Your system knows things your team doesn't.
A rapid technical audit of your codebase and cloud infrastructure — what it costs to run, where it's fragile, and what nobody ever documented. Most engagements complete in days.
A direct translation from your system itself — not a consultant's interpretation.
What you're actually running
A complete map of your cloud infrastructure — not what you think is deployed, but what's actually there and what it's doing.
Where you're overspending
Cloud costs broken down by what you're using versus what you're paying for. Finding savings here is common — often enough to cover the engagement fee.
Why changes break things
A map of where your system is tightly coupled — the reason small changes have large, unpredictable consequences in places they shouldn't.
What's slowing your team down
Dead code, undocumented dependencies, and accumulated complexity that nobody ever cleaned up — all surfaced and quantified.
A briefing leadership can use
Two versions of the findings: a CEO-readable summary of what's broken and what it's costing, and a technical deep dive for whoever has to fix it.
What to fix and in what order
A prioritized refactoring roadmap designed to run alongside your product work — not instead of it.
Also includes: dependency map, security scan, and a documentation package ready to feed into AI development tools.
What tends to surface
These are the categories that show up repeatedly when the analysis reads the actual system instead of relying on assumptions or stale documentation.
Average cloud overspend identified. Unused resources, over-provisioned instances, and duplicated services that have accumulated over years.
API keys, credentials, and secrets committed directly to production code. Found in most codebases. Creates breach liability and compliance exposure.
Tightly coupled services that cause cascade failures. A change in one component breaks three others — and the team often doesn't know why until it's in production.
Average portion of codebase that is dead code, deprecated dependencies, or untested paths. Directly impacts engineering velocity and hire-ramp time.
SOC 2, ISO 27001, and NIST AI framework gap analysis mapped to actual code and infrastructure. Critical for regulated sector acquisitions.
Whether the current architecture can handle 10x the current load — and what breaks first if it can't. Informs post-acquisition growth planning.
“I've been wondering how this worked for two years since I got here. It diagrammed it better than I would have.”
Minimal access. Mostly automated. Done in days.
What we need from you:
- ✓Read-only access to your code repository
- ✓AWS Cost Explorer (read-only — no admin needed)
- ✓A database dump for ERD documentation
- ✓An IT contact to help coordinate access
Who this is for
CEOs & operators
You've been told engineering is slow but can't get a straight answer on why. Ground Truth gives you the specific picture — not opinions, not estimates.
New CTOs & heads of engineering
You've inherited a codebase and need to understand what you have before you can lead it. Most new CTOs say this is the document they wished they'd had on day one.
PE & VC firms
Independent technical due diligence before close. The same analytical framework on every target, with findings formatted for IC presentation and deal team use.
Know what you actually have.
If you're not sure whether Ground Truth is the right starting point, we're happy to talk through what you're dealing with first.
Or reach us at hello@grounded-work.com
Ground Truth is often the first step.
Tech Debt Modernization
Once you have the picture, we help you act on it. AI-accelerated modernization that runs alongside your product roadmap.
AI Readiness
The operational complement to Ground Truth — tools audit, compliance gaps, governance frameworks.