CORE COMPETENCIES

• Enterprise Cloud Strategy & Target-State Architecture: Assess complex cloud environments and design secure, scalable target-state architectures across AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP, and Oracle Cloud. Define platform architecture, service strategy, operating models, architectural standards, and modernization roadmaps aligned to mission, security, regulatory, performance, resilience, and cost objectives.
• Cloud Governance & Policy Architecture: Design governance as an integrated technical system spanning organizations/tenants, accounts/subscriptions, identity, networking, data, security, tagging, cost, and engineering standards. Establish landing-zone patterns, organizational hierarchies, delegated administration, policy boundaries, guardrails, policy-as-code, and governance automation that create enforceable standards without unnecessarily constraining engineering teams.
• Identity & Access Architecture: Design enterprise IAM across workforce, privileged, service, workload, and non-human identities using least privilege, RBAC, ABAC, JIT/JEA, PAM, federation, SCIM, lifecycle automation, separation of duties, delegated administration, and policy-driven access controls. Integrate identity architecture with cloud organizational structure, application architecture, data protection, and Zero Trust principles.
• Cloud Security & Zero Trust Architecture: Architect security across cloud control planes, networks, workloads, applications, APIs, identities, and data. Apply Zero Trust, segmentation, private connectivity, encryption, secrets management, vulnerability reduction, logging, monitoring, threat detection, secure-by-default patterns, and automated controls to reduce systemic risk through architecture rather than downstream remediation.
• Cloud Governance, Risk & Compliance Engineering: Translate NIST, FedRAMP, CIS, ISO, HIPAA/HITECH, HITRUST, SOC 2, and other applicable requirements into practical cloud architecture, engineering standards, technical controls, evidence, and automated guardrails. Evaluate control effectiveness, identify architectural root causes, and design remediation that improves both compliance and the underlying security posture.
• Architecture Assessment & Technical Assurance: Perform evidence-driven assessments of cloud architecture, IAM, organizational/tenant structure, security, networking, data protection, governance, service utilization, FinOps, and technical controls. Identify systemic weaknesses, unnecessary complexity, duplicated capabilities, control gaps, and technical debt; define prioritized remediation and target-state architecture rather than producing checklist findings alone.
• Secure Cloud-Native Solution Development: Architect and build specialized cloud-native applications, platforms, APIs, integrations, workflows, and automation when commercial solutions do not adequately address mission requirements. Apply serverless and event-driven patterns, Infrastructure as Code, secure CI/CD, APIs, data integration, and cloud-native services to create purpose-built solutions.
• AI Governance & Secure Emerging Technology: Evaluate and architect secure adoption of Generative AI and emerging technologies, including AI governance, technical risk, data protection, security controls, architecture, and responsible integration with enterprise cloud environments. Apply human-directed AI to accelerate technical research and analysis while preserving authoritative evidence, defined constraints, and expert judgment.
• DevSecOps, Infrastructure as Code & Governance Automation: Convert architecture and policy into repeatable engineering through Terraform, CloudFormation, policy-as-code, automated provisioning, configuration management, CI/CD, security integration, compliance automation, and reusable platform patterns.
• Cloud Economics & Architectural Optimization: Integrate FinOps with architecture and governance to identify structural cost drivers, duplicated services and tooling, ineffective ownership models, and inefficient platform patterns. Design cost accountability, tagging, service rationalization, and architectural controls that improve efficiency without weakening security or mission capability.
  
  

DIFFERENTIATORS

• Architecture Before Tooling: Begin with mission requirements, risk, organizational structure, identity, data, policy, and architectural constraints instead of from a predetermined product. Determine the appropriate control and service architecture before selecting or implementing technology.
• Governance as Engineering: Convert frameworks, policies, and control requirements into cloud-native guardrails, organizational policy, Infrastructure as Code, policy-as-code, identity controls, deployment standards, and automated evidence rather than relying primarily on documentation and manual compliance processes.
• Identity as a Core Architectural Layer: Treat identity, privilege, authorization, workload access, and non-human identity as foundational architectural concerns interconnected with cloud organization, networking, applications, data, and governance.
• Holistic Cloud Analysis: Evaluate cloud environments as interconnected systems rather than separate security, IAM, architecture, governance, FinOps, networking, and engineering domains. Identify how decisions in one layer create risk, complexity, cost, or constraints elsewhere.
• Deep Multi-Cloud Expertise: Apply architecture and governance experience across AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud, and government cloud environments to design according to mission and technical requirements rather than vendor preference.
• Security & Compliance by Architecture: Build security, regulatory requirements, technical controls, evidence, and accountability into architecture and engineering patterns from the outset instead of treating compliance as a downstream validation exercise.
• Senior Expertise Applied to Complex Problems: Bring experienced cloud, security, identity, network, governance, and AI leaders to problems requiring architectural judgment, technical evaluation, risk-based decision-making, and cross-domain expertise.
• Strategy Through Implementation: Move from assessment and architecture into policy design, automation, Infrastructure as Code, engineering, specialized development, and implementation when needed, preserving architectural intent through delivery.
• AI-Augmented, Human-Directed Analysis: Use Generative AI and structured analytical methods to accelerate complex technical research, architecture assessment, evidence synthesis, and evaluation while retaining authoritative-source validation, explicit constraints, and experienced human judgment.
• Enablement Rather Than Dependency: Deliver reusable architectures, standards, automation, documentation, and knowledge transfer designed to strengthen internal engineering capability rather than create indefinite dependence on external operational support.
  
  

CERTIFICATIONS & TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES

Cloud, Security, AI & Engineering Credentials

• CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)
• GIAC Certified Enterprise Defender (GCED)
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect
• HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate
• Microsoft Azure Infrastructure / Architecture Credentials
• Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
• Cisco Cybersecurity Specialist (CCS)
• CompTIA Security+
• Certified AlgoSec Security Expert
• Certified Novell Engineer (CNE)
• ISC2 AI Security Strategy
• Artificial Intelligence – MIT Sloan School of Management
• Generative AI for Productivity – Cornell University

Cloud Architecture & Engineering

• Platforms: AWS, AWS GovCloud, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud
• Enterprise Architecture: Organizations/tenants, accounts/subscriptions, landing zones, delegated administration, network architecture, secure connectivity, compute, storage, data, integration, resilience, and observability
• Identity Architecture: Entra ID, Okta, Ping Identity, federation, SCIM, RBAC, ABAC, PAM, JIT/JEA, workforce identity, privileged identity, service/workload identity, and non-human identity
• Governance & Security: Organizational policy, policy-as-code, Zero Trust, segmentation, data protection, encryption, secrets management, cloud-native security, vulnerability management, logging/monitoring, security assurance, and automated guardrails
• Engineering & Automation: Terraform, CloudFormation, Infrastructure as Code, GitHub, Azure DevOps, CI/CD, configuration management, policy automation, and DevSecOps
• Cloud-Native Development: Python, Django, SQL, APIs, JSON/YAML, serverless architectures, event-driven architectures, workflow automation, and cloud-native integrations
• Network & Platform Security: Multi-cloud networking, private connectivity, firewalls/NGFW, IDS/IPS, VPN, PKI, Kubernetes, container security, and SIEM/SOAR integration

Governance, Security & Regulatory Alignment

NIST SP 800-53 • NIST Cybersecurity Framework • FedRAMP • Zero Trust • CIS Benchmarks • ISO 27001 • HIPAA • HITECH • HITRUST • SOC 2 • PCI DSS • DevSecOps • Section 508

FEDERAL CLASSIFICATIONS

NAICS: 518210 (Primary), 519290, 541430, 541490, 541511, 541512, 541611
PSC: DA10, DB10, DH10, DK10, R499, R617
CAGE: 12XN7 | UEI: LU2WK792HJ64
Business Certifications: SBA-Certified WOSB & EDWOSB

KEY CONTACT

Lori Higham, President & Chief Architect
Email:info@securecloudprovider.com
Phone: 888-369-9072