Price Google live patching at one headcount matched to the existing contract ratio - with a mandatory cutover to the CIQ patch pipeline once it is built

Situation

Peter set the structure Kelly uses to price live patching for Google: budget one full headcount per year (steady state is about half a headcount, the rest is Google acting as accelerator for the CIQ build-out, not funding it all); match the existing contract headcount-to-cost ratio, ignoring the last discount; require that once Nathan live-patch infrastructure is built Google sits on top of it. Interim signing of Google-built patches includes breaking each patch down and ensuring its contents land in the next full kernel. Roughly the same price in both phases; CIQ runs slightly behind for the first months.

Reasoning

The cutover clause is what makes the deal pay: maintaining a customer patch pipeline forever is open-ended cost, and only on CIQ infrastructure (which serves every kernel CIQ live-patches) does the cost drop to half a headcount. Anchoring to the existing contract ratio keeps the price defensible and stops a prior concession becoming the baseline. Full-kernel incorporation is the reason Peter sold Tissa for moving to CIQ, so pricing the interim phase at full rate makes staying on their own tooling visibly costly.

Additional Context

Nathan estimates two engineers for about three months to build the infrastructure, then about half a headcount ongoing for both full and minimal kernels. Headcount dollar figure left to Kelly and Bjorn.

Observed Evidence

Direct quotes on the headcount structure, contract-ratio anchor, cutover requirement, and full-kernel decomposition.

Confidence Breakdown

Reasoning Depth Analysis