Our Approach
If you've been burned by previous MSPs or struggled with over-promising vendors, here's how working with CloudWorks feels different.
Specialist MSP with senior-led support. Here's how we work.
How We Work With You
Our typical engagement follows this pattern, adapted to your needs.
Step 1: Discovery & Fit Check
Brief conversation to understand your situation and see if there's a fit. Usually a 30-minute call. No pressure, no sales pitch.
You get: A straight answer on whether we're the right fit – and if we're not, we'll say so.
Step 2: On-Ramp Project
Health check, migration or implementation to baseline your environment. Typical duration: 2-6 weeks depending on scope.
You get: A clear view of risks, bottlenecks and a realistic plan, not a hand-wavy "we'll sort it".
Step 3: Transition to Managed Services
Move to monthly managed service for ongoing operations. Clear SLAs, regular reporting, and direct access to senior team.
You get: Documented handover and clear ownership boundaries so nothing falls through cracks.
Step 4: Monthly Operations
Day-to-day management of cloud workspaces, endpoints and automation. Monthly change windows, proactive monitoring, and regular communication.
You get: Predictable change windows and one place to send workspace issues.
Step 5: Quarterly Reviews
Quarterly roadmap reviews and continuous improvement planning. We look ahead, not just react to issues.
You get: Regular check-ins to review what's working, what isn't, and where to invest next.
Step 6: Continuous Improvement
Ongoing improvements to security, resilience and cost-effectiveness. Your environment gets better every month, not just maintained.
You get: Proactive recommendations based on what we're seeing across your environment.
Senior-Led MSP, Sensible Scale
CloudWorks is intentionally small – you'll work with senior-level people who've designed and operated infrastructure for large, complex UK organisations.
We've designed and operated AWS-hosted virtual desktop platforms for large, regulated UK organisations, including multi-thousand developer environments. We've led modern workplace initiatives to enable secure remote access for multi-thousand user estates during COVID-19 lockdowns and beyond.
That experience now powers a managed service built for 20-250 person UK organisations who need enterprise thinking without enterprise overhead.
What this means for you:
- A named senior contact who understands the work (not first-line script readers)
- Documented runbooks, change control that isn't overbearing
- Clear ownership and sensible escalation paths
- Vendor management and roadmap steering when needed
- Ability to hand over or scale down cleanly if your needs change (we're not trying to trap you)
This approach sits between commodity MSPs (where you get a ticketing system and tier 1 support) and enterprise-grade providers (where you pay for overhead you don't need).
CloudWorks is led by a principal consultant with 30+ years designing and operating infrastructure across large UK organisations. See About page for longer story.
You Get More Than Just Done Work
When we finish an engagement, you don't just get working systems. You get the knowledge and documentation to understand and maintain them.
What We Deliver
- •Architecture diagrams
- •Written summaries in plain English
- •Clear next steps and recommendations
- •Runbooks where appropriate
- •Knowledge transfer sessions
What This Means
You understand your own systems and can operate them confidently. For managed service clients, we maintain and improve your environment while ensuring you're never locked in by lack of knowledge.
Security & Responsibility
We ensure sensible security baselines in everything we do:
- Identity and access patterns (SSO, MFA, conditional access)
- Endpoint security policies
- Cloud configuration security
- Sensible defaults and hardening
For regulatory-heavy or high-risk environments, we collaborate with specialist security partners.
This is by design:
We stay excellent in cloud, workspace and automation rather than becoming a mediocre SOC or MDR provider.
If you need 24/7 monitoring, threat hunting, or deep penetration testing, we'll help you find the right specialist partner and work alongside them.
Who We Work Best With
We work best with:
- Leadership willing to engage with trade-offs and make informed decisions
- Teams open to documentation and process improvements
- Organisations that prefer clarity and honesty over hype
- Companies ready to modernise (not just looking for quick fixes)
- Teams of roughly 20–250 people, especially tech-heavy or remote/hybrid
If that sounds like you, let's talk.
Ready to Start a Conversation?
Book a discovery call and we'll explore whether we're the right fit.
Book a 30-Minute Discovery Call