Jonathan Bird Web Design & Development
  1. Website Platforms
  2. AWS Cloud Management
AWS

AWS Cloud Consulting Brisbane

Australian AWS environments designed and operated around the application.

We use AWS to host and operate web applications that need Australian infrastructure, managed databases, queues, object storage, email delivery, monitoring and capacity to scale. Our AWS work includes environments for Culture Kings, Wotif, Impact Office Supplies, All 4 Adventure and AMA Group. We design the environment around the application, document it and continue to maintain it after launch.

Platform fit

Is this the right platform?

The platform should follow the requirements. These are the conditions we test before recommending AWS.

A good fit when

AWS fits business-critical systems that need dependable infrastructure, clear monitoring, managed backups and room to scale with the application.

Consider another option when

It is not the default recommendation for every website, and this service is focused on the infrastructure around web platforms rather than broad enterprise cloud transformation.

Featured projects built with AWS

Selected production projects showing the requirements, integrations and ongoing responsibilities behind our AWS work.

Want something like this for your organisation?

Tell us what you are trying to achieve. We will clarify the requirements and recommend a sensible next step before defining scope, timing, and cost.

What clients say about working with us

“Digital Bird was excellent to work with. After countless attempts with speaking with agencies and other web design contractors, we finally found Jonathan and the team, and what a blessing that was. The project was handled end to end, with clear communication the entire time. We have now engaged Jonathan and the team for on-going website management and work due to how well things turned out. If you are on the fence about which direction to go, I highly recommend just taking a call with Jonathan and the team and seeing what you can achieve together.”

Will Cross ROH Wheels
Head of Marketing & Partnerships, ROH Wheels
Google reviews

“We have used Jonathan for a number of years to develop and maintain our rather complicated Online Portal and website. Jonathan is always extremely responsive to requests and proactive in ensuring our online presence is safe, presents well and is functional to our customers needs. We would definitely recommend Jonathan for your custom web development needs.”

Nathan Smith East Coast Bullbars
Marketing Manager, East Coast Bullbars

“Digital Bird is my first pick for delivering web projects on time, on budget and to the brief — every time.

Beyond being a delight to work with, Jonathan Bird is that rare breed of developer who is both masterful on the tools (an absolute Laravel whizz!) while also being adept at engaging the client in UX-thinking, to which he applies expert insights, gained through years of experience, to help further improve the end design for the target user’s experience.

This powerful combination of skills means that 4 years on and a variety of projects later (from search directories to corporate website developments), Digital Bird firmly remains my first pick for developer.”

Emma Keller Brisbane South PHN
Communications Manager, Brisbane South PHN

“We’ve been working with Jonathan Bird for our website maintenance, and he has been nothing short of exceptional. Jonathan consistently goes above and beyond, responding quickly whenever we need help and resolving issues with impressive turnaround time. His communication is clear and thorough — he always explains what the problem was, how he fixed it, and provides helpful recommendations for long-term solutions. It’s rare to find someone this reliable and proactive. Highly recommend!”

Nichola Ross Rapidline (FurnX Commercial Furniture)
Marketing Manager, Rapidline (FurnX Commercial Furniture)

“Digital Bird has had a huge influence on our business providing many solutions besides just a fantastic reliable website. Jonathan is great to work with and has a solution to every challenge. Jonathan also has the ability to “dumb it down” and provide timely advice and assistance if something goes astray. With Jonathan we have in excess of 99% uptime on all three websites.”

Jeff Ross Impact Office Supplies Logo
Director, Impact Office Supplies

“Velg Training has had an excellent experience working with Digital Bird. Jonathan has supported us with a complex Laravel/PHP website and has brought a rare mix of deep technical knowledge, practical problem solving, and clear communication.

He has assisted with major infrastructure and platform work across AWS, Laravel Forge, Cloudflare, Redis, S3, Sentry, PayWay, Mailchimp/Mandrill and related integrations. His work has included setting up and migrating infrastructure, improving performance, resolving production issues, monitoring errors, modernising legacy code, and strengthening the reliability of key business workflows such as checkout, invoicing, membership exports, PDF generation, transactional emails and background queues.

What stands out most is that Jonathan does not just “fix the ticket”. He investigates properly, explains the cause in plain language, and looks for the right long-term solution rather than quick patches. He has helped us move away from fragile legacy processes, improve automated testing, reduce errors, improve email reliability, address performance bottlenecks, and make the platform easier to maintain into the future.

He is responsive, thorough and highly professional, with an obvious understanding of business-critical websites and custom web applications. We would happily recommend Jonathan to any organisation needing a skilled, reliable and commercially minded Laravel/PHP web developer.”

Leonie Davis Velg Training
Director, Content and Strategy, Velg Training

“Was an absolute pleasure to work with Jonathan. Could not be happier with our new website! Professional, responsive, brilliant communication from the beginning to go live. If you are fortunate enough to be in a conversation with Jonathan for a new site - just do it!”

Alex Brennan Blue Ink Office Supplies
Director, Blue Ink Office Supplies

“I’ve worked with Jonathan from Digital Bird for several years and found him to be a highly competent developer who often exceeds expectations.

Together, we’ve collaborated on a number of medium-sized platforms serving hundreds of thousands of users, including learning management systems, a widely-used school well-being platform, trade promotion competition sites, and more.

Jonathan is very skilled in API and platform integration, payment systems (such as Stripe), AWS, internet security, and more. As a Project Manager/Product Owner, I feel very confident working with Jonathan and recommending his services to our clients.”

Zachary Bavas Invision Media
Technical Operations, Invision Media

“Highly recommend Jonathan for anything web development in Brisbane and Australia-wide. Have worked with a lot of developers over the years and Jonathan’s work and communication on projects has been a clear standout. A very talent developer if you’re looking for anything from WordPress, Shopify, Laravel, or anything in-between.”

Brodie Clark Brodie Clark Consulting Logo
Director, Brodie Clark SEO Consulting

“Jonathan Bird is one of the best I have worked with in this space. He is responsive, clever and contributes to the brief, and most importantly, he is a great person to work with. It can be hard to find the right people who can take on something and lift it to another dimension. Jonathan does that and more.”

Mark Gold AMA Group Logo
Director of Corporate Affairs, AMA Group Ltd
Capabilities

What we build with AWS

Design, development, integration and support delivered by the people responsible for the technical decisions.

Application hosting and network design

We design the network, compute, load balancing and deployment setup around the application’s traffic, availability and access requirements. Production and non-production environments are separated and documented.

Managed databases, queues and storage

We configure managed databases, object storage, queues, caches and email services where they reduce operational work for the application. Capacity, retention and access are set deliberately rather than left at service defaults.

Backups and recovery planning

Database and file backups are automated with retention appropriate to the system. Recovery steps are documented and tested so a backup can be restored when it is actually needed.

Monitoring, logs and alerts

Application health, infrastructure capacity, queues, certificates and backups are monitored. Alerts are routed with enough context to identify the affected service and begin investigation.

Access control and security hardening

We configure network boundaries, least-privilege access, encryption, secrets and centralised logs around the application. Security responsibilities across AWS, the operating system and the application are documented.

Capacity and cost review

We review utilisation, storage growth, data transfer and service choices on an agreed schedule. Changes are recommended when the environment is consistently oversized, approaching a limit or paying for a service the application no longer needs.

How the work is staffed

Who designs and operates the AWS environment

Our team has operated production AWS infrastructure for Culture Kings, Impact Office Supplies, All 4 Adventure and AMA Group for more than a decade. The people designing the environment also provision, monitor and support it.

Separate project roles

Architecture, delivery and operations sit with different people.

  • Architecture, provisioning, and application delivery may sit with separate teams or suppliers.

  • Questions usually go through an account or project manager before reaching the people operating the infrastructure.

  • The architecture team may not be responsible for operating the environment after launch.

  • The operations team receives the environment after design and has to learn the application.

  • A different operations team takes over after launch and has to learn the environment.

  • Cost, security and capacity are reviewed only when an incident or budget problem occurs.

Our team

The engineers designing the environment also operate it.

  • Our engineers design, provision and harden the AWS environment.

  • You speak directly with the people responsible for the infrastructure, from planning through support.

  • The engineers who design the environment also monitor it and respond to incidents.

  • Our team has designed and operated high-traffic AWS environments for more than a decade.

  • The engineers who built the environment continue to support it. Most of our client relationships run for five to seven years.

  • We review costs, security and capacity on an agreed schedule and test infrastructure updates before rollout.

Straight advice

Choose the platform from the requirements.

We assess AWS against the requirements and explain when another option would be cheaper or easier to maintain.

Start with constraints

Content, workflows, integrations, governance and ownership matter more than a feature checklist.

Avoid custom work without a reason

Configuration is preferable when it genuinely meets the requirement and remains maintainable.

Plan for operational ownership

The choice must still make sense for the team maintaining it after launch.

How our team works

The people making the platform decisions also deliver the work.

You speak directly with the developers and designers working on the project, and they continue to support it after launch.
  • Direct access to senior people
  • Design and development working closely together
  • Technical advice from the people responsible for implementation
  • Senior developers remain involved throughout delivery
  • The same team supports the site after launch
“Jonathan Bird is one of the best I have worked with in this space. He is responsive, clever and contributes to the brief, and most importantly, he is a great person to work with. It can be hard to find the right people who can take on something and lift it to another dimension. Jonathan does that and more.”
Mark Gold Director of Corporate Affairs, AMA Group Ltd AMA Group Logo
FAQ

Common AWS Project Questions

Common questions our team is asked about AWS Cloud Management.
Yes, we can design the main workload around AWS services hosted in Australian regions. Data location still needs to be checked service by service, including backups, logs, support tools and any external integrations, then documented against the organisation’s requirements.
AWS is Amazon's cloud platform. For web projects we mainly use its Australian data centres, virtual servers, managed databases, object storage, content delivery, email and monitoring services. The services used in an architecture depend on the application's traffic, data and support requirements.
Traffic can be spread across several application servers with an Elastic Load Balancer, while EC2 Auto Scaling adds or removes capacity as demand changes. CloudFront serves cached assets closer to users and can absorb much of the request volume. These services still need appropriate limits, health checks, monitoring and load testing for the application.
AWS provides security tools including IAM for access control, VPCs for network isolation, KMS for encryption keys and WAF for filtering web traffic. They do not secure an application by themselves. We configure least-privilege access, separate environments, encryption, patching, backups, centralised logs and alerts around the needs of each system.

Bring us your AWS platform decision

Book a free strategy session with the senior people who scope and deliver the work. We will help clarify the problem, test assumptions and identify a practical next step—without turning the session into a generic sales call.

Planning a project?

Free Strategy Session
Free Strategy Session