Azure infrastructure
that stays up.
I am Raphael Southall. I build and secure Azure infrastructure, AKS clusters and the AI agents that operate on them, for companies running production on Azure.
Free 30-minute call.
- StackAzure, AKS, AI Foundry, Terraform
- EngagementsFixed price or day rate
- Availability1 to 2 clients at a time
- Reply time2 working days
What I Do
Six things I get hired for.
Azure Foundations
Subscriptions, networking, identity and policy built in Terraform and deployed through a pipeline you can audit.
AKS Operations
Private clusters kept in support, deployed with Helm, and monitored so you know when a rollout has finished.
Azure Security
Defender findings triaged and closed, secrets moved into Key Vault, managed identities in place of keys, private endpoints where public access is not needed.
Cost Control
A monthly review of where the Azure bill goes, with right-sizing and reservations applied where they pay back.
Pipelines and Automation
Manual runbooks replaced by Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions pipelines that alert a person when a run fails.
AI Agents on Azure
Azure AI Foundry agents that read live infrastructure through tools you control, with least-privilege identities, read-only guarantees enforced server-side and a budget cap from day one.
How I Work
Four steps. A written scope before any work starts.
One or two clients at a time, evenings and weekends, reply within two working days.
Discovery call
A free 30-minute call. You describe the problem and I say whether I can help.
Written scope
Within 3 working days you get a one-page scope with deliverables, price and start date.
Build in the open
I work in your tenant and your repos, with a short written update each week.
Handover
You get a runbook, a recorded walkthrough and a list of what I would do next.
Why Hire Me
What a single engineer gives you.
One engineer, start to finish
I scope the work and I do the work. Nobody else is involved.
Production experience
I run Azure and AKS for a European logistics company by day. Freelance work happens evenings and weekends.
Your repos, your accounts
All code lands in your source control under your identities, so you keep it after I leave.
A runbook at the end
Each engagement closes with a written runbook and a recorded walkthrough for your team.
Results
Three recent pieces of work.
The situation
Two production clusters were about to leave vendor support.
What I did
I upgraded non-production first, then production in an agreed window, with snapshots taken before each step.
The result
Both clusters upgraded with no rollback. The team kept the runbook.
The situation
Public TLS certificates were renewed and installed by hand.
What I did
I built a daily pipeline that pulls renewed certificates into Key Vault and pushes them to each consumer only when they change.
The result
Renewal needs no manual steps. The first production swap caused no interruption.
The situation
The infrastructure team wanted AI agents that could answer questions from live Azure state without handing a language model root access.
What I did
I built a pilot on Azure AI Foundry where each agent calls a small API I control, runs as its own managed identity with a custom read-only role, and picks probes from a fixed list rather than writing commands.
The result
Three agents answer firewall, server and documentation questions and one opens draft pull requests for a human to review. API keys are disabled on the whole resource.
About Me
I run production Azure for a living.
I am Raphael Southall, an Azure infrastructure engineer. By day I run the Azure estate for a European logistics company, where my recent work covers Defender remediation, identity clean-up and a pilot of AI agents on Azure AI Foundry. SolidPlus Ltd is the company I invoice freelance work through.
I also build NeuroStack , an open-source memory server for AI coding agents.
Brazilian-British, based in the UK, working remotely with teams across Europe.
Common Questions
What kind of work do you take on?
Azure platform work, which covers foundations, networking, AKS, Terraform, pipelines, certificates, cost and security. Application development is out of scope.
How long does an engagement take?
A review takes 1 to 2 weeks. A build takes 4 to 8 weeks. Ongoing operations run on a monthly retainer.
How do you charge?
Fixed price for defined deliverables, day rate for operations. Both are agreed in the scope. Invoices come from SolidPlus Ltd, a UK company.
Can you work inside our tenant and our tooling?
Yes. I use a guest account in your tenant and your repositories, so nothing lives in my environment.
What happens when you leave?
You keep the code, pipelines, runbook and recorded walkthrough. A retainer is available if you want me on call.
Get in Touch
Tell me what is broken or what you need built.
The first call is free and lasts 30 minutes. By the end you will know whether I am the right person and what it would cost.
I reply within two working days.
Prefer email? admin@solidplus.tech