About

Astra in Brief

Astra is dedicated to guiding startups towards establishing robust software infrastructure. It's a platform-as-a-service that you own and control, with maintenance and tooling provided by experts.

(For a more visual explanation, check out the demo!)

Explained Simply

Astra is a command line tool and infrastructure support engagement. Designed and committed to supporting early stage startups with their infrastructure needs and late stage startups with transitioning to their own infrastructure teams.

Why

Infrastructure is a complex, multifaceted issue. During the busy day-to-day operations of running a startup, many companies tend to neglect their infrastructure, opting instead for tasks that deliver immediate results. However, this often leads to the accumulation of technical debt as they later face the repercussions of their deteriorating infrastructure.

Startups shouldn't have to stress over infrastructure decisions. The need to hire an "infrastructure expert" should not be a priority. Instead of investing time searching for someone who is proficient in both deep infrastructure knowledge AND capable of delivering business-centric features, use Astra!

Astra acts as your dedicated infrastructure team, providing the support and expertise you need as your startup grows and evolves.

Process

We only engage with a limited amount of select clients, embed deeply, and then tend to stay for a while.

  • First, we engage in a discussion about your company's goals, needs, and explore how Astra can be of assistance.
  • Then, we delve into understanding your existing infrastructure, assess your specific requirements, and craft a tailored plan for your company.
  • Following that, we integrate with your organization as a user, connect via Slack, and assist in building your infrastructure from the ground up.
  • Finally, once your infrastructure is ready, your engineers will utilize Astra to deploy your services, manage cloud permissions, and much more.
  • You'll experience continuous, proactive support with real-time infrastructure updates and guidance, personalized consulting for custom infrastructure needs beyond Astra's scope, and dedicated oversight for your infrastructure's well-being and security.

How

As your embedded infrastructure team, we handle all tasks typically managed by a devops/platform department.

  • Establish best practices and procedures both for security and for infrastructure.
  • Educating and advising on effective infrastructure and application management.
  • Providing consulting, designing, and hands-on contracting for unique infrastructure needs.
  • Offering support for code reviews, incident resolution, and answering any quick queries.
  • Assisting in the hiring process for your first dedicated infrastructure professional when you're ready to expand your team.

What Astra is Not

While Astra offers extensive capabilities, it has its limitations. Our primary goal is to empower you with the skills to manage your infrastructure effectively, while helping you steer clear of major infrastructure and developer experience pitfalls.

  • Astra support isn't for straightforward tasks: Our aim is to guide you in managing your own infrastructure, teaching you to avoid significant issues. While we're available for consultation and assistance on complex aspects of infrastructure, the day-to-day operations are expected to be driven by you.
  • Astra doesn't provide on-call services: We advocate for developers to be responsible for their work, which includes holding the pager. Astra is available for support during crises, but we do not participate in on-call rotations.
  • A personal touch, not a corporate giant: Astra is my creation - (Hi, I'm Clint). With years of experience under my belt, I'm genuinely passionate about diving into your company's world and ensuring you're fully equipped with the necessary infrastructure. This dedication means I'm often pondering solutions for your business even during meals or sleep. However, it's important to remember that Astra is a one-person operation. We cannot provide 24/7 responses and need to occasionally take breaks.
  • Comprehensive Tooling; Easy Interface. The essence of platform technology is to seamlessly operate applications beyond the laptop where they were created. With a myriad of options and ideologies in the tech world, finding a perfect fit for your company's values can be challenging. Astra is dedicated to simplifying interactions within this complex ecosystem, making the experience straightforward and hassle-free.
  • Start Lean; Graduate Easily. Astra initiates your infrastructure using widely recognized and accessible tools. It places you firmly in control, ensuring your infrastructure evolves alongside your business needs. As your requirements grow, Astra makes it simple to upgrade. We'll even assist in hiring your first full-time infrastructure specialist.
  • Professional Support. Recognizing the uniqueness of each startup, we know Astra might be just a part of your solution. That's why we provide comprehensive, hands-on support for all your platform needs and inquiries, ensuring you get the support you need to succeed.


Frequently asked questions

Have a different question and can't find the answer you're looking for? Reach out to our support team by sending us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Who benefits from Astra?
Ideal for SaaS startups at the early stages of cloud infrastructure development, Astra offers a straightforward approach for setting up, maintaining, and managing your cloud solutions efficiently. If you're looking for an opinionated, simple solution, Astra is it.
How does it work?
Astra operates as a command-line tool, primarily utilized for managing key aspects of your infrastructure and application lifecycle. Tasks like creating new AWS users or deploying app updates are streamlined through using Astra. You can learn more about the inner workings of Astra through the documentation.
What problem does Astra solve?
If I had a nickel for every startup I've seen that fell into one of these categories:
  • Set up K8s without a team to understand and manage it.
  • Purchased multiple tools for managing secrets but ended up using none.
  • Had such complex deployments that, in the absence of the sole knowledgeable employee, they avoided deployments altogether.
  • Experienced outages because someone forgot to perform a manual task they had been doing for two years.
I'd have a substantial amount of nickels.
Why the included support?
Anyone that tries to promise you a single turn-key solution to all of your infrastructure needs is actually selling an empty promise. No single toolkit can address every possible infra need just as buildings and bridges don't come in a standardized box sets. To address this Astra includes comprehensive, hands-on support for your infrastructure.

Our team is ready to assist with any questions, concerns, or design choices you might have. We're committed to continuously updating and improving your infrastructure with the latest and most effective practices and most of all if the Astra toolkit doesn't have what you need to be successful we'll work together to create something that does.
How does Astra ensure compliance and security?
Astra is meticulously designed to adhere to industry-recognized best practices, setting up your infrastructure in a way that naturally aligns with compliance standards. It provides a robust starting point for achieving SOC 2 and other security and compliance benchmarks, emphasizing automated compliance and baked-in security measures.
How is Astra priced?
Detailed pricing for Astra can be found on our pricing page. Astra is designed to grow with your business, offering a dual benefit of advanced tooling and ongoing support. This approach is intended to serve as an alternative to hiring a full-time infrastructure specialist at early growth stages, providing cost-effective infrastructure management. If you don't absolutely feel that it's worth it, you can always simply cancel hassle-free and keep the infrastructure Astra creates for you!
How does Astra stand out from the competition?
The infrastructure-as-a-service sector is crowded, but Astra sets itself apart through:
  • Enhanced cloud management: Astra isn't an alternative cloud; it just enhances your ability to manage the cloud platform you're already using.
  • Zero lock-in effect: Your infrastructure remains yours. Astra ensures that if you decide to move on, you can do so effortlessly, with the ability to seamlessly continue from where Astra left off.
  • Personalized attention: Astra focuses on meaningful relationships instead of collecting a quick buck. We're invested in making your infrastructure platform the strongest it possibly can be.
As an early stage startup, why is infrastructure important?
I'm not going to try to argue that proper infrastructure is more important than key business milestones. Getting that first client or finding your footing in the market is obviously very important.

Many companies falter under the weight of their own success due to a lack of attention to infrastructure and the developer experience until it's too late. As they advance in their journey they eventually find that their recent funding round is being used to help pay engineers to fix stability issues from mistakes made back when it was easy to fix those mistakes.

Don't leave your infrastructure as an after-thought; for less than it will cost you in time and money to set yourself up on a PaaS, achieve peace of mind with Astra.
Which cloud platforms are currently supported?
Currently, Astra fully supports AWS, with plans to extend support to GCP and Azure in the future.
Why does Astra use a CLI instead of a graphical interface?
At present, Astra operates exclusively through a Command Line Interface (CLI). While graphical frontends enhance discoverability and are user-friendly, Astra's primary mission is to streamline your interactions with your infrastructure. Our aim is to familiarize engineers with a handful of commands—effectively covering 80% of routine infrastructure management tasks. This approach aligns with our vision of integrating these operations into automated processes, an area where CLI excels due to its efficiency and simplicity. Our roadmap includes plans to further leverage automation, ensuring that Astra remains a powerful, yet effortless, tool for your engineering needs.