Architecture decided before the
first line of code.

We design the system before you spend serious money building it, domain boundaries, data architecture, integration contracts and capacity models, every decision written down with the trade-offs that shaped it. Your engineers start day one with C4 diagrams, ADRs and schemas they can build from, not a slide deck.

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80+

systems designed, reviewed and shipped to production

400+

architecture decisions documented as ADRs

3–5 wks

from first workshop to build-ready handoff

System map

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StratosBLUESUMMITVANTAGE✚CaremontNORTHBRIDGE

System Design & Architecture

Challenges Approach Services Process Outcomes Stack

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Most rewrites were designed
in the first week.

The costliest architecture mistakes are made before anyone notices a decision is being made. Four patterns we are hired to prevent, or unwind.

01GUESSED

Boundaries drawn by whatever got the demo working

When module structure is an accident of the first sprint, every later feature inherits it. Two years on, that 'temporary' coupling is why a two-day change takes two months, and why the v2 rewrite conversation has started.

02HYPE

Microservices before there is a service to split

A team of six running forty services pays the full distributed-systems tax, network failures, tracing, deploy orchestration, without a single distributed-scale problem to show for it. Architecture chosen from conference talks instead of constraints burns runway.

03SCHEMA

A data model dictated by ORM defaults

Schemas that mirror this sprint's forms can't answer next year's questions. Multi-tenancy bolted on late, IDs that leak, no retention design, the database is the one layer where mistakes compound quietly and migrations get scarier every quarter.

04TRIBAL

Decisions that live in one engineer’s head

No written trade-offs means every choice gets re-litigated in sprint twelve, and when that engineer leaves, every "why is it built this way?" becomes archaeology. Undocumented architecture is a key-person risk your investors never priced in.

Our fix: engineer the decisions, not just the code.

Architecture is not a diagram, it is the set of decisions that are expensive to change. We make each one explicit, score the options against your constraints, write down what we traded away, and prove the risky ones in code before you commit a team to them.

Pressure-test your design →

Model the domain before picking the stack

We event-storm the business with the people who run it, carve bounded contexts along real ownership lines, and agree the language everyone will code in. Technology choices come after the domain model, never the other way around.

Event stormingBounded contextsContext map

Monolith-first, split on evidence

For most teams under twenty engineers, a modular monolith with enforced boundaries beats a fleet of microservices on cost, speed and sleep. We design the seams in code and write down the split criteria, so when a service earns extraction, it lifts out cleanly.

Modular monolithService boundariesWritten split criteria

Every decision is an ADR

Database, hosting, framework, build-vs-buy, each gets an architecture decision record with the options weighed, the losers documented and the exit cost named. Six months in, nobody argues about why; they read the record and move on.

ADR libraryTrade-off matrixTech selectionExit costs

Prove the scary parts in code

The two or three assumptions the design leans hardest on, throughput, tenant isolation, cost per customer, get proof-of-architecture spikes: small, disposable builds under real load that return a go/no-go before you staff the build.

PoA spikesLoad modelsCost projections

Architecture services, foundation to handoff

All engineering services

Domain Modeling & Service Boundaries

Event stormingBounded contextsContext mapsOwnership lines

Data Architecture & Schema Design

Schema designMulti-tenancy strategyIndexing planRetention design

Integration Contracts & APIs

API contractsEvent schemasVersioning policyFailure semantics

Capacity & Cost Modeling

Load projectionsCost per tenantScaling triggers

Security & Compliance Architecture

AuthN/AuthZ designTenant isolationEncryption planAudit trails

Tech Selection & ADRs

Trade-off matrixADR libraryBuild vs buyExit costs

Proof-of-Architecture Spikes

Spike reposLoad-test resultsGo/no-go calls

Design Review of In-Flight Builds

Boundary checkFailure-mode analysisRisk registerWritten findings

From ambition to build-ready in five stages

Every stage ends in artifacts engineers build from, diagrams, decisions and schemas, not slideware. Hover a stage to see what you get.

/ 05

Discover

01Map the constraints

Business goals, load and growth assumptions, team shape, budget, compliance obligations and every system the new one must live with, captured and agreed before any design opinion is offered.

Context mapConstraint registerNFR targets

02Model the domain and the data

Event-storming workshops carve out bounded contexts with your team in the room. Service boundaries, the data architecture and the integration seams all follow from the domain, not from the framework.

Domain modelC4 diagrams (L1–L3)Draft schemas

03Write the decisions down

Monolith vs services, data stores, hosting and build-vs-buy each get an ADR with the options scored and the losers documented, so nothing gets re-litigated in sprint twelve.

ADR setTrade-off matrixCapacity & cost model

04Spike the risky assumptions

The bets the design leans hardest on get proof-of-architecture spikes: real code under real load, measured against the capacity model, returning a go/no-go answer before you staff the build.

Spike reposLoad-test reportRevised ADRs

05Hand engineers a build plan

Sequence diagrams for the critical flows, a build order that retires risk earliest, and a standing review cadence so the architecture survives contact with delivery, whether we build it or your team does.

Sequence diagramsBuild sequenceReview cadence

Architecture outcomes in spotlight

All case studies

←

→

Multi-tenant SaaS survived 40x growth on the original schema

B2B SaaSSystem Design

Stratos

40xtenant growth, zero rewrites

View case study ↗

“Three years and forty times the tenants later, we're still on the schema they designed. The ADRs still answer our new hires' questions.”

Priya Nandakumar

CTO, Stratos

Event-driven tracking platform proven at 12k events/sec before build

LogisticsPoA Spikes

VANTAGE

12k/ssustained load in pre-build spikes

View case study ↗

“The Kafka spike killed two wrong assumptions in week three, on paper, not in production. That alone paid for the engagement.”

Tomas Reiner

VP Engineering, Vantage Logistics

Ledger architecture passed external audit with zero design findings

Financial ServicesSecurity Architecture

BLUESUMMIT

0design findings in security audit

View case study ↗

“The auditors asked for our architecture rationale. We handed them the ADR library and the meeting got very short.”

Alicia Fontaine

Head of Platform, BlueSummit

Design review caught a tenancy flaw before patient data shipped

HealthcareDesign Review

✚Caremont

6 wksof rework avoided by one review

View case study ↗

“One review found a data-isolation flaw everything else had missed. Fixing it on the whiteboard cost days; in production it would have been a breach.”

Samuel Ortiz

CIO, Caremont Health

Monolith-first platform live in 5 months, split exactly when predicted

Real EstateSystem Design

NORTHBRIDGE

5 mofrom first workshop to launch

View case study ↗

“They talked us out of microservices and into shipping. Eighteen months later we extracted exactly two services, the ones the ADRs predicted.”

Elena Marsh

Cofounder & CEO, Northbridge

Put a systems architect in the room before the money moves.

A principal architect and a senior engineer working with your founders and leads from the first workshop, and the same people defend the design through the build.

80+

Systems designed, reviewed and shipped to production

3–5 wks

From first workshop to build-ready handoff

10x

Typical cost gap: fixing a design on paper vs in production

A reference stack we can defend in writing

Boring where boring wins, sharp where it matters. Every choice below has beaten its alternatives in a written trade-off, and we'll re-run that comparison against your constraints, not ours.

Data & messaging

Application & APIs

Infrastructure as code

Operability & delivery

The layer where mistakes cost the most, designed first, migrated rarely.

PostgreSQL

Redis

Apache Kafka

Book a design session, not a sales call.

60 minutes with a principal architect. Bring a napkin sketch, a spec or a codebase mid-build, leave with the three riskiest decisions named, an honest monolith-vs-microservices read, and what we'd spike first.

✓No obligation, no prepared pitch

✓NDA on request before you share anything

✓Honest "you don’t need us yet" when that’s true

4.9 / 5average across 75+ architecture engagements

“They gave us the one thing no framework tutorial does: reasons. Every choice in the system has a written why, and it still holds.”

Priya Nandakumar

CTO, Stratos

Tell us what you’re building

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We reply within one business day. Your details never leave Encloud.

Frequently asked questions

Weighing an architecture engagement against just starting to build? Bring the question to a design session and get an answer scored against your own constraints.

Talk to an architect →

Why pay for architecture consulting instead of just starting to code?+

Because a handful of decisions, data model, service boundaries, tenancy, integration contracts, are ten to a hundred times cheaper to change on paper than in production. A three-to-five-week design engagement is priced against the rewrite it prevents. And when the honest answer is "your product is small enough to just build," we'll say so in the first session.

Will you recommend a monolith or microservices?+

For most teams under about twenty engineers: a modular monolith with enforced boundaries in code, plus written split criteria for the day a service earns extraction. Microservices win when independent scaling, team autonomy or isolation genuinely demand them, and that call gets made in an ADR with the trade-offs scored, not from a conference talk.

What deliverables do we actually get?+

C4 diagrams at context, container and component level; an architecture decision record for every significant choice; database schema designs; sequence diagrams for the critical flows; a capacity and cost model; and a build sequence your team can start on Monday. Everything lands in your repo as markdown and diagrams-as-code, no locked binary formats, no slideware.

How long does a system design engagement take?+

A greenfield design typically runs three to five weeks from first workshop to build-ready handoff; proof-of-architecture spikes add one to two weeks when the design carries real technical risk. A technical architecture review of an existing design or in-flight build usually takes one to two weeks. You get a firm timeline after the design session.

Can you also build what you design?+

Yes, the same engineers who write the ADRs can deliver the build through our custom web apps, API and cloud teams, which keeps designers accountable for their own decisions. Just as often your team builds and we stay on a light review cadence. The deliverables are written so either path works without us in the room.

Our team already has a design, will you review it?+

Yes, and it's some of the highest-leverage work we do. A technical architecture review pressure-tests boundaries, data model, failure modes, security and cost against your stated constraints, and lands as written findings with a ranked risk register. No rip-and-replace agenda, most reviews confirm more than they condemn, and name the two or three changes that actually matter.

What does software architecture consulting cost?+

Fixed price, scoped after the design session: reviews sit at the lower end, full greenfield designs with spikes at the upper. As a benchmark, a complete engagement usually costs less than one month of the engineering payroll it directs, and a fraction of the rewrite it prevents. No retainers required, no percentage-of-build fees.