The Rubber Duck portfolio

Solutions, minus the guesswork

Your challenge probably isn’t unique — but your business is. We map 475 vetted providers across 64 solution categories to your exact situation, explain every option in plain English, and stand behind the recommendation.

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560+

Vetted providers

Solution categories

Service types on tap

Advisory fees, ever

Six pillars. Every angle covered.

One conversation maps your challenge to the right pillar, the right category, and the right shortlist of providers — with the reasoning attached.

Cybersecurity

MDR, SASE, Zero Trust, SIEM/SOC, identity, compliance — protection matched to your risk profile, not a one-size-fits-all bundle.

16 categories · Explore →

Cloud & Infrastructure

IaaS, private and hybrid cloud, colocation, backup, disaster recovery, FinOps — where your workloads live and how they survive bad days.

12 categories · Explore →

Network & Connectivity

SD-WAN, dedicated internet, fiber, fixed wireless, interconnection — the plumbing everything else depends on, from carriers that deliver.

14 categories · Explore →

Communications & CX

UCaaS, cloud contact center, Teams Voice, CPaaS, workforce engagement — how your people collaborate and your customers experience you.

13 categories · Explore →

AI & Data

Generative AI platforms, voice AI, analytics — separating durable advantage from expensive experiments, with governance built in.

5 categories · Explore →

Managed & Professional Services

Managed IT, helpdesk, advisory, expense management, mobility — senior expertise without the senior headcount.

6 categories · Explore →

Every solution ships with services attached

Technology is only half the deal. Through Rubber Duck you also tap 34 service types across the partner ecosystem — from strategy and migration to 24/7 operations — so nothing gets sold and then abandoned.

Advisory & Consulting

Strategy & consulting · Architecture & design · Assessments & audits · vCIO / vCISO

Deployment & Implementation

Project management · Implementation & onboarding · Migration · Integration · Installation & field services · Deployment & configuration

Managed Services

Managed IT · Managed cloud · Managed security · Managed network · Managed communications · Managed mobility · MDR

Monitoring & Operations

24/7 monitoring · Network operations center (NOC) · Security operations center (SOC) · Remote hands

Security Services

Penetration testing · Vulnerability management · Incident response · Compliance services · Threat hunting & intelligence · Security awareness training

Support, Training & Enablement

24/7 support · Helpdesk (tier 1–3) · On-site support · Vendor & escalation management · Customer success · End-user training · Partner enablement

New to the acronyms?

MDR, SASE, CPaaS, FinOps — the industry produces acronyms faster than products. Our glossary translates each one into what it actually does for your business.

Read the Glossary

Not sure where to start?

That’s the point of having an advisor. Take a short assessment or grab time with our team — we’ll point you to the right pillar in one conversation.

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How your Solutions engagement runs

The same disciplined path every time — so you always know what happens next and who is accountable for it.

Day 1

Assess

We map your environment, contracts, and goals. No pitch — an honest read on where you stand and what it should cost.

Week 1

Shortlist

You get 3–4 fits from 475 vetted providers, with the reasoning attached — capabilities, pricing leverage, trade-offs.

Weeks 2–3

Evaluate

We run the demos, reference checks, and side-by-side pricing benchmarks so your team doesn't have to.

Weeks 3–4

Negotiate

Terms, SLAs, and pricing negotiated with portfolio-level leverage — anchored to real market rates, not list price.

Ongoing

Manage

We oversee implementation and stay your escalation point for the life of the service, through every renewal.

Typical timeline for mid-market engagements. Complex builds — colocation, dark fiber, custom AI deployments — carry longer evaluation and delivery windows, and we set that expectation on day one.

Why source Solutions through Rubber Duck

No retainers, no hourly billing, no markup on your contract. Here is how that works:

Same or better pricing

Your contract is signed directly with the provider at rates we benchmark against comparable deals — you pay the same or less than going direct.

$0 advisory fee

Providers fund our advisory through their partner programs, and every provider compensates us the same way — so recommendations are based on fit, never commission.

One escalation point

After go-live we stay accountable: implementation oversight, billing disputes, outage escalations, and renewal strategy all route through your advisor.

What buyers ask before their first call

Does the guidance really cost nothing?

Yes. Our advisory is supplier-funded: providers pay us through the same partner programs they fund for all technology advisors, and every provider compensates us the same way. You pay the provider directly, at rates we benchmark — the same or less than going direct.

How are you different from a reseller or an MSP?

We don't carry inventory, quotas, or a house brand to protect. A reseller earns more when you buy what they stock; we earn the same regardless of which vetted provider you choose — so the recommendation is driven by fit. Where a managed service is the right answer, we source and oversee it rather than sell you our own.

Do we keep a direct relationship with the provider?

Yes. Your contract, billing, and SLAs sit directly with the provider you select. We sit on your side of that relationship — running the evaluation and negotiation up front, then acting as your escalation point after go-live.

What if we're already under contract?

That's the most common starting point. We benchmark your current rates now, flag billing errors worth disputing immediately, and build the renegotiation plan around your renewal window — including co-terming services so future decisions happen on your schedule, not the vendors'.

How fast do we get to a shortlist?

For most categories you'll have a reasoned shortlist of three or four providers within a week of the first assessment call. Complex infrastructure — colocation, dark fiber, large contact-center builds — takes longer, and we tell you that up front.