them is cheap, instead of during an outage.
Faster later work
Builds, migrations and automation follow an agreed design instead of re-debating every decision.
Knowledge that stays with you
Written decisions mean the reasoning survives staff changes and vendor changes.
Where it makes the biggest difference
New SaaS product
A founder needs an architecture that is cheap at launch but does not have to be thrown away once paying customers arrive.
Before a migration
A company moving from on-premises servers or a shared host wants the destination designed before any data is moved.
Untangling an inherited account
A new CTO takes over a cloud account built by several contractors and needs to know what is there, what it costs and what is risky.
Scaling an ERP or business system
An Odoo or custom ERP deployment has outgrown a single server and needs a design for database, workers, storage and backups.
From requirements to a design you can build
Every recommendation traces back to a requirement you agreed to.
Understand
Interviews about the applications, users, growth expectations, compliance needs and the budget the design must fit.
Assess
Review of the existing environment or, for new builds, the application's components and dependencies.
Set requirements
Availability, recovery, performance, data residency and cost targets agreed in writing, because every design trade-off depends on them.
Design options
Usually two or three candidate architectures with their cost, complexity and risk compared side by side.
Decide
One option chosen with you, and every significant decision recorded with its reasoning.
Document
Diagrams, the written design, a cost estimate and an implementation plan broken into phases.
Hand over
A walkthrough with your engineers, then the design is built by your team, by us, or jointly.
What it connects to
Cloud Architecture
- AWS, Google Cloud and Azure
- DigitalOcean and Hetzner
- Hostinger VPS
- Cloudflare DNS and CDN
- Managed PostgreSQL and MySQL
- Object storage (S3-compatible)
- Identity providers and SSO
- Monitoring and alerting tools
Built with
Matching the platform to the workload
| Criterion | Single VPS | Managed cloud services | Container platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical providers | Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Hostinger VPS | AWS, Google Cloud, Azure | Managed Kubernetes on any major provider |
| Operational effort | Low to moderate | Moderate; provider runs the services | Higher; needs platform skills |
| Resilience | Limited to one machine unless designed otherwise | Multi-zone options built in | High, if configured correctly |
| Cost profile | Low and predictable | Usage-based; needs monitoring | Cluster overhead plus workloads |
| Best fit | Small apps, internal tools, early products | Growing products, managed databases, variable load | Many services, frequent deploys, platform team |
Security, quality and scale
Identity first
Administrator access, service accounts and role boundaries are designed up front, not bolted on after an incident.
Network segmentation
Public, private and data tiers separated so databases are never directly reachable from the internet.
Encryption by default
Encryption in transit and at rest specified for every data store and every connection between components.
Recoverability
Backups kept separate from the systems they protect, with restore testing written into the operating plan.
What working with us looks like
Provider-neutral advice
We recommend the provider that fits the workload (sometimes a hyperscaler, sometimes a well-run VPS), not the one we prefer to work with.
Designs we would operate
The same team builds and runs infrastructure, so designs account for patching, monitoring and day-to-day operations.
Application awareness
We also write software, so the architecture reflects how your application actually behaves rather than generic reference diagrams.
Plain-language trade-offs
Each option comes with its cost, complexity and risk explained so non-specialist decision makers can choose.
What it costs
Fixed-price packages with the scope written down, paid stage by stage. Your project goes live once it's fully paid.
Related services, technologies and industries
Sources and further reading
Official documentation and guidance if you want to read more about this topic.
Cloud Architecture: questions we hear most
What does a cloud architecture engagement deliver?
It delivers a written target architecture: diagrams, the decisions behind them, a monthly cost estimate and a phased implementation plan. It does not by itself build anything. The design can then be implemented by your team, by Digihub, or by both together.
Which cloud provider should we choose?
The right provider depends on your workload, data residency, existing skills and budget rather than on which provider is largest. AWS, Google Cloud and Azure offer the widest managed-service range; DigitalOcean, Hetzner and VPS hosts are simpler and often cheaper for steady workloads. We compare the realistic options for your case before recommending one.
Can you review an architecture we already have?
Yes, a well-architected review of an existing environment is one of the most common requests. We assess security, reliability, performance, operations and cost, then give you a prioritized list of findings with the effort each fix involves.
How do you estimate cloud running costs?
We price each component of the design using the provider's published pricing and your expected usage, then show which items dominate the total. Usage-based billing means the real bill will vary, so the design also includes budgets, alerts and tagging to track spend once live.
Do we need a multi-cloud architecture?
Most small and mid-sized businesses do not need multi-cloud, because it adds complexity, cost and skills requirements. It can make sense for specific reasons such as regulatory constraints or a dependency on one provider's unique service. We usually recommend designing for portability instead: containers, infrastructure as code and standard databases.
Who implements the architecture after the design?
You choose. Some clients take the design to their in-house team; others ask Digihub to build it using infrastructure as code, migrate workloads and then manage the environment.
Next step
Get your cloud environment on paper
Tell us what you run today and where you want to be. We'll come back with the questions that shape the design and a proposal for the architecture work.