CONSULTGK
Garrett Keith · Independent IT Consultant

Serious engineering for systems you can't afford to lose.

AI, infrastructure, security, and networking. I design it, migrate it, harden it, and keep it running in production. Senior, hands-on, and accountable for the outcome, not the slide deck.

systems check● live
[ OK ]identityentra sso, mfa enforced
[ OK ]networktunnel up, dns healthy
[ OK ]tracingebpf agents reporting
[ OK ]backupslast run 02:00 utc, verified
[ OK ]uptime99.98% rolling 90d
this is the boring dashboard your business deservesall green
Azure Entra ID / SSO eBPF observability Datacenter migration LLM integration Zero-downtime cutovers
Services

Four practices. One engineer who runs what he builds.

Most consultants hand you a recommendation. I hand you a running system, with monitoring, documentation, and a runbook your team can actually use.

AI

AI that ships to production

LLM features wired into your real systems, not demo notebooks.

  • Internal assistants and document pipelines (OCR, search, extraction)
  • Agent workflows with evals, guardrails, and cost controls
  • Practical automation of the work your team hates doing
Infrastructure

Cloud and hybrid infrastructure

Azure-first architecture for estates that mix cloud, on-prem, and legacy.

  • Migrations and datacenter relocations, planned to the cutover minute
  • Backup, DR, and observability (metrics, traces, uptime)
  • Cost review: find what you're paying for and stop paying for waste
Security

Identity-first security

Practical controls that hold up in an audit and in an incident.

  • Entra ID single sign-on, including in front of legacy apps
  • Access reviews, least privilege, on/offboarding discipline
  • Hardening, patching cadence, and incident-ready logging
Networking

Networks that behave

The messy middle between offices, clouds, and datacenters.

  • Firewalls, VPNs, DNS, reverse proxies, and tunnels
  • Public IP and re-addressing plans for moves and migrations
  • Uptime monitoring so you find out before your customers do
Recent work

Anonymized, but real.

A sample of recent production engagements. References available on request.

Infrastructure

Full datacenter relocation for a production .NET estate

Inventoried every host, dependency, and public IP for a move to a new physical datacenter. Sequenced the cutover around the riskiest unknowns (the database tier and the public IP block) so the business case came before the forklift.

Observability

Distributed tracing with zero code changes

Deployed eBPF-based tracing (Grafana Beyla) across three production API hosts under a strict constraint: no code changes and no restarts. Went from no visibility to full request traces in days.

Security

Modern SSO in front of legacy internal apps

Put Entra ID single sign-on in front of internal web apps that were never built for it, using oauth2-proxy and nginx. One identity, MFA enforced, no application rewrites.

Security

Security runbooks a lean IT team can execute

Wrote step-by-step runbooks for the scenarios that matter: compromised accounts, phishing reports, offboarding, ransomware first response. Each one walked against the real environment, so the on-call person can act at 2 am without guessing.

AI

LLM-powered Discord bot for a learning community

Built and operate a production Discord bot for a language-learning community: AI conversation practice, an XP and leveling system, scheduled homework delivery by DM, and a web admin portal so teachers manage everything without touching code. Runs 24/7 on a cloud VM.

Networking

Zero-disruption SFTP platform migration to Azure

Designed a parallel-run migration of a 27-account trading-partner SFTP platform from on-prem to Azure, reusing host keys and credentials so partners cut over without noticing.

Cloud

Azure Virtual Desktop for a distributed workforce

Built an Azure Virtual Desktop environment end to end: host pools, golden images, FSLogix profile containers, and Entra ID sign-in with MFA. Replaced legacy VPN-and-RDP access with managed desktops that autoscale, so idle hosts stop billing.

Engagement

Three ways to work together.

01 · Assessment

Fixed-fee review

One to two weeks. I dig into your environment and deliver written findings, a risk ranking, and a plan you can execute with or without me.

02 · Project

Defined scope, defined outcome

A migration, an SSO rollout, an AI integration. Scoped up front, priced for the outcome, done when it runs in production.

03 · Retainer

Senior capacity, monthly

A standing block of senior engineering time for teams that need depth on tap without a full-time hire.

Contact

Request a call.

Tell me what you're dealing with and propose three times that work for you. I'll confirm one by email within one business day.

Prefer email? [email protected]
Building in public at @garrettships.