Fractional CISO & Cloud Security Lead
The evidenced answer to 'is our cloud secure?' - always ready for the board, the auditor, and the insurer. Senior Microsoft cloud and security leadership on retainer, without a full-time hire.
A short, no-obligation call to scope the cover you need. We reply within two working days.
The problem
You need senior cloud architecture and security direction, but the workload does not justify a full-time hire. The team needs standards, a roadmap, design oversight, and someone to mentor engineers and steady the big decisions - consistently, not in one-off bursts.
What's Included
- Ongoing senior architecture and security leadership on retainer
- Cloud roadmap and design standards aligned to the Well-Architected Framework and Cloud Adoption Framework
- Architecture and security reviews, guardrails, and governance
- Engineer mentoring and design oversight
- Guidance on the Microsoft relationship and product roadmap
Outcomes
- A credible, evidenced answer whenever the board, an auditor, or an insurer asks whether your cloud is secure
- Senior capability on demand, without a full-time salary
- More consistent standards and better-governed decisions
- A steady, trusted relationship rather than ad-hoc firefighting
Who It's For
- Organisations without an in-house senior cloud architect
- Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) needing overflow senior expertise
How to Start
Most engagements begin with the free audit and go no further until you have seen where you stand.
Continuous Evidence
from £3,500 / $4,500
The compliance-continuity floor, and the natural next step after a Pack - your posture kept aligned and your audit and insurance evidence current and submittable, with senior direction on tap.
- Evidence kept current and submittable, with drift caught before an auditor sees it
- A monthly architecture and security review, with your roadmap kept current
- A direct line to a senior architect between reviews
per month. Start on a 90-day term - a full quarter to see the evidence land - then it rolls to month-to-month, cancellable with 30 days' notice. Month one: a posture baseline and a first evidence pack.
Embedded
from £6,500 / $8,300
Continuous Evidence plus hands-on delivery time each month - the architect who scopes the work also does it, rather than only advising on it.
- Everything in Continuous Evidence, plus a fixed amount of hands-on delivery each month
- Engineer mentoring and design oversight as your team delivers
- Proactive checks on the drift and expiring credentials that cause avoidable outages
per month
Fractional CISO
from £11,000 / $14,100
Embedded plus the board-facing role - the person who owns the cloud and security story to your leadership, auditors, and insurers.
- Everything in Embedded, plus board and C-level reporting
- Auditor and cyber-insurer liaison, with the evidence prepared
- Ownership of the Microsoft relationship, vendor decisions, and product roadmap
per month
Engagement Model
One retainer - the Board Answer - on a ladder of three rungs: Continuous Evidence, Embedded, and Fractional CISO, each an agreed amount of senior architecture and security time committed up front. Continuous Evidence is the compliance-continuity floor every Deadline Pack graduates into - so next year's renewal or audit is handled inside the retainer, never re-bought as a fresh pack; Embedded and Fractional CISO add hands-on delivery and then the board-facing role on top of it. No day rates, no hourly billing, no open-ended time and materials. Cancellable with 30 days' notice: it holds because it is useful, not because you are locked in.
Pricing: Retainer from £3,500 / $4,500 - larger engagements are tailored to scope.
We govern the AI we deliver with
This work is delivered AI-accelerated, so AI tooling reads configuration and log data from your estate along the way. It is fair to ask how that is governed - and the answer is published: which providers we use and on what commercial terms, what client data never reaches a model, that a named architect signs off every output, and that AI tooling holds no standing write access to client systems.
Read our AI policyRelated
Microsoft 365 Security & Hardening
The identity, device, and data posture work a fractional architect would typically scope and oversee. Start with a free posture audit.
Microsoft Azure Security & Hardening
Platform guardrails, landing zones, and policy-enforced baselines across your Microsoft Azure estate.
AI-Assisted Automation & Internal Tooling
Practical automation and safe Microsoft Copilot adoption, delivered inside the same governance.
Microsoft Secure Score is a starting line, not a finish line
How senior architecture treats a dashboard metric as one input to a plan rather than a target to chase.
Get started
Find out where you stand, free
Most engagements start with a no-cost posture audit against the baselines that matter to you. If a fixed-fee roadmap is the right next step, we'll say so - and if it isn't, we'll say that too.