Marietta, GA · Layer8 Tech Group · Q2 2026
Hi — I'm John.

Three decades inside the stack.
Now a layer above it,
where good work compounds.

I spent thirty years building, modernizing, and recovering enterprise infrastructure for companies you've heard of — CVS Health/Aetna, Encompass Digital Media, Fiserv. In 2025 I started Layer8 Tech Group to bring that same judgment to the businesses one tier down — and to the M&A advisors, brokers, and buyers who serve them.

What we do

Two practices working in parallel: Transaction Intelligence for owners moving toward an exit, and Operational Intelligence for owners building toward one.

How to start

A 30-minute conversation, no slides. I'll listen first, ask the questions that matter, and tell you honestly whether we're the right fit. Drop me a note.

By the numbers

Three decades, summed up. The kind of outcomes we know how to deliver, because we've delivered them before.

70%
Hardware and software cost reduction via re-platforming, virtualization, and DB tiering
170%
Recoverability improvement through next-generation backup with replication
12K+
Virtual machines under management across 600+ ESXi hosts and 9 data centers
40PB
Cloud storage operated across 3-region erasure code in 15 global regions
60%
Enterprise storage cost reduction with simultaneous performance and feature gains
$7M
Departmental budget owned at Southern Company Services for storage and backup
8
Aetna affiliate companies coordinated as Lead Director of Cloud Engineering
5.2TB
Live HIPAA-regulated migration in flight — Google Workspace to Microsoft 365
Currently · Q2 2026

A look at what's on the desk this week.

Two flagship engagements in active execution, plus continued product development across both practice lines. What's live shows up here, not buried in a portfolio link.

In Flight

Healthcare Client M365 Migration

~50 users · HIPAA · Dual-tenant Entra · Three-stream cutover

Full-scope Google Workspace → Microsoft 365 migration with dual-tenant Entra ID architecture, Okta SSO federation across ~39 applications, and Jamf + Intune endpoint co-management. Migration plan currently at v5; Okta SSO migration plan delivered as a per-app phased roadmap.

5.2 TB
Total Data
39
SSO Apps
2
Entra Tenants

Active Streams

  • Exit Readiness Assessment · Healthcare BuildBuild
  • Due Diligence Framework · Buy-Side BuildBuild
  • Franchise Intelligence · DiscoveryPlan
  • OpenClaw as a Service · Pilot ArchitectureBuild
  • Layer8 AI Chassis · Phase 3 Adapter LayerBuild
  • Broker Outreach · GABB / IBBA GeorgiaPlan
Two Practices, One Stack

Built for owners moving toward a transaction — and those building toward one.

Most fractional CIO firms pick one lane. We run both because they're the same lane viewed from different ends. The data that makes a business diligence-ready is the same data that makes it operationally efficient — so we may as well work on both.

01 · Transaction Intelligence

For owners — and their brokers — when value is the question.

When a business is heading toward a transaction, technology is either an asset on the balance sheet or a discount item in the LOI. Transaction Intelligence is the practice of making sure it's the former — and providing the diligence machinery brokers and acquirers need to trust the answer.

  • /01.A
    Exit Readiness Assessment

    A scored, vertical-aware diagnostic for SMB owners 12–36 months from sale. Three integrated sections: 10-point diligence risk audit, 6-point revenue operations score, and a vertical-specific compliance overlay. Healthcare, Legal, Insurance, Accounting, Real Estate.

  • /01.B
    Buy-Side Due Diligence

    Technology quality of earnings for acquirers, PE platforms, and strategics. We surface the integration risks, license cliffs, key-person dependencies, and remediation costs that don't show up on a financial statement until 90 days after close.

  • /01.C
    Franchise Intelligence

    Standardized technology and operational diligence built for franchise systems. Franchisor-side tooling for franchisee fitness scoring; franchisee-side tooling for prospective franchise evaluation; multi-unit operator tooling for cross-location standardization.

GABB IBBA Georgia M&A Brokers PE Platforms Tech QofE
02 · Operational Intelligence

For owners building the kind of business worth diligencing.

Operational Intelligence is the day-to-day practice that produces the metrics Transaction Intelligence later measures. AI automation that reduces dependency on key people. Workflow systems that capture what was previously tribal knowledge. A managed AI platform that gives owners enterprise-grade tooling without enterprise-grade complexity.

  • /02.A
    OpenClaw as a Service

    A managed AI workspace for non-technical SMB owners. Claude-powered, with per-tenant key management, token budgeting, and a confidence-building onboarding curve. Hosted on lightweight infrastructure (Hetzner, Coolify, Traefik) — no SaaS vendor lock-in, no surprise bills.

  • /02.B
    Workflow Automation

    Voice AI attendants, CRM and workflow automation, 24/7 lead capture, SMS reminders, automated review solicitation, smart follow-up sequences. Delivered on the Layer8 AI Chassis under tiered managed-service agreements — measurable revenue ops impact, not gimmicks.

  • /02.C
    Process Intelligence

    The data layer underneath both: making sure the operational signal a business produces is captured, structured, and queryable. Vector-database knowledge bases, observability, and the compliance-aware governance that lets a business actually use AI on its own data.

Voice AI n8n Twilio Qdrant LangFuse Ollama Claude API
Featured Work

A few projects that show the shape of the practice.

Two flagship products — one per practice — plus the infrastructure underneath and a live engagement that proves the operational muscle.

/01
Productized Service · 2025–Present

Exit Readiness Assessment

Transaction Intelligence

Our flagship Transaction Intelligence product. A diagnostic and remediation framework that helps SMB owners maximize technology-driven valuation in the runway before a sale. Hybrid adaptive architecture with conditional vertical overlays — Healthcare built first, Legal and Insurance next, Accounting and Real Estate on demand. Positioned to GABB and IBBA brokers as a "technology quality of earnings" partner.

3Scored Sections
5Verticals Mapped
12–36moExit Window
P0Build Tier
/02
Productized Service · 2025–Present

OpenClaw as a Service

Operational Intelligence

Our flagship Operational Intelligence product. A managed AI workspace for non-technical SMB owners — Claude-powered, with per-tenant API key management, Redis-backed token budgeting, and a Node.js proxy layer that keeps usage predictable. Hosted on Hetzner with Coolify and Traefik. Designed as a confidence-building onboarding experience: a tier that grows with comfort, not a SaaS ladder that traps.

3Service Tiers
Multi-TenantArchitecture
Self-HostCompliance Path
/03
Internal Platform · 2025–Present

Layer8 AI Chassis

Operational Intelligence

The reusable, compliance-aware AI development framework underneath every Layer8 client deployment. Local dev stack on Docker with Qdrant vector DB, Ollama inference, LangFuse observability, Postgres, and Redis. Compliance test suite enforces secret hygiene, token limits, model allowlists, DNC suppression, and trace metadata across every repo.

146Tests Passing
7ADRs Committed
6Compliance Checks
Phase 3Current Build
/04
Active Engagement · Healthcare · 2025–Present

Dual-Tenant M365 Migration

Foundation · Migration

Full project lifecycle for a HIPAA-regulated healthcare client. Pre-discovery DNS and tenant reconnaissance revealed two separate Entra ID tenants requiring dual-domain architecture. Three-stream data migration totaling 5.2 TB; Okta as primary IdP federated to Entra ID; Jamf + Intune endpoint co-management with macOS Okta Device Trust as the highest-complexity item.

~50Seats
39SSO Apps
v5Plan Iteration
3Migration Streams
The Foundation

What powers both practices.

F.01

Fractional CIO/CTO

Senior IT leadership, vendor governance, security hardening, and compliance roadmaps (HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI). Hourly T&M or retained.

F.02

Cloud & Migration

30 years of platform migrations at scale. M365, Entra ID, Okta, Jamf, Intune, Veeam. Azure, AWS, GCP, OCI. The boring work, done right.

F.03

Compliance & Audit

HIPAA, SOC 1/2, PCI, SOX. Risk assessment, policy development, regulatory reporting. The frameworks every diligence buyer asks about.

Capabilities

A more thorough look at what we do — and what I've done.

A wide-angle view of capabilities accumulated across thirty years of enterprise work and one year of building Layer8. Color-coded so you can see which practice each one feeds.

Transaction Intelligence

Exit Readiness & Tech QofE

12–36-month transformation roadmaps that improve valuation multiples and reduce diligence friction at sale time.

Transaction Intelligence

Buy-Side Technology Diligence

Surfacing integration risks, license cliffs, and remediation costs before they become post-close surprises.

Transaction Intelligence

Franchise Intelligence

Standardized diligence and operational tooling for franchise systems — franchisors, franchisees, and multi-unit operators.

Transaction Intelligence

M&A Integration Planning

Successfully integrating disparate IT systems and processes during corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Operational Intelligence

AI Automation & Workflow Design

Voice AI, CRM automation, lead capture, and the operational glue that makes them all hold together.

Operational Intelligence

LLM & Prompt Engineering

Production AI systems with token budgeting, observability, and trace-level governance.

Operational Intelligence

Vector Databases & RAG

Qdrant-based knowledge bases that turn unstructured documents into queryable business intelligence.

Operational Intelligence

Voice AI & Telephony

Twilio, SignalWire, and A2P 10DLC compliance for compliant SMS and voice-AI campaigns at scale.

Operational Intelligence

AI Development Frameworks

The Layer8 AI Chassis: a compliance-aware AI dev stack on Docker, Qdrant, Ollama, LangFuse, Postgres, and Redis.

Operational Intelligence

Multi-Tenant AI Architecture

Per-tenant key management, token budgeting, and cost isolation for managed AI services like OpenClaw.

Foundation

Fractional CIO/CTO Leadership

Senior IT direction without the senior IT salary, applied to clients in flexible, retained, or T&M doses.

Foundation

Cloud Architecture (Azure · AWS · GCP)

Production cloud environments across 15 global regions, multi-platform compute and storage at petabyte scale.

Foundation

M365 & Entra ID Administration

Identity, mail, collaboration, and endpoint management at the platform layer — including dual-tenant architectures.

Foundation

Okta Identity Federation

Single sign-on architecture across complex application portfolios; per-app SSO migration planning.

Foundation

Endpoint Co-Management

Mac and Windows endpoint strategy with Jamf and Intune, zero-touch provisioning, and device trust.

Foundation

Platform Migration at Scale

Google Workspace to M365, on-prem to cloud, data center to data center — the messy ones, done right.

Foundation

HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI Compliance

Building and operating systems that pass audits — across healthcare, finance, and regulated SaaS.

Foundation

Risk Assessment & Audit Response

Internal audit, regulatory reporting, policy development, and proactive vulnerability management.

Foundation

Vulnerability Management

Modern scanning, prioritization, and remediation across hybrid cloud environments using Qualys and Wiz.

Foundation

Disaster Recovery & BC

DRaaS architecture, RTO/RPO improvement programs, and recoverability gains up to 170%.

Foundation

Enterprise Storage Strategy

Tiered storage design, SAN/NAS/CAS architecture, storage cost optimization (60% reductions delivered).

Foundation

Virtualization Management

VMware ESXi at 12,000+ VM scale across global data centers and 600+ hosts.

Foundation

Cost Optimization & Re-Platforming

70% hardware/software cost reductions through virtualization, commodity HW, and DB tiering.

Foundation

Linux & Windows Server Engineering

Multi-decade depth across RHEL, Ubuntu, and Windows Server in regulated production environments.

Foundation

Infrastructure as Code

Ansible, Terraform, PowerShell. CI/CD-driven infrastructure with measurable consistency improvements.

Foundation

Vendor Management & Negotiation

Sourcing, evaluation, RFP, and ongoing relationship management with seven-figure budget oversight.

Foundation

Data Backup & Recovery

Modern backup environments with replication; backup success rates moved from ~70% to 99%+.

Foundation

IT Strategic Planning

Multi-year IT strategies aligned to business outcomes, with ROI and KPI frameworks built in.

Foundation

Team Leadership (Local · Remote · Offshore)

Building performance-driven engineering teams across geographies, time zones, and cultures.

Foundation

Agile & Kanban Project Management

Delivery frameworks applied to multi-stream migrations, platform builds, and product launches.

Foundation

Process Improvement & Lean IT

ITIL practices, RACI matrices, service catalogue clarification — the discipline that moves the real needles.

Foundation

Stakeholder Communication

Translating technical reality into the language a CEO, board, or buyer can act on.

Transaction Intelligence
Operational Intelligence
Foundation · Powers Both
Career Arc

Thirty years of enterprise infrastructure, condensed.

From mainframe storage at Southern Company to global media cloud at Encompass to fractional leadership today. The through-line, every step, has been narrowing the gap between business outcomes and infrastructure reality.

2025 — Present
Founder & Senior Partner
Layer8 Tech Group · Marietta, GA
2022 — 2025
Senior Director of Cloud Engineering
Encompass Digital Media · Atlanta, GA
2017 — 2024
Lead Director of Cloud Engineering
CVS Health / Aetna · Alpharetta, GA
2016 — 2017
Director, Platform Engineering & Enterprise Tech Ops
Aetna · Active Health Management
2014 — 2016
Manager of Hosting Services
Sage · Lawrenceville, GA
2013 — 2014
Director of Systems Architecture & Service Delivery
iHealth Technologies · Atlanta, GA
2011 — 2013
Manager, Virtualization Engineering
Fiserv · Norcross, GA
2009 — 2011
Director of Server & Storage Technology
MedQuist (now M*Modal) · Norcross, GA
2004 — 2009
Manager, Enterprise Storage
Southern Company Services · Atlanta, GA
1998 — 2004
Director, Production & Internal Server Systems
ADP Brokerage Services Group · Edgewood, NY
1991 — 1998
Network & Systems Engineering
CMP Media · MCI · Perot Systems
Why "Layer 8"?

The work happens above the stack.

In network engineering, the OSI model has seven layers. "Layer 8" is the running joke for the human one — the politics, the budget, the business outcome. After 30 years, I've come to believe that's where the leverage actually lives. The protocols are well understood. Translating them into something a CEO can act on — or a buyer can underwrite — is the harder problem. That's what we do here.

L1PhysicalCables & signals
L2Data LinkFrames
L3NetworkRouting
L4TransportTCP / UDP
L5SessionConnections
L6PresentationEncoding
L7ApplicationSoftware
L8The Human LayerWhere decisions live