We believe good business should be built on practical reasoning, not hype. These are direct answers to the most common questions about how we work.
We are based in Sirkali, Tamil Nadu, South India. Our team has a collective 40+ years of experience, and I personally have 20 years of Linux server experience.
Selling software services to India is like carrying coals to Newcastle! Between USA and Europe we prefer Europe because of the timezone comfort.
Yes. That is the point.
You can do this yourself, and we publish guides and installation scripts for that reason. Our service exists for businesses that want the same kind of setup without hiring a full-time system administrator.
Nothing, in the sense that the software itself is not secret or proprietary. What we provide is the work of configuring, maintaining, and supporting the environment so it can be used reliably in day-to-day business.
We monitor the systems we manage and receive alerts when something stops responding.
If the issue is with the hosting provider or hardware, we coordinate with them. If the issue is inside the software stack, we investigate and fix it as quickly as possible. We also keep the production environment tightly controlled so avoidable problems are less likely.
We keep backups in place and test restoration procedures.
If the main server becomes unusable, we rebuild the environment from a clean baseline and restore the latest verified backup. We use Restic for backups, and the recovery path is designed to be simple and dependable.
We do.
Our management fee includes operating system updates, security patching, and controlled application upgrades. We do not rely on blind auto-updates for production systems. If an update breaks something, we fix it. If that is not possible quickly, we roll back to the previous working version.
We keep maintenance windows small and controlled. Will mostly be on week-ends.
Most updates are handled with minimal disruption, but some service restarts may be necessary. If a larger change is needed, we schedule it in advance.
You do not need to rely on trust alone.
We recommend that clients lease their own server directly from the hosting provider. That keeps the infrastructure in your name and makes it easier to move if needed. We also document the changes we make, so the setup remains transparent.
Access is limited to Unshackle and the customer.
That keeps the environment controlled and supportable.
That is a fair concern.
Open-source systems are not tied to one vendor's product decisions. They usually rely on standard formats, standard tooling, and widely understood infrastructure, which makes them easier to inspect, move, and maintain over time.
The trade-off is that the setup needs proper management. That is what we provide.
There are no hidden costs in the base service.
If you ask us to do work beyond normal server management — for example, deleting something, recovering from changes made by someone else, or dealing with credentials shared with outside parties — that is billed at our hourly rate of €50.
It should be straightforward.
We prefer tools that store data in standard databases or open formats, so export and migration are practical. In most cases, the data belongs to you and can be handed over cleanly, along with the documentation needed to move elsewhere.
Yes, but once other people start making system-level changes, support becomes harder to guarantee.
If that happens, we may need to treat the server as unsupported until it is back in a clean, known state.
Only if those tools are running on our managed servers.
We support the stack we deploy and maintain. If your team wants to keep using outside systems or third-party services, that would need to be discussed separately.
Yes.
You can start with a small setup and add more services or more servers later as your needs change.