Defense & Public Sector
IL-5 · ATO
Classified delivery on EKS GovCloud
Accelerating classified software delivery on EKS in AWS GovCloud
Read Case Study
About THNKBIG
We built the infrastructure the giants run on. Now we build it for the mid-market.
Senior, US-based platform engineers who operate Kubernetes and production AI the way the largest companies in the world do — for companies that need exactly that, without a Big-4 price tag or a junior bench.
THNKBIG's story starts in the trenches of production infrastructure.
Our founder ran U.S. operations and escalation for carrier-grade platforms at Mirantis — operating Kubernetes in production before most enterprises had heard the term "cloud native." He went on to lead the Kubernetes platform team for streaming video and AAA games at Microsoft and Bethesda Game Studios, supporting 49 million players on infrastructure spanning AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premises datacenters.
One conviction shaped the practice: the hardest infrastructure problems weren't only at the Fortune 100. Mid-sized companies had the same production-grade needs, none of the platform-engineering capacity, and a consulting ecosystem that was never built to serve them — big SIs priced them out, and the hyperscaler proserve teams handed them playbooks instead of solutions.
So we rebuilt around that gap. THNKBIG began in 2009 as a web-design shop; in 2021 we relaunched it with a single focus — platform engineering and production AI infrastructure for the mid-market — and signed our first client on the new practice in 2022. Since then we've deployed and operated 200+ production Kubernetes clusters across client environments in healthcare, financial services, defense, manufacturing, and energy — including classified workloads running under full Authority to Operate.
We're deliberately not the biggest firm in the room. We're the one that shows up with senior engineers who've already solved these problems in production, builds around how your business actually runs, and hands you a platform your team can own.
Proof
Production work, in regulated environments
Not "-scale" — the real thing. A sample of what we've shipped for mid-market and enterprise clients where downtime, compliance, and cost all matter at once.
90%+
Lower monthly AI inference spend. When we move production AI onto infrastructure the client controls — open-weight models on their own GPUs instead of per-seat commercial LLM subscriptions — the recurring bill routinely drops by more than 90%. Vendor-neutral means we optimize for your economics, not a license we resell.
Healthcare
Zero-Trust
HIPAA identity, global health firm
Zero-trust identity management for a global healthcare firm
Read Case Study
Manufacturing
91%
Fewer compliance gaps
Industrial-grade patch automation with Red Hat Ansible
Read Case Study
AI Infrastructure
Top-5
Cloud contact-center SaaS vendor
On-prem Kubernetes + AI cluster buildout under production load
Read Case Study
From the field
How a THNKBIG engagement actually runs
Embedded with your leadership
On our flagship platform engagement we reported directly to the client's VP of Infrastructure — senior engineers in the room, no SI layer in between.
Zero customer-visible incidents
Across a 12-month, multi-cluster on-prem Kubernetes + AI build-out running under production load.
Owned by your team at handoff
Runbooks, documentation, and GitOps workflows transferred in full — the client ran the platform without us at completion.
How we work
How we de-risk the decision
The point of hiring THNKBIG is to end up more capable, not more dependent. Here's the model every engagement runs on.
You own the platform
We build around how your business actually runs, document as we go, and transfer the knowledge to your team. No lock-in, no dependency on us to keep the lights on — the platform is yours to run and scale.
Senior engineers, US-based
Every engagement is led by engineers who have already made — and fixed — the expensive mistakes in production. All US-based. No offshoring, no nearshoring, no junior bench learning on your systems.
Vendor-neutral by design
AWS, Azure, GCP, or on-prem — Claude, GPT, or open models. We build around your problem, not a product we are paid to resell. The recommendation you get is the one that is right for you.
Built for regulated production
FedRAMP-, HIPAA-, and PCI-aligned clusters, and clusters that have achieved full Authority to Operate (ATO) for defense clients. Compliance is designed in from the first commit, not bolted on before an audit.
2021
Relaunched as a platform-engineering practice
200+
Production clusters deployed
CNCF
Silver member
US-Based
No offshoring or nearshoring
Leadership
Work with us → Who you actually work with
Rudy and Tameika lead the practice, backed by a team of senior, US-based platform engineers. Every engagement is staffed with operators matched to your stack who've already run it in production — no offshoring, no nearshoring, no junior bench. Leadership stays constant from assessment through delivery, and the whole model is to transfer ownership to your team — so your platform never depends on any one person, ours included.
Rudy McComb
Founder · CEO · Principal Engineer
In infrastructure and Linux architecture since 2012 and containers since 2013 — back when Docker was still dotCloud. Led U.S. operations and escalation for carrier-grade platforms at Mirantis (production Kubernetes since 2015; Mirantis-certified in Kubernetes & Docker, 2016), then led the Kubernetes platform team for streaming video and AAA games at Microsoft / Bethesda Game Studios — supporting 49 million players across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-prem datacenters. BBA in Management Information Systems, Howard University. Organizer of DevOpsDays Austin.
Community
Active in the cloud-native ecosystem
CNCF Silver Member · DevOpsDays Austin organizer · KubeCon speakers · contributors to Kubernetes, ArgoCD & Prometheus.
THNKBIG Joins the Cloud Native Computing Foundation
Proud CNCF members, contributing to the Kubernetes and cloud native ecosystem.
A Glimpse into KubeCon + CloudNativeCon 23
Highlights and takeaways from the largest cloud native conference.
THNKBIG Vision: Cloud Native with Rudy McComb
Our founder on cloud-native consulting and the future of infrastructure.
Want the infrastructure the giants run on?
Start with a readiness assessment — a fixed-scope engagement that maps where you are, what it takes to get there, and what it's worth. Low commitment, no lock-in, and it stands on its own whether or not we go further.
Bring us your hardest platform or production-AI problem — you'll leave the assessment with a plan your team could execute without us.
Book a readiness assessment →Insured · client references and certificate of insurance available on request.