I’m Neil, principal consultant at Shrug PW and a senior infrastructure engineer. I’m based in Bedford, MA and work with companies across New England and the wider Northeast, plus remotely beyond that. I design and build infrastructure that’s outgrown what it was set up for: too expensive, too fragile, or operable by only one increasingly nervous person. Then I implement the fix.
This page is the summary of what I do and what engagements cost. If you’d rather start from fixed-scope, clearly-priced offerings, see the consulting packages. You can also read more about working with me, or, if you’re a larger company in the corridor, the Bedford & Route 128 page.
Infrastructure & Architecture
- Architecture & migration planning — Reviews, migration plans, and disaster-recovery design for systems that have outgrown their original shape. This includes the infrastructure and technical controls that support SOC2, HIPAA, and FDA-regulated environments — the technical half, not a promise that infrastructure alone makes you compliant. For how I de-risk a platform migration in practice, see the worked example: making Heroku stop being a black box.
- Crisis recovery & rescue — When a legacy environment is brittle or bewildering, I jump in with targeted triage and “oh god what is this” rescue work to get you back online.
- Infrastructure audits — Assessments that find what’s actually holding you back — technical debt, resiliency gaps, scaling limits — and a prioritized list of what to fix first.
- DevOps & automation — CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, and infrastructure-as-code, so ordinary changes stop turning into events.
- Virtualization & private cloud — XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra design, deployment, migration, and ongoing management. As a Vates MSP partner, I can source the Vates stack and support, deploy and operate customer environments, and help move workloads onto an open virtualization platform without tying the infrastructure to a hyperscaler or VMware. For a sense of what “design” means in practice, see the worked example: designing a small highly available virtualization cluster.
- Equipment sourcing — Sourcing cabling, networking hardware (including Ubiquiti UniFi and MikroTik), radio, and surveillance hardware, including through distributor and partner relationships (Tristate Low Voltage; Reolink for IP cameras and NVRs). For camera systems, I handle sourcing, configuration, and network/recording integration; physical installation and access-control work go to appropriately licensed partners where the job requires it.
Critical Communications
- Resilient connectivity & failover — Multi-carrier cellular failover, satellite backup, and network designs that stay up when the primary link doesn’t.
- Communications dependency assessment — Finding the single points of failure in how your business actually communicates, and designing around services and spectrum you can lawfully use.
- Two-way radio & equipment — As an authorized Maxon sales & service dealer, I supply, program, and support commercial DMR and analog radios, mobiles, and repeaters with factory warranty and repair, and can also source Motorola, Kenwood, and Icom. Deep RF and coverage design is an area I’m growing into and will refer out where a job needs a specialist.
This side of the work comes out of real emergency-response experience: I advise a crisis-line software team (988), I’m a licensed amateur radio operator, and I hold FEMA/MEMA emergency-management training. Commercial systems are built around what the customer can lawfully operate. More on the emergency communications page.
OSPO++ & Open Source
- Fractional OSPO leadership — Part-time open source program leadership for companies that need the strategy but not a full-time hire.
- Governance & contribution models — Contribution guidelines, maintainer sustainability, and governance that holds up as a project grows.
- Licensing & foundation strategy — Licensing decisions, foundation-readiness, and the transitions projects hit when they move to a foundation.
- InnerSource — Internal open source practices that improve code sharing across teams.
More detail, and the actual maintainer experience behind it, on the OSPO++ page.
Strategic Technology Consulting
- Technology evaluation — Evaluating a new platform? I’ll help you work out whether it solves the problem you actually have, what it costs to operate, and what you’re committing yourself to.
- Team & org guidance — Practical guidance on growing an infrastructure team, without defaulting to “just hire more SREs.”
- Vendor & contract review — Technical due diligence for infrastructure vendor selection and contracts.
- Interim technical leadership — Temporary technical leadership during transitions, reorganizations, or while you recruit permanent staff.
Pricing Guide
Engagements are scoped collaboratively, but here’s a general range:
| Engagement Type | Rate |
|---|---|
| Hourly Advisory | $250–400/hr |
| Monthly Retainer (light touch) | $3,500-5,000/mo |
| Strategic Retainer (hands-on) | $10,000–18,000/mo |
| OSPO++ Fractional Services | $2,000–4,000/mo |
| Crisis Response & Emergency | $500–700/hr (limited availability) |
Hourly advisory is for one-off consultations. A monthly retainer is for ongoing help without hiring a full-time person. Not sure which fits? Tell me what’s going on and I’ll point you at one.
I offer sliding-scale or pro-bono support for nonprofit, mutual-aid, or movement work—just ask.
Let’s Talk
Schedule a Consultation → Email Me Instead →
A Note on Availability
I’m selective about projects and work best with clear scope and async-friendly communication. If we work together, I own the relationship and the outcome, start to finish.