Raghu Balam
Cloud Integration Engineer
Milwaukee,WI
Summary
I am a highly skilled IT professional with experience in building and maintaining cloud infrastructure. I have extensive knowledge in deploying services on container platforms such as Kubernetes and Docker. Continuously seeking to expand my skill set, I am passionate about implementing automation and scripting to streamline build and release processes. Additionally, I hold a CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator) certification. Currently, I am looking to enhance my expertise in CI/CD using Terraform, Docker, Business Intelligence (BI), and Ansible.
Overview
7
7
years of professional experience
5
5
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Cloud Engineer
Komatsu Mining Corp
2024.06 - Current
- Design and implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions to automate cloud infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and management across multiple cloud platforms.
- Architect and deploy Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters for containerized workloads, ensuring high availability, scalability, and performance.
- Lead DevOps initiatives, promoting CI/CD practices, automation, and collaboration among development, operations, and QA teams.
- Skilled in setting up IoT Hub and DPS to handle device registration, authentication, and secure communication for efficient IoT deployments.
- Define and establish Landing Zones for cloud environments, incorporating best practices for security, networking, governance, and compliance.
- Provide expertise in Azure VMware solutions, including migration, deployment, and optimization of VMware workloads on Azure.
- Drive application modernization efforts, assessing legacy applications and recommending modernization strategies leveraging cloud-native technologies.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to understand business requirements and translate them into scalable and cost-effective cloud architectures.
- Conduct architectural reviews, performance analysis, and capacity planning to ensure optimal utilization of cloud resources.
- Architected systems for high performance, reliability, and availability.
- Built and deployed containers into Kubernetes clusters, ensuring seamless integration and deployment.
- Provisioned infrastructure on Azure for OpenAI, ensuring optimal performance and scalability for their AI workloads.
- Designed and maintained CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps Pipelines.
- Leveraged Terraform and Ansible for infrastructure as code, automating deployment processes.
- Utilized Git with various workflows and branching strategies to manage code repositories effectively.
- Implemented and managed monitoring and observability tools, including, Prometheus, and Datadog.
- Proficient in implementing and enforcing Azure policies to ensure consistent application of mandatory tagging, resource management, cost allocation, and regulatory compliance within Azure subscriptions.
- Proficient in configuring robust alerts in Azure Security Center and Rapid7 for proactive threat detection and incident response.
- Skilled in using Clonezilla to clone and deploy custom Ubuntu images to multiple edge devices, simplifying the provisioning and management of Ubuntu-based deployments.
- Proficient in automating manual tasks on edge devices by leveraging Bash scripting to write configuration scripts, reducing manual effort by up to 80%.
Cloud Integration Engineer
Cloud Resources
2017.04 - 2020.06
- Architect, deploy, and maintain environments in Azure, ensuring compliance with company architectural standards. Transition existing private cloud workloads to public clouds and provide strategic direction for growth to meet client needs.
- Design, develop, and maintain IaC to automate and orchestrate continuous development and deployment. Utilize tools like Terraform for rapid IaC deployment, supporting CI/CD applications and DevOps practices within Komatsu Automation.
- Extensively involved in build management, version control, release management, and deployments across DEV, QA, staging, and production environments. Leverage Azure DevOps principles and tools like VSTS, Visual Studio, AKS, Application Insights, and Log Analytics.
- Evaluate and implement open source DevOps tools such as Docker for containerization, Kubernetes for orchestration, and Datadog for monitoring. Utilize DevOps toolsets like CodeCommit and CodePipeline to streamline CI/CD processes.
- Create inventories and write playbooks using YAML scripting for continuous deployment automation. Architect server deployments in Azure using ARM templates, golden images, and DSC.
- Provide consistent environments using Kubernetes for deployment, scaling, and load balancing applications from development through QA. Create pipelines between development and operations teams using Azure Container Registry and Kubernetes.
- Assist in troubleshooting network and storage issues, making growth recommendations. Extend and adopt infrastructure standards for integrating additional cloud service providers, including Azure and AWS.
- Design, implement, and maintain Windows, CentOS, Ubuntu, and other open-source software solutions for cloud and compute infrastructure. Plan and execute migrations with legacy cloud platforms.
- Develop and maintain effective real-time monitoring systems to ensure proactive responses to server/cloud events. Collect and publish KPI’s and metrics, using data points for capacity planning and forecasting future capital spend.
- Collaborate with development, DevOps, technical support, provisioning, implementation, and sales teams on cross-departmental projects. Create and maintain strong vendor relationships, negotiating cost-effective contracts and renewals.
- Implement and utilize the latest security tools to ensure robust protection of cloud infrastructure and applications.
Research Assistant
Texas A&M University Commerce
2 2016 - 2016.12
- Utilized CloudWatch to monitor resources such as Cloud EC2, CPU memory, Cloud RDS DB services, DynamoDB tables, and EBS volumes.Worked on virtualization technologies like VMWare workstation
- Worked on building, patching, and maintaining Linux systems in a highly virtualized (VMware) environment on day to day basis
- Managed IAM policies and provided access to different cloud resources.
- Created VM templates using vCenter, built new servers using templates for replicating OS configurations
- Performed security hardening of servers by installing SolarWinds agents and monitored them through dashboards.
- Whitelisted URLs on Sophos firewall to enable outbound/inbound internet access for application servers.
- Identifying appropriate use of Cloud operational best practices
- Estimating Cloud usage costs and identifying operational cost control mechanisms
- Design, manage, and maintain tools to automate operational processes
- Deploying, managing, and operating scalable, highly available, and fault tolerant systems on Cloud.
- Utilized Python, PowerShell, YAML, JSON, and UNIX shell scripts for automation and website enhancements.
Education
Master of Science - Computer Science
Texas A&M University Commerce
Commerce, TX 2015.08 - 2016.12
Bachelor’s - Information Technology
Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering & Technology
Hyderabad, India 2011.08 - 2015.07
Skills
DevOps principles
Cloud Computing
Monitoring
Cloud Automation
Kubernetes Management
Disaster Recovery
Cost Optimization
Timeline
Cloud Engineer
Komatsu Mining Corp
2024.06 - Current
Cloud Integration Engineer
Cloud Resources
2017.04 - 2020.06
Master of Science - Computer Science
Texas A&M University Commerce
2015.08 - 2016.12
Bachelor’s - Information Technology
Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering & Technology
2011.08 - 2015.07
Research Assistant
Texas A&M University Commerce
2 2016 - 2016.12
Similar Profiles
Eduardo Contreras CanalesEduardo Contreras Canales
Maintenance Planner at Komatsu Mining CorpMaintenance Planner at Komatsu Mining Corp
Abednego HlatshwayoAbednego Hlatshwayo
Vac Work Student at KOMATSU MINING CORP.Vac Work Student at KOMATSU MINING CORP.
Jesse PeakallJesse Peakall
HV Electrician at Komatsu PDI – Civil, Mining, & OtherHV Electrician at Komatsu PDI – Civil, Mining, & Other