AI infrastructure for mid-market IT

Make AI infrastructure decisions you can't easily undo.

Cloud or on-prem. GPU or inference API. Which vendor, which model, which data egress path. I spent four years inside Meta's data centers and a year at AWS networks. Now I help mid-market IT teams make those calls without the Big-4 deck — and without the regret.

Hyperscale infrastructure thinking. Mid-market scale.

Who this is for

You're about to make AI infrastructure decisions you'll live with for three years.

CIOs, Heads of IT, and Heads of Infrastructure at companies between $20M and $500M in revenue. Your team is being asked to support AI workloads. The vendors are calling. The cloud bills are climbing. The choices in front of you — cloud vs. on-prem, GPU strategy, vendor lock-in, data residency — are the kind that don't reverse cleanly.

  • 01You're picking the AI stack right now. Cloud, hybrid, on-prem GPUs, managed inference APIs — every option has a sales rep telling you they're the answer.
  • 02Your data has gravity. Moving it is expensive, slow, and political. The infrastructure choice has to respect where the data actually lives.
  • 03Your team is 5-30 people, not 500. You don't have a platform engineering org, an SRE bench, or an FinOps team. You're not going to hire one.
  • 04Your AI bill is going up. Sometimes 10x. You need to know whether that's the architecture, the vendor, or genuinely the workload.
  • 05You want operator advice, not analyst opinion. Someone who's been inside Meta's data centers and AWS networks, not someone who's written a report about them.

"The capabilities seem to change from week to week. We're being asked for a strategy on a target that won't sit still."

— CIO quoted in CIO.com, 2025
65%
of IT leaders don't have AI-ready data — or aren't sure if they do
40%
cite lack of in-house infrastructure expertise as their biggest AI blocker
3-5×
typical AI workload cost multiplier when infrastructure is wrong for the use case
$670K
average extra cost of a breach involving shadow AI (IBM, 2025)
What I do

Three ways to work together.

Fixed scope. Real prices. No surprise change orders.

Start here

AI Infrastructure Assessment

3 weeks · fixed scope

An honest read of where your infrastructure actually stands for AI workloads. Cloud posture, data flow, GPU/inference readiness, vendor exposure, FinOps reality. Ends with a roadmap your CFO will approve and your security team will sign.

  • 8-10 stakeholder interviews (IT, security, finance, data)
  • Audit across 8 infrastructure dimensions
  • Cloud vs. hybrid vs. on-prem recommendation
  • Vendor exposure & lock-in analysis
  • 12-month roadmap + 30-day quick wins
  • Executive readout with Q&A
From $25,000 · tiered by company size
Book a scoping call
Ship one thing

AI Stack Build Engagement

8-16 weeks · one workload, to production

We pick the one AI workload with the clearest ROI and stand up the infrastructure to run it well. Inference platform, RAG pipeline, GPU cluster, hybrid edge setup — whichever the assessment said to ship first.

  • Architecture & vendor selection
  • Build + integrate into your existing stack
  • Security, compliance & data-residency pass
  • FinOps guardrails so the bill stays sane
  • Handoff to your team, with runbooks
$75,000 – $250,000 · scoped per engagement
Book a scoping call
Embedded

Fractional AI Infrastructure Lead

6-18 months · ongoing leadership

Embedded infrastructure leadership for your AI buildout. I sit in your IT leadership cadence, run vendor evaluation, own the architecture decisions, and shield your team from hype. You get a hyperscale-trained operator without a hyperscale hire.

  • Weekly leadership cadence
  • Vendor evaluation & procurement support
  • Architecture ownership & quarterly reviews
  • Cloud spend & capacity planning
  • Direct mentorship for IT and ops leads
$12,000 – $25,000 / month
Book a scoping call
How I work

Operator first. Consultant second.

I'm not a Big-4 partner. I don't have an army of associates. I have fifteen years operating inside enterprise infrastructure — networks, data centers, support, capacity — including four years at Meta and one at AWS. I have a strong opinion about which infrastructure choices actually scale, and which ones look great in a vendor demo and fall apart in production.

Ship in 90 days, not 9 months

If a roadmap can't produce a visible win inside a quarter, it's a research project, not a transformation. Every engagement is designed around a shippable artifact, not a deck.

Buy before you build

Most mid-market AI infrastructure wins come from picking the right managed service and integrating it properly — not from running your own GPU cluster. I'll tell you when to self-host, and the answer is "rarely."

Right-size, don't over-size

Hyperscalers oversize because they have to. You don't. The capacity decisions that make sense at Meta scale will bankrupt you at mid-market scale — and vice versa. The math is the work.

Tell you what we are not doing

I'll be as clear about what to kill as what to ship. Half the value of an outside operator is the permission to ignore the 15 infrastructure vendors who emailed you last week.

About

Why me.

Yasin Jabbar
Founder & Principal Advisor

Fifteen years operating inside enterprise infrastructure. Four years at Meta in datacenter capacity engineering. One year at AWS as a Network Technician II. Now independent.

Meta · 4 years AWS · 1 year Datacenter capacity Hyperscale networks Cloud strategy Vendor evaluation

I spent the last four years inside Meta's data centers planning capacity for hyperscale infrastructure, and a year before that building networks at AWS. Fifteen years total inside enterprise IT, from network technician through hyperscale operator.

That perspective is the asset you're hiring. Most consultants selling AI infrastructure to mid-market IT teams have never planned capacity inside a hyperscaler. They've read about it. I've done it.

I started this practice because almost every mid-market IT leader I talk to has the same problem: they're being asked to support AI workloads, and the advice they're getting is either Big-4 decks priced at $500K+ or LinkedIn influencer slop. There's no honest middle.

I bring the infrastructure thinking I learned at Meta and AWS to teams that need it without the hyperscaler budget. Charlotte, NC. Serving clients across the US, remote with periodic on-site.

Insights

Where I publish.

Tactical notes from inside the work — the wins, the things I killed, and the vendors I'd never touch again.

LinkedIn

Field notes for mid-market IT leaders.

Short, tactical posts on the AI infrastructure choices that actually scale in mid-market environments — and the ones that look great in a vendor demo and fall apart in production.

Follow on LinkedIn →
Weekly briefing

The CIO Inbox.

A weekly note for mid-market IT leaders — one tactical piece, three news items with my take, one tool I'm using, one play to try this week.

Subscribe at TMC →
Next step

30 minutes. No pitch. Real answer.

Tell me where your infrastructure is and what AI workloads you're trying to support. I'll tell you the three things I'd do first, and whether you actually need me or just need a nudge in the right direction.

Book an infrastructure call

Prefer email? hello@yasinjabbar.com