Migrations & Upgrades
Platform migrations, cloud migrations, and version upgrades engineered for data integrity, minimal downtime, and a rollback path at every stage.
Project-Based Database Expertise
Database consulting services
Some database work is not an ongoing responsibility. It is a migration with a deadline, a platform that has outgrown its design, or a system that was fast three years ago and is not now. Fortified Data's Professional Services team delivers that work as a scoped project with a fixed outcome, a named team, and a documented handoff at the end.
Senior US-based consultants. Project management on every engagement, scaled to its size and complexity.
What every consulting engagement includes
The service line changes. These do not.
- An agreed scope and estimate before work startsObjectives, success criteria, and methodology are defined and signed off in discovery. Work that grows beyond that scope is raised as a change, not absorbed quietly and billed later.
- Project management on every engagement, scaled to its size and complexityTimeline, scope, risk, and communication have a single owner. Weekly status and milestone reporting is standard.
- A senior lead consultantOne senior expert owns the solution design and the technical decisions from kickoff to handoff, so the architecture does not change because a resource did.
- A rollback and validation strategyDesigned before the change is made, not improvised during it. Every engagement that changes a production environment knows in advance what it will do if the result is wrong.
- Testing and integrity verificationQuality assurance before go-live, with data integrity verified against the baseline rather than assumed from a successful job status.
- Documentation and knowledge transferA clean handoff to your team, or to ours if the work transitions into managed services. The deliverable includes the knowledge, not only the change.
When a consulting engagement is the right call
Consulting work has an end date. If what you need instead is someone holding the environment every day, that is a different engagement.
- A platform or version change is comingA migration, consolidation, or upgrade has been approved, and the risk sits in the details rather than in the decision.
- Performance has a deadline attachedA specific system has to be faster by a specific date, and the work needs a measured baseline and a provable result.
- The architecture has outgrown its designThe environment was built for a smaller company and is now the constraint on what the business wants to do next.
- Reporting cannot answer the questionThe data exists, the reporting layer does not surface it, and decisions are being made on exports and spreadsheets.
- An AI or analytics initiative is being scopedThe model is not the problem. Data quality, governance, lineage, and access are, and they need fixing before the investment.
- Internal capacity exists but not the experienceYour team could run the change, but nobody has run this change before, and the first attempt is in production.
Consulting and project services
Five service lines, delivered under the same engagement process and the same team structure.
Performance Tuning
Query and workload optimization measured against a baseline, so the improvement is a number rather than an impression.
Data Modernization
Legacy systems and aging architecture rebuilt into a platform that can carry growth, analytics, and the next initiative.
BI & Analytics
The warehouse, pipelines, and reporting layer that turn collected data into decisions your leadership trusts.
High Availability & Disaster Recovery
Always On availability groups, failover clustering, and cloud failover groups, designed against your recovery objectives and failover-tested before go-live.
Why Fortified Data runs the project
Databases are the whole practice
SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL are what this firm does, not one capability inside a broader IT stack. A mixed estate gets one opinion rather than four vendors disagreeing.
Scoped by the people who deliver it
Senior consultants are involved in scoping, and continuity of the lead consultant is a priority from kickoff to handoff.
Operational experience behind the design
The same firm runs environments like yours every day under managed services. Designs are tested against what is actually maintainable at two in the morning, not only against what is elegant in a diagram.
How we engage
The project engagement process
Four phases from scope to handoff, run by your dedicated project manager. Every phase has an exit condition, so nothing moves forward on optimism.
- 1. Scope and discoveryObjectives and success criteria defined, environment and constraints reviewed, and the methodology and estimate agreed before any change is planned.
- 2. Plan and designSolution architecture documented, timeline, milestones, and risks set, and the rollback and validation strategy written while there is still time to change it.
- 3. Execute and validateIterative delivery against checkpoints, with testing and data integrity verification at each one and status reported throughout rather than at the end.
- 4. Handoff and supportDocumentation and knowledge transfer, a clean handoff to your team or ours, and an optional transition into managed services if you want the result held.
Your project team
The team behind every engagement
Accountable from kickoff to handoff, with continuity of the lead consultant throughout. Continuity is the difference between a design that holds and a design that drifts.
- Project managerSingle point of coordination, proactive risk and issue management, and weekly status and milestone reporting. Project management on every engagement, scaled to its size and complexity.
- Lead consultantSenior expert owning the architecture, the methodology, and the technical decisions, with platform-specific depth and continuity across the full engagement.
- Specialist consultantsHands-on delivery across SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake, and Databricks, covering ETL, BI, high availability and disaster recovery, and migrations.
- Validation and handoffQuality assurance before go-live: testing, integrity verification, documentation, and a clean transfer to whoever owns the environment next.
Common questions about database consulting
What is the difference between database consulting and database managed services?
A Fortified Data consulting engagement delivers a defined change with an agreed scope, an end date, and a handoff: a migration, an upgrade, a tuning exercise, a warehouse build. Managed services is an ongoing operational responsibility for the environment, billed as a recurring fee. Organizations frequently use both, and a consulting engagement can transition into managed services at handoff if the client wants the result held rather than handed back.
Which database platforms does Fortified Data consult on?
Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL, on premises and in AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Analytics and modernization work extends to Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, and Snowflake. Fortified Data staffs mixed-platform projects with senior US-based consultants under one engagement and one point of accountability, adding US-based specialist partners only when a project calls for them.
How does Fortified Data scope and price a consulting engagement?
Scope, objectives, success criteria, and constraints are established in a discovery phase, and the methodology and estimate are agreed before delivery begins. Engagements are priced as a fixed fee or as time and materials against an approved estimate, agreed in discovery before work begins. Work beyond the agreed scope is raised as a change with its own estimate.
Who is on a Fortified Data project team?
Every engagement has a project manager who owns timeline, scope, risk, and communication; a lead consultant who owns the solution design and the technical decisions; specialist consultants delivering hands-on across the platforms in scope; and a validation and handoff stage covering testing, integrity verification, documentation, and knowledge transfer. Project management is on every engagement, scaled to its size and complexity.
Do we need an assessment before a consulting project?
Not always, but a project scoped without a measured baseline carries existing problems into the new environment and has no evidence to prove the improvement afterwards. Where the environment is not well documented or the outcome needs to be provable, Fortified Data recommends a database assessment first, and the findings feed directly into the project scope.
What happens at the end of a Fortified Data engagement?
The change is tested and verified against the success criteria agreed at kickoff, the environment and the decisions behind it are documented, and knowledge is transferred to the team that will own it. That handoff can be back to your own staff or into Fortified Data's managed services, and the choice is made at the end of the project rather than assumed at the start of it.
Scope the project before you commit to it
The first conversation is about the environment you have, the change you need, and whether a project is the right shape for it. The estimate follows the scope, not the other way round.
Let us show you what's possible.
Two ways to start
Dedicated project management on every engagement.