Keeping Linux systems, containers, and log pipelines running and secure
You'll usually find me on Rhodes, keeping Linux and cloud systems running, secure, and automated under production load. Most of my day-to-day work focuses on large-scale LXC and GKE container fleets, platform-wide ELK and Kafka observability pipelines, and infrastructure automation with Terraform, Ansible, and Python across GCP, AWS, OCI, and Cloudflare. Infrastructure and operations are the core of what I do, with a growing focus on log analytics, edge protection, and system security.
My work revolves around keeping cloud platforms fast, observable, and resilient as they scale. Whether I am operating global production fleets or advising teams on their architecture, I focus on four main areas:
Containers & Cloud Platforms
Healthy clusters and stable multi-tenant fleets, at production scale.
Day-to-day administration across production GKE Kubernetes clusters, Docker workloads, and large-scale LXC/LXD container fleets. Focused on cluster health, workload isolation, resource tuning, and keeping multi-tenant environments stable across GCP, AWS, and OCI.
Observability, Log Pipelines & Visibility
Seeing exactly what a platform is doing, especially when it is under pressure.
Building and running logging and monitoring stacks that hold up when traffic spikes. I work with Elasticsearch (ELK), Kafka, Logstash, Beats, Grafana, and Zabbix, using Python to turn raw platform logs into operational metrics, billing data, and clearer visibility into unusual traffic or system behaviour.
Infrastructure as Code & Automation
Repeatable infrastructure, defined in code instead of runbooks.
If a task has to be done twice, it belongs in a script or a playbook. I use Terraform, Ansible, GitHub Actions, Bash, Python and AI to provision VMs and containers, keep configurations consistent across fleets, and cut down manual operational overhead.
Cloud, Host & Edge Security
Layered protection, from the network edge down to the host.
Securing platforms across the edge, cloud, and host layers. At the edge, I manage global Cloudflare WAF policies, custom security rulesets, and automated TLS certificate handling. Across GCP, AWS, and OCI, I focus on secure cloud configurations and container isolation, backed by Linux OS hardening, IPtables, and ELK log analysis at the host level to spot and block abusive traffic early.
Manage platform-wide infrastructure and operations, focusing on large-scale LXC/LXD container fleets, GKE Kubernetes workloads, and platform-wide ELK and Kafka observability pipelines. Handle Terraform and Ansible automation, Python log analytics and billing metrics, Cloudflare WAF security, and advanced LEMP performance tuning under production load.
Supported enterprise WordPress deployments across AWS EC2 and RDS estates, managing high-availability Linux environments and capacity issues. Configured CloudFront distributions and edge caching, contributed Ansible playbooks for fleet configuration, and resolved complex customer support tickets and performance bottlenecks.
Administered dedicated Linux servers and VPS fleets with a focus on OS configuration, security hardening, and performance tuning. Provided Tier 2/3 technical support, built PHP and Laravel automation tools to reduce manual overhead, participated in incident response, and mentored staff.
2011 – Present
Self-employed
Ongoing
Infrastructure & Web Systems Consultant
Delivered full-time infrastructure and development work for small and medium-sized businesses between 2011 and 2018, covering Linux server administration, security hardening, custom business tooling, third-party system integrations, and high-performance WordPress and WooCommerce environments. Since moving into large-scale platform roles in 2018, I continue to take on select B2B consulting and advisory projects focused on cloud infrastructure, ELK observability pipelines, edge security, and high-load web stacks, managing technical scoping and delivery end to end.
Code
Scripts, Playbooks & Code
Here are a few projects and templates covering cloud provisioning, container setups, and log tooling in Python, Bash, Terraform, and Ansible.
Alongside my day-to-day platform work, I have worked as an independent infrastructure consultant since 2011. After seven years of full-time consulting for small and medium-sized businesses, I now take on a small number of select projects each year. I help teams with ELK and Kafka log pipelines, Linux and Cloudflare edge security hardening, cloud automation, third-party integrations, and high-traffic WordPress and WooCommerce environments, handling technical scoping and delivery end to end.
