What FDE Means
Engineers who ship, not advisors who hand over
Forward-deployed engineering is a delivery model built around one idea: the people who understand your problem should be the people who build the solution. Our engineers join your team, learn your environment first-hand and own the result from first workshop to production.
The problem with traditional consulting
Most consulting engagements end with a strategy document. Implementation is left to internal teams who were not in the room when decisions were made, so context is lost and timelines slip.
The gap between recommendation and running system is where most transformation budgets are spent.
The FDE answer
The same engineers who assess your environment design, build and operate the solution alongside your team. They stay until it works in production and your people can run it on their own.
One team from diagnosis to delivery. No hand-offs and no lost context.
The Difference
Traditional consulting vs forward-deployed engineering
Traditional consulting
GSaralCloud FDE
Starting point
Interviews and questionnaires
Hands-on access to your systems, data and teams
Main deliverable
Strategy deck and recommendations
Working software and infrastructure in production
Who builds it
Your team or a separate implementation vendor
The same engineers who designed it
Accountability
Quality of the advice
Business outcome and production readiness
Knowledge transfer
Handover document at the end
Continuous pairing, runbooks and documented handover
Team model
Pyramid of junior staff under a partner
Senior consultant-engineers, dedicated to your engagement
Our Principles
What you can expect from every engagement
01
Embedded in your team
Our engineers join your stand-ups, channels and tools. They work as part of your organisation, not as an external vendor.
02
Outcome ownership
Every engagement starts with an agreed business outcome. We measure progress against it, not against hours logged.
03
Senior engineers only
You work directly with experienced consultant-engineers who can both advise leadership and write production code.
04
Built in your environment
Solutions are designed and built in your accounts, repositories and pipelines from day one. Nothing is thrown over the wall.
05
Automation and AI first
We use our own AI agents and automation tooling to accelerate discovery, build and testing. You get the benefit as speed and consistency.
06
Designed for handover
Documentation, runbooks and knowledge transfer are built into the plan so your team can own the solution with confidence.
Engagement Models
Three ways to work with us
Each model follows the same FDE principles. Scope, duration and commercials are defined in the SOW for each engagement.
01
Embedded Pod
One or more consultant-engineers join your team on an ongoing basis to drive a transformation programme, working to your roadmap and priorities.
02
Outcome Sprint
A focused, time-boxed engagement with one clearly defined goal, such as a migration wave, an AI agent in production or an IIoT pilot on a single line.
03
Build-Operate-Transfer
We build the solution, run it in production until it is stable and then transfer ownership to your team with full documentation and training.
The First 90 Days
What a typical FDE engagement looks like
1
Days 1–30 · Embed and discover
Engineers are onboarded into your environment, meet stakeholders, review systems and data and agree the target outcome and success measures.
2
Days 31–60 · Build and prove
The first working increment is built in your environment and validated with real users and data. Early results inform priorities for the next phase.
3
Days 61–90 · Scale and transfer
The solution is hardened for production, extended to further scope and your team is paired with ours to take on day-to-day ownership.
FDE Across Our Practices
One delivery model, three practices
Our Toolchain
Built on AWS and best-in-class technologies
Our engineers bring a proven stack of AWS services, open-source tooling and our own AI agents to every engagement.
Put an engineer in the room
Tell us about the outcome you need. We will propose the right engagement model and the engineers to deliver it.