We help you replace core platforms with minimal outages, security incidents, or runaway vendor costs.

Fractional CTO support for always-on, mission-critical operators facing a core capability replacement/migration under reliability + security risk. We stabilize the mission threads, control vendors, and deliver an exec-visible roadmap you can actually execute.

The problem we solve…

Core platform replacements fail for predictable reasons:

  • reliability is fragile and incidents keep stealing time

  • security/resilience gaps turn into executive events

  • vendors drive scope and costs drift

  • leadership doesn’t have decision-grade visibility

Our job is to run the replacement like a high-consequence program: measurable reliability, defensible recovery, controlled vendors, and weekly executive clarity.

How we solve the problem…using OA3D.

OA3D is a modernization decision framework that follows risk management techniques used in military cyberspace operations, technical operations similar to the intensity faced by core digital platforms critical to business operations.

OA3D stands for…

  • Orient: Lock the decision, the mission threads that can’t break, and the constraints that define safe change, so the work stays governed and time-bound.

  • Assess: Replace opinions with evidence: baseline reliability posture, map blast radius for Tier-0/1 flows, and document material risks with confidence levels.

  • Decide: Produce an executive-grade decision package: 2–3 viable paths, explicit tradeoffs, a sequenced recommendation, and named owners.

  • De-Risk: Make the plan safe before you bet production: define go/no-go gates, proof points, rollback/abort criteria, and explicit residual-risk acceptance.

  • Deliver: Turn the plan into controlled execution with weekly visibility.

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Who this is for…

Always-on organizations replacing a core capability platform where downtime / security failure becomes an executive problem.

Examples (not exhaustive):

  • mission ops / ground systems

  • broadcast & streaming

  • digital collections/DAM

  • emergency/incident communications

  • logistics/fulfillment

  • payments / donor / CRM platforms

  • regulated service platforms

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What you get…

  • Operational confidence: SLOs defined and hit; MTTR reduced

  • Defensible resilience: RTO/RPO proven with tests

  • Mission-thread security gating: privileged access controlled + auditable

  • Replacement you can execute: phased roadmap, cutover gates, vendor acceptance criteria

  • Weekly exec steering: decisions, risks, metrics, next actions

Military precision for business outcomes.

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Services We Provided

Risk Assessment

2–3 weeks

Purpose: Turn uncertainty into a decision package fast.

Deliverables:

  1. Mission Thread Map: what cannot fail + dependencies

  2. Top-10 Risk Register: reliability/security/vendor/schedule/cost with mitigations

  3. Replacement Path: options + recommended phased approach with cutover gates

  4. SLO + Resilience Targets: MTTR goals + RTO/RPO evidence plan

  5. Vendor Strategy: scope boundaries, acceptance criteria, leverage points

  6. 90-Day Execution Plan: milestones, owners, weekly reporting template

Credit: Applied to first month of retainer

Technical Due Diligence

2–4 weeks

Purpose: Turn product + platform uncertainty into a buyer-ready decision package fast—focused on mission-critical reliability, security evidence, and execution risk.

  1. Product Reality Check: what customers truly rely on, what’s fragile, what’s roadmap vs real capability

  2. Architecture & Scalability Assessment: core design, bottlenecks, failure modes, “blast radius” risks

  3. Reliability & Ops Posture: incident trends, MTTR drivers, on-call readiness, operational debt

  4. Security & Recovery Evidence: controls posture, audit gaps, RTO/RPO credibility, DR test maturity

  5. Delivery Capability Review: org structure, engineering throughput, change safety, critical skill gaps

  6. Vendor + Cost Exposure: contract risks, lock-in points, hidden run costs, upcoming renewals

  7. Top-10 Risk Register + Mitigations: severity, likelihood, evidence, and what it takes to fix

  8. Go/No-Go + 100-Day Plan: recommended decision, first milestones, and executive reporting template

Fractional CTO Retainer

3-month minimum

Replacement Control System

  • Weekly Exec Steering (CEO/COO) + weekly delivery/tech leadership sync

  • Reliability baseline + SLOs + incident review cadence

  • Security/resilience gating for mission thread

  • Vendor control: scope discipline + milestone acceptance

  • Phased replacement execution: roadmap → gates → cutover milestones

Always-On Turnaround

Everything in a Replacement Control System plus accelerated cadence for hot incidents / deadlines:

  • Stabilization sprints + crisis-room leadership as needed

  • Accelerated recovery testing (incl. at least one live failover/restore)

  • Vendor reset + re-baseline schedule with executive decision points

Explicit milestones: stabilize in 30–45 days; cutover plan locked by day 60–75

Risk Assessment and Due Diligence credit applied to first month of retainer