Hi, I'm Kanzal 👋

Built and operate production Kubernetes clusters on RKE2 and K3s with high availability, HAProxy load balancing, and Helm-based deployments. Manage the full cluster lifecycle—ingress, persistent storage, RBAC, and zero-downtime upgrades—for 20+ applications across multiple environments.

Deployed and managed 30+ downstream Kubernetes clusters using Rancher. Integrated centralized RBAC via Azure Entra ID and automated cluster provisioning with Terraform, reducing setup time by 60%.

Designed and deployed scalable VPC architectures across multiple Availability Zones. Implemented Application Load Balancers (ALB), Auto-scaling groups with Spot instances for cost optimization, and rigorous security through NACLs and Security Groups.

Deployed ELK/EFK stacks using the ECK operator and CNCF Logging Operator for centralized log management. Integrated ElastAlert2 with Prometheus Alertmanager for real-time anomaly detection across multiple clusters.

Established an OCI-compliant Harbor registry for 1000+ images with Trivy scanning. Migrated 2TB+ of data from EBS to S3 with lifecycle policies, achieving an 86% reduction in storage costs.

Engineered end-to-end CI/CD workflows using Drone CI and ArgoCD. Implemented declarative GitOps practices for 20+ applications, enabling zero-downtime upgrades and manual approval gates for production safety.

Orchestrated complex, multi-environment cloud infrastructure using Terraform and Terragrunt. Implemented modular design patterns, remote state management, and automated deployments to ensure consistency and reduce manual overhead across multi-cloud environments.

Engineered production-grade PostgreSQL clusters on Kubernetes using CrunchyData Postgres Operator (PGO) and CloudNativePG (CNPG). Implemented automated backups to S3, seamless failover, and comprehensive monitoring for critical data workloads.

Automated the lifecycle of MySQL databases on Kubernetes using the Percona Distribution for MySQL Operator. Configured high availability, point-in-time recovery, and seamless scaling to handle enterprise-level traffic and data growth.

Architected and deployed a robust centralized logging solution using Graylog. Configured complex processing streams, custom extractors, and real-time alerts to provide deep visibility into infrastructure and application health.

Implemented VictoriaMetrics as a high-performance, cost-effective long-term storage solution for Prometheus metrics. Optimized query performance and significantly reduced the storage footprint for large-scale monitoring data.

Deployed and managed Apache Kafka clusters on Kubernetes using the Strimzi operator. Built scalable, event-driven data pipelines with Kafka Connect and integrated Schema Registry for robust message validation.

Implemented intelligent autoscaling for Kubernetes workloads using KEDA. Configured custom scalers for Kafka, RabbitMQ, and Prometheus metrics to optimize resource utilization and ensure performance during traffic spikes.

Integrated Hoop.dev for centralized, audited, and secure access to internal databases and servers. Enhanced security posture by enforcing least-privilege access and providing a unified entry point for administrative tasks.

Deployed OpenBao for secure secret storage and dynamic credential generation. Migrated legacy secret management workflows to this open-source solution, ensuring high security and compliance across environments.

Designed and maintained complex Grafana dashboards for a 'single pane of glass' view of the entire infrastructure. Integrated Prometheus, Loki, and Tempo for comprehensive monitoring across metrics, logs, and traces.

Built Packer templates and SaltStack recipes inside CI pipelines to produce hardened, vulnerability-scanned AWS AMIs and Azure VM images. Enforced automated retention policies to retire outdated images, cutting image sprawl by 70%.

Deployed and managed AI chatbot infrastructure on Kubernetes with automated scaling. Implemented monitoring and logging to track performance and user interactions, and tuned response times and reliability alongside the development team.