Martin Aziz, Martin Business Consultants: self-hosted infrastructure and technology consulting

Ruby on Rails · Inertia · React
AWS · Cloudflare

At the intersection of software & business.

We help businesses run on infrastructure they own, with open-source tools they control.

Get in touch

Martin Business Consultants

Your own server.Not a slice of someone else’s.

Software that stays up, data that stays yours, and relationships built on straight talk.

Ruby on Rails
Inertia
React
AWS
Cloudflare
Docker
Kamal

Why this, why now

AI is reshaping software. The fallout has already started. Product quality and reliability are dropping, and security vulnerabilities are multiplying.

Two trends are running in parallel, and they're getting worse together. AI-accelerated development is shipping broken software faster than it used to be shipped working, and the resulting attack surface is expanding faster than the people defending it can keep up.

We're betting on the other side. Decentralization. Open source. Data you own. Software that's boring, by design, because it stays up. This is not a stance against AI. It's a stance for the customers and businesses left holding the bill when the consequences arrive.

Our principles

Four principles, applied to every recommendation.

Every system we build or operate is anchored in the same commitments. They shape what we will and won't build for you.

Data ownership

Your data, your keys, your audit trail. Insulated from vendor price swings and EULA changes, because you own the asset.

02Fork

Open source

No proprietary black boxes, no per-seat lock-in, no surprise license changes. We build on software you can read, fork, and outlive.

Self-hosted

Workloads run on infrastructure you control. You keep ownership, full operational visibility, and a working exit plan from any vendor.

Decentralized

No single vendor as a single point of failure. Portable architectures that survive when platforms pivot, get acquired, or sunset features.

What we do

Services.

A focused set of services for businesses that need senior-level technology operations without building the team in-house.

Data ownership
Open source
Self-hosted
Decentralized

ConsultingBusiness & Technology

Strategic guidance at the intersection of software and business, from architecture reviews to vendor selection and roadmap planning.

Architecture & systems review
Vendor and platform selection
Technology roadmap planning
Fractional CTO engagements

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Service01/ 09Business & Technology

Web HostingManaged

Reliable, performant hosting for marketing sites, applications, and APIs, provisioned, monitored, and maintained on your behalf.

Static and dynamic site hosting
Containerized application infrastructure
Zero-downtime deploys via Kamal
24/7 monitoring and patching

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Service02/ 09Managed

Kamal CloudProduction Servers for Kamal

Kamal ships your containers. Kamal Cloud runs the machines underneath, provisioned, hardened, patched, backed up and watched, inside your own cloud account.

Hardened servers in your own Hetzner, DigitalOcean or AWS account
Standard Kamal config, no lock-in
Push-to-deploy, scheduled tasks, accessory backups
Costs, analytics and advisory agents
Notifications to email, Slack, Discord or webhook

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Service03/ 09Production Servers for Kamal

RunwellProject Management

Our in-house project management platform. Focused, opinionated, and free of the bloat that plagues general-purpose PM tools.

Engagement-focused project structure
Decision and status tracking
Client-friendly access and visibility
Built and operated by us

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Service04/ 09Project Management

OutsendEmail Deliverability & Newsletters

Our AWS-backed sending platform for transactional email and newsletters. Inbox-grade deliverability without surrendering your sender reputation to a third party.

Transactional email on AWS SES
Full-featured newsletter platform
SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and BIMI configured
Reputation and deliverability monitoring

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Service05/ 09Email Deliverability & Newsletters

VaultwardenSecurity & Password Management

Self-hosted password vaults on infrastructure you control. Enterprise-grade password management without subscribing to another SaaS vendor.

Self-hosted Vaultwarden deployments
Bitwarden client compatibility
MFA, SSO, and access reviews
Secrets management and rotation

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Service06/ 09Security & Password Management

ONLYOFFICEDocuments & Collaboration

Self-hosted document collaboration. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint compatible, without sending your business documents to Google or Microsoft.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint format compatibility (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx)
Real-time co-editing across the team
Self-hosted, documents stay on your infrastructure
Forms, PDF editing, and document automation

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Service07/ 09Documents & Collaboration

Domain & DNSCloudflare

Centralized domain portfolio and DNS management on Cloudflare, registration, renewals, zone configuration, and migrations done right.

Cloudflare Registrar consolidation
Authoritative DNS configuration
Renewal and expiration monitoring
Zero-downtime DNS migrations

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Service08/ 09Cloudflare

CDN, WAF & TurnstileCloudflare

Edge caching, web application firewall, and Turnstile bot protection on Cloudflare, tuned to make your site fast everywhere and resilient under load.

Edge caching and image optimization
Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules
Turnstile, privacy-respecting CAPTCHA replacement
Origin protection and offload

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Service09/ 09Cloudflare

All services

What you get

When we say self-hosted, we mean it. Every workload we deliver runs on dedicated, single-tenant infrastructure.

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1One client, one server

Your own server. Not a slice of someone else’s.

Your data, your logs, and your backups never touch anyone else’s. Not a virtualized slice in a managed pool. Your server.

Dedicated hardware
Isolated data
Predictable cost

Hardware: Hetzner or OVH dedicated metal
Backups: 3-2-1, immutable offsite

Our platforms

Kamal ships your containers. Kamal Cloud runs the machines underneath.

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KKamal Cloud

Kamal Cloud: Production Servers for Kamal

Provisioned, hardened, patched, backed up and watched, inside your own Hetzner, DigitalOcean or AWS account. No lock-in.

Hardened servers
Push to deploy
Standard Kamal config

Type: Server management
Price: $29/month

Our platforms

Built because every off-the-shelf option got in our own way. We use it on every engagement.

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RRunwell

Runwell: Project Management

Scoping, status, decisions, and deliverables in one place, without the noise of Jira boards or the structurelessness of a shared doc.

Engagement-focused
Decision tracking
Self-hosted

Type: In-house platform
Runs on: Linux · Docker · Kamal

Our platforms

Your subscriber list and your sender reputation should not live inside someone else’s product.

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OOutsend

Outsend: Email Deliverability & Newsletters

Transactional sending on AWS SES infrastructure paired with a first-class newsletter experience. Inbox-grade deliverability.

SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI
Newsletters
Reputation monitoring

Type: Sending platform
Built on: AWS SES

How we keep it reliable

What managed actually means.

Every client server stands up the same way: hardened, monitored, backed up, ready for users. Same playbook for every engagement, because consistency is what reliability is made of.

Read the playbook

Step 01Provision

One command, about thirty minutes

A dedicated Hetzner server stands up with DNS on Cloudflare, Docker, and Kamal Proxy on the public ports, ready for users.

Step 02Harden

The same baseline, on day one

Public SSH is closed. Admin access is via Tailscale. Firewall, key-only SSH, fail2ban, no root login.

Step 03Back up

We test recovery, not just backup

Backups on 3-2-1, three copies, two media, one offsite. Immutable offsite targets, and monthly restore drills.

Step 04Operate

Monitoring routed to a human

24/7 monitoring routed to an actual human. OS and dependency patching on a documented cadence, with scheduled access reviews.

In their words

The first call when something matters.

Small engagements, direct contact, and clients who have stayed with us for years.

How we work with you

The values behind the principles.

Relationships: Small engagements, direct contact, no account-manager handoffs. We work with people we like, for years.
Honesty: We tell you straight when something is a bad idea, even when it's our own service. The only way the relationship works.

Start a conversation

MBC has been our IT team for years, across the restaurant and the investment side. They built infrastructure we actually own, our costs are predictable, and they're the first call when something matters.

Tim WoodhamsRestaurant & investment portfolios, infrastructure, web & IT support

The stack we ship on

A deliberately boring toolchain that fits in one head, deploys atomically, and stays up. Stability and reliability aren't extras, they're the product.