30 Years in IT · Portland, OR & Remote Worldwide · U.S. & EU Work Authorized · Navy Veteran-Owned

Enterprise-grade expertise, with one person accountable.

Recurring outages, ransomware exposure, an audit on the calendar, or an AI initiative your board keeps asking about: I've spent 30 years keeping critical systems running at Nike, Quantum, and Rubrik, and I bring that experience straight to your team. You get a senior architect who owns the outcome from the first call to the final handoff, and your data never leaves your custody.

See services & pricing ↓ Call 503-828-7197 ↗
WHAT YOU CAN STOP WORRYING ABOUTCOVERED
you: bring the risk, the outage, or the initiative
me: own it end to end: diagnose, fix, verify, and document everything
contact: Danny directly, a senior architect, not an account manager
01Storage, Backup & Recoverytested
02Cloud & Kubernetesautomated
03Security & Zero Trustlocked down
04AI Projectsyour data
05Production Reliabilitywatched
Lower risk. Fewer surprises. Clear answers for leadership.
15 Years at NikeLed data protection for one of the largest enterprise backup environments in the world.
U.S. Navy VeteranBuilt the IT systems aboard the USS Bataan from the ground up.
Startup to IPOBuilt reliability and support at Igneous through its acquisition by Rubrik and Rubrik's IPO.
One Accountable PartnerSenior expertise on every call. No account managers, no handoffs to junior staff.
01 / SERVICES

Fixed scope. Predictable cost.

Easy to approve, easy to start.
Flat fees, no long-term contracts, and no surprise invoices. Most clients start with the diagnostic, then move to a two-week sprint or keep senior coverage on retainer. Pay by corporate card or invoice.

01
Best Place to Start

Architecture & Red-Team Diagnostic

Five days of hands-on, senior-level digging into the area that worries you most: storage and backup, cloud or Kubernetes, security and access controls, or an AI initiative. I find the data-loss risks, single points of failure, and security gaps, then go after them the way an attacker would. You get a prioritized fix plan written for both your engineers and your leadership, plus a recorded walkthrough, and I can knock out the fixes myself in a follow-on sprint.

  • storage, backup & recovery
  • cloud & Kubernetes
  • security & access
  • AI systems & data flow
$2,500
Flat fee · 5 business days
Book the Diagnostic ↗
02
Turnkey Implementation

Two-Week Buildout Sprint

I work hands-on in your environment and deliver a finished result, not a slide deck: automated recovery and monitoring, a storage or backup rescue, a cloud or Kubernetes rollout, zero-trust access controls, or an AI system that keeps your data in your custody. Your team gets the code, runbooks, and training, so nothing depends on me afterward. AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, or on-prem; remote or on-site.

  • turnkey deployment
  • storage & backup rescue
  • security & AI guardrails
  • code, runbooks & training handoff
$7,500
Flat fee · 10 business days
Reserve the Sprint ↗
03
Fractional Coverage

Principal Architect Retainer

Senior architecture and security coverage without adding headcount. I'm your escalation backstop when a production issue is beyond what your team has seen before. I review designs before they become expensive commitments, take hands-on ownership of AI and infrastructure projects, and build the reliability and support practices that scale with the business.

  • escalation backstop
  • weekly async design reviews
  • reliability & support design
  • 50-host ztd Fleet Pack included
$3,500
Per month · Cancel anytime
Start the Retainer ↗
02 / WHAT I HANDLE

The problems leaders bring me.

These are the situations I'm brought in for most often. Select one to see how I handle it.

Escalations & Incident Command

When production is down and the business is waiting.

I've been the last line of escalation for Fortune 500 outages at Quantum and for a multi-petabyte cloud platform at Rubrik. I take command of the incident, restore service, find the root cause, and put a lasting fix in place.

  • Steady incident command and regular, clear updates for leadership
  • Root cause identified and fixed, not just worked around
  • A written post-incident review your executives and customers can read
03 / HOW I WORK

Disciplined, transparent, no surprises.

Whether it's a backup test, a production change, or an incident at 2 a.m., the process is the same. I handle it from start to finish, and you're never left wondering what changed or why.

  1. 01

    Understand the business

    I start with your goals and risk tolerance, then get to know your systems: what you have, how it's set up, and what's really going on.

  2. 02

    Ask the right questions

    Before I touch anything, I ask a few focused questions to take out the guesswork. The first explanation isn't always the right one.

  3. 03

    Plan it out

    You get a plain-English plan up front: what changes, why, the business impact, and the rollback path.

  4. 04

    Do the work

    I do the hands-on work myself, inside your environment with least-privilege access, and your sensitive data stays under your control.

  5. 05

    Verify & document

    I confirm the result and leave a record of what was done, when, and why: evidence your team, auditors, and insurers can use. It belongs to you.

My commitment: Hand it to me and consider it handled, from diagnosis through fix, verification, and documentation. You stay in the loop on everything that matters, and every change leaves an audit trail.

Founder & Principal Architect · Portland, Oregon

Enterprise-scale experience, personally accountable.

I’m Danny Barbour. Over the last 30 years, I’ve commissioned the IT systems aboard a U.S. Navy warship, protected Nike’s global backup environment for 15 years, led Fortune 500 outage calls at Quantum, and built Igneous’s reliability and support teams from scratch through its acquisition by Rubrik and Rubrik’s IPO.

I’ve worked in just about every corner of the data center: servers, storage, networking, backup, databases, cloud, Kubernetes, and security. I translate technical risk into plain business terms, I don’t hand your work off to junior staff or a call center, and I treat your systems like they’re my own.

These days I also build and run AI systems safely for organizations. I built ztd and OpenDevOps, software for running secure automation and AI across cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped environments. Whether you run a small business, a medical practice, a financial firm, a nonprofit, a public agency, or a large enterprise, the goal is the same: systems that are secure, recoverable, and reliable, and someone who takes the whole job off your plate. Tell me what needs fixing, and I’ll handle it from there.

2025—NowLateralus Labs · Principal Infrastructure & Security Architect
2021—2025Rubrik (NYSE: RBRK) · Staff Site Reliability Engineer, NAS Cloud Direct
2019—2020Igneous (acquired by Rubrik) · Service Reliability Engineer, built service & support from scratch
2015—2019Quantum Corp · Principal NAS Expert & Escalation Lead
2000—2015Nike World HQ · Senior Data Protection Engineer & Operations Lead
1996—2000U.S. Navy · Information Systems Technician (IT2), USS Bataan (LHD-5) commissioning crew
04 / CONTACT

Let's talk about what you're facing.

Call or text, or book a 15-minute call. You'll talk with me directly, not a sales team, and you'll come away knowing exactly how I'd handle it. I work on-site throughout the Portland area and remotely anywhere in the world, and I'm authorized to work in both the U.S. and the EU. Hiring for a senior infrastructure, SRE, or security architecture role? I'm happy to have that conversation too.

503-828-7197 danny@lateraluslabs.com

VA-Verified Veteran-Owned Small Business · CAGE 13JA1

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