Accepting new engagements · Orlando, FL & Remote

AI infrastructure
that actually ships.

Privian is an AI consulting practice. We design and build production AI systems: RAG pipelines, agentic architectures, and the cloud underneath. Thirty years in enterprise tech, now focused on AI.

Start a conversation See what we do
30+ Years in enterprise tech
F100 Fortune 100 / 500 reach
5–50k Any size organization
privian — consulting profile
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Privian.AI · Consulting · Orlando, FL
Principal: Sid Smith · 30 yrs F100 SE → AI infrastructure

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ai-infrastructure/ cloud-iac/ advisory/

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fractional-cto.md fractional-se.md project.md assessment.md

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✓ Accepting new engagements · Remote + Central FL on-site
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Services

Three practice areas. Four ways to engage.

Practice areas are the work. Engagement models are how we do it together: fractional leadership, hands-on build, scoped projects, or a fixed-scope readiness assessment.

01 // AI Infrastructure

AI Infrastructure & Agentic Systems

Full design and implementation of production AI systems: cloud-native, on-prem, or hybrid. Data layer through eval harness.

  • RAG: embeddings, chunking, pgvector, hybrid search
  • AWS Bedrock, Lambda, API Gateway, RDS
  • Multi-tenant agent architectures with MCP governance
  • Local-first AI on Apple Silicon (Ollama, mflux)
  • Prompt versioning, A/B testing, rollback
  • Eval harness design and production observability
Explore the practice →

02 // Cloud & IaC

Cloud Architecture & IaC

Infrastructure that works in production, not just in diagrams. Private cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud patterns drawn from fifteen years before it was called DevOps.

  • AWS, Azure, GCP architecture and implementation
  • Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes
  • CI/CD pipeline design and build
  • VMware / vSphere / NSX modernization
  • Multi-tenancy and security architecture
  • Cost optimization and right-sizing
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03 // Advisory

Fractional CTO & Advisory

Technical leadership for organizations that need an experienced voice in the room: a five-person startup with no tech lead, or a mid-market company navigating a major platform decision.

  • AI Readiness Assessment (fixed scope, fixed timebox)
  • Technology strategy and roadmap development
  • AI adoption planning and vendor evaluation
  • Pre-Series A technical due diligence
  • Platform selection and architecture review
  • Technical communication for investors and boards
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Where the next era is taking shape.

The pattern across three decades has been consistent: show up where the next era is taking shape, then make the transition real for the people who aren't already at the front of the line.

Privian has built cloud infrastructure for nearly every Fortune 100. Privian has also put broadband into rural school districts the big carriers wouldn't touch. The scale is different. The problem (figuring out what the technology actually is and making it work for your specific situation) is the same.

That's what we do now. Take what we learned building at enterprise scale and apply it to any organization ready to put it to work: five people or fifty thousand, mom-and-pop or multinational.

Read the full story →

Early 2000s

Co-founded an ISP putting broadband into school districts the carriers wouldn't touch. Ran Pierce College's full data center transformation: virtualized 80% of workloads before "cloud" was a word.

2010

Early SE at DynamicOps. Built what became vRealize Automation. After the VMware acquisition: National Cloud Specialist, early CodeStream CI/CD design.

Mid 2010s

Founding SE at SovLabs. Office of the CTO at CloudBolt. IaC, Kubernetes, and cloud-native at scale across nearly every Fortune 100.

Recent

First SE at Firefly.ai. Founded Privian to build the AI infrastructure the hyperscalers don't sell to.

Now

Consulting on AI infrastructure, agentic systems, and cloud architecture. Writing practitioner-level posts at Echoes of the Machine.

Who I Work With

5 people or 50,000. Same craft.

The patterns that work for a Fortune 100 cloud architecture apply to a local bakery tired of paying the SaaS subscription tax. Scale changes. The thinking doesn't.

01 // Enterprise

Enterprise & Mid-Market

Existing infrastructure that needs AI capability added, aging cloud architecture that needs modernization, or a senior technical voice for a specific initiative. National reach, remote engagement.

02 // Startups

Startups & Growth-Stage

Founding teams that need a fractional CTO or senior architect to help build the right thing, pick the right stack, and talk credibly to technical investors. We know what that room looks like.

03 // Small Business

Small & Local Business

Five employees or fifty. If you're tired of the SaaS subscription tax and want technology that actually works for your business, we can build it. On-site in Central Florida, remote everywhere else.

04 // Nonprofit

Nonprofits & Community Orgs

Mission-driven organizations deserve the same technology access as enterprise. Privian brings real AI infrastructure to the orgs the hyperscalers ignore, at a scale and price that fits.

See how each engagement looks →

No retainer theater. No endless discovery.

A short process to get to real work quickly.

01

Conversation

Thirty minutes. You describe what you're building or fixing. We ask enough to understand the real problem, not the presented one.

02

Scoping

A clear written summary of what we'd do, what it costs, and what you'd have at the end. No ambiguity about deliverables.

03

Build

Actual work. Code written, architecture designed, system built, or advisory delivered, depending on what you hired us for.

04

Handoff

You own what we built. Documentation, knowledge transfer, and a clear path to run it without us if that's what you want.

Recent Writing

What we're thinking about.

Practitioner-level posts on AI infrastructure, agentic ops, and cloud, from Echoes of the Machine.

The eval harness: how you know it's working before customers tell you

Test sets, golden examples, regression detection. How you find out the AI broke before a customer does, and why it has to be a permanent part of the stack.

Prompts as code: versioning, A/B, rollback

The most-edited surface in an AI product needs the same git-based, CI-tested, feature-flagged discipline as everything else.

Retrieval is the secret-sauce surface: getting RAG right

Embeddings, chunking, hybrid search, the prompt template that pulls in the right context. This is the surface that earns the bill.

Browse the curated index → Read all posts on EOTM →

Got a system to build, fix, or assess?

Tell us what you're working on. If it's a good fit, we'll set up a 30-minute call. If it isn't, we'll tell you that too.

Start a conversation →