All systems quiet · that’s the point

Beautifully boring infrastructure

StackArt is a small team of engineers covering systems, networks, databases, security, and automation. We craft IT so reliable it becomes invisible — and document it like a gallery catalogue.

Book a consultation → Explore our craft

Our palette · the tools we navigate by

Windows Server Linux VMware vSphere Hyper-V Cisco Fortinet HAProxy Nginx SQL Server PostgreSQL MySQL InnoDB Cluster Ansible AWX Terraform PowerShell Python Azure AWS Active Directory Docker Kubernetes Prometheus Grafana FreeSWITCH Asterisk
01 · Services

One studio. The whole stack.

From hypervisor to firewall to database — handled by the same engineers who answer your calls. No hand-offs, no finger-pointing.

Systems & networks

Server platforms, virtualization, storage, routing, firewalls, and Wi-Fi — architected for performance and documented for humans.

Databases

SQL Server & PostgreSQL tuning, high availability, and backups that restore — because we rehearse them, not file them.

Security

Hardening, least privilege, patching discipline, vulnerability management, and pragmatic compliance without the theater.

Automation & IaC

Ansible, Terraform, and PowerShell pipelines that make change boring, repeatable, and version-controlled — run on your infrastructure, or on resilient cloud-hosted AWX we stand up for you.

Cloud & migrations

Azure and AWS architecture, hybrid connectivity, and migrations executed with rollback plans — not hope.

Monitoring & support

Proactive monitoring, capacity planning, and a retainer bench that answers — small issues never grow into outages.

02 · Craft

If we do it twice, it becomes code

Manual changes are where outages and security drift are born. We automate builds, patching, backups, and compliance checks so your environment stays consistent long after the engagement ends.

  • Infrastructure as code — versioned, reviewed, repeatable
  • Self-documenting runbooks your own staff can run
  • Monitoring that finds issues before your users do
  • No automation infrastructure? No problem — we deploy resilient, cloud-hosted AWX and hand you the keys
  • Everything handed over — no black boxes, no lock-in

One night in the life of a playbook

  1. 02:00 — window opensThe maintenance window arrives. Nobody is awake, and nobody needs to be.
  2. The playbook runs itselfVersioned, reviewed, and rehearsed — the same run it did in staging.
  3. Patched, verified, rebootedEvery change checked against the baseline before the window closes.
  4. Report in your inbox by 08:00You were asleep the whole time. That’s the product.
03 · Team

Small by design

StackArt is two owner-engineers. The person who designs your environment is the same person who answers when you call — never a rotating cast, never a ticket queue.

Infrastructure practice

Systems & Network Engineering

Data-center to desktop: virtualization, storage, identity, routing, firewalls, and the glue between them.

VMwareWindowsLinuxCiscoAD

Data practice

Database Administration

Performance tuning, high availability, replication, and disaster-recovery plans that get rehearsed, not filed.

SQL ServerPostgreSQLHA/DRETL

Security & automation practice

Security Engineering · IaC

Hardening, vulnerability management, and automation that enforces the baseline every single day.

AnsibleTerraformPowerShellSIEM
04 · Selected work

From the studio floor

Four works, hung and framed. The pattern is always the same: find the real problem, fix it properly, leave the documentation behind.

Abstract illustration: stacked panes glowing softly in a dark vault, one lit warm coral
Logistics · 6 weeks

The backup that wasn’t

Nightly jobs reported green for months — but test restores had never been run, and half the archive was unreadable. We rebuilt the backup chain, automated verified restores, and put the proof in a weekly report the CFO actually reads.

Restore time 4 h → 35 min, with a tested restore every week since.

Abstract illustration: a procession of luminous orbs drifting across a night sky toward a warm dawn glow
Professional services · 1 weekend

One weekend, zero tickets

An aging server room migrated to a hybrid setup between Friday close and Monday open. DNS, profiles, printers, the lot — rehearsed twice in a lab first, with a written rollback path we never needed.

0 user tickets filed on Monday morning.

Abstract illustration: slow scattered particles condensing into a single fast golden streak of light
Manufacturing · 1 week

The query that ate Mondays

A weekly ERP report locked the floor for 40 minutes every Monday. Query plans, two indexes, and one rewritten view later, it runs before anyone’s coffee is poured — and we left a runbook explaining why.

Report runtime 40 min → 90 s.

Abstract illustration: a lattice of small luminous nodes joined by threads of light, pulsing in unison
VPS hosting

Patching nobody notices

For a small VPS host, every reboot is a customer’s bad day. We deployed a stable AWX instance and wrote the playbooks to match: rolling system patching across the fleet, and a server deployment procedure that runs itself instead of following a checklist.

Patching now runs unattended — zero downtime, zero service interruption.

Drawn from real engagements — details anonymized, and in places composited, to keep client environments confidential.

05 · Kind words

Kind words, framed

What it's like when your infrastructure stops being a topic of conversation.

They migrated our entire server room over one weekend. Monday morning, nobody noticed anything had changed — which was exactly the point.
Operations DirectorRegional healthcare group
Our old provider sent a different technician every visit. StackArt sent the same senior engineers for two years — they know our network better than we do.
IT ManagerManufacturing, 400 seats
The database was 'slow for years.' They found it in a day, fixed it in a week, and left us a runbook so clear our own team maintains it now.
CFOLogistics & distribution
06 · The honest pitch

An honest sales pitch

Marketing pages always say "why choose us." Fine. But you deserve both columns.

Hire us if…

  • You want the person who answers the phone to be the person who built the thing.
  • Your last provider's documentation was a sticky note that said "call Dave."
  • You think boring is the highest compliment infrastructure can receive.
  • You'd like your backups tested somewhere other than during the fire.
  • You want to own everything we build — code, docs, credentials, all of it.

Maybe don't hire us if…

  • You need a 40-person NOC and an account manager for your account manager.
  • You enjoy surprise invoices with mystery line items.
  • You want someone to reboot it forever and never ask why it keeps breaking.
  • Your compliance framework requires vendors with a golf membership.
  • You're happy with "it's all in Dave's head." (We like Dave. We document anyway.)
07 · Process

Engagements without surprises

Clear scope, fixed milestones, and documentation you own at every step.

1

Assess

Inventory, risks, and quick wins — a written findings report, not a sales pitch.

2

Design

Architecture and a plan with costs and rollback paths agreed up front.

3

Implement

Changes executed in maintenance windows, automated and version-controlled.

4

Support

Documentation, handover, and an ongoing retainer bench if you want it.

08 · Engagements

Commission the studio, your way

Every engagement starts with a conversation and a written scope. No surprises on the invoice, ever.

Project

Fixed scope · Fixed fee

A defined outcome with a start, an end, and a deliverable you own.

  • Migrations, upgrades & buildouts
  • Security hardening sprints
  • Database rescue & tuning
  • Full documentation handover
Scope a project

Rescue

Right now · Something’s on fire

Outage, ransomware, failed migration, or a database that won’t come back.

  • Rapid triage with an owner-engineer
  • Stabilize first, root-cause second
  • Honest post-incident report
  • Hardening plan so it stays fixed
Get help now
0working in IT since
0owner-engineers on every engagement
0the uptime we design for
0monitoring & response
09 · Questions

Asked & answered

Do you replace our existing IT staff?
Almost never — we make them stronger. Most engagements either fill a senior-skills gap your team doesn't have (deep database work, network redesign, security hardening) or take the infrastructure burden off a small team so they can focus on the business. Everything we build is documented and handed over, so your people are more capable when we leave, not more dependent.
How do you charge?
Projects are fixed-fee against a written scope — if we underestimated, that's our problem, not yours. Retainers are a flat monthly rate based on the size of your environment. Rescue work is hourly with a cap agreed before we start. You will never receive an invoice you didn't see coming.
What's the minimum engagement?
A single assessment. It's a fixed-fee, one-to-two-week review of your environment that ends with a written findings report you own outright. Plenty of clients take the report and fix things themselves — that's a perfectly good outcome for us.
Remote or on-site?
Both. Most systems, database, and automation work is done remotely with full audit trails. Network cutovers, hardware installs, and anything touching a data-center floor, we do on-site. We'll tell you honestly which your project needs.
What happens when the engagement ends?
You keep everything: documentation, credentials, automation code, monitoring configs, and the runbooks to operate it all. No proprietary tooling, no license hostage-taking, no black boxes. If you never need us again, we did the job right.
10 · Say hello

Let's make your IT a masterpiece

A 30-minute call with an owner — not a salesperson — usually surfaces at least one thing worth fixing.

What happens next

  1. An owner reads it. Your note lands with an owner-engineer — never a ticket queue, never a bot.
  2. One honest call. Thirty minutes with the person who would actually do the work.
  3. A written scope. Fixed price agreed before anything starts. No surprises on the invoice, ever.
Prefer email? hello@stackart.io We reply within one business day.

On-site across Sarasota, Bradenton & Southwest Florida · remote everywhere else.

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