Solfreaks ShipFast DevOps gets your code from a developer's laptop to your users without anyone copying files onto a server by hand. We set up automated builds and tests, separate staging and production environments, release automation for web and mobile, monitoring, and backups that have been restored at least once.
Plenty of small teams still deploy over FTP, or log into a server and pull the latest code. That works until the one person who knows how is on leave, or a late-Friday change takes the site down and nobody can say exactly what changed. The fix is rarely dramatic. It's mostly pipeline configuration, a few ground rules and some patience.
What we set up in your cloud
- A CI pipeline in GitHub Actions or GitLab CI that builds and tests every pull request, so broken code is caught before it merges.
- Docker images that make the app run the same way on a laptop, on staging and in production.
- Separate environments for development, staging and production, each with its own database and its own secrets.
- Infrastructure as code in Terraform, so servers, networks and databases are described in files that can be reviewed and rebuilt.
- Mobile release lanes using fastlane, which build signed Android and iOS apps and upload them to Google Play's internal track and TestFlight.
- Monitoring and alerts with Sentry for errors and Grafana for server and app metrics, sent to a channel your team actually reads.
- Backups with a restore drill: automated copies plus a written procedure we have tested by bringing a backup back to life.
Keeping the cloud bill honest
We work with AWS, Google Cloud and DigitalOcean, and the accounts are opened in your name so the bills come straight to you. Early on we set budget alerts, switch off forgotten test servers and right-size what's running. For a small product we'll often recommend a couple of plain virtual servers over a managed Kubernetes cluster, which costs more and takes longer to understand. If the server code itself needs work, that's our backend and API development.
How a DevOps engagement goes
- Look at how things ship today. Two or three days to find out how code reaches the server, who holds the keys and what breaks most often.
- First pipeline. Usually about a week to a build-and-test run on every push. If your tests are thin, that's the next thing to fix, and app QA and testing is where it pays off.
- Environments and infrastructure code. One to two weeks to create staging and production from files instead of clicks, with secrets stored properly.
- Deployments and rollback. Zero-downtime deploys where the app allows it, a one-step rollback, and a rehearsal on staging before anything touches production.
- Monitoring, backups and the restore drill. We set the alerts, then restore a backup into a spare environment and time how long it takes.
- Walkthrough and runbook. A session with your team and written instructions for common tasks and for what to do when an alert fires.
Who needs this and who can skip it
It fits teams that deploy by hand, products that just gained paying customers and can't afford an outage, agencies juggling several client apps, and mobile teams whose release depends on one person's laptop. Our app publishing service pairs well with the mobile lanes.
Don't bother if you run a brochure site that changes twice a year, because a pipeline would be more machinery than the site deserves. It isn't for you either if you want Kubernetes for an app with a few hundred users, and we'll try to talk you out of it. A 24/7 operations team watching your systems is a bigger commitment than this, and we'll tell you honestly what cover we can and can't offer.
What moves the DevOps price
Cost depends on the number of services and environments, the cloud provider, how tangled the current setup is, how many mobile apps need release lanes, whether automated tests exist, and any compliance requirements. We quote the initial setup as fixed scope and offer a monthly arrangement for continued care such as upgrades, cost reviews and fixes on request.
A basic pipeline with a staging environment usually takes one to two weeks. A full setup with infrastructure code, monitoring, mobile lanes and a restore drill more typically takes three to six weeks. The quote follows a short discovery call.
Why have us do this
Our base is Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad, which puts us on Pakistan hours that overlap with the Gulf and the UK. We've shipped our own apps to Google Play, so release signing and store uploads are familiar territory. You talk to the engineer doing the work, and the repositories, cloud accounts and Terraform code are all yours. If your releases make people nervous, tell us what you need.
Open-source tools and references
A few public projects that come up a lot in this kind of work. They belong to other people and teams. We link to them because they are worth a look, not because anyone pays us to.
- docker/composeDefine and run multi-container applications.
- hashicorp/terraformInfrastructure as code.
- fastlane/fastlaneAutomates building and releasing mobile apps.
- getsentry/sentryError and performance monitoring.
Frequently asked questions
GitHub Actions or GitLab CI: does the choice matter?
Not much. Use the one where your code already lives, because moving repositories costs more than any difference between the tools. GitHub Actions has a large library of ready-made steps, while GitLab CI is tightly integrated if you self-host GitLab. We write pipelines so the real work sits in scripts, which keeps switching later from being painful.
Do we really need Kubernetes?
Probably not. Kubernetes helps when you run many services that must scale independently and you have people to operate it. For most small and mid-sized products, a few containers on a plain server or a managed container service is cheaper, easier to debug and enough. We'd start there and move up only when measured load says so.
Will our site go down while you set this up?
Not if we do it properly. We build the new pipeline and environments beside the existing setup, test on staging, and switch production over only after a rehearsal has worked. A few steps, such as moving a database, need a short maintenance window. We agree its timing with you in advance instead of doing it at midnight and apologising later.
How do you handle passwords, keys and access?
Secrets live in the CI system's or cloud provider's secret store, never in the repository. Each person and each service gets its own account with only the access it needs, and our access ends when the engagement does, if you wish. We also hand over a short document listing where every credential lives and who can rotate it.
Can you lower our cloud bill?
Often a little, sometimes a lot, but we won't promise a percentage. The usual savings come from forgotten servers, oversized instances, unattached storage and data left in expensive tiers. We review the bill with you, point at the specific items and fix the ones you approve. Larger savings might need architecture changes, which we'd price separately.
Talk it through with us
Tell us what you are building and where it hurts. You get a straight answer, a plan and a price, and if we are not the right people we will say so.
