Architecture & Design
Security architecture and design that builds protection into your systems from the start. Zero trust roadmaps, reference architectures and design reviews across cloud, identity and network.
Service Details
Security architecture and design gives you systems where protection is part of the structure, not a layer added after something goes wrong. You get a target architecture, design standards your teams can build to, and a phased plan for getting there, covering identity, network, cloud and data.
The work sits within our strategy and advisory services, which provide independent advice, planning and assurance so your security decisions are made deliberately. We design; your teams, your suppliers or our engineering services build.
INFO
Design changes cost least on paper. Getting trust boundaries and access patterns right before you build is cheaper than reworking a live platform later.
Who it’s for
Architecture and design suits organisations at a point of change. That might be a cloud migration, a merger, a move to remote and hybrid working, or a platform that grew quickly and now nobody can fully explain.
It also suits teams who know the direction they want, such as zero trust, but need a realistic plan for getting there with the systems and budget they have. If you need an independent view of a design before you commit to it, a design review gives you that without a long engagement.
What architecture and design covers
Design work across the layers where most security decisions are made:
Zero Trust Roadmaps
A phased plan to move from network-based trust to checking identity, device health and context on every request.
Identity-Centric Design
Identity as the main control point: single sign-on, conditional access, privileged access and how joiners, movers and leavers flow.
Network Segmentation
Trust zones and segmentation that limit how far an attacker can move if one system is compromised.
Cloud Landing Zones
Account and subscription structure, guardrails, logging and network design for Azure, AWS and Google Cloud before workloads arrive.
Reference Architectures
Approved patterns for common builds, so new projects start secure without designing from scratch each time.
Design Reviews
An independent review of a proposed or existing design, with risks ranked and specific changes recommended.
How we work
Every engagement starts from what you run today, so the target design is one you can reach.
- Discovery — We map your current estate: identities, devices, networks, cloud accounts, data flows and the suppliers connected to them.
- Requirements — We agree what the architecture must support, including business goals, risk appetite, regulatory obligations and constraints such as budget and legacy systems.
- Target design — We produce the target architecture and design standards, using recognised references such as the NCSC zero trust architecture design principles and NIST SP 800-207. Where you already work to a framework such as SABSA, we can align with it.
- Roadmap — We break the gap between today and the target into phased, prioritised work your teams or suppliers can plan and budget.
- Design assurance — As projects deliver, we review their designs against the agreed standards so the architecture holds as the estate changes.
What you're left with
Designs only help if your teams can use them. Everything we produce is written for the engineers who build and the leaders who fund the work, and it stays yours.
Architecture Documents
Current and target state diagrams with trust boundaries marked
Design Standards
Rules each new system and supplier must meet
Phased Roadmap
Prioritised work with dependencies and rough effort
Evidence for auditors and boards
A documented architecture answers questions auditors and boards ask repeatedly: where your data lives, who can reach it and how systems are separated. Design decisions are recorded with the reasons behind them, which helps when you need to show control choices for ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, NIS2 or DORA.
For boards, the roadmap turns architecture into decisions about priority, cost and risk. Our board advisory service can present it in those terms.
How it differs from related services
Architecture and design sets the structure across your estate. It sits next to three services that are easy to confuse with it:
- Threat modelling examines how one system could be attacked and what to change in it. Architecture sets the patterns; threat modelling tests individual designs against them.
- Cloud engineering builds and migrates the platforms. It takes our designs and delivers them as infrastructure as code.
- Cloud security runs your cloud estates day to day, keeping the guardrails in place once the platform is live.
Redesigned to remove the risk
An unsupported legacy application carrying plaintext credentials and public exposure was redesigned and rebuilt as a secure cloud-native service. The credentials were removed, the exposure closed and running costs reduced. Architecture that removes risk instead of documenting it.
Services that work alongside
A security posture review gives a quick, framework-benchmarked starting point before design work begins. Identity and access runs the identity patterns once they are designed, and CI/CD security hardens the pipelines that deploy into your platforms. For acquisitions, technical due diligence applies the same architectural lens to a target company’s estate.
Frequently asked questions
Get your design right before you build
Tell us what you're planning, or what has grown without a plan. You get a clear view of where your architecture stands and which design decisions to make first.