Fractional IT for fast-growing companies
Service we Offer
Why migrate now? Because every quarter you stay on-premises, you over-pay, over-provision, and wait in line for hardware. From Bay Area startups racing to hit product-market fit to enterprises cutting million-dollar data center leases, the cloud has become the default launchpad for speed and resilience.
Your lease is up. Your office is cramped. Your servers are in a closet. Moving to the cloud isn't optional anymore.
Network Right handles migration like any other project, alongside our broader managed IT across the Bay Area work: assess, decide, execute, hand off. No lock-in. No expensive services you don't need.
On-prem makes sense at 10 people. At 50, 100, 150 it gets expensive. You maintain hardware that fails. File storage doesn't scale. You pay rack rent instead of filling desks.
Lease renewal or office expansion forces the conversation. Renew the status quo. Or move to cloud and stop thinking about it.
Most companies run hybrid: legacy systems and compliance workloads stay on-prem, the rest move. The goal is cutting burden so your team builds.
We start with an audit of what's running. A few weeks: automated scanning and conversations about what each system does and why.
Servers and compute: Document every server. Specs, uptime, what runs on it, who needs it. Some move to cloud. Some shut down (they do nothing). Some merge (they should never have been separate).
Storage and file sharing: Local NAS, network drives, shared folders. Sort active data (moves), archive (cold storage), junk (delete). You'll find folders untouched for years.
Networking: How systems talk. What traffic leaves your office. Firewall rules. VPNs. We build to work as well as on-prem, but simpler.
Applications and databases: What runs. What depends on what. Some move easily. Some need rework. Some stay on-prem. We tell you which and why.
Compliance and security: Handle regulated data? Healthcare? Financial records? PII? This is where cybersecurity for startups intersects migration planning. The migration has constraints. We map these early so nothing surprises you.
AWS is most common. Flexible, cheap at scale, tons of tools. Best practices guide reliable design. Downside: needs technical skill, careless setup surprises you with bills.
Microsoft Azure works if you use Microsoft already: Office 365, Active Directory, SQL Server, Exchange. Integration is tight. Your team knows it.
Google Cloud fits data work or machine learning. Solid general choice if your team prefers it.
Many companies use all three: AWS for main apps, Azure for Microsoft, others for special needs. We help pick the right platform for each workload: cost, features, your team's skills.
Clear upfront.
We own migration execution: Plan cutover. Move data. Set up infrastructure. Test. Run migration. No data loss. No unplanned downtime.
You own the cloud afterward: Once we hand off, your team (or a managed provider) runs it. Monitoring, scaling, patching, costs. We train your team.
We support transition, not forever: Help for a few weeks after launch. Fix issues. Cut costs. Answer questions. We're not your on-call team forever. Need that? Talk about fractional IT.
Vendor contracts are yours: With AWS, that's your relationship with Amazon. We don't take a cut. We charge for work, not commissions.
Phase 1: Discovery (2-4 weeks): Document your setup. Talk to key people. Find dependencies. Build plan. You get inventory and recommendations.
Phase 2: Pilot (2-4 weeks): Migrate a non-critical workload. Proves the plan works. Uncovers surprises. Builds team confidence.
Phase 3: Planning (2-6 weeks): Design cloud infrastructure. Set up networking. Configure security. Build tools. Your team learns.
Phase 4: Cutover (varies): Run full migration. Small environments: hours. Large ones: weeks.
Phase 5: Testing and tuning (1-2 weeks): Test everything. Optimize based on real use. Sign off.
Timeline depends on size and complexity. 15-person startup with simple setup: 8 weeks. 150-person company with old systems: 6 months.
Costs depend on size, complexity, and data volume. Here's what we see:
ScenarioCompany sizeOn-prem footprintEstimated costTimelineSmall startup, simple infra15–252–3 servers, basic storage$18k–$35k6–8 weeksGrowing company, mixed workloads50–808–15 servers, shared storage, legacy system$45k–$85k10–14 weeksScaling company, complex infra100–15020+ servers, multiple databases, compliance needs$100k–$200k4–6 months
These are service costs. Cloud infrastructure costs less than on-prem hardware and facilities (power, cooling, maintenance, rack rent add up).
Our fees cover planning, execution, testing, handoff. Don't include ongoing cloud bills (those go to AWS, Microsoft, Google). Don't include major app rework; we scope that separately.
Your office is changing: Lease renewal or expansion make on-prem cost more. Flexera's report shows migration is priority. Why pay for rack space and power?
Your team is growing: Hardware management gets harder as you scale. People managing infrastructure could be building product.
Cloud costs are predictable: You know your monthly bill. No failures. No aging gear. Scale up or down without upfront cost.
It's one-time pain: Migration takes weeks or months. Operating in cloud is easier after.
Most moves start with a 30-minute scoping call. We review your workloads, your timeline, and your budget. Then we build a plan you can actually execute against.
How much downtime do we need to plan for?
Depends on your setup and tolerance. Many migrations happen with zero downtime using parallel systems. Others need a planned outage; we aim for a few hours max. We'll know after discovery.
What if we have old systems that can't move?
They stay on-prem or in a data center. Most setups end up hybrid: some cloud, some on-prem. We design around what needs to move.
Do we need to change our applications?
Sometimes. Custom apps built for on-prem might need adjustment. We find these during discovery. Most apps work in cloud with minimal changes.
What about security and compliance?
Part of the plan from day one. Handle regulated data? We build cloud infrastructure to meet those rules. Cloud providers have strong compliance, often better than on-prem.
Can we manage cloud ourselves or do we need a managed provider?
We can train your team and hand off code you can manage. Or hire someone or use a managed provider, a common question for teams already invested in IT services for startups. We'll advise what makes sense.
Most IT firms wait for things to break. We learn your roadmap before they do. Every cloud migration engagement at Network Right starts with one dedicated expert who knows your stack, your people, and where you're headed.
Here's what that looks like in practice. Your team Slacks a real human. They answer in minutes. They already know your setup, so the fix is fast. Then they flag what's coming next, before it becomes a fire.
Startups use us for their first move off on-prem. Later-stage teams lean on us for complex multi-cloud workload migrations. The same dedicated expert stays with you the whole way, from your first 10 employees to your first 500.
That's how IT starts feeling in-house. Because in every way that matters, it is.
Proof in the numbers:
Ready to stop managing your IT vendor and start building your company? Book a 20-minute call. We'll walk through your stack, your pain points, and exactly how cloud migration fits. No jargon, no pressure. Just a real conversation with a real engineer.
