Posts
Articles and field notes on DevOps practice, platform engineering, reliability, security, automation, and technical decision-making.
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Before implementing, understand the problem
A solution can work and still solve the wrong problem. Notes on context, reference projects, and engineering judgment before implementation.
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Not Every Timeout Needs Another Retry
A Kafka metadata timeout in Lambda led us to extend the producer’s recovery window instead of adding another retry loop.
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Last call before production
How we coordinate multiple deployment lifecycles with previews, releases, and approvals while leaving context-dependent decisions to the people closest to the change.
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DocumentDB Upserts: When Missing Indexes Drive Up I/O Costs
How missing indexes turned routine DocumentDB upserts into full collection scans, drove I/O cost above $3,000 per month, and slowed every caller down.
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AWS Infrastructure: Private by Default, Accessible by Design
What private infrastructure means in production: network boundaries, identity, authorization, and intentional access for people and automation.
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ECS vs EKS: What Problem Do You Want to Operate
A practical comparison from production: upgrades, cronjobs, permissions, AWS limits, and the real cost of keeping a platform alive.
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The Right Tool for the Work Around the Work
A reflection on using AI to pay down the technical debt around this blog, and why better tools need better questions.
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The Quiet Work Between Posts
A few notes after a long pause from writing, and the kind of work that slowly changes how we see systems.
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When “it works fine” becomes legacy
Why stability without evolution becomes dangerous.
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RDS IAM Authentication Without Static Database Passwords
Eliminating static RDS credentials with IAM authentication — lower risk, minimal developer friction.