Levi The Cloud Guy

The Proliferation Problem

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:10:47 -0600

I recently spent a week integrating Cloud Code into my workflow. I didn’t go in with high expectations, but I came away with a significant concern that has nothing to do with the quality of the code itself.

The tool is undeniably impressive. I’ve been building scripts to generate graph definitions for our cloud network—essentially feeding a complex data structure into an LLM so it can reason about our infrastructure. With a detailed prompt, the AI handled the boilerplate and the logic with surprising accuracy.

However, the “success” of the tool highlighted a looming industry-wide issue: Synthetic Volume.

The ClickOps Trap: Is Manual Cloud Work Killing Your Career?

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 21:32:45 -0600

I saw a post on Reddit recently that really struck a nerve. It was from a Cloud Systems Administrator who effectively runs everything for their organization—AWS networking, server management, Azure, Intune, migrations—but they’re doing it all manually. No Infrastructure as Code (IaC), no CI/CD, just the console and a lot of clicking. Their question was simple but terrifying: “Am I hurting my career by staying here?” The short answer? Maybe. But the long answer is that you have two distinct paths out of this trap, and both require you to stop being a “technician” and start thinking like an architect.

Hire Me

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 07:01:14 +0000

Hi there! I appreciate the outreach from recruiters and peers. To make sure we’re both focused on the right opportunities, here’s a snapshot of where I am and where I’m going. Since 2023, I’ve been serving as a Director of Cloud Engineering, leading the centralized strategy for a global fleet of 400+ AWS accounts. Most recently, I’ve been obsessed with solving the ‘unsexy’ problems that break at scale: formalizing global network architecture across 26 regions using AWS CloudWAN and IPAM, and building custom Python tooling to visualize complex cloud topologies.

How I'd run a DevOps Consultancy

Sun, 29 Sep 2019 17:35:25 +0000

A few months ago, I was approached by a firm asking to become a consultant. I starting thinking about how I would run the whole practice. I decided to share this with the world.

The Strategic Value of Quitters

Wed, 02 May 2018 18:14:18 +0000

Job hopping: the practice of switching jobs every few years. It’s becoming more and more common, especially among younger workers. For many of them, it’s the only way to get significant salary increases. There is obvious value in poor performing employees leaving your organization, but what about the high performing ones? I believe there is even more untapped value in those employees leaving.

Dr. SpotInstance

Sun, 08 Apr 2018 14:58:17 +0000

I recently moved all my compute resources over to Spot Instances in AWS. I love it. If you’re not using Spot in your applications, I hope this will convince you to look into it.

Pets To Cattle

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 13:41:21 +0000

At Arkiom, I led the migration from managed hosting in a datacenter in Utah to AWS. We were having problems with our hosting provider’s lackluster support and performing destructive maintenance without communication. I was working as a developer, but I had previous server admin experience, so I proposed we move. For the next 6 months, I performed cost analysis, provided migration plans, and configured the 15 servers we’d need for all our projects. One product at a time, I turned on the new servers, migrated the DNS, and shut down the old ones. The only hiccups we had were with our Federal clients who whitelisted our IPs. Small wrinkles ironed out, we were fully “in the cloud”.

DevOps Hell's Kitchen

Thu, 31 Aug 2017 13:13:18 +0000

Yesterday, while sharing a beer with my coworkers, we discussed an idea I’ve been kicking around for many years now. We joked and laughed while wondering aloud if anyone would be interested. Then, the name was coined: “DevOps Hell’s Kitchen”.

The premise is fairly simple. Two teams of software engineers compete in head-to-head challenges week after week. These challenges could be oriented around known computing problems or designed to educate. Things like “process a million messages from a queue” or “send billions of emails”. Every challenge is cost-bound, meaning the team that successfully completes the challenge in the time allotted, for the lowest cost, will be the winner. The losing team votes a person off the team.

Hugo Lambda Builder

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 13:49:42 +0000

I want to build static sites to capitalize on really cheap hosting via S3. I have probably a dozen sites I’ll host on here, so all solutions will be 10x more expensive. I also want to know if building a CI/CD platform on Lambda is feasible. With systems like Jenkins, it’s really hard to hit 100% utilization. Lambda gives us that possibility, provided this all works.

S3 Static Hosting Lessons

Mon, 17 Jul 2017 14:33:08 +0000

There are a lot of parts getting this whole thing set up.

Static Hosting on S3 with Hugo

Sun, 16 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’m building static sites because they’re cheap, low maintenance, and highly performant. I’ve been running Wordpress sites for years, but they always seem to be more work than they’re worth. I get tired of applying updates and then fixing plugins. Hugo was recommended to me by a friend on Twitter. I’ve been working on using it ever since.