Strategy & Architecture / Security Architecture
Cybersecurity architect expertise.
Embedded. Fractional. On demand.
Most security gaps aren't found in penetration tests. They're built into the architecture. Cliffside provides cybersecurity architect services for Australian organisations: point-in-time architecture reviews, senior architects embedded in your projects, and fractional SecArch-as-a-Service for organisations that need ongoing expertise without a full-time hire.
The role
What a cybersecurity architect
actually does.
A cybersecurity architect designs the controls, systems, and frameworks that determine how exploitable your environment is. Not the policy -- the design. Where a penetration tester finds what's already broken, a security architect designs an environment that has fewer things to break in the first place.
Most organisations engage a cybersecurity architect in one of three ways: a point-in-time review to understand and improve their current posture; an architect embedded in a specific project to design security in from the start; or an ongoing fractional arrangement to provide continuous senior architecture expertise without the cost of a full-time hire.
A structured assessment of your current security architecture -- network, identity, cloud, endpoint, and detection -- producing a risk-ranked findings report and a prioritised improvement roadmap.
A senior cybersecurity architect embedded in your technology project for its duration. Security designed in from day one -- cloud migrations, platform builds, infrastructure modernisation.
A dedicated Cliffside architect available on a defined days-per-month basis. Ongoing design review, architecture advisory, and security input across your programme of work. Fractional cost, full-time expertise.
What we assess
Every layer. Every gap.
A Cliffside Security Architecture Review examines your entire control environment against your business model, threat landscape, and regulatory obligations. We don't work from a generic checklist — we map your actual architecture against what your organisation actually needs to defend.
Segmentation, perimeter controls, internal trust boundaries, east-west traffic visibility, and remote access design. We identify exposure that flat networks and legacy segmentation leave open.
Directory structure, privileged access design, MFA coverage, service account proliferation, and federated identity risks. Identity is the new perimeter; most organisations have left it unarchitected.
Azure, AWS, and M365 configuration review: landing zone design, RBAC structure, workload isolation, logging completeness, and cloud-native control gaps.
EDR coverage, telemetry quality, detection logic completeness, and response capability. We assess whether your detection capability matches your threat model, not just whether tools are deployed.
Assessment of your current posture against zero trust principles, identifying the highest-value control improvements and a realistic sequenced roadmap to reduce implicit trust.
Overlapping tools consuming budget without reducing risk, and critical gaps hidden by the noise. We produce an honest map of where you're over-invested and where you're exposed.
What you receive
A roadmap your board can defend.
The output of a Security Architecture Review is a prioritised, evidence-backed architecture roadmap, not a list of findings. Every recommendation is connected to a specific risk, a specific business consequence, and a realistic implementation path.
A documented view of your existing architecture, controls, gaps, redundancies, and single points of failure.
Every gap connected to a business risk and likelihood, not a CVSS score or a compliance checkbox.
A sequenced, prioritised improvement plan your team can execute, with effort estimates and dependencies mapped.
A plain-language executive summary your board can interrogate and your auditor can rely on.
No tool recommendations tied to vendor relationships. We tell you what to build; you choose who to build it with.
You own the report. Use it with Cliffside, take it to your preferred integrator, or present it to your auditor.
Our approach
Architecture review done honestly.
Most security architecture reviews are produced by vendors trying to sell you their next product. Cliffside partners with leading platforms -- Microsoft, AWS, Vanta, KnowBe4, and others -- but our recommendations are based on what is right for your environment. If a partner product is not the best fit for you, we will tell you. Our advice is not shaped by margin.
We start from your actual threat landscape, not a theoretical one. We look at your industry, your regulatory obligations, your known adversaries, and the way your business actually operates. The architecture recommendations that follow are calibrated to your real risk, not a generalised best practice framework.
Cliffside has been our preferred partner for Security Architecture and Consulting services. Their ability to provide us with highly qualified architects on short notice has allowed us to manage a frequent surge in demand, delivering high quality security deliverables for large business programs involving external regulators like APRA.
Head of Security Architecture, Financial organisation
Project augmentation
Security architecture embedded in your project.
Not every organisation needs a full-time cybersecurity architect. Many need one for the duration of a transformation program, a cloud migration, a platform build, or a compliance uplift. Cliffside augments your project team with senior security architects who work alongside your people, providing the security design expertise your project requires without the cost of a permanent hire.
Our architects integrate with your delivery methodology: Agile, waterfall, or hybrid. We attend design sessions, review technical decisions, produce architecture artefacts, and ensure security is designed in from day one rather than retrofitted at the end.
Security architecture embedded in Azure, AWS, and M365 migrations: landing zone design, identity architecture, workload security, and data classification built into the project from the start.
Threat modelling, secure design review, and architecture guidance embedded in your software development lifecycle, so vulnerabilities are designed out, not found in pen tests after launch.
ISO 27001, Essential Eight, and APRA CPS 234 uplift projects require architecture decisions. We ensure the technical controls you implement actually address the risk, not just tick the audit box.
Network re-architecture, data centre exit, SD-WAN deployment, or zero trust implementation — security architecture embedded in the design phase, not bolted on at the end.
SecArch-as-a-Service
A cybersecurity architect. Fraction of the cost.
A senior cybersecurity architect costs $180,000--$250,000 per year to hire permanently. Most organisations don't need that capacity full-time -- they need deep security architecture expertise available when design decisions are being made, when projects are running, and when their security posture needs to evolve.
SecArch-as-a-Service gives you a dedicated Cliffside cybersecurity architect on a fractional or time-bound basis. Your architect knows your environment, attends your key meetings, and is available when you need them -- without the overhead of a full-time hire.
A defined number of days per month, typically 2--5, giving you consistent access to senior security architecture expertise across your ongoing technology program. Scales up or down as your needs change.
A cybersecurity architect embedded for the life of a specific project, from discovery through to delivery. Fixed scope, fixed cost, full security architecture coverage for the duration. Ends when the project ends.
Access to a senior cybersecurity architect for design reviews, architecture decisions, and second opinions, drawn down as needed. No retainer, no minimum commitment. Available when a decision needs a qualified view.
Frequently asked questions.
What does a cybersecurity architect do?
What is the difference between a cybersecurity architect and a CISO?
Do I need a full-time cybersecurity architect?
How long does a security architecture review take?
What qualifications should a security architect have?
How does security architecture relate to ISO 27001 and APRA CPS 234?
Know what you're
actually defending.
Start with a Lighthouse Assessment to understand where you are. We'll tell you whether you need a point-in-time review, an architect embedded in your next project, or a fractional security architect on an ongoing basis -- and we'll tell you honestly if none of them are warranted.