Approach
How working with us goes
You tell us what’s going on. We look at the actual systems and choose the right working shape: a fixed-scope project for a defined outcome, or a prepaid block of senior hours for a changing backlog. Either way, the terms are written down before work starts and your team keeps the result.
Peculiar Cloud is a small senior cloud, security and networking consulting practice. You can judge the engineering before you ever talk to us: the certifications we hold, our live products and public code, the illustrative Terraform on this site, this methodology, and our written technical positions are all public. Most clients start with the low-commitment Cloud Security Review.
How you contract with us
You contract directly with Peculiar Cloud Corp., based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Scope, price, deliverables, responsibilities, and the 90-day warranty are agreed in writing before any work starts.
Who you’re working with
We’re a small senior practice. We don’t publish bios or staff pages — you judge us on what is public: the certifications we hold (we’ll verify any of them live on our first call), our live products, the illustrative Terraform on this site, our public repositories, our methodology, and our written technical positions — and on the written terms you agree with the company.
What never changes
The result stays with your team
Code, configuration, runbooks, lab guides, and decision records live with your systems, where the people responsible for them can use and change them.
No lock-in
No proprietary platform, no agent you keep installed, no portal you log into. We use the standard tools your team already knows (Terraform/OpenTofu, your CI, your cloud-native controls) so the next engineer can pick it up cold. The handover phase exists to confirm your team can apply, destroy, and extend the repo without us.
Clear terms before work starts
Defined projects get a written scope and fixed price. Engineering blocks get a written size, initial backlog, approval path, and usage model. You know which shape you are buying before work begins.
Working changes over recommendations
The deliverable is the implemented change plus the documentation an engineer needs to understand it. Advice supports the work; it does not replace it.
Disagreement is included in the price
If the plan won’t survive contact with production, you hear it from us before you pay for it — even when the honest answer is that the project shouldn’t be bought at all. A yes from us means something because it isn’t the only answer we give.
Data handling
Discovery uses scoped, read-only IAM roles that you create in your accounts and can revoke at any second — never long-lived keys we hold. Where you must export configuration or state, the preferred destination is encrypted storage you control. Wherever possible, implementation runs entirely inside your own tenancy and CI, so we do not need to hold your credentials. Any working copies, retention, deletion, data location, and required service providers are scoped for the engagement and agreed before access is granted. The public-site specifics are documented on our privacy page.
Our method
Defined projects use the same four phases. A Senior Engineering Block uses a shorter backlog cadence because the next item can change while the block is running.
- 01
Discovery
We read your accounts, configs, and constraints directly (scoped read-only access or exported state), map the real current state, and agree on a written scope and success criteria before any code is written.
- 02
Architecture Decision Records
We write down the key decisions — what we’re doing, the options we rejected, and why — as ADRs in your repo, so the reasoning survives long after we’re gone and you can challenge it before we build.
- 03
Implementation
We build the solution as reviewable Terraform/IaC in small, tested pull requests against your CI, so you watch it land incrementally and nothing arrives as a black box.
- 04
Handover
We walk your team through the repo, the threat model, and the runbooks live, confirm you can apply/destroy/extend it yourselves, and then we leave. You own everything — there is no phase 5 where you still need us.
Pricing
Defined projects are fixed scope and fixed price, agreed in writing before we start. We do not publish a universal price list because the price tracks scope: how many accounts and clouds, how strict the guardrails, how many access paths or connections. We do publish a useful starting anchor where the scope is predictable: most first Cloud Security Reviews are $8,500–$15,000 CAD. Each service page describes the engagement shape; the first conversation ends with a written scope and fixed price, or a proposed engineering-hours block for work that is better handled as a changing backlog. Then you decide.
You can stop at the decision point. Fixed-scope projects are phased: after Discovery and the decision records you hold the written architecture, the reasoning, and a decision. If you choose not to continue, you pay only for the phases delivered and keep everything produced.
Flexible engineering hours
Not every useful backlog fits a fixed deliverable. A Senior Engineering Block is a prepaid pool of hours you can use for agreed investigations, reviews, changes, debugging, questions, or small pieces of implementation. It can follow a project or stand on its own. It is not a subscription, a managed-service retainer, or emergency on-call coverage. See how the block works. Hands-on training is also available as a defined engagement on your real environment rather than generic courseware.
FAQ
How we operate — common questions
Who am I actually contracting with?
Peculiar Cloud Corp., based in Toronto, Canada. You contract with and pay the company directly; scope, price, deliverables, responsibilities, and the 90-day warranty are agreed in writing before anything starts. You can judge the engineering before you sign through our certifications, live software, public code, illustrative technical formats, and written technical positions.
Who actually does the work?
A small senior practice — whoever scopes your engagement writes the Terraform and hands it over. There is no junior bench, no offshore handoff, no solution architect who disappears after the sales call, and no second team we could quietly hand you to. We deliberately take on few engagements at once, which is how the seniority stays real.
What about availability and capacity?
We run a small number of engagements at once so each gets senior attention. That can mean waiting for a start slot; we give you a written start date before you commit. Fixed-scope projects have an agreed scope and timeline. Engineering Blocks have an agreed size, initial backlog, approval path, and usage model. If your real need is round-the-clock operational coverage, that is a managed-service retainer — which is not us — and we will say so rather than overpromise.
How does pricing work?
Defined projects are fixed scope and fixed price, agreed in writing before we start. Most prices depend on the footprint and constraints, so we do not publish a universal price list. One useful anchor: most first Cloud Security Reviews are $8,500–$15,000 CAD. For a changing backlog, a Senior Engineering Block gives you a prepaid pool of hours to use on agreed work. Tell us what is going on and we will propose the appropriate shape and price; then you decide.
Won’t I be locked into you?
The opposite is the design. You own the repo, it lives in your version control and your cloud accounts, and it is built on standard tools (Terraform/OpenTofu, your CI, cloud-native controls) — no proprietary platform, no agent, no portal. The handover phase exists specifically to confirm your team can apply, destroy, and extend everything without us.