The practice
Polaris does consulting, design, implementation, and software. Most work is a defined project with a written scope; ongoing advisory work is arranged in writing too.
What Polaris builds
Networks, servers, storage and backup, identity and access, cloud and on-premises platforms, and the moves and migrations between them. Written assessments and specifications a client can act on with or without Polaris. Software, when the right answer is something written rather than something bought.
How Polaris works
One person is accountable for the whole system
The person who assesses the problem designs the solution, builds it, documents it, and answers for it afterward. There are no handoffs, no rotation, and no ticket queue.
Written before built
A project starts with a design that says what will be built, what it will cost, and what it leaves out. Nothing is bought or changed until that is agreed.
Nothing resold
Polaris does not sell hardware, licenses, or subscriptions and takes no commission on anything it recommends. Advice about what to buy is worth more when there is nothing to sell.
The client stays in control
Credentials, vendor accounts, and documentation belong to the client from the start. Staff are shown how to handle the ordinary things themselves, so Polaris is called for the work that actually needs it. A client can leave with everything required to carry on.
Rates and terms
Rates are published so you can know what this costs before you get in touch. There is no monthly fee and no long-term contract.
- Consulting, design, and implementation
- $225 per hour, billed in quarter-hour increments
- Emergency and after-hours work
- Base rate plus 50%
- Site visits, Chapel Hill and Carrboro
- $95 flat
- Site visits, elsewhere in the Triangle
- $150 flat — Durham, Hillsborough, Pittsboro, RTP, Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, and Apex
- Site visits further out
- Quoted in advance
- 501(c)(3) nonprofits
- 15% off billed time
A site-visit fee covers the trip, not the work itself; travel time is not billed separately. Project work is quoted in writing against the design. Retainers for ongoing advice or reserved availability are set by agreement.