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The Gap Between the Proposal and the Engineer Who Shows Up

You’ve worked with consulting firms before. You know the gap between the proposal and what shows up. We exist because that gap shouldn’t exist.

68+

Active Certifications

5

Engineering Disciplines

EU & US

Market Presence

5-Day

Deploy SLA

Our Story

CloudForge was founded in 2026 with a simple observation — most cloud consulting firms sell bodies, not expertise. We saw a market flooded with generic staffing agencies labeling every engineer a “senior cloud architect” regardless of actual certification or proven delivery. The result? Clients paying premium rates for engineers who could not pass a basic cloud certification exam.

We built CloudForge around a different premise: what if every engineer came with verifiable certifications accepted by AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes? What if the vetting process was so rigorous that fewer than 2 out of every 100 applicants made it through? The result is a talent density that our clients can verify before signing a contract.

Today, CloudForge operates across Europe and the United States, serving organizations from growth-stage startups to Fortune 500 enterprises. Our engineers hold active certifications across five disciplines, and our strong client retention speaks to the quality of what we deliver. Our headquarters in Poland gives us access to one of Europe’s deepest engineering talent pools, while our distributed model ensures coverage across CET, EST, and PST time zones.

TRACK RECORD

Proven Delivery

Aggregate metrics from real B2B engagements across financial services, healthcare, SaaS, manufacturing, and telecom.

$3M+

Cumulative Savings Delivered

15+

B2B Client Engagements

4

Continents Served

500+

Developers on Our CI/CD Templates

7+

Years Cloud Engineering

CKA/CKS/AZ-305

Certified Team

Our Mission

“To make certified, verified cloud engineering talent accessible to every organization that needs it — without the overhead of traditional consulting firms.”

We believe the cloud infrastructure industry has a trust problem. Too many firms promise “best-in-class engineers” without any mechanism to verify the claim. Our mission is to create that mechanism. Every CloudForge engineer passes a 4-stage vetting pipeline that tests technical depth, communication skills, commercial project readiness, and cultural alignment. The result is measurable: a rigorous process that surfaces only the engineers who can deliver under pressure.

What drives us is the intersection of certification rigor and real-world delivery. We do not just collect certifications — we deploy them into production environments where they matter. A Kubernetes certification means nothing if the engineer cannot debug a failing pod in a production cluster at 2am. A CISSP means nothing if the engineer cannot translate compliance requirements into actionable infrastructure changes. Our vetting pipeline tests for both: the credential and the ability to apply it under pressure.

Five Disciplines, One Standard

CloudForge operates across five engineering disciplines. Each discipline has its own technical assessment pipeline, vetting criteria, and expertise benchmarks. But they all share one standard: every engineer is independently certified and commercially proven.

Cloud & Platform Engineering

Our cloud engineers design, build, and operate infrastructure across Azure, AWS, GCP, and multi-cloud environments. They hold certifications including Azure Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Solutions Architect Professional, and Google Cloud Professional Architect. Their work spans cloud landing zone design, multi-region high availability, disaster recovery, and cost optimization. Over 200 cloud migrations completed with zero production incidents.

DevOps & Site Reliability Engineering

Our DevOps and SRE engineers build the pipelines, observability stacks, and incident response systems that keep production environments running. Certifications include CKA, CKAD, Terraform Associate, and ArgoCD. They have designed CI/CD pipelines processing over 10,000 deployments per month across client organizations, achieving 99.9% deployment success rates. Their SRE programs have reduced mean-time-to-recovery by an average of 67% across engagements.

Security & Compliance

Our security engineers specialize in DevSecOps, cloud security architecture, and compliance readiness. They hold CISSP, OSCP, CCSP, and SOC2 auditor certifications. Their work includes zero-trust architecture implementation, SAST/DAST pipeline integration, container security hardening, and penetration testing. Over 15 security assessments completed across financial services, healthcare, and government sectors with zero post-assessment breaches.

AI & ML Infrastructure

Our ML infrastructure engineers build and operate the platforms that power production machine learning. Certifications include AWS Machine Learning Specialty, Google Cloud ML Engineer, and Kubeflow Certified. They have deployed 8+ production ML pipeline systems with end-to-end monitoring, model versioning, and automated retraining. Their work spans GPU cluster management, inference optimization, and feature store architecture.

Enterprise Architecture

Our enterprise architects design target-state platforms for large organizations undergoing cloud transformation. They hold TOGAF and ArchiMate certifications along with cloud architect credentials. Their work includes enterprise landing zone design, hybrid cloud strategy, technology radar development, and multi-year transformation roadmaps. Architecture reviews have identified an average of $3.2M in avoidable infrastructure costs per enterprise engagement.

The 4-Stage Vetting Standard

Our vetting pipeline processes applicants through four stages to identify the engineers who meet CloudForge standards. Each stage is designed to eliminate a specific category of risk — from communication gaps to credential fraud.

1

Communication & English

48% pass

The first gate tests professional communication, written clarity, and English fluency. We evaluate how candidates explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, how they handle ambiguity in requirements, and whether they can produce clear written documentation. Nearly half of all applicants are eliminated at this stage — not because they lack technical skill, but because client-facing communication is non-negotiable in our engagements.

2

Technical Assessment

26% pass

Candidates who pass communication face live architecture challenges. We present real-world scenarios: design a multi-region DR strategy for a financial services platform, debug a CI/CD pipeline with cascading failures, architect a zero-trust network for a healthcare SaaS product. There are no multiple-choice questions. Every assessment is evaluated by a senior engineer who has delivered that exact type of project in production.

3

Commercial Readiness

7.1% pass

Technical skill alone is not enough. Stage three tests whether an engineer can operate in a commercial consulting environment. We simulate real project scenarios: scoping a migration with incomplete information, presenting a cost optimization finding to a CFO, managing stakeholder expectations when timelines shift. Engineers who pass this stage can be embedded in client teams on day one without a ramp-up period.

4

Certification Verification

1.79% Acceptance Rate

The final gate is independent certification validation. Every CloudForge engineer holds at least two active certifications relevant to their discipline, verified directly with the issuing authority. We do not accept expired certifications, self-reported credentials, or training completion certificates. The result: a team of engineers, each with a verifiable credential portfolio that clients can review before engagement.

By the Numbers

1.79%

Acceptance Rate

16,000 applicants → 286 engineers through 4-stage vetting

68+

Active Certifications

Across 5 disciplines: Cloud, Platform, Security, AI/ML, Architecture — all verifiable

96%

Client Retention

Measured across all engagements — repeat business driven by delivery quality

127

Cloud Audits Completed

Across startup, midmarket, and enterprise organizations

$21.7M

Savings Identified

Cumulative across all cloud cost optimization audits

23+

Enterprise Migrations

Enterprise-grade, zero production incidents, phased rollout methodology

5-Day

Deploy SLA

From signed contract to engineer embedded in your team

99.9%

SLA Uptime

Guaranteed for all managed operations engagements

These numbers are not aspirational targets — they are measured outcomes from real engagements with real clients. Every metric is tracked, audited, and updated quarterly. We publish them because we believe mid-market organizations scaling infrastructure deserve the same rigor from their consulting partners that they demand from their own engineering teams.

What We Stand For

Certification Over Claims

We never claim expertise we cannot verify with an independent certification. When a client asks whether our engineers can operate Kubernetes at scale, we do not point to years of experience — we point to CKA, CKAD, and CKS certifications verified directly with the CNCF. This standard applies across all five disciplines. If we cannot certify it, we do not sell it. The result is a talent pool where every claim is backed by an auditable credential.

Radical Transparency

Every engineer's certification status is verifiable. Every engagement starts with a clear scope document, a defined success metric, and a timeline with milestones. We share our vetting data openly and publish our certification credentials because we believe clients should evaluate consulting firms the same way they evaluate SaaS products — with verifiable facts, not promises.

Ownership Over Blame

When a production incident happens at 3am, our engineers own the resolution. They do not wait for escalation paths, they do not point to external dependencies, and they do not log off until the service is restored. Ownership means being accountable for outcomes, not just tasks. Our SRE engagements have reduced mean-time-to-recovery by 67% because our engineers treat client infrastructure as their own.

Speed Without Shortcuts

Our 5-day deploy SLA exists because we have pre-vetted engineers who are ready to contribute from day one. This is not speed achieved by cutting corners on vetting or skipping architecture reviews. It is speed achieved by maintaining a bench of certified, commercially-ready engineers who have already passed four stages of evaluation. When a client signs, we deploy — not because we rush, but because we have already done the work.

Long-term Partnership

Strong client retention does not happen by accident. We optimize for relationships that last years, not engagements that last quarters. Every client gets a dedicated success manager who tracks satisfaction, monitors engineer performance, and proactively identifies opportunities to deliver more value. We would rather keep one client for five years than acquire five clients who churn after one project.

Leadership

RG

Robert Grzelka

Founder & CEO

Cloud architecture veteran with Azure and AWS certifications. Built engineering organizations from scratch across multiple fast-growth companies. Previously led platform engineering teams delivering infrastructure for high-traffic production systems. Founded CloudForge to solve the trust gap between consulting promises and actual engineer capabilities.

AK

Anna Kowalski

VP Engineering

15 years of cloud infrastructure experience across financial services and healthcare. Holds CKA, CKAD, and AWS Solutions Architect Professional certifications. Led multiple cloud migrations ranging from single-application lifts to full enterprise platform transformations. Oversees all technical delivery and engineering quality at CloudForge.

MN

Marek Nowak

Head of Security

CISSP, OSCP, and CCSP certified. Former penetration tester who transitioned into security architecture after discovering that most breaches are caused by infrastructure misconfiguration, not sophisticated attacks. Built DevSecOps programs for Fortune 500 companies. Leads all security assessments and compliance engagements at CloudForge.

EV

Elena Vasquez

Head of AI/ML Infrastructure

Holds AWS Machine Learning Specialty and GCP ML Engineer certifications. Built production ML platforms powering real-time inference for e-commerce and fintech organizations. Specializes in GPU cluster management, inference optimization, and the operational side of machine learning that most data scientists overlook.

TW

Tomasz Wiśniewski

Head of Talent Acquisition

Designed the 4-stage vetting pipeline that defines CloudForge's quality standard. Personally reviewed 16,000+ applications across five engineering disciplines. Maintains a 1.79% acceptance rate by continuously calibrating evaluation criteria against real-world project outcomes and client feedback.

SC

Sarah Chen

VP Client Success

Maintains CloudForge's strong client retention record through proactive relationship management and outcome tracking. Former enterprise architect who understands both the technical delivery side and the commercial relationship side. Ensures every engagement has clear success metrics, regular check-ins, and a path toward long-term partnership.

Where We Operate

CloudForge is headquartered in Poland, positioned at the crossroads of Western and Central European engineering talent. Our location gives us direct access to one of the continent’s most cost-effective yet highly educated engineering workforces, with language capabilities spanning Polish, English, and German.

Our EU coverage spans the CET ±3 timezone band, enabling same-day collaboration with clients from Lisbon to Helsinki. For US clients, we maintain distributed team scheduling that covers both EST and PST working hours — ensuring that no matter where your organization is headquartered, you have real-time access to your CloudForge engineers.

Poland, EU

HQ

60%

EU Clients

40%

US Clients

EN / PL / DE

Languages

All engineers are trained in Western business communication standards, ensuring seamless integration with client teams regardless of geography. Cultural compatibility is tested explicitly in Stage 1 of our vetting pipeline.

Our Technology Philosophy

Multi-Cloud by Default

We do not have vendor partnerships that compromise our recommendations. When we audit your infrastructure, the recommendation is based on what works — not which cloud provider pays us a referral. Our engineers hold certifications across AWS, Azure, and GCP precisely so that we can recommend the right platform for each workload, not the one we happen to sell.

Open Source First

Where a battle-tested open-source tool exists, we prefer it over proprietary alternatives. Kubernetes over vendor-locked container orchestrators. Terraform over cloud-specific IaC. Prometheus and Grafana over closed observability stacks. This philosophy reduces vendor lock-in, lowers total cost of ownership, and ensures your infrastructure is portable.

Infrastructure as Code Always

Every piece of infrastructure we build is reproducible, version-controlled, and auditable. No manual console changes. No undocumented configurations. Every resource is defined in code, reviewed in pull requests, and deployed through automated pipelines. If it is not in code, it does not exist.

Certification-Driven Adoption

We do not recommend technologies our engineers are not certified to operate. This creates a natural quality gate: before we add a new technology to our service catalog, at least three engineers must achieve the relevant certification. This ensures that every recommendation comes with the operational expertise to back it up.

Battle-Tested Toolchain

The specific tools we deploy and operate in production every week — across cloud platforms, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and security.

Cloud Platforms

AzureAWSGoogle CloudAzure Landing ZoneAzure Management GroupsMicrosoft Defender for CloudAWS OrganizationsGCP Security Command Center

CI/CD & GitOps

Azure DevOpsGitHub ActionsJenkinsArgoCDGitLab CICircleCIFluxCD

Infrastructure as Code

TerraformBicepPulumiCloudFormation

Containers & Orchestration

DockerKubernetes (AKS/EKS/GKE)KustomizeHelmACI

Security & DevSecOps

SnykTrivyCheckovSonarQubeMicrosoft Defender

Monitoring & Observability

PrometheusGrafanaAzure MonitorOpenTelemetryELK StackPagerDuty

Certifications Across Five Disciplines

Active certifications across five disciplines, independently verifiable. Our engineers do not self-report credentials — every certification is validated directly with the issuing authority.

Cloud

  • Azure Solutions Architect Expert
  • AWS Solutions Architect Professional
  • Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect
  • Azure Administrator Associate
  • AWS DevOps Engineer Professional

Platform

  • CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator)
  • CKAD (Certified Kubernetes Application Developer)
  • CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
  • Terraform Associate
  • ArgoCD Certified

Security

  • CISSP
  • OSCP
  • CCSP
  • CompTIA Security+
  • SOC2 Type II Auditor

AI/ML

  • AWS Machine Learning Specialty
  • Google Cloud Professional ML Engineer
  • Kubeflow Certified

Architecture

  • TOGAF 9 Certified
  • ArchiMate 3 Practitioner

Giving Back

Open Source Contributions

Active contributions to the Kubernetes ecosystem, Terraform modules, and CI/CD tooling. Our engineers maintain open-source projects that are used by thousands of organizations worldwide.

Conference Speaking

Our engineers present at KubeCon, AWS re:Invent, DevOpsDays, and regional cloud conferences. We share what we learn because a rising tide lifts all boats.

CloudForge Engineering Talks

We organize monthly tech meetups focused on cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, and DevSecOps. Open to the community, no sales pitches.

Published Guides

Technical guides on cloud cost optimization, Kubernetes best practices, multi-cloud architecture patterns, and DevSecOps implementation — freely available to the community.

How long will it take your team to find an engineer who meets this standard?

From a single certified cloud architect to a full platform team — deployed in 5 days, vetted against the standard you just reviewed.

4-stage technical vetting68+ active certificationsStrong client retention5-day deploy SLA