Datadog consultancy
that can stay after the handover.
We assess, implement, fix and migrate Datadog for UK teams on AWS and Azure. When the project ends, you choose: your team takes it on, or we run it 24x7. Critical Cloud is a Datadog Advanced Partner and the world's first Powered by Datadog accredited MSP.
Datadog is easy to switch on and hard to make useful
The agent installs in minutes. The value takes a tag model, an alerting strategy and someone accountable for both.
Every default in Datadog is reasonable on its own. Collect every log. Keep every metric. Alert on every threshold that looked important on the day it was set.
Put those defaults together across a growing estate and you get a bill that rises faster than the signal, dashboards nobody opens, and a pager the on-call engineer has quietly learned to ignore.
That is what a Datadog consultancy is for. Not installing the agent, which your team can do, but turning the platform into something that finds the problem at 3am and costs what it should. The most common gap we see is tagging: services that cannot be queried by the names your teams use, which makes every other part of Datadog harder than it needs to be.
What we do, by the problem in front of you
Most engagements start with one problem, not the whole platform. Pick the closest match.
Evaluate You are deciding whether Datadog is right FETCH: complimentary trial enablement, so the evaluation produces a real answer.
Most Datadog trials fail because nothing meaningful was connected, not because the platform was wrong. FETCH instruments the trial against your real services, so the decision at the end is based on your own environment. About FETCH.
Implement You are rolling Datadog out properly LaunchPad: a fully project-managed implementation across accounts and teams.
Integrations, agent rollout, the tag model, dashboards, monitors, SLOs and runbooks, delivered as one managed project with a defined scope rather than a queue of tickets. Onboarding for your teams is part of the work, because a platform nobody knows how to use does not get used. About LaunchPad.
HyperCare follows go-live as a two-week sprint, catching the noise and gaps that only show up under real traffic. About HyperCare.
Assess Datadog is in place and not delivering HealthScan: an independent read-only assessment in one to two weeks.
We review the environment with read-only access and come back with a health scorecard and a prioritised improvement backlog: coverage gaps, alert noise, cost drivers and the fixes worth doing first. It is the right starting point when the question is where to begin. About HealthScan.
Improve You have a backlog and no time to work it Catalyst: backlog-led improvement engineering by Datadog specialists.
Catalyst works through the improvement backlog, whether it came from a HealthScan or from your own team: monitor redesign and alert tuning, tagging, dashboard rationalisation and SLO design. About Catalyst.
Cost The bill is growing faster than the value Log volume, custom metric cardinality and APM host count, governed rather than cut.
We find where spend is growing without a matching gain in signal and fix it at the source: log pipelines and exclusion filters, metric tag configuration, and deliberate choices about where APM and Database Monitoring earn their place. Then we put governance in place so next quarter's bill has an explanation. Datadog cost optimisation.
Migrate You are moving to Datadog from another tool Splunk and legacy APM migrations, planned so nobody loses sight of production on the way.
We map what the old tool actually does for your teams, rebuild the searches, alerts and dashboards that matter, and move over in an order that keeps production visible throughout. The alerts nobody acted on in the old tool do not get migrated. Splunk to Datadog migration.
Extend You want one new capability, done well Accelerators: eight fixed-scope, fixed-price, four-week deliveries.
Infrastructure Observability, Code Security, Cloud Security, Threat Management, Digital Experience, Software Delivery, Service Management and AI Observability. Each one lands a single Datadog capability in four weeks with a defined outcome. About the Accelerators.
The part most Datadog consultancy leaves out
Week one of a Datadog rollout is rarely the problem. Month seven usually is.
A consultancy project ends with a handover. The environment then keeps changing: new services, new teams, new log sources, a monitor someone muted during an incident and never unmuted. Six months later the estate has drifted back towards its defaults, and nobody's job was to stop it.
We hand over properly: documented tagging standards, runbooks for the alerts that matter, and alert routing that reaches a named owner. If your team is going to run Datadog, that is what they need.
If it is not, we can run it for you. Managed Observability is the same people, operating the platform month to month: monitor tuning, noise reduction, cost governance and coverage as the environment changes. That is the difference between a Datadog consultancy and a Datadog MSP, and we are both. About Managed Observability.
How an engagement is scoped
Defined scope, defined duration, and a clear point where it ends or turns into ongoing operations.
Every engagement starts with a conversation about the environment. We agree what is in scope, what access we need and what done looks like before any work begins. Assessments run on read-only access. Accelerators are fixed-scope and fixed-price. Pricing depends on the environment, so we quote it after that first conversation.
We are the wrong choice if you want Datadog replaced: we build on it. And if all you need is a licence at the lowest price with no help attached, a reseller is the better route.
UK Datadog partner
Our Datadog practice in full: the accreditation, how we work, and why a managed service built on Datadog is different from one that simply resells it.
Read about our Datadog practice →Frequently asked questions
Direct answers to the questions we are asked most often.
Q What does a Datadog consultancy do?
A Datadog consultancy helps an organisation get value from Datadog: instrumenting a trial properly, rolling the platform out across accounts and teams, assessing an existing deployment, reducing alert noise and cost, and migrating from tools such as Splunk. The work is usually delivered as defined projects with a clear scope and end point.
Q What is the difference between a Datadog consultancy and a Datadog MSP?
A consultancy delivers a project and hands over. An MSP takes ongoing operational responsibility for running Datadog: monitoring, incident response, alert tuning and cost governance, month after month. Critical Cloud does both. Consultancy engagements end with a handover to your team, or with us running the platform as a managed service, and you choose which.
Q How long does a Datadog consultancy engagement take?
It depends on the work. A HealthScan assessment takes one to two weeks with read-only access. HyperCare is a two-week sprint after go-live. Each Accelerator is a fixed-scope, four-week delivery. A full LaunchPad rollout across a multi-account environment is a project measured in weeks, and we agree the scope before it starts.
Q Do you work with teams that already run Datadog?
Yes, and that is where most engagements start. HealthScan is an independent read-only review of an existing Datadog environment that produces a health scorecard and a prioritised improvement backlog. Catalyst then works through that backlog as improvement engineering.
Q Can you reduce our Datadog bill?
Usually, yes. Most Datadog bills are driven by three things: log volume, custom metric cardinality and APM host count. We find where each is growing without a matching gain in signal and fix it, then put governance in place so the bill stays explained. We never recommend cutting coverage your on-call engineers rely on.
Q Where are you based?
Critical Cloud is headquartered in Cardiff, with offices in London and Dublin. We work with organisations across the UK and Ireland on AWS and Azure, and our work is covered by ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
Tell us what Datadog is not doing for you
Whether you are evaluating it, rolling it out, or living with a deployment that is noisy and expensive, we can help, and we will tell you plainly if we are not the right fit.