Nelson Ford - Fractional CTO & AWS Cloud Architect

AI Production Readiness Specialist

Transform AI prototypes into production systems with secure architecture, HA/DR, monitoring, and compliance. For AI-native products and apps adding Claude/ChatGPT-powered features.

CISSP
CISSP
AWS SA Pro AWS Pro
100+ Engagements

Free 30-minute strategy call. Assessments are paid, starting at $5K fixed price.

I Work Best With

Series A-C Startups Technical Founders VPs of Engineering Defence Contractors Healthcare Tech FinTech

What Technical Challenges Are Keeping You Up at Night?

Common problems technical leaders face - and how I solve them

AI Production Readiness

"How do I get my AI prototype production-ready fast?"

Fixed-price assessment and deployment sprints to ship HA/DR, monitoring, cost controls, and compliance for AI-native and AI-enhanced products.

View AI production packages

AI Code Security & Compliance

"Is my Claude/ChatGPT-generated code secure and audit-ready?"

Secret hygiene, dependency/license checks, guardrails, logging, feature flags, and evidence to support SOC 2/ISO reviews without slowing delivery.

See AI Code Security

Cloud & DevSecOps for AI

"Can my cloud and pipelines support production AI safely and affordably?"

Cost-optimized, compliant cloud foundations and hardened CI/CD to support AI workloads with SLOs, guardrails, and rollback paths.

See supporting services

What Clients Say

"Nelson is a real pro who helped us through a difficult time of transition. I have the highest level of trust in him and his capabilities."

— COO, Global Professional Services Firm

"Nelson was awesome to work with. Great communicator and his senior experience helps get things done right the first time."

— Founder, B2B SaaS Startup

"Exceptional knowledge and in-depth understanding of all facets of AWS. His evaluation exposed many areas in need of correction."

— Technical Lead, Managed Services Provider

"Nelson is a rockstar. Always a great communicator and efficient problem solver."

— Founder, B2B SaaS Startup

Recent Work

Real results from recent projects

60%
Cost Reduction

SaaS Company AWS Optimization

Reduced monthly AWS costs from $50K to $20K through rightsizing, reserved instances, and architectural improvements.

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7 Weeks
To Audit-Ready

Healthcare Platform Compliance

Built an audit-ready AWS landing zone with centralized logging, access controls, and compliance guardrails baked in.

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Zero
Security Incidents

FinTech Multi-Account Setup

Designed and implemented secure multi-account AWS architecture with zero security incidents across 3 years.

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Ready to Build Something Great?

Let's discuss how I can help with your cloud architecture, security, or technical leadership needs.

Book Free Strategy Call