Build a cloud application around one workload users can test.
RaftLabs develops new SaaS products, internal tools, APIs, and real-time applications on AWS, Azure, or GCP. The first release pairs one core workflow with managed infrastructure, deployment automation, observability, and handover, so the product and its operating model are scoped together rather than separated into later DevOps work.
From $25K Focused first release·About 12 weeks Planning window·1 system Operating boundary
The problem
Sound familiar?
Is a new product being scoped without anyone owning its deployment, scaling, recovery, or cloud cost model?
Does every proposed architecture assume a different cloud service and make vendor estimates impossible to compare?
Short answer
Cloud application development builds a new product around managed cloud services, deployment automation, observability, and explicit operating ownership. RaftLabs develops SaaS, internal tools, APIs, and real-time systems on AWS, Azure, or GCP. A focused first release starts at $25,000 and commonly takes about 12 weeks.
A cloud bill does not make an application cloud-native.
A product can run on a major provider and still depend on manual deployments, one fragile server, hidden environment differences, and an engineer who knows how to restart it. Moving those problems into a cloud account changes the invoice, not the operating model.
The first release should prove both halves of the system: a workflow users value and an application the team can deploy, observe, recover, and change without reconstructing its infrastructure from memory.
Relevant delivery record
10,000
transactions in a mobile POS product's first three months
RaftLabs project record
4,000
connected screens served by an AWS entertainment platform
RaftLabs ULT Movies project record
300+
simultaneous participants supported by a real-time voice platform
RaftLabs PSi project record
These figures describe shipped products with cloud, transaction, or real-time demands. They are not standard performance guarantees for a new application. The mobile POS, ULT Movies, and PSi case studies state their own evidence and delivery context.
Cloud application development fits a new product or deliberate rebuild whose operating model must be designed with the workflow.
Choose migration for an existing workload, or a configured platform when the requirement is already standard.
A fit
01
One user workflow can define a first release and its acceptance evidence.
02
Product and technical owners can decide data, integration, security, and recovery trade-offs.
03
The team wants application code, infrastructure, delivery, and observability scoped together.
Not a fit
01
The only goal is to move an existing application without changing its product boundary.
02
A standard SaaS tool already covers the workflow and custom differentiation is weak.
03
No owner can approve architecture, provide domain access, or operate the released system.
First release
What a focused cloud application includes
01
One complete product workflow
Build the interface, API, business rules, background work, and data path
needed for one user outcome. Keep optional modules outside the first
acceptance boundary until people can test the core loop.
02
Managed application infrastructure
Choose functions, containers, databases, queues, storage, identity, and
networking from actual workload needs. Record where a managed service reduces
operations and where it would create cost or lock-in without enough benefit.
03
Repeatable delivery and environments
Define infrastructure in code, separate staging and production, automate tests
and deployment, keep secrets outside repositories, and make rollback a
rehearsable path rather than a sentence in a launch plan.
04
Telemetry, recovery, and handover
Add structured logs, useful service measures, alerts with owners, backup and
restore checks, and runbooks for likely failures. The operating team receives
code, access, diagrams, decisions, and known limitations.
New cloud application or migration?
Greenfield delivery vs workload migration
Cloud application development
Cloud migration
Starting point
New product or deliberate rebuild
Existing application and data
Primary decision
What should the first operable product be?
How should the current workload move safely?
Architecture freedom
High, within product and team constraints
Limited by dependencies and cutover risk
Acceptance
User workflow plus operating evidence
Parity, reconciliation, cutover, and rollback evidence
Starting point
$25K and about 12 weeks
$25K and six to ten weeks for one workload
Choose this page when product and platform decisions must be made together. Choose cloud migration services when current behaviour, data, and continuity are the main constraints. Use SaaS development when multi-tenancy, billing, tenant isolation, and commercial onboarding are the defining problems.
Delivery
From product boundary to an operable first release
Four steps connect user value to the system that must run it.
Step 1
01
Define the workload and operating target
Name the user workflow, traffic, data, integrations, security needs, recovery
expectations, and team that will run the first release. Record acceptance
evidence and the modules deliberately left out.
Step 2
02
Choose the smallest useful architecture
Select provider and managed services from workload evidence, then document
cost assumptions, alternatives, and reversibility. Avoid designing for traffic
or complexity the first release does not need.
Step 3
03
Build product and platform together
Deliver the workflow, infrastructure code, environments, pipeline, tests, and
telemetry through reviewable increments. Demonstrate working software in a
real staging environment rather than presentation-only progress.
Step 4
04
Validate release and ownership
Test behaviour, load assumptions, failure paths, deployment, recovery, and
handover before planning the next module. Record residual risks and give the
operating team access before launch.
Risks that change the estimate
Scale is described without a traffic shape
Average users hide bursts, concurrency, payload size, and background work. Estimate from representative paths and state what has not been load tested.
Managed services are chosen by fashion
A service can reduce maintenance or create expensive coupling. Compare it with the team's skills, portability needs, and expected usage.
Compliance is deferred to launch
Identify sensitive data, access, retention, evidence, and qualified advisers early. Cloud-provider certification does not certify the customer's application.
Nobody owns production
Name who receives alerts, approves releases, restores data, manages vendor spend, and decides when an incident needs escalation.
Scope and price
A focused cloud application starts at $25,000.
Begin with one complete workflow and the operating path required to release it.
Starts at $25K
A focused first release commonly takes about 12 weeks. Modules, integrations, data work, real-time behaviour, recovery, and security controls move the estimate.
Cloud use, model or communications APIs, licensed data, and other third-party fees are separate unless the written proposal includes them.
Product and platform share one scope
The first phase states its workflow, infrastructure, deployment, monitoring,
recovery, client dependencies, acceptance evidence, and exclusions.
The client owns the system
Application code, infrastructure code, environments, access, diagrams, and
runbooks remain in the client's accounts and repositories.
Cloud application development creates a new software product with cloud deployment and operation designed alongside its user workflow. The scope may use managed databases, queues, functions, containers, storage, or identity where they fit. It should also include environments, deployment automation, monitoring, recovery, access, cost assumptions, and a team handover.
Cloud migration moves and validates an existing workload, often preserving some current architecture to manage cutover risk. Cloud application development builds a new product or deliberate rebuild around a fresh operating boundary. If the main problem is moving servers, data, and identity without disruption, use cloud migration rather than this page.
The choice follows existing skills and contracts, Microsoft or Google dependencies, data and AI services, regional requirements, expected traffic, service maturity, and acceptable operating burden. We document the decision and alternatives. We do not claim one provider is always cheaper or technically better for every workload.
Security and agreed technical controls can be included in architecture, implementation, testing, and evidence collection. Compliance obligations still depend on the customer's data, configuration, contracts, and operating process. RaftLabs does not provide legal advice, certify compliance, or promise that using a certified cloud service makes the resulting application compliant.
A focused first release with one core workflow starts at $25,000 and commonly takes about 12 weeks. Product modules, integrations, real-time behaviour, data migration, multi-region recovery, sensitive-data controls, and unusual load can increase scope. Cloud consumption and third-party service fees remain separate unless the proposal says otherwise.
Work with us
Bring the workflow and the operating questions around it.
We will review users, product, data, traffic, integration, recovery, and ownership assumptions, then propose the smallest cloud release worth testing.
Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
