Cloud · Infrastructure · Solutions

Armando Rodriguez

Senior Cloud Engineer & Solutions Architect
Active Secret Clearance U.S. Marine Corps Veteran Azure Solutions Architect Expert · AZ-305 Azure Administrator · AZ-104 B.S. Information Technology Richmond, VA

Twelve years building and deploying enterprise infrastructure for classified DoD missions, from servers and networks to cloud, applications, and virtualization. I focus on understanding what the mission needs, delivering it reliably, and seeing the hard problems through.

armando@cloud: ~
armando@cloud:~$ az account show --query user.name -o tsv
armando@armandorodriguez.cloud
armando@cloud:~$ az group list --query "[].location" -o tsv | sort -u
eastus2
usgovvirginia
armando@cloud:~$
0
Years experience
0
Certifications
Secret
Active clearance
About

I build it, deploy it, and keep it running.

Senior Cloud Engineer and Solutions Architect with 12 years architecting, deploying, and supporting enterprise infrastructure end to end, from system and server components up to full network stacks, across on-prem, hybrid, and Azure environments that support classified DoD missions. I'm just as comfortable building and deploying applications, running virtualization platforms, and administering the Microsoft 365 suite. At my core I'm a builder and problem solver: I work to understand what the mission needs, deliver it reliably, and see complex problems through.

Expertise

Core competencies

What I bring to every engagement, across infrastructure, networking, cloud, virtualization, and the Microsoft ecosystem.

Infrastructure ArchitectureSystems, servers, and storage, deployed end to end
Network & FirewallsCisco, Palo Alto, Cloudflare
Application DeploymentBuild, deploy, operate, and support
VirtualizationVMware vSphere / vCenter / vSAN, Hyper-V
Azure Cloud InfrastructureIaaS, PaaS, networking, storage
Microsoft 365 SuiteExchange, SharePoint, Teams, Intune
Identity & AccessEntra ID, Active Directory, ADFS
Migration & Disaster RecoveryAzure Site Recovery, backup, continuity
Containerized WorkloadsDocker, Linux, PostgreSQL
Endpoint & ComplianceIntune, MECM, STIG / SCAP
Automation & ScriptingPowerShell, Microsoft Graph API, Python
Solutions & ReportingPower BI, Grafana, monitoring
Experience

Where I've delivered

Click any role to explore it. Use ← → arrow keys to navigate.

Earlier: Computer Technician at TigerDirect (2014 to 2015) · IT Consultant at CompuPlanet (2014)

Test Labs

Labs & builds

Personal testing environments I started building because of my work, sandboxes where I get hands-on with the technologies I use professionally and try things I can't touch in a live environment. These are learning labs, not production, and they don't mirror any production system.

Project 01

Self-Hosted Linux Application Stack

A self-hosted Linux services lab I started because of my work, a Docker-orchestrated host running Grafana, Matrix/Element, Wiki.js, Zammad, and MobSF behind a Traefik reverse proxy with custom bots on a shared PostgreSQL backend. A personal sandbox for getting hands-on with containerized services and the full database and service lifecycle, a test environment, not production, and not a copy of one.

DockerLinuxGrafanaPostgreSQL
View on GitHub
Project 02

Cloud Portfolio Platform

This very site. A framework-free static portfolio engineered for armandorodriguez.cloud, with Cloudflare DNS and email routing and a deploy pipeline to Azure Static Web Apps. Hand-built UI, version-controlled on GitHub, shipping on the platform I specialize in.

Azure Static Web AppsCloudflareHTML / CSS / JSGit
View on GitHub
Project 03

AI Workflow Automation (MCP)

Claude wired into local tools and data through custom Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, automating research, file operations, and reporting workflows. A practical exploration of applied AI and agent integration in a real toolchain.

ClaudeMCPPythonAutomation
View on GitHub
Project 04

PowerShell & Graph Automation Toolkit

A library of PowerShell tools built on the Microsoft Graph API to automate Microsoft 365 and Intune lifecycle tasks like user provisioning, license assignment, and compliance reporting, replacing repetitive manual admin with repeatable, auditable scripts.

PowerShellMicrosoft GraphIntuneAutomation
View on GitHub
Project 05

Self-Hosted Observability Stack

Monitoring platform for the homelab, with Prometheus scraping metrics across hosts and containers, Grafana dashboards for health and capacity, and alerting that fires on service degradation. Full visibility into every node and service.

PrometheusGrafanaAlertingDashboards
View on GitHub
Project 06

SOC / SIEM Home Lab

Security-operations lab built on Wazuh, with agents shipping logs from Windows and Linux hosts, custom detection rules, file-integrity monitoring, and alerting dashboards to practice threat detection and incident response end to end.

WazuhSIEMDetection RulesIncident Response
View on GitHub
Project 07

Hybrid Identity Lab

Home lab modeling enterprise hybrid identity: on-prem Active Directory (AD DS, DNS, GPO) synced to Entra ID via Entra Connect, with ADFS federation and conditional-access policies. Used to validate identity and authentication flows before production change.

Entra IDActive DirectoryADFSHyper-V
View on GitHub
Project 08

Network & Firewall Lab

Segmented home network engineered around an OPNsense firewall, with VLAN isolation for trusted, IoT, and lab zones, a WireGuard VPN for remote access, and Suricata IDS/IPS inspecting traffic. Hands-on routing, NAT, and policy design backing the CCNA.

OPNsenseVLAN SegmentationWireGuard VPNIDS / IPS
View on GitHub
Project 09

Backup & Disaster Recovery Lab

Resilience lab built on Proxmox Backup Server and Veeam, with scheduled, deduplicated backups across VMs and containers, automated restore testing, and tiered retention. Proves recoverability with regular point-in-time restore drills.

VeeamProxmox BackupRestore TestingRetention
View on GitHub
Project 10

Ansible Configuration Management

Idempotent Ansible playbooks and roles that provision, patch, and harden the homelab fleet from a single control node, version-controlled in Git, turning manual server setup into repeatable, declarative automation.

AnsibleConfig ManagementLinuxGit
View on GitHub
Project 11

Personal Cloud Media Server

Self-hosted Jellyfin media platform on Linux with hardware-accelerated transcoding, organized libraries, and secure remote access fronted by Cloudflare. A hands-on exercise in storage, networking, reverse proxying, and service hardening.

JellyfinLinuxCloudflareDocker
View on GitHub
Project 12

VMware Virtualization Homelab

Multi-host VMware lab with ESXi hosts under vCenter running HA, DRS, and vMotion, segmented virtual networking, and shared storage. A sandbox for testing infrastructure designs, snapshots, and recovery scenarios safely before they touch production.

VMware vSpherevCenterNetworkingStorage
View on GitHub
Education

Education

Formal grounding in network architecture, system design, and the physics behind the hardware.

B.S., Information Technology

Western Governors University · Utah
2021 to 2024

A.S., Physics

South Texas College · Texas
2010 to 2014
Credentials

Certifications

Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, AWS, and Linux.

AZ
305
Azure Solutions Architect ExpertMicrosoft · AZ-305
AZ
104
Azure Administrator AssociateMicrosoft · AZ-104
CCNA
Cisco Certified Network AssociateCisco
SEC+
CompTIA Security+CompTIA
NET+
CompTIA Network+CompTIA
PRJ+
CompTIA Project+CompTIA
ITIL
ITIL v4 FoundationAxelos
AWS
AWS Cloud PractitionerAmazon Web Services
LPI
Linux EssentialsLinux Professional Institute
Off the Clock

When I'm not building infrastructure

The stuff that keeps me balanced (and a little competitive).

MotorcyclesTwo wheels and open road. The best way I know to clear my head.
Gym & WorkoutsIn the gym most mornings. Discipline there tends to carry into everything else.
Guitar & MusicPicking up the guitar and getting lost in music. My reset button.
GamingUnwinding with a good game, with a competitive streak that never left.
GrillingLow and slow on the grill. My weekends usually smell like it.
TravelingAlways plotting the next trip. New places, new food, new perspective.

Let's build something that holds up.

Open to senior cloud, infrastructure, and solutions architect roles. Cleared and ready.