Strength by design

Software that stands up to the real world.

Fractional technical leadership, Azure architecture and hands-on .NET delivery for teams on the Microsoft stack, especially where security, reliability and compliance can’t be an afterthought. Sound technology decisions and software that lasts, from strategy through shipped code.

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How Validus can help

Five ways to work together, from a single advisory session to a full engagement.

01

Technology Advisory

Independent architecture reviews, Azure roadmaps you can act on, and fractional CTO leadership when you need a senior technologist without a full-time hire, including practical guidance on bringing AI into your engineering team.

02

Architecture & Design

Secure, resilient, cloud-native designs on Azure, including microservices and event-driven systems, sized to your team, budget and compliance needs.

03

Custom Development

Well-built, well-tested .NET and Azure software from someone who has shipped it for decades, now delivered with AI-assisted development and the same testing and review discipline.

04

Modernization

Step-by-step migration to Azure that keeps the business running — modernizing what you have instead of risking a full rewrite.

05

Team Enablement

DevOps practices, workshops and mentoring that speed delivery and raise your engineers' skills, including how to use AI coding tools without lowering the bar on quality.

AI in practice

AI that speeds delivery without lowering the bar.

We use AI every day, with Claude Code, GitHub Copilot and Codex. It makes the work faster, but people stay accountable for every decision.

  1. 01

    Research

    AI reads the documents and data and distills what matters. People make the decisions.

  2. 02

    Plan

    A person drives the plan, with AI assisting, and a person reviews it before any code is written.

  3. 03

    Build

    AI helps carry out the approved plan, including the tests and documentation.

  4. 04

    Verify

    A person always verifies what was written. AI can help review, but never has the final word.

Adoption that sticks

Helping engineers move past both the hype and the skepticism: choosing tools, setting conventions and building review habits so AI output is code you’d ship.

Guardrails that fit your risk

Deciding what code and data AI tools can see, and putting sensible policies around their use, where security and compliance can’t be an afterthought.

Selected work

Problems solved, results that held up.

Cloud migration · Leadership · Advisory

Migration, interim leadership and a trusted seat with the CIO

Joined a global test-equipment rental company’s Azure Landing Zone migration when it was at least two months behind schedule, with the application team struggling to move everything to the new Landing Zone. Led the fully remote development team until a permanent manager was hired, while staying hands-on with Azure Functions, DevOps and .NET integration. Along the way, became a trusted advisor to the CIO on architecture and team structure, and helped interview candidates for the permanent role.

The two-month gap was closed, and the migration was back on schedule.

Previous consulting role

Insurance · AI-assisted

A suite of SaaS products for benefits administration

Joined as the first senior engineer, on a team that has since grown to five senior engineers and a business analyst. Building multi-tenant SaaS applications for TPAs and brokers, covering eligibility, payroll, tax withholding and client self-service, along with the security underneath: Entra ID sign-in, permissions, tenant isolation and audit trails.

With AI-assisted development, that small team has delivered 16 major product capabilities in about seven months, with more to come.

Current work

Healthcare · Assessment

An assessment that became the roadmap

Brought in by a national healthcare regulatory organization to plan how to merge two APIs and standardize authentication. The assessment also found more than a dozen NuGet packages with critical vulnerabilities, another dozen several versions behind, and a Node.js version several major releases out of date.

The plan put security and stability first, then the requested work, with an estimate, the skill sets needed and a process for keeping dependencies current.

Two weeks of close collaboration led to a multi-month engagement to secure and stabilize the system.

Previous consulting role

About

Senior experience, small-firm attention.

Validus is a small, focused consultancy. No layers, no hand-offs — just decades of hands-on experience applied directly to your problem.

Experience across healthcare, health benefits and insurance, state government, manufacturing and consumer goods.

Portrait of Michael Eaton

Led by Michael Eaton

Technology leader and architect with 30+ years of building software, designing secure, resilient, cloud-native solutions on Microsoft Azure. Michael bridges business strategy and technology execution, and mentors teams toward engineering excellence.

More about Michael: mjeaton.net · LinkedIn

Contact

Let’s talk about what you’re building.

Send a short note about your project or challenge. You’ll hear back from a real person, not a ticket queue — usually within one business day.