DevOps Consultancy & Delivery Engineering
DevOps consultancy is the engineering work that gets code from a repository into production safely and repeatedly. We build that pipeline around the software we make, then hand it over so your own team can run it.
DevOps consultancy is advisory and hands-on engineering work that joins software development with IT operations, so that code reaches production quickly, repeatedly and safely. In practice it covers version control discipline, automated testing, continuous integration and delivery pipelines, containers, cloud infrastructure, database change management, and the release process that holds them together.
Scorchsoft is an application developer based in Birmingham, and our DevOps services sit alongside the software we build. We are the people who make an application shippable: the pipeline that tests and deploys it, the container it runs in, the environments it moves through, and the handover that lets your own developers run all of it afterwards. Everything on this page describes how we deliver our own work, including this website.
How We Ship And Run What We Build
Every change ships through an automated pipeline
Nothing reaches a live environment because someone remembered to run the right command. Every push to this site's repository opens a run in GitHub Actions that lints and type-checks the code, applies the database migrations to an empty database, runs more than 80 integration test suites and a Playwright end-to-end pack, then builds the deployable image. Two further workflows run beside it: an automated code review that comments on the pull request, and a static analysis scan.
The runtime version is pinned to match production, so code that passes on a developer's newer Node version fails the build rather than the release. All of it rests on disciplined Git version control.
The application ships as a container
The build produces one image, and that image is what runs in every environment. Local development, staging and production all start from the same definition, so "it works on my machine" stops being a category of bug.
We use Docker, with a compose file describing the application, its PostgreSQL database and the supporting services around it. The image is published to a private registry and each deployment pulls a specific tag, which makes a rollback a matter of pointing at the previous one rather than rebuilding anything.
There is more on the approach on our Docker app development page.
Database changes go through migrations, never by hand
Automatic schema syncing is switched off in every environment on this project, deliberately. A change to the data model only reaches a database as a reviewed migration file committed to the repository, and the container applies any pending ones as it boots.
That makes the schema a version-controlled artefact reviewed like application code, and it makes a deploy repeatable: the same ordered set of migrations produces the same database every time. The integration job rebuilds the schema from empty on every run and fails if the code contains changes no migration covers. This website's schema has moved through nearly 50 of them.
Environments, infrastructure and the promotion path
Work lands on staging first. Production is a separate, protected deployment target with its own credentials and approval, and a verification step runs after each release, so a deploy that silently did nothing fails the run instead of reporting success.
Most of our applications run on Amazon Web Services, with object storage for uploaded media and Apache or NGINX in front of the application. We also build on Google Cloud where a client's estate already lives there. On Microsoft estates the same pipelines run on Microsoft Azure, and the data engineering side of AWS is covered on our AWS data lake consultancy page. The choice follows what you already run and who has to support it, not a preference of ours.
Want your releases to work like this?
Scorchsoft are UK app and portal developers with over 16 years' experience building functionally complex web apps. Tell us how your software gets released today and we will give you a straight answer on what is worth changing.
What We Take On
We set it up so your team can run it
A pipeline nobody else understands is a dependency, not an improvement. So the delivery setup is part of what we hand over: workflow files, container definitions, migration history and deployment scripts all live in your repository, under your account.
We document how a release happens, walk your developers through it, and leave them able to change it. Some clients run their own deployments after launch and bring us back for the work that needs us. If you would rather we kept running it, we can, but that should be a choice rather than the only option you were left with.
Where our DevOps work fits
We are an application-layer development company, and our DevOps work exists in service of software we are building, extending or maintaining. That is where it is strongest, because the pipeline is designed around code we understand.
We also pick up delivery engineering on applications somebody else wrote, and we work alongside in-house platform and infrastructure teams where you have them. If what you need sits outside our usual remit, we will say so early and can recommend options or make an introduction.
What we do well is take an application from a repository to a release your own team can repeat. The rest of the stack around it is on our supported technologies page.
DevOps Consultancy Questions
DevOps consultancy is advisory and hands-on engineering work that joins software development with IT operations, so that changes reach production quickly, repeatedly and safely. It usually covers version control practice, automated testing, continuous integration and delivery pipelines, containerisation, cloud infrastructure and database change management. The aim is a release process that is boring: predictable, repeatable, and not dependent on one person's memory.
Yes, and it works best where there is development alongside it. Our delivery engineering is designed around code we understand, so most of it is for applications we build, extend or maintain, and we also take on setup work for a codebase somebody else wrote. Tell us what you have and how it gets released today, and we will give you a straight view on whether we are the right people for it.
On this website, every push runs linting and type checking, applies the database migrations to an empty database, runs more than 80 integration test suites and a Playwright end-to-end pack, then builds a container image. An automated code review and a static analysis scan run alongside. Staging deploys from the resulting image, production is a separate protected target, and a verification step after the release fails the run if the deploy did not actually take effect.
Most of our applications run on Amazon Web Services, using object storage for uploaded files and either Apache or NGINX in front of the application. We also build on Google Cloud where a client's estate already lives there. We choose based on what you already run and who has to support it after launch, rather than a house preference. Our supported technologies page lists the rest of the stack.
Yes, and we build it expecting that. Workflow files, container definitions, migration history and deployment scripts live in your repository under your account, and we document and demonstrate the release process at handover. Some clients run their own releases from day one and bring us back for feature work; others ask us to keep running it. Both are fine, but it should be your decision rather than ours.
It depends on the state of the codebase and how much of the release process already exists, so we scope it rather than quote a rate card. Setting up a pipeline for an application we are already building is usually a small part of the project; retrofitting one onto an unfamiliar codebase takes longer, because the first job is understanding it. Send us a short description of what you have and we will come back with an estimate and our reasoning — get a free quote.
Experience Delivering
Features we regularly build into the applications our delivery pipelines ship, from payments and single sign-on to cloud databases and systems integration. Explore the full list on our capabilities page.
Discover How Scorchsoft Can Help
We would love to hear about your project. Please contact us, and share your goals; we'll respond with our thoughts and a rough cost estimate. Scorchsoft is a UK-based team of web and mobile app developers and designers. We operate in-house from Birmingham, and our offices are located in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter.
Building for teams across healthcare, logistics, motorsport and manufacturing
What Our Clients Say
Scorchsoft helped us take our idea for an app and make it a reality. Everything from the planning meeting to decide what we really needed to the project management and execution was great. It was delivered on time - early in fact - and on budget. Highly recommend.
Rebecca PalserDragonfly IntelligenceScorchsoft is a brilliant company with fantastic knowledge of the mobile app industry. From the project management to the development team, they have been the perfect candidate for our project, and we can't thank them enough!
Lance ChorltonGapped OnlineWe're really pleased with the work Scorchsoft has done in developing our web portal! They have been accurate with timelines and budget, delivering a solid product that allows us to monitor and manage patients remotely while they use our novel medical device at-home. The "plan - design - build" approach has worked well and saved us time in the long-run by catching requirements and issues early.
Daniel GreenSensTrainI'm really pleased with how my app came out, it was exactly what I was looking for. The team at Scorchsoft are great at what they do and made the whole process as simple and easy as possible. Being someone who is not very tech savvy the set up and back end operations were done in a great easy to use manner even for myself which makes using my app stress free. Thanks to all the team!
Ruben CarrollMosaic MasterpiecesThe new Flourish Education website has already removed a lot of manual processes, freeing up both schools, candidates and internal employees time. We are delighted with the look and feel which is clean, professional and more engaging. We are also pleased with the decision to have an HD video background on the homepage, and building immediate trust with our clients by giving them a taste of what it looks like in the Flourish Education offices.
James HancocksMarketing Manager, Flourish Education I can't believe how quickly we started to see results with this project. Scorchsoft provided us with graphic-designed mockups of how the app would look once built, and we were able to sell the product for use by our first customer before the product was finished. Since launching in March, we have secured a major television network as a client who now uses Image Approvals to manage the talent approval process for their productions.
Aimee SpinksMD, ImageApprovals.com
Need help building your ideas?
Tell us where you're headed and we'll come back with our thoughts, a realistic plan and a rough cost estimate. Scorchsoft is a UK-based team of app, portal and AI developers, working in-house from Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter.