Remote Development and Consulting for DevOps, AWS, Linux and the Web

Your friendly neighbourhood DevOps guy

About

Technical Areas

• Linux server administration
• Development in Python, Bash/shell and most web languages
• Amazon Web Services
• Infrastructure as Code, with Terraform
• Cost optimization
• Website design, development, migration
• Network and security auditing/hardening
• Build and deployment CI/CD pipelines
• Trouble-shooting / AI code cleanup :)

Services

• DNS
  Comprehensive DNS management services, including configuring and debugging your DNS setup, adding and modifying records.
  
  Extensive experience working with AWS Route 53, Cloudflare DNS and others.
• Websites
  End-to-end website assistance, covering every stage from design to deployment and growth.
  
  Front-end and back-end development using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python. DNS and SSL integration, and scaling through CDN solutions like AWS CloudFront and Cloudflare.
• AWS Serverless Apps
  Set up and manage your AWS Lambda functions and API Gateway to build scalable, serverless applications tailored to your needs.
  
  Whether you're hosting static websites or integrating backend logic without managing servers, I'll ensure everything runs smoothly.
• AWS Security Audit
  Comprehensive AWS security audits to help you identify misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and compliance gaps across your AWS infrastructure.
  
  I deliver clear, actionable reports to strengthen your security posture and ensure alignment with certifications like SOC2, CIS and ISO 27001.
• AWS Architectural Review
  Expert AWS architectural guidance to help you design, review, and optimize your cloud infrastructure for performance, security, scalability, and cost-efficiency.
  
  Ensure your architecture aligns with AWS best practices and the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
• AWS Pricing Review
  Deep-dive on AWS pricing guidance to help you understand, manage, and reduce your cloud costs.
  
  Ensure you're only paying for what you need while maximizing the value of your AWS investment.
• Deployment Pipelines
  Help with setting up or improving your build, test, stage, deployment pipelines.
  
  Buildkite, Jenkins, Github Actions, let me streamline your build times, reduce errors, and get your code into production faster.
• Development Guidance
  Development and DevOps guidance to help your team improve their skills, solve technical problems, and navigate the rollout of future projects more effectively.
  
  Take your team from DevOps zeroes to (sorry about this) DevOps heroes.
• Performance Optimization
  Performance optimization for applications, scripts, and SQL queries to help you get the most out of your code and infrastructure.
  
  I focus on identifying the bottlenecks and provide practical, scalable improvements that enhance overall performance, reliability, and user experience.
• Database Administration
  PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite, covering everything from setup and configuration to query and performance tuning, backup strategies, and troubleshooting.
  
  Designing schema, managing migrations, ensuring data integrity and availability, I provide the expertise to keep your database humming.
• Website SSL Certificate
  Website SSL certificate administration. Handling everything from certificate installation and renewal to configuration and troubleshooting.
  
  Ensure your site's security and trustworthiness, and keep your website compliant with modern security standards.
• AWS Networking
  Design the right sized networks tailored to your infrastructure needs.
  
  Set up public and private subnets, manage VPC routing, security groups, and network access control. Ensure your AWS environment is optimized for performance, security and connectivity.

FAQ

• Who are you?
  Ok a little about me! 44 year old aussie. Lived in Melbourne for the past 30 years. Recently decided to focus on my startups and consulting.
  
  Got my hands on my first Linux/Unix computer when I was a teenager and never wanted to do anything else. Have worked with the AWS platform for the last decade or so. Have a "hands-on" mentality. My partner would just say that I love to fix things.
  
  I also dabble in leathercraft, and writing fiction and occasionally get involved in amateur theatre. Absolutely rabid Richmond Tigers supporter. I like to play indoor futsal (soccer) and if the sun is shining, I want to be outside.
• Why should we hire you?
  There is a bedrock of industry experience up my sleeve. From a technical standpoint there's not much with the internet and tech that I haven't gotten my hands dirty with.
  
  My objective is to get work done at a high standard and with the forward-thinking to deliver solutions that will work now and for the future.
  
  If you've got some small to medium-sized projects and you don't have the resources at the moment to deliver them, then bringing in a full-stack generalist like myself can temporarily boost your team's capacity.
• What is your experience?
  Have recently stepped away from a Head of Infrastructure role that went for 8 years. I recruited and lead a small team of DevOps folk. Together we looked after many AWS accounts and implemented secure systems for receiving huge amounts of client data. There was an ongoing emphasis on controlling (the rather extreme) costs, and meeting our SOC2 auditing requirements.
  
  We moved the entire tech stack into an Infrastructure as Code deployment using Terraform. We dockerized every component of the application suite and created nearly a hundred build and deploy pipelines. We setup monitoring and alerting, logging and ancillery systems to help reduce the load on the developers and others around us.
• How does payment work?
  After our initial consultation, if an agreement can be reached for the delivery of the work. I'll send you a contract for the work order which outlines the parameters for your project.
  
  If the work is agreed to be at the daily consulting rate ($1200 AUD), then an invoice will be generated and payment must proceed in order for work to continue.
  
  If the work is a fixed-price agreement then typically a good faith payment of 10% is required before work will start, then the rest of the payment is broken up by delivery milestones.
• What sort of projects are you accepting?
  I am currently accepting small to medium-sized projects depending on my suitability and availability. For example need a database migrated with zero downtime? Sure, let's talk. Need someone to run a security check over your AWS account? All good. These sorts of projects tend to take less than a week.
• Do you outsource any work?
  No.
• Can we get you to work in our office?
  Currently only accepting remote projects.
• What are some examples of past work?
  The main projects that keep a roof over my head, 100% built by me:
  
  Dibs On Stuff
  Tfstate.com
  My Github