Consulting
Troubleshooting & Incident Review
Structured investigation of persistent or intermittent problems, and independent post-incident reviews with findings you can act on.
Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute scoping call.
When an investigation helps
- A problem keeps coming back and the usual fixes have not resolved it.
- Application, network, and carrier teams each believe the fault lies elsewhere.
- A major outage has happened and leadership wants an independent account of what occurred and why.
- Performance is inconsistent and nobody can say with confidence where the time is going.
How we investigate
Evidence before theories, the whole path rather than one segment of it, and a fix that is proven rather than hoped for.
Evidence first
Packet captures, telemetry, logs, and configuration state gathered before any theory is formed.
Path analysis
The end-to-end path traced hop by hop, across your network, your carriers, and your cloud providers.
Reproduction
Controlled tests that trigger the fault on demand, so the fix can be demonstrated.
Root cause
Findings that separate the cause from the symptoms and from the conditions that made it visible.
Remediation
Interim mitigations to restore service, and the permanent fix with its risks explained.
Post-incident review
A blameless account of the timeline, the contributing factors, and the process changes that follow.
What you receive
Findings that hold up to scrutiny from engineers, leadership, auditors, and customers alike.
- Investigation reportWhat was observed, what was tested, and what the evidence shows.
- Root cause analysisThe cause, the contributing factors, and why they combined when they did.
- Remediation planImmediate mitigations and permanent fixes, sequenced and risk-assessed.
- Incident timelineAn independent reconstruction suitable for leadership, auditors, and customers.
- RecommendationsChanges to design, monitoring, or process that make a repeat less likely.
How the engagement runs
The same four-phase discipline as every Metis engagement, compressed to the pace a live problem demands.
How we workUnderstand
Troubleshooting engagements are scoped around a specific problem and begin immediately with evidence gathering. We work with your team, your carriers, and your vendors as needed, and share findings as they emerge rather than waiting for a final report.
Architect
Once the cause is separated from the symptoms, we set out the interim mitigations and the permanent fix with the risks of each explained, and prove the fix with a controlled test rather than hoping for it.
Enable
Post-incident reviews follow a blameless approach. The goal is an accurate account of what happened and a set of changes to design, monitoring, or process that make a repeat less likely, not the assignment of fault.
Questions we are asked
The questions that come up when a problem is live and the clock is running.
How quickly can you start on a live problem?
As fast as capacity allows. Messages are read during business hours, Eastern Time, and a message marked urgent goes to the top of the queue. Metis does not offer 24/7 response, and we will not pretend to.
What access do you need during an investigation?
Read-only access and the telemetry you already have get most investigations started. We ask for packet captures and change windows only when the evidence requires them, and we agree each one with your team.
What if the fault is with a carrier or a vendor?
We trace the whole path and take the evidence to the carrier or vendor with you. A finding backed by packet-level evidence is hard to bounce back.
Is the post-incident review blameless?
Yes. The review reconstructs the timeline and the contributing factors so that the process changes are the right ones. Assigning fault is not part of the work.
How is troubleshooting priced?
By the day. It is the one Metis service not sold at a fixed fee, because the scope of a live problem cannot be fixed before it is understood. Post-incident reviews, where the scope is known, are quoted as a fixed fee.
Related services
Start with a 30-minute scoping call.
Tell us where you’re headed and what’s in the way. A senior engineer will call to understand your situation, not to pitch.
- We read your message and reply to arrange the call at a time that suits you.
- A senior engineer joins the call to understand your environment and what you are trying to achieve.
- If there is a fit, you receive a written proposal with scope, deliverables, and price. If there is not, we say so and point you in a better direction.