Orion Digital Platforms

Cloud and AI engineering
for teams that can't
afford to get it wrong.

We build three production platforms — Sprintsail, Drydock, Shortlist — and run them ourselves. When you hire us for cloud architecture or vertical AI, you work with the same engineers who ship and operate that stack every day.

Operated on, integrated with, partnered through
AWS
Bedrock
Anthropic Claude
Kubernetes
CNCF Korifi
CloudNativePG
Sanity
Plausible
AWS
Bedrock
Anthropic Claude
Kubernetes
CNCF Korifi
CloudNativePG
Sanity
Plausible
Three platforms. One team.

The platforms we sell
are the ones we run.

Sprintsail is our opinionated TypeScript IaC SDK. Nine application primitives, two runtime targets — AWS and the Sprintsail Runtime — and one workflow: sail migrate moves a stack between them without rewriting handler code. Apache 2.0. It runs the infrastructure behind everything else on this page.

Drydock is managed Cloud Foundry on Kubernetes — the full cf push developer experience, backed by Korifi (CNCF) and our own operators. We run the Kubernetes workloads we won't trust to a third party. Free lightweight tier for POCs; production tier when you're ready.

Shortlist is the verified hiring platform we built for ourselves and opened up. Candidates earn a Verified credential through a graded assessment, a hands-on lab, and a 45-minute session with a senior engineer in their field. The talent layer behind every Orion engagement.

We don't recommend what we don't run.

Quantum Leap Initiative

Production AI is a stack, not a single model.

Orion builds across the nine layers — infrastructure to governance — with the evaluation discipline that keeps the system honest after the launch demo is over.

Read the playbook
How we engage

Three ways to get cloud and AI work done. Pick one on purpose.

CapabilityOrion engagementTypical consultancySaaS vendor
Operates a production platform Yes, but rents the IP to you
Same engineers from scoping to operations Handoffs to junior team
Source-available IaC SDK (Apache 2.0)
Verified senior talent on day one Via Shortlist Bench-staffed
No proprietary lock-in Depends
Cloud and AI under the same engagement Single domain only
Government / WOSB eligible Sometimes
The engagement

From first conversation to running production.

One team, one timeline. We scope, build, operate, and hand off — or stay on as operators if that's the deal. No rotating consultants, no hidden subcontractors.

00/03
Scope

A working session with the engineers who would do the build. We tell you honestly whether we can help, what it would take, and what we would not do.

01/03
Build

CDK-first cloud architecture, Sprintsail primitives where they fit, vertical AI on Bedrock + Claude. Everything is reproducible from source.

02/03
Operate

We run the platform in production with you for as long as it takes for your team to take it over. Observability, on-call, and incident review included.

03/03
Hand off

Documented runbooks, source-available IaC, and a verified engineer through Shortlist if you want one on staff. No vendor lock-in either direction.

Questions worth asking

Honest answers to the questions we get most.

Is there vendor lock-in? +
No. Sprintsail SDK + CLI are Apache 2.0. Stacks you ship with us can be moved between AWS and the Sprintsail Runtime with sail migrate. Drydock runs Korifi (CNCF) — you can self-host if you want. Anything we operate, you can take over.
Will we own the IP? +
Yes. You own everything we build for you, including the IaC, the code, and the runbooks. The only thing we keep is the source-available SDK and operator code (Apache 2.0) that you also get to use.
How is this different from a regular cloud consultancy? +
We do the same architecture work. The difference is that we run production platforms ourselves — Sprintsail, Drydock, Shortlist — so the architecture we recommend has been operated through real outages, real cost reviews, and real audits before it ever lands in your stack.
Who actually does the work? +
Same engineers from first conversation to last. No partner-led pitch and junior-staffed delivery. If we cannot staff it with our own team, we say so up front.
Do you take fixed-price work? +
Sometimes. Time-and-materials for open-ended platform work; fixed-price for well-defined builds with clear acceptance criteria. We will tell you which one fits your situation.
Government contracts? +
Yes. We are WOSB-certified and AWS Select Partner, eligible for federal set-aside contracts and government procurement programs.
What Orion holds constant

We don't recommend what we don't run.

Every platform on this site was built because we needed it ourselves. We do not market what we have not operated through a real outage.

How we engage

Tell us what you're shipping.

And what's in the way. We will tell you honestly whether we can help, what it would take, and which of our engineers would run the work.