Teams making high-impact architecture decisions
Evaluate platform, service, data, cloud, integration, build-versus-buy, and technology choices before commitment.
Independent architecture assessment, target design, trade-offs, migration boundaries, and decision records
Software architecture consulting
Rokad provides independent software architecture consulting across applications, platforms, cloud, data, integrations, security, reliability, and modernisation.
Designed for / 01
A focused delivery model for the organisations that need it.
Architecture consulting connects business requirements, quality attributes, system boundaries, data, teams, operations, and change. Rokad assesses current systems, identifies material risks, compares options, defines target architecture, and translates decisions into an executable migration or delivery plan.
Organisations modernising complex systems
Define safe boundaries, coexistence, data ownership, interfaces, sequencing, and operational transition.
Leaders requiring independent technical review
Assess whether a proposal or current architecture can meet security, reliability, scale, delivery, and ownership requirements.
Challenges / 02
The problems this service is built to solve.
Architecture debates are framed as technology preferences
Options are not compared against quality attributes, team capability, change, risk, economics, and operations.
The target state ignores migration reality
New diagrams omit existing data, users, integrations, releases, contracts, dependencies, and transitional ownership.
Architecture is undocumented or no longer accurate
Teams rely on tribal knowledge and cannot assess impact, ownership, failure, security, or change confidently.
Capabilities / 03
What Rokad can deliver.
01
Current-state application, data, cloud, integration, security, and operational assessment
02
Business drivers, quality attributes, constraints, scenarios, and architecture principles
03
Domain, service, module, data, API, event, workflow, and system boundary design
04
Cloud, platform, deployment, environment, observability, reliability, and recovery architecture
05
Identity, permissions, secrets, trust boundaries, threat, and security architecture
06
Build-versus-buy, technology, vendor, pattern, and trade-off evaluation
07
Target architecture, transition states, decision records, roadmap, and governance
Solution components / 04
The system behind the visible product.
Architecture drivers
Outcomes, users, quality attributes, constraints, risks, economics, team structure, and expected change.
System structure
Domains, components, services, data, interfaces, events, dependencies, deployment, and ownership boundaries.
Operational architecture
Security, reliability, observability, capacity, backup, recovery, environments, release, support, and cost.
Decision and transition
Options, trade-offs, records, principles, target state, coexistence, sequence, governance, and validation.
Use cases / 05
Where this capability creates practical leverage.
New platform architecture
Define product, service, data, identity, integration, deployment, reliability, and operating foundations before build.
Legacy modernisation architecture
Identify stable boundaries, migration patterns, coexistence, APIs, data movement, decommissioning, and risk controls.
Architecture health review
Assess maintainability, coupling, security, reliability, performance, data, deployment, ownership, and technical debt.
Vendor or proposal review
Test solution claims, assumptions, integrations, lock-in, scale, security, operations, delivery, and total lifecycle cost.
Architecture and integration / 06
Designed to fit the wider technology environment.
Quality attributes drive structure
Availability, latency, security, changeability, audit, scale, cost, and recovery are expressed as scenarios and trade-offs.
Architecture follows ownership
System boundaries should align with business capability, data authority, team responsibility, and independent change where possible.
Transition architecture is first-class
Document coexistence, adapters, migrations, routing, compatibility, data ownership, rollback, and temporary controls.
Quality and control / 07
Production requirements are part of the build.
Evidence-led
Recommendations distinguish verified facts, assumptions, uncertainty, trade-offs, and evidence gaps.
Decision-oriented
Analysis is structured around choices, consequences, priorities, ownership, timing, and practical next actions.
Independent and executable
Advice is not tied to unnecessary resale and is translated into architecture, workstreams, controls, and delivery plans.
Delivery / 08
A controlled path from requirement to operation.
Discover
Clarify the objective, users, systems, constraints, dependencies, risks, and measurable acceptance criteria.
Architect
Define the target design, interfaces, controls, migration or delivery sequence, and operating model.
Deliver and validate
Implement in controlled increments with testing, review, documentation, observability, and stakeholder validation.
Operate and improve
Establish ownership, service controls, measurement, support, and a prioritised improvement backlog.
Typical deliverables
Architecture scope, drivers, stakeholders, evidence, and quality-attribute scenarios
Current-state system, data, integration, deployment, and risk views
Options, trade-offs, build-versus-buy, and technology assessment
Target application, data, cloud, security, and operating architecture
Architecture decision records, principles, standards, and governance
Transition states, migration roadmap, validation, and implementation plan
Engagement models / 09
Use the delivery structure that matches the work.
Assessment and roadmap
A bounded evidence review, target direction, prioritised risks, and executable next-stage plan.
Fixed-scope delivery
A defined implementation, migration, prototype, procurement, or transformation outcome with acceptance criteria.
Embedded specialists
Specialists working alongside internal product, engineering, data, operations, security, or procurement teams.
Managed lifecycle
Ongoing ownership, maintenance, monitoring, supplier coordination, reliability, security, and improvement.
Related capabilities / 10
Continue through the wider product and technology system.
01
Technology roadmap
Sequence architecture, platform, data, security, and delivery change.
02
Technical due diligence
Assess architecture and technical risk in an investment or transaction context.
03
Fractional CTO
Provide ongoing architecture governance and senior technical leadership.
01
Software development
Custom applications, platforms, integrations, APIs, and software modernisation.
02
Cloud and DevOps
Cloud architecture, platforms, CI/CD, Kubernetes, security, reliability, and migration.
03
Data engineering
Data pipelines, platforms, warehouses, analytics engineering, BI, and governance.
FAQ
Software architecture consulting
Scope, ownership, assumptions, delivery, security, and long-term operation are clarified before work begins.
01Can Rokad review architecture without rewriting the system?
Can Rokad review architecture without rewriting the system?
Yes. The result may recommend stabilisation, modular improvements, selective replacement, operational controls, or no major restructuring where evidence supports it.
02Will the engagement recommend specific technologies?
Will the engagement recommend specific technologies?
Where needed, yes. Recommendations are tied to requirements, constraints, team capability, ecosystem, risk, cost, support, and migration rather than preference alone.
03Can you review a vendor's architecture proposal?
Can you review a vendor's architecture proposal?
Yes. We can evaluate assumptions, requirements coverage, boundaries, integrations, security, scale, reliability, lock-in, operations, delivery, and commercial dependencies.
04Can Rokad help implement the target architecture?
Can Rokad help implement the target architecture?
Yes. We can lead the programme, deliver selected workstreams, provide embedded architects, or build and operate the complete system.
Technology consulting and research
Make architecture decisions explicit before they become expensive constraints.
Rokad can assess the current system, compare options, define the target architecture, and create the transition plan.
Contact / 05
Bring us the difficult technology problem.
Tell us what you need to build, improve, procure, deploy, or operate. We will respond with a practical next step.