Navil Shah · Independent practice since 2021
Systems that hold under load.
I'm an architect for the awkward middle — where a modern platform has to talk to machines that were never designed to talk to anything. Fifteen years across software, DevOps, infrastructure and industrial systems. I come in, make it work, and make sure it stays up after I leave.
One engagement slot open for Q4 2026.
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- years running production systems
- 15+
- ways to engage, each scoped in writing
- 4
- both sides of the factory fence
- OT/IT
When people call me
Usually, something important has stopped talking to something else.
-
01
“Our machine data stops at the PLC.”
The line produces numbers nobody upstairs ever sees. I get them off the device, through the network you already have, and onto a screen someone acts on.
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02
“The cloud bill and the uptime disagree.”
You pay for resilience you don't have. I rebuild the environment so it's reproducible, observable and sized for what it actually does.
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03
“A regulation now has a deadline.”
The Cyber Resilience Act and the EU Data Act turn architecture into a legal question. I map what's deployed and design the reporting and data access the law now expects.
How I engage
Discovery & audit sprint
Systems inventory, interface map, risk register, and a costed plan you can take to a board.
You leave with: a 20-page plan and a one-page decision.
Fixed-scope integration build
Design signed off first, then delivery against it — pipelines, observability and handover included.
You leave with: a running system your team can operate.
Fractional architect
Standing architecture authority for a team that ships — reviews, decisions, and the documents behind them.
You get: a fixed block of hours, tracked live in your portal.
IoT & edge platforms
Where software meets the device: MQTT, edge computing and live telemetry dashboards that keep working when the network doesn't.
You get: data you can trust, even from forty-year-old kit.
What I work on
Read the detail- 01Systems architecture & integrationContracts between systems, written before the code.
- 02Cloud & infrastructureEnvironments that are reproducible, not remembered.
- 03IoT & edge systemsGetting data off devices and onto a screen someone acts on.
- 04Automation & RPARemoving the manual step without hiding it.
- 05Data pipelines & observabilityKnowing a system is healthy before a client tells you.
- 06Business analysis & requirementsTurning what people say into what gets built.
Recent writing
All insights“Every integration is a contract. Write it down before you write the code.”
Next step
Tell me what's not holding, and I'll tell you what I'd do.
- 1
You write a few lines about the system and what's going wrong.
- 2
I reply within a working day — personally, with questions or a first opinion.
- 3
We talk for 30 minutes, at no charge. You keep whatever I suggest.