A structured path from platform evidence to implementation

The methodology is designed to produce decisions that engineering, finance and leadership teams can defend and execute.

Phase 1: Define the decision

Clarify the business question, technical scope, stakeholders, constraints and required outcome. The engagement must begin with a decision to support, not a generic request to review the platform.

Typical questions include: Why is observability spend increasing? What can be optimized before renewal? Is the platform correctly sized? Why is search latency unstable? Should selected workloads be migrated? Is the RAG system ready for production?

Phase 2: Establish the baseline

Collect the evidence required to understand the current state. Evidence may include:

  • Invoices and contracts
  • Usage exports
  • Telemetry volumes
  • Cluster statistics
  • Architecture diagrams
  • Configuration
  • Incident history
  • Performance data
  • Retention and sampling policies
  • Team ownership
  • Security and compliance constraints

Phase 3: Diagnose the drivers

Separate symptoms from root causes across cost, workload behaviour, configuration, architecture, process and ownership.

Phase 4: Compare realistic scenarios

Evaluate options such as optimizing the current platform, improving governance, changing commitments, introducing a telemetry layer, adopting a hybrid model or preparing a controlled migration.

Compare each option against:

  • Financial impact
  • Production risk
  • Implementation effort
  • Time to value
  • Team capacity
  • Operational ownership
  • Vendor dependency
  • Reversibility

Phase 5: Prioritize the roadmap

Translate findings into actions ordered by impact, effort, risk and dependency.

Deliverables may include:

  • Immediate stabilization actions
  • 30/60/90-day roadmap
  • Technical backlog
  • Architecture diagrams
  • Validation criteria
  • Rollback requirements
  • Governance model
  • Executive decision memo

Phase 6: Implement and measure

Where required, SAB Consulting works with client teams to implement the selected changes, measure the result and transfer the operating model.

Access and confidentiality

The access model is agreed with the client. Read-only access, controlled exports and architecture documentation are used wherever possible. Sensitive production data should not be copied unless it is necessary, approved and protected by the project's security requirements.

Start with a focused assessment

Share the platform, cost or reliability problem you are trying to solve. SAB Consulting will help define the right assessment, the evidence required and the practical next step.