PDS Consulting / IT Governance & Cloud Strategy
IT Governance & Cloud Strategy
Most IT governance consulting produces binders nobody reads. PDS designs governance that fits the team you actually have — operating model, policies, cloud strategy, vendor architecture — sized to your capacity, not to a textbook diagram. Light where it can be, rigorous where it has to be.
At a glance
- Two tracks
- By company revenue — Foundations (~$10–100M) · Maturity Program (~$100–200M)
- Engage
- 5 ways — from a 3-week Assessment Sprint to an ongoing advisory retainer
- Cloud
- Vendor-neutral (AWS, Azure, GCP, hybrid); deepest in Azure & Microsoft 365
- Scope
- Governance & strategy — tooling built via DevOps & ITSM
- Pricing
- Quote, on scope — not on firm size
When this is the right call.
Usually something has forced the question. Does any of this sound familiar?
- IT runs on tribal knowledge — when one person is away, things break.
- There's no cloud strategy, just whatever each team bought when they needed something.
- A compliance audit didn't go well, and it's unclear where to start fixing it.
- There are dozens of SaaS subscriptions and no inventory or renewal calendar.
- Cloud spend keeps climbing, and no one can say how much is growth versus waste.
Two tracks. Same capability, right-sized.
A 75-person company with no IT director needs governance that's lightweight and pragmatic. A 500-person company with a 20-person IT team needs governance that scales and gets enforced.
Track A · Foundations
~$10–100M revenue · no internal CIO
For organizations without formal IT leadership. A working governance framework, baseline policies, a vendor inventory, and a pragmatic cloud strategy — enough to run cleanly without overbuilding.
Track B · Maturity Program
~$100–200M revenue · existing IT team & governance debt
For teams carrying years of policy and cloud debt: target operating model, full policy redesign, multi-cloud strategy and cost optimization, vendor consolidation, and compliance posture that runs as a process.
How we run it — five phases.
01 · Assessment & baseline
Interviews, an IT and vendor inventory, a cloud-bill review, and a policy gap scan — what exists vs. what's needed.
02 · Operating model & policy
Operating norms, a baseline policy library, and a decision-rights matrix — short enough to read, matched to how decisions actually get made.
03 · Cloud & vendor architecture
A pragmatic cloud strategy (which workloads where, cost ownership) plus a vendor inventory and consolidation roadmap.
04 · Implementation enablement
Tooling requirements documented for the downstream build — handed to your team or to a DevOps & ITSM engagement.
05 · Review & optimize
Check-ins and a quarterly governance cadence so the framework gets used and improved — not filed and forgotten.
Security governance is in scope; dedicated cybersecurity work (pen testing, SOC, security tooling) is partnered out — your firm or one we recommend.
What you're aiming at.
- A working governance framework sized to the team that exists — policies short enough to actually read.
- A cloud strategy tied to business goals — which workloads where, and what they should cost.
- A vendor inventory with a renewal calendar and consolidation plan.
- An audit-ready posture for the compliance scopes you care about.
- For programs: optimized cloud spend, a mature operating model, compliance as a process.
What you get.
- Governance assessment & IT/vendor inventory
- Operating norms & decision-rights matrix
- Baseline policy library (security, change, access, incident, vendor…)
- Cloud strategy + vendor consolidation roadmap
- Tooling requirements + a 90-day governance roadmap
Outcomes are what these engagements are built to deliver, grounded in 15+ years of building pragmatic operating models that survive leadership turnover and audit cycles. As PDS engagements close, this section gets measured numbers.
Five ways to engage.
Start with a diagnostic, fix cloud cost on its own, or run the full maturity program — quote-only, scoped to the work.
Governance Assessment Sprint
3 weeks · Maturity baseline, gap analysis, prioritized roadmap. No build, no policy writing.
IT Foundations Build
4–6 weeks · Track A flagship — governance framework, baseline policies, operating norms, cloud strategy lite, vendor inventory.
Cloud Strategy Sprint
4–6 weeks · Cloud-only — workload placement, cost optimization, multi-cloud or migration strategy.
Governance Maturity Program
8–16 weeks · Track B flagship — operating model, policy redesign, multi-cloud strategy, vendor architecture, compliance posture.
IT Advisory Retainer
Ongoing · Quarterly governance reviews, vendor-renewal advisory, cloud-cost reviews, policy updates, audit-prep coordination.
Why bring PDS in for this.
Governance that fits the team you have
Most frameworks are designed for a hypothetical 50-person IT team. Yours has four people. We design policies short enough to read and review cadences the team will actually run.
Embedded, not advising from outside
15+ years as the internal architect on programs where governance was the enabler or the blocker — building operating models that survive turnover, cloud sprawl, and audit cycles.
Vendor-neutral on cloud & tooling
No partner tier with AWS, Azure, or GCP. The recommendation depends on your footprint, team, and TCO — not licensing margins. Azure's often the right answer for M365 shops; not always.
Right-sized between freelancer and Big 4
A freelancer hands you a policy template; a Big-4 practice hands you a 200-page model nobody reads. PDS delivers governance documented well enough to enforce and light enough to use.
Pairs with DevOps & ITSM (the tooling that operationalizes the framework) as the Governance & Operations bundle, and follows Digital Transformation Advisory.
No pitch, no pressure
IT running on tribal knowledge?
A 30-minute call is enough to tell whether you have real governance debt or you're in good shape — and what a pragmatic first step looks like.
Book a call →Or email directly: info@prendergastdigital.com