consultwithgriff.com

What It Is

Kevin W. Griffin is an independent architect with 19 years of production experience and a 16-time Microsoft MVP. Through his consulting brand Swift Kick, he provides professional .NET and Azure architecture services. Unlike outsourcing focused purely on coding, his core positioning is helping companies solve scaling bottlenecks, migrate legacy systems, and navigate Azure complexity. He also emphasizes knowledge transfer, ensuring teams can maintain their systems independently after a project ends.

Core Dimension Analysis

Features and Use Cases: He mainly offers four types of services: architecture consulting, including legacy system modernization; Azure cost and architecture optimization; SignalR real-time application development; and team training plus code reviews. He advocates pragmatic architecture patterns such as Clean Architecture, DDD, and appropriately scoped microservices, while pushing back against over-engineering.
Supported Languages/Frameworks: His work is deeply tied to the Microsoft ecosystem, with a backend focus on .NET 9/ASP.NET Core and the broader Azure stack, including App Service, Functions, Cosmos DB, and more. On the frontend, he focuses on Vue 3 with TypeScript, and he specializes in SignalR for real-time scenarios.
Integrations and Ecosystem: He is fully embedded in the Microsoft developer ecosystem. As an MVP, he can often access new technologies early and communicate directly with product teams, giving his consulting work a forward-looking perspective.
Pricing: Pricing is customized. He offers fixed-price short-term projects, such as 2-4 week architecture reviews, as well as long-term consultant retainer arrangements. The initial 30-minute conversation is free, with no hidden fees.

Pros, Cons, and Who It’s For

Pros: His MVP background brings strong technical depth and insight into the Microsoft ecosystem; his consulting philosophy focuses on “teaching people to fish” rather than creating technical dependency; he provides an end-to-end service loop from architecture to training.
Cons: As an individual consultant, his capacity is limited; there is no public pricing, which may create a higher entry threshold for budget-sensitive small teams.
Best For: Mid-sized to large startups and technical teams facing legacy .NET system refactoring, runaway Azure costs, or the need for high-concurrency SignalR solutions.

Access from China and Alternatives

The website is directly accessible, but the service is mainly aimed at the U.S. market. Chinese companies considering collaboration should account for cross-time-zone communication and international payment issues. Alternatives may include local .NET/Azure architecture consulting teams or independent consultants in China.