I am an independent consultant specializing in automation using open source software in the cloud. I have clients in Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Cloud and have been consulting full time since 2010 and have worked full time for various companies in the industry for a decade before that.
While I provide emergency break/fix services, the ideal client is one who needs 5-10 hours (or more) each week of managed services and who wants a long term relationship with an established provider. I’ve found that back-filling an FTE who needs to take vacation time or simply filling in from time to time also provides great value to companies with insufficient staff to cover added projects.