Career Portfolio Website

Name: Patric Alberth Mkwanazi

Profile: AWS Cloud Engineer

Skill

HTML 85%

SQL 80%

Python 50%

Linux 60%

About me

I am a tech enthusiast with around 10 years of experience in the IT world, and over time, have found my true passion in cloud computing, especially with AWS. My background is rooted in IT infrastructure, application support, and helping systems run smoothly whether on-premises or in the cloud. Have always enjoyed solving problems, streamlining processes, and keeping things running behind the scenes. But as cloud technologies started reshaping the industry, I knew I had to be part of that transformation.

That curiosity led me to dive into AWS. What started as a personal interest quickly turned into a professional pursuit. I became fascinated with how cloud services could automate, scale, and improve almost every part of IT from deployments to monitoring to full-blown architecture.

Now, I’m on an exciting journey to become an AWS Cloud Associate Professional Specialist. Along the way, I have been building hands-on projects, learning everything I can, and using my existing experience to bridge the gap between traditional IT and modern cloud solutions. At the end of the day, I love using technology to make things better, faster systems, smarter solutions, and more efficient workflows. .

IT Experience

Professional History & Core Responsibilities.

Application Support (Deployment & Releases)

- Provide L2/L3 application support, diagnosing and resolving technical issues related to software deployments, infrastructure, and performance.

- Manage deployments to Production environments using Azure CI/CD pipelines.

- Handle manual deployments for legacy systems where automation is not feasible, ensuring proper documentation and risk mitigation.

- Document solutions and maintain a KB (Knowledge Base) for recurring issues to improve future response times.

- Work with Service Desk teams to triage, escalate, and resolve user-reported issues efficiently.

Systems Administrator

Install, Configure, and Support Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and later:

Install and configure new servers
Rebuild and upgrade existing servers
Rebuild and upgrade existing servers

Active Directory:

Group Policy Objects
Create, change, and delete user accounts (Manual and Bulk Import)
Unlock, reset user accounts
Manage Distribution and Security groups

Microsoft Azure:

Deploy Virtual Machines
Create, change, and delete user accounts
Deploy Various Azure resources as per request

Technical Support

Provided desktop support and managed Office 365 environments, ensuring seamless user operations.

Provided end-user technical support for desktops, laptops, and business applications
Installed, configured, and troubleshot Microsoft OS, applications, and internal software
Managed Active Directory user accounts and network security policies
Administered Office 365 and provided remote troubleshooting support

Qualifications

Certifications & Educational Background

AWS Certifications

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner 2025

Azure Certifications

Azure Fundamentals 2024
Azure Database Administrator Associate 2024
Cloud Platform and Infrastructure 2018

IT Degree / Diploma

Bachelor of Science in Informatics
Diploma Information Technology

Portfolio

Hands-On AWS Projects.

Career Portfolio

Built a scalable and serverless portfolio website using AWS services.

Used AWS Amplify for continuous deployment and hosting.
Route 53 managed custom domain and SSL certification.
Node.js server used to serve static files efficiently.
Integrated with GitHub for source control and version tracking.
Designed for high availability, low cost, and easy maintenance using AWS-native solutions.

Data-Synchronization-System

AWS DataSync to synchronize files from a local shared folder (branch office) to Amazon S3 (central storage) and the Head office pulls updated data from the S3 bucket, inspired by a real-world scenario.

Amazon S3 – for centralized storage.
AWS DataSync – to transfer files securely from branch office to Amazon S3 stoarege and to the Head office.
DataSync Agent – installed on-premises to bridge local storage with the cloud.
CloudWatch – to monitor sync tasks and ensure reliability.

AWS CloudFormation

Automated the provisioning of EC2 infrastructure using AWS CloudFormation. Created a secure, publicly accessible virtual server using declarative infrastructure-as-code principles.

AWS CloudFormation – used to define and deploy resources as code (YAML).
Amazon EC2 – launched a Linux virtual machine with specified instance type.
Security Group – configured to allow SSH (port 22) access.
Elastic IP – attached to EC2 instance for a static public IP address.
AWS CLI – used to deploy, monitor, and delete CloudFormation stacks.
Key Pair – used to securely SSH into the instance post-deployment.

AWS S3 Automation with Python

Automated S3 bucket creation, file uploads, and deletions using Python scripts and the Boto3 SDK to promote Infrastructure-as-Code practices.

Boto3 – Python SDK used for creating and managing AWS S3 resources.
Amazon S3 – Used as the primary storage service for uploading and managing files.
Python Scripts – Created to automate bucket creation, file upload, and deletion tasks.
Error Handling – Implemented logic for missing credentials, missing files, and AWS exceptions.
VS Code + GitHub – Used for script development, version control, and repository management.
Automation Benefits – Improved efficiency, consistency, cost control, and security by scripting infrastructure tasks.

AWS Auto Scaling & Load Balancer Setup

Deployed a scalable and highly available web application architecture using Auto Scaling Groups, Application Load Balancer, Bastion Host, and custom VPC subnets.

VPC & Subnets – Designed a custom VPC with public and private subnets across two Availability Zones.
Auto Scaling Group – Automatically launched and maintained application instances in private subnets.
Application Load Balancer (ALB) – Balanced traffic across healthy instances to ensure high availability.
Bastion Host – Enabled secure SSH access to private instances via jump host.
NAT Gateway – Allowed outbound internet access for private instances without exposing them.
Custom HTML Deployment – Served simple HTML pages via Python HTTP server to test failover and routing.

I am Patric Alberth Mkwanazi