03 Maintain
Performance and reliability
Quiet infrastructure that doesn't ask for attention.
What it is
Performance and reliability work is the operating layer of the Maintain stage. Vercel deployment monitoring, Supabase scaling, uptime alerting, security patching, dependency updates, performance tuning. We run it in the background so the client's team doesn't need to think about it. The output is infrastructure that stays out of the way.
Who it's for
Clients on a Maintain retainer where the build has gone live and the operating risk is real. Firms whose previous infrastructure was managed by whoever happened to be technical at the time. Operators tired of getting woken up by a status page.
What's included
- Uptime and error monitoring
- Performance budget tracking
- Security patching and dependency updates
- Database scaling and backup verification
- Incident response when something breaks
- Quarterly infrastructure review
FAQ
- Is this on-call?
- Yes, within scope. Critical incidents during business hours get same-day response; off-hours response depends on the engagement tier. The shape is documented in the agreement.
- What if something breaks at 3am?
- For high-availability engagements, we respond. For standard tiers, we respond same business day. The tier matches the operating risk; we won't oversell the SLA.
- Do you handle compliance audits?
- We handle the technical artifacts that compliance audits require. The legal and process side of compliance is a different discipline and we'll coordinate with a specialist.
- Can this be standalone, or only inside a Maintain retainer?
- Usually inside a retainer. Standalone performance work tends to surface deeper problems that need a different shape of engagement.