Building Scalable, Secure and High-Performant Platforms with Kubernetes
Cloud-Native Specialist | Homelabber at Heart | Always Learning & Building
[email protected] // Co Durham, UK
Platform engineer and Solutions Architect with a software engineering background and more than eight years working with Kubernetes across cloud and on-premises environments. I focus on infrastructure automation, platform design, Terraform, developer experience and the operational work that helps teams ship reliably. I have spoken at KubeCon and ArgoCon on Kubernetes cost optimisation and reliability, and I contribute to open-source platform and operations tools. My strongest work sits where hands-on engineering, technical leadership and platform outcomes meet.
On 12 June 2024, Becky Pauley and I presented "Cost Confessions: Tales of Overspending and Redemption" at Fusion Meetup.
The session offered a vendor-agnostic approach to controlling Kubernetes cloud spend. We covered cost visibility, resource right-sizing, appropriate use of discounts and the practical pitfalls that can turn an apparently efficient platform into an expensive one.
Bringing the talk to a local engineering community created space for direct questions and discussion. It was a useful reminder that meetups are a feedback loop between shared experience and day-to-day practice.
I presented at Yorkshire DevOps to an audience of over 60 attendees, covering the evolution and features of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). The session covered GKE's history and capabilities, including AutoPilot, Release Channels, and add-ons such as Backups, Istio, Config-Connector, Ingress Controller, Secrets, and IAM Integration.
The presentation gave attendees a practical overview of GKE's strengths and its role in cloud-native architecture. The discussion with attendees centred on Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure management in real engineering teams.
I presented alongside a colleague at KubeCon NA on "Kubernetes Confessions: Tales of Overspending and Redemption", covering common problems in cloud cost management. Our session attracted over 360 RSVPs, including attendees from notable organisations such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and HashiCorp. The session showed that Kubernetes cost management had become a shared concern across the Kubernetes community.
Our talk used a vendor-agnostic approach to managing Kubernetes cloud spend, with practical examples and open-source tools. Topics included visibility into cloud and Kubernetes spend, right-sizing resources, using discounts appropriately, and avoiding common pitfalls.
Attendee questions focused on practical ways to improve cloud infrastructure management without turning cost work into a blame exercise.
In 2023, I delivered my first large conference talk, "How to Avoid a Kubernetes Doom Loop," at ArgoCon Europe. This lightning talk recounted an incident involving a Kubernetes cluster managing 16K Argo Workflows across 165 nodes, showing the risks of automation misconfiguration and the need for Cloud Reliability Engineering (CRE) practices.
The talk attracted over 280 RSVPs, showing strong interest in the topic within the Kubernetes community. The lesson was straightforward: proactive maintenance, bounded automation and tested recovery paths matter when cloud-native systems fail.