Transforming an Old Laptop into a Silent Linux Server & Private AI Homelab
Transforming an Old Laptop into a Silent Linux Server & Private AI Homelab
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DevOps Engineer • Security Researcher (TCM PJPT • MSc Cybersecurity)
Shaz's DevOps & Security Hub
Building Resilient Cloud Infrastructure, Hardened CI/CD Pipelines & Secure Architectures
Hands-on engineering across AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, Go, Python, and Cloud & Network Security.
Systems & Security Engineering
Flagship Engineering Projects
Production-grade tools, automated security pipelines, and cloud native architectures.
Cloud Native Infra Production Architecture
Production EKS GitOps with ArgoCD & ESO
Declarative Kubernetes infrastructure deployed via Terraform on AWS. Features ArgoCD ApplicationSets for multi-environment syncing, External Secrets Operator (ESO) syncing with AWS Secrets Manager, and Trivy automated container vulnerability gating.
Zero-Tracking & Privacy Production Web Platform
Digital Amannah — Values-Based Digital Wellness Platform
A privacy-first digital safety platform built with Next.js App Router and React Server Components for zero client-side tracking. Features automated markdown content delivery, strict TypeScript type safety, and localized moderation workflows.
Full-Stack Architecture Open Source Web App
SubTrackr — Go Backend & Supabase RLS Subscription Engine
A full-stack subscription and recurring expense management platform engineered with a high-performance Go (Gin) REST API, React 18 frontend, PostgreSQL Row Level Security (RLS) policies, and automated email notification jobs.
Pipeline Security DevSecOps Automation
Hardened CI/CD & Keyless AWS OIDC Pipeline
Zero-long-lived-credentials CI/CD architecture replacing static AWS IAM keys with OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity federation in GitHub Actions, combined with automated Trivy vulnerability scanning and security regression checks.
Tech Stack & Core Expertise
Cloud & Infrastructure
- AWS (EKS, IAM, S3, NLB, VPC)
- Azure (Batch, SP, Blob)
- Google Cloud Platform
- Kubernetes & Kustomize
- Docker & Containerd
Security & Hardening
- TCM Security PJPT Certified
- Vulnerability Scanning (Trivy)
- Secrets Management (ESO, Vault)
- Hardened CI/CD (GitHub Actions)
- IAM OIDC & Least Privilege
Tools & Languages
- Terraform & OpenTofu
- Go (Golang) & Python
- Bash Scripting & Linux Hardening
- Grafana, CloudWatch, Kuma
- Tailscale WireGuard Mesh
Current Focus & Credentials
Professional Engineering
- DevOps Engineer at Seqera Labs
- Building secure CI/CD pipelines with Trivy automated vulnerability gating
- Automating secrets management with External Secrets Operator (ESO)
- Multi-cloud infrastructure as code automation with Terraform
Education & Research
- MSc Computer Science with Cybersecurity at University of York
- TCM Security PJPT (Practical Junior Penetration Tester)
- Verified Certifications: Credly Badges
- Active HackTheBox penetration testing & red-teaming labs
- Infrastructure as Code & Cloud Native Security Automation
My DevOps Journey
May 2025 - Present
DevOps Engineer
Seqera Labs
Building secure CI/CD pipelines with integrated security scanning, automating secrets management with ESO, and implementing infrastructure as code with embedded security baselines.
Kubernetes Terraform CI/CD Security
2024 - 2025
Cloud Support Engineer
Seqera Labs
Provided technical support for cloud infrastructure, troubleshooting complex deployment issues, and optimizing system performance across multi-cloud environments.
AWS Azure GCP Troubleshooting
2023 - 2024
IT Administrator
Cloudbeds
Managed enterprise IT infrastructure, implemented automation solutions, and maintained 99.9% system uptime while reducing support ticket volumes by 40%.
System Administration Automation Infrastructure
2022 - 2023
Infrastructure Technology Helpdesk Administrator
TractionOnDemand
Specialized in infrastructure support, network troubleshooting, and user technical assistance while building foundational DevOps skills.
Infrastructure Networking Technical Support
2021 - 2022
Application Support Analyst & Service Desk Analyst
Impellam Group
Started my tech journey in application support and service desk roles, developing problem-solving skills and technical foundation.
Application Support Service Desk Problem Solving
Expected August 2026
MSc Computer Science with Cybersecurity
University of York
Advanced studies in cybersecurity, focusing on threat detection, security architecture, and defensive strategies.
Cybersecurity Threat Analysis Security Architecture
Latest Technical Articles
Self-Hosting Privacy Analytics and a Homelab Command Center on Debian
Why I Replaced Third-Party Analytics with Self-Hosted Umami
Aug 15, 2026
Building Amanah AI Gateway: A Go Runtime Security Proxy for LLM Tool Calls & Prompt Injections
As autonomous AI agents and Large Language Models (LLMs) gain tool-calling capabilities—executing database queries, triggering...
Aug 10, 2026
Transforming an Old Laptop into a Silent Linux Server & Private AI Homelab
Transforming an Old Laptop into a Silent Linux Server & Private AI Homelab
Aug 08, 2026
My Journey Building an EKS Cluster: The Struggles, Breakthroughs, and Lessons Learned
My Journey Building an EKS Cluster: The Struggles and Breakthroughs
Self-Hosting Privacy Analytics and a Homelab Command Center on Debian
Why I Replaced Third-Party Analytics with Self-Hosted Umami
Building Amanah AI Gateway: A Go Runtime Security Proxy for LLM Tool Calls & Prompt Injections
As autonomous AI agents and Large Language Models (LLMs) gain tool-calling capabilities—executing database queries, triggering AWS CLI commands, and invoking external APIs—the security perimeter changes fundamentally.
Red-Teaming Generative AI: Lessons Learned Auditing LLM Endpoints & Prompt Injections
While expanding Pythia (the open-source CLI I built for LLM safety auditing), I spent considerable time testing production AI pipelines and agentic workloads. Connecting Large Language Models (LLMs) to enterprise...
Building Digital Amannah: A Case Study in Values-Based Digital Wellness Tech
Building Digital Amannah: A Case Study in Values-Based Digital Wellness Tech
Designing and Running a Stress Test for Container Build Services at Scale
Designing and Running a Stress Test for Container Build Services at Scale
Building SubTrackr: Designing a Secure Full-Stack App with Go, React, and Supabase RLS
Keeping track of monthly and annual software subscriptions can quickly get messy. To solve this problem for myself and experiment with modern full-stack architectures, I built SubTrackr, a clean, responsive...
Building Pythia: An Automated CLI for LLM Red-Teaming and Prompt-Injection Security Testing
As large language models (LLMs) find their way into production applications, they introduce a brand-new threat vector: adversarial prompt injections. Unlike traditional inputs, natural language prompts can bypass security constraints,...
AppArmor for Container Runtimes on Ubuntu 24.04: Solving the Batch Start Task Crash
Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat) introduced significant security hardening, including a stricter default AppArmor profile for unprivileged user namespaces. While beneficial for security, this change can disrupt container runtimes and specialized...