CI/CD pipelines
Build, test, and deploy your code with a rollback path, on GitLab CI or GitHub Actions. Nobody has to remember the deploy steps.
Senior DevOps for the days you need it.Not a salary for the days you don't.
AtherOps is a boutique DevOps and SRE firm. We run your infrastructure, pipelines, monitoring, and backups on a flat monthly retainer: senior capacity in week one, cancel any month, backed by a 90-day guarantee.
How we help
Speed: we start in week one
Right-sizing: pay for the days you use
Risk removal: cancel any month
Nobody owns your infrastructure
Your production environment is run by whoever has time. Deploys are manual. Backups are untested. Nobody knows what the cloud bill should be, or what it would cost you to find out the hard way.
A full-time senior DevOps hire takes two to four months to find, if the person you want is available at all. In a lot of markets they have already been hired, or they have left for somewhere that pays more.
What you get
Every retainer, every month
We run the parts of your stack that nobody currently owns: the pipeline, the infrastructure definitions, the alerts, the restores, the access model, and the bill.
Infrastructure as Code
Terraform for everything new, and your existing infrastructure codified within 90 days, so environments are repeatable and reviewable.
Monitoring and alerting
Prometheus and Grafana or cloud-native, routed to Slack or email, so you hear about a problem before your customers do.
Backups and disaster recovery
Backups restored on a schedule, with a monthly test that proves the restore works. If your backups have never been restored, your DR plan is a wish.
Security baseline
Least-privilege access, a patching cadence, secrets out of code, container and registry scanning, network segmentation.
Cost optimization
Monthly savings review, instance right-sizing, reserved instances and savings plans, so the bill tracks what you actually run.
Pick the coverage you need
Three tiers, flat monthly pricing, 30 days' notice to change or cancel.
Plans
Three levels of coverage on a flat monthly retainer. No setup fee, no lock-in, and 30 days' notice to switch tiers or cancel.
We quote in USD or AUD per engagement rather than from a rate card, because the number depends on the size and state of your stack. The audit below is fixed price, and the quote follows from what it finds.
Foundation
Safety net
Business hours
incident response target
Weekly review, monthly written report
Early teams putting something real into production
- Monitoring and alerting set up, alerts routed to Slack or email
- Weekly system health review plus one written monthly report
- Backups configured and verified with a monthly restore test
- Security baseline: patching cadence, least-privilege IAM, secrets out of code
Plus 2 more, compared in full below
First 90 days guaranteed, or your last month back
Operate
Delivery engine
4 hours
incident response target
Weekly releases
Funded startups and SMBs shipping every week
- Everything in Foundation
- CI/CD pipeline built and maintained: build, test, deploy, rollback
- Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, existing infra codified within 90 days
- Cost optimization: monthly savings review, right-sizing, reserved instances
Plus 3 more, compared in full below
First 90 days guaranteed, or your last month back
Embedded
Standing SRE
1 hour, P1
incident response target
Weekly planning call
Scaling teams that need standing SRE capacity
- Everything in Operate
- Kubernetes design and management, autoscaling, rolling updates
- SLOs and SLIs per service, with error budgets
- On-call coverage, P1 under 1 hour, including after-hours windows you choose
Plus 3 more, compared in full below
First 90 days guaranteed, or your last month back
- Coverage
- FoundationSafety netOperateDelivery engineEmbeddedStanding SRE
- Incident response target
- FoundationBusiness hours, best effortOperate4 hours, business hoursEmbedded1 hour for P1, after-hours windows
- Cadence
- FoundationWeekly reviewOperateWeekly releasesEmbeddedWeekly planning call
Not ready for a retainer? Start with the audit.
Infrastructure Risk Audit · $1,900 AUD flat, two weeks
- Two-week turnaround, fixed price, no scope creep, no obligation
- We read your CI/CD, infrastructure, monitoring, backups, security, and cloud spend directly, working from your systems rather than a questionnaire
- You get a written risk scorecard across eight domains, the three highest-impact fixes, and a prioritized 90-day roadmap
- The fee is credited in full against your first retainer month if you sign within 30 days
Free DevOps Risk Scorecard
A ten-minute self-assessment across the same eight domains the paid audit covers. You get a red, amber, or green score per domain and an overall risk band.
- Deploy pipeline
- Infrastructure as Code
- Monitoring and alerting
- Backups and disaster recovery
- Security and access control
- Cloud cost efficiency
- Reliability and incident response
- Observability and documentation
The 90-day guarantee
Work with us for your first 90 days. If by the end you cannot point to at least three concrete improvements in reliability, deploy speed, security posture, or cloud cost, we refund your most recent month's retainer in full.
You keep every line of code, config, and documentation we produced, with nothing clawed back.
How the trade compares
We charge market rate for senior engineering. What changes is what that buys you: capability in week one, scoped to the coverage you need, with the downside on us.
AtherOps vs a full-time hire
| Comparison | Full-time senior DevOps | AtherOps retainer |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | ~$16,000 to $19,000 a month all-in | Market rate, scoped to the coverage you need |
| Time to first deliverable | 2 to 4 months of hiring | Week one |
| Utilisation | Often 40% or less | You pay for the days you use |
| Who you get | One hire, mid-to-senior | A senior principal every time |
| Commitment | Notice periods, redundancy | Monthly, cancel any time |
| Downside risk | Yours | Ours, via the 90-day guarantee |
- Cost
- Full-time senior DevOps~$16,000 to $19,000 a month all-inAtherOps retainerMarket rate, scoped to the coverage you need
- Time to first deliverable
- Full-time senior DevOps2 to 4 months of hiringAtherOps retainerWeek one
- Utilisation
- Full-time senior DevOpsOften 40% or lessAtherOps retainerYou pay for the days you use
- Who you get
- Full-time senior DevOpsOne hire, mid-to-seniorAtherOps retainerA senior principal every time
- Commitment
- Full-time senior DevOpsNotice periods, redundancyAtherOps retainerMonthly, cancel any time
- Downside risk
- Full-time senior DevOpsYoursAtherOps retainerOurs, via the 90-day guarantee
AtherOps vs a DevOps agency
| Comparison | Agency | AtherOps |
|---|---|---|
| Rate | $250 to $400/hr, metered | Market rate, on a flat retainer |
| Access | An account manager relays to the team | A direct line to the engineer running your stack |
| Who does the work | Juniors under a senior lead | Principal-led, senior engineers |
| Contract | 3 to 6 month engagement | Monthly retainer |
- Rate
- Agency$250 to $400/hr, meteredAtherOpsMarket rate, on a flat retainer
- Access
- AgencyAn account manager relays to the teamAtherOpsA direct line to the engineer running your stack
- Who does the work
- AgencyJuniors under a senior leadAtherOpsPrincipal-led, senior engineers
- Contract
- Agency3 to 6 month engagementAtherOpsMonthly retainer
We run this stack ourselves, every day
The same stack we deploy for clients runs here around the clock, on our own hardware. New tooling is proven there before it touches a client environment.
- 01Proxmox virtualisation
- 02Kubernetes
- 03Terraform-managed infrastructure
- 04GitLab CI
- 05Self-hosted application stack
Tools we work in
AWS · Google Cloud · Azure · Kubernetes · Docker · Terraform · Ansible · GitHub Actions · GitLab CI · Prometheus · Grafana · Helm
About AtherOps
AtherOps is a boutique DevOps and SRE firm. We provide fractional senior DevOps and SRE capacity on a monthly retainer, to a capped client book.
How we help
01
Speed
A senior DevOps hire takes months to find, and in many markets the person you want has already been hired or has moved on. We start delivering in the first week.
02
Right-sizing
Most teams do not need a senior SRE for 21 days a month. You buy the senior capacity you use, not a full salary for someone at 40% utilisation.
03
Risk removal
No recruiting cost, no onboarding ramp, no notice period, no redundancy. A monthly contract, and a 90-day guarantee that puts the downside on us.
Principal-led, deliberately small
The firm keeps a capped client book so every engagement gets principal-level attention. That cap is how a boutique firm keeps senior engineers on the tools instead of in account-management meetings.
As the book grows, AtherOps hires senior engineers into the firm rather than loading more clients onto the same people, so capacity scales without the quality of attention dropping. You work with a principal who scopes, builds, and owns your infrastructure, and who stays on the account.
Questions
- What does a retainer cost?
- We charge market rate for senior DevOps and SRE work. There is no published rate card: we quote in USD or AUD per engagement, because the number depends on the size and state of your stack. The audit is fixed price, and the quote follows from what it finds.
- How many clients does the firm take?
- A small, capped book, so response times stay fast and no client gets part-timer attention.
- What happens in an incident?
- You page us on a dedicated channel. Operate and Embedded carry response-time targets, and every tier gets a post-incident write-up.
- Do you work with our existing team and tools?
- Yes. We adopt your stack and your conventions, and we document everything so your team can take over any part at any time.
- Can we pause or cancel?
- Yes. Thirty days' notice, no exit fee. You keep all the code, config, and documentation.
- What does the 90-day guarantee cover?
- Your first 90 days. If you cannot point to at least three concrete improvements in reliability, deploy speed, security, or cost, we refund your last month's retainer and you keep everything we built.
Contact
Your infrastructure deserves better than whoever has time.
Get your free DevOps risk scorecard, or book a free 30-minute review and we'll tell you the three highest-impact fixes.
Send us a message
Tell us what you are running and where it hurts.
Address
Sydney NSW 2000 Australia