Reed Barker

DevOps / Platform Engineer

I build and operate production-style infrastructure platforms.

This started as a way to host my own projects and evolved into a full platform for building, promoting, and deploying applications across environments.

I focus on making infrastructure predictable, repeatable, and low-friction, so I can build applications without re-solving deployment every time.

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What I Do

Infrastructure that removes friction from building software

I build systems that eliminate the need to repeatedly solve deployment and infrastructure problems. Instead of configuring environments and pipelines per project, I created a platform that standardizes it.

The result is a workflow where code moves from local development to production in a predictable, repeatable way, without manual intervention or one-off fixes.

Featured Project

Kubernetes platform

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What it is

A Kubernetes-based platform for building, promoting, and deploying applications across multiple environments using containerized services and CI/CD pipelines.

Why I built it

I kept running into the same issues: inconsistent environments, manual deployments, and infrastructure slowing down development.

This platform is the result of solving those problems repeatedly across multiple iterations.

What it solves

Applications move from local development to production using a consistent workflow. The backend is no longer the bottleneck and deployment becomes predictable.

Key capabilities

  • Build once, promote across environments without rebuilding
  • Deterministic releases tied to commit SHA
  • Automated container builds via GitLab CI
  • Kubernetes orchestration with environment isolation
  • Ingress routing with dynamic hostnames per deployment
  • Public exposure via Cloudflare tunnels

Real deployment example

Applications are deployed using a promotion script and exposed through structured hostnames: 

Preview example:
./promote.sh <app> registry.gitlab.com/... <sha> <environment>
  → https://<app>--<sha>.<environment>.reedbarker.work

Preview:
  → https://reedbarkerwork--1A2b3C4d.preview.reedbarker.work

Production:
  → https://reedbarker.work

Each deployment is tied to a specific image and commit, making releases traceable and reproducible.

Deployment flow

Write code
→
Scan locally
→
Push to GitLab
→
Build container
→
Promote
→
Production live

Request routing (simplified)

Browser
→
Cloudflare Edge
→
Tunnel
→
Nginx Ingress
→
K3s Service
→
App Container

Traffic is routed through Cloudflare for controlled exposure, then securely tunneled into the cluster and distributed through Kubernetes ingress and service routing.

Database & data architecture (design direction)

Designed to separate transactional workloads from analytical workloads, while enabling recovery and failover strategies.

Application Containers
↓
Postgres Primary (writes)
↓ ↓
Read Replica
Reporting, analytics, and heavy queries isolated from production
WAL Archive
Backups, point-in-time recovery, disaster recovery workflows

This structure allows independent read scaling, protects production performance, and enables safe recovery from failures.

Technical decisions

  • K3s: lightweight Kubernetes for real-world orchestration
  • Immutable images: safer deployments and easier rollbacks
  • Cloudflare tunnels: secure exposure without direct infra exposure
  • Promotion model: controlled path to production

What I learned

  • Debugging across containers, networking, ingress, and deployments
  • Designing systems that behave predictably under change
  • Replacing manual fixes with repeatable workflows
  • Iterating infrastructure instead of over-designing upfront

Skills

Core areas

Infrastructure

Kubernetes, Docker, Linux, containerized systems

CI/CD

GitLab pipelines, automation, promotion workflows

Networking

Ingress, routing, Cloudflare tunnels, service exposure

Systems

Reliability, debugging, production-style operations

Experience

Background

IT Service Center Technician I

Enterprise support across healthcare, government, and business systems.

Robotics Instructor

Teaching programming and engineering fundamentals.

Contact

Open to DevOps / Platform roles

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