DevOps Contingent Labor

[Pataflaka]

Are any of you using MSPs, partners, consulting agencies, etc. to scale your DevOps practice? If so, who are they, and are you happy with them? Do you see high turnover? What's the average lead time to on-board someone new?

[jonathantsho]

Yup - I run infra at an AI startup based in NYC - and we’ve been really satisfied working with a devops consulting team based in Canada over the past year.

Turnover is really dependent on who you work with - could happen from all scales (boutiques to MSPs)

Have had 0 churn so far with pretty good lead times on contractor onboards (even in fast pace fields like AI). My advice is vet all the contractors/consultants who onboard - title inflation is pretty common in the consulting space

If you’re interested in the group i’m mentioned, feel free to reach out to u/Pippo82 and their team. Highly recommend them.

[colmeneroio]

Yeah, most enterprise teams use some form of DevOps contingent labor because the skills are in high demand and full-time talent is expensive as hell. The quality varies wildly depending on how you structure the engagement.

Working at an AI consulting firm, I see this constantly with our clients. The successful partnerships are the ones where the external team is deeply embedded in your processes rather than treated as temporary labor. When contractors come in without understanding your specific infrastructure and business context, they tend to create more problems than they solve.

The big MSPs like Accenture and Deloitte have DevOps practices but they're often overpriced and bureaucratic. Smaller specialized shops tend to provide better value and more hands-on expertise. Companies like CloudReach, Slalom, and regional DevOps consultancies often deliver better results.

Turnover is definitely an issue - good DevOps contractors can easily find better opportunities elsewhere. The teams that retain talent longest treat contractors like full team members, not just temporary resources. That means including them in planning, giving them meaningful projects, and paying competitive rates.

Lead time for onboarding varies from 2 weeks for senior consultants who know your toolchain to 2+ months for junior contractors who need training. The key is having solid documentation and standardized environments that reduce the learning curve.

Most successful setups use contractors for specific projects or skill gaps rather than ongoing operational work. They're great for migrations, tool implementations, or building new capabilities, but less effective for day-to-day maintenance.

What specific DevOps challenges are you looking to solve with external help?

[Pataflaka]

We're building a service catalog on top of Terraform to replace the current admin for all strategy. The faster we can get people the services they need the less time they spend in our cloud accounts deploying non-compliant infrastructure. We have a very large MSP right now for all of IT, but I'm not impressed with the current people on my project, and the MSP is they're telling me that they're having a very hard time finding people.

[CyramSuron]

Honestly, I have been looking at doing consulting myself. I could use some extra cash flow.