About

Learn more about Colm Monks, DevOps Engineer specializing in Kubernetes, Terraform, AWS, and cloud automation

About Me

Hi, I’m Colm Monks, a DevOps Engineer passionate about automation, cloud infrastructure, and building scalable, reliable systems.

What I Do

I specialize in:

  • 🐳 Container Orchestration: Kubernetes (EKS, self-managed), Docker, and container security
  • 🏗️ Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, CloudFormation, and infrastructure automation
  • ☁️ Cloud Platforms: AWS (primary), Azure, and multi-cloud architectures
  • 🔄 CI/CD: GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, and deployment automation
  • 📊 Monitoring & Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, and CloudWatch
  • ⚙️ Configuration Management: Ansible, and infrastructure provisioning

Philosophy

“Automate everything, never settle”

I believe that if something can be automated, it should be. Manual processes are opportunities for improvement, and reliable systems are built on strong foundations of automation and observability.

Experience

I’ve worked on:

  • Production EKS clusters running critical workloads
  • Large-scale Terraform infrastructure spanning multiple AWS accounts
  • CI/CD pipelines processing thousands of deployments daily
  • Disaster recovery and high-availability architectures
  • Cost optimization initiatives saving significant cloud spend
  • Team mentoring and DevOps transformation projects

Current Focus

Right now, I’m particularly interested in:

  • Platform Engineering: Building internal developer platforms
  • GitOps: Declarative infrastructure and application delivery
  • FinOps: Cloud cost optimization and governance
  • SRE Practices: Building reliability into systems from the ground up
  • Kubernetes Ecosystem: Service meshes, operators, and advanced patterns

Why This Blog?

After years of solving problems, building solutions, and learning from both successes and failures, I wanted to share practical, actionable insights with the community. This blog focuses on:

  • Real-world scenarios from production environments
  • Complete, working examples you can adapt
  • Troubleshooting guides for common and uncommon issues
  • Architecture decisions with reasoning and trade-offs
  • Lessons learned the hard way (so you don’t have to)

Projects

Check out my work on:

  • GitHub: Open-source contributions and personal projects
  • GitLab: Infrastructure code and automation tools

Certifications

While not comprehensive, some relevant certifications include AWS, Kubernetes, and various DevOps tooling certifications.

Speaking & Community

I’m always happy to:

  • Speak at local meetups and conferences
  • Mentor engineers new to DevOps
  • Collaborate on open-source projects
  • Review architecture designs and provide feedback

Let’s Connect

I’d love to hear from you!

About This Site

This blog is:

  • Built with Hugo - the fast static site generator
  • Hosted on GitLab Pages
  • Deployed automatically via GitLab CI/CD
  • Open-source infrastructure as code

The entire site configuration and content is version-controlled and deployed using the same DevOps principles I write about.

Last updated: March 25, 2026