Dreamware / Services / Cloud & Architecture / Cloud-Native Architecture
Cloud-Native Architecture
AWS, Azure, GCP — designed for scale.
About this service
Cloud-native architecture isn't about moving your existing system to the cloud — it's about designing systems that take advantage of what the cloud makes possible: elastic scaling, managed services, global distribution, and the operational model that comes with it.
We design cloud-native architectures on AWS, Azure, and GCP. We have depth across all three but tend to lead with AWS in the NZ context given its dominance and the ap-southeast-2 region in Sydney. We make vendor choices deliberately, with an eye on lock-in, cost, and operational complexity.
The right cloud-native architecture for your system depends on your traffic patterns, team capabilities, and operational requirements. We don't apply a template — we design for your specific context, making the tradeoffs explicit so you understand what you're getting and what you're giving up.
How Dreamware approaches this
Architecture design starts with requirements: traffic patterns, latency targets, consistency requirements, team size, and operational budget. We design with failure in mind — every component that can fail will fail, and the system needs to handle that gracefully.
We document architecture decisions using Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) — short documents that capture what we decided, why, and what we considered and rejected. This creates a record that's invaluable when the team changes or a decision needs to be revisited. We use diagrams that are kept up to date, not created for a presentation and forgotten.
What you get
- Architecture design document — component diagram, data flow, and service boundaries
- Architecture Decision Records — documented rationale for key design decisions
- Infrastructure-as-Code — Terraform or Pulumi implementation of the designed architecture
- Cost model — estimated monthly cloud spend at different traffic levels
- Runbook — operational procedures for common tasks and incidents
- Handoff sessions — working sessions with your engineering and ops teams
Investment guide
Cloud-native architecture projects vary significantly with scope. Architecture design and documentation (without implementation) typically runs $8,000–$20,000 NZD. Architecture design plus IaC implementation runs $20,000–$60,000. Ongoing architecture advisory retainers available from $3,000/month for teams wanting continued guidance.
All pricing in NZD excluding GST. Fixed-price engagements where scope allows — we'll confirm pricing after a free scoping conversation.
Ready to get started?
Book a free conversation. We'll tell you honestly what's realistic, what it costs, and how we'd approach it.