ANIL KUMAR PILLAI
Cloud/DevOps Specialist | Site Reliability Engineer
Leicester,LCE
Summary
Cloud and DevOps Architect with 15+ years of IT experience (including defense service background), specializing in enterprise cloud transformation, infrastructure modernization, and platform reliability. Expert in designing secure, scalable, and cost-optimized architectures on Azure, AWS, and OCI. Proven record of leading lift-and-shift, containerization, and automation initiatives, collaborating with Solution and Domain Architects to align design with business outcomes. Passionate about Infrastructure as Code, DevSecOps, and SRE principles to enable high-velocity, resilient delivery pipelines.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
10
10
Certifications
Work History
Senior Cloud DevOps & SRE Architect (Payments Platform)
NEXT Technologies UK
01.2023 - Current
- Architected and worked on Azure cloud migration of over 200 on-premises servers (Production, Pre-Prod, and UAT) supporting critical payment providers — Worldpay, Barclays, PayPal, Tabby, and Tamara — with zero downtime and full PCI-DSS compliance.
- Partnered with Solution, Domain, and Application Architects to deliver the complete HLD and DevOps-aligned LLD, defining networking, automation, observability, and access-control blueprints for the migration.
- Modernized legacy VM-based workloads to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Azure Container Apps (ACA), enabling containerized microservices, faster deployments, and improved scalability.
- Delivered a POC and migration of build agents from VMSS to ACA, reducing infrastructure costs by ~70% and improving build elasticity; average build completion time dropped by 35% due to on-demand container spin-ups and faster agent provisioning.
- Implemented AAP-driven automated configuration management for VM estates, eliminating drift and standardizing golden image deployment across environments.
- Established centralized observability with Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK Stack, cutting Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) from 4 hours to under 1.5 hours, and improving proactive detection of payment-system anomalies.
- Standardized Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Ansible) and CI/CD blueprints in Azure DevOps, enabling consistent provisioning, faster environment replication, and improved release reliability.
Lead - Cloud Infrastructure (DevOps)
UST Global, Technopark
01.2022 - 01.2023
- Worked and maintained Azure-based DevOps architecture for the Next e-commerce payments ecosystem.
- Automated provisioning of IaaS/PaaS resources and established secure connectivity models (VPN, Private Endpoints).
- Implemented CI/CD pipelines, integrated security scans (SonarQube, Veracode), and configured PowerShell automation.
DB-Admin/Lead DevOps
Kerala State IT Mission
01.2022 - 2022
- Architected DiGit e-Governance platform using Kubernetes, Docker, Kafka, Redis, Helm, Jenkins, and Ansible.
- Designed and managed Aadhaar Vault infrastructure with strict compliance and HSM integration.
- Worked with a team for migration from monolith to microservices and automated deployments via Jenkins pipelines on AWS.
- Led the administration of database systems, optimizing performance and ensuring data integrity across multiple projects.
- Implemented automated DevOps pipelines, enhancing deployment efficiency and reducing downtime through improved CI/CD practices.
- Analyzed system performance metrics to identify bottlenecks, facilitating proactive improvements and enhancing overall system reliability.
Principal Consultant
ITDOCK Technologies Pvt Ltd
01.2019 - 01.2022
- Designed and deployed Kubernetes-based multi-tenant SaaS environments for ERP and Harbour systems on AWS.
- Implemented Terraform-based automation, high-availability Redis/Kafka clusters, and observability stacks.
Infrastructure Engineer
Indian Air Force
01.2005 - 01.2019
- Led team for RHEL 6/7 installation, configuration, and management of HTTP, FTP, SAMBA, SMTP services.
- Managed cluster operations, backup/recovery, and security compliance for Linux environments.
- Implemented security using iptables, Firewall, SELinux; configured network and OS load balancers.
- Administered Logical Volume Manager, LDAP authentication, and VMware virtualization.
- Developed leadership, discipline, and ability to work under pressure in defense operations.
- Led the design and implementation of infrastructure solutions, enhancing operational efficiency and system reliability across critical projects.
- Developed and executed maintenance strategies for advanced communication systems, significantly improving uptime and mission readiness.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to troubleshoot and resolve infrastructure issues, ensuring seamless operations and minimal downtime.
- Managed configuration and deployment of network infrastructure, resulting in optimized connectivity and enhanced data flow for operational units.
Education
Master of Science - Computer Science
Woolf University
01.2026
Master of Computer Applications - Computer Applications
Shobhit University
Meerut01.2014
Bachelor of Computers Application - Computer Applications
EILLM
Sikkim01.2011
Skills
Git, Github
undefinedCertification
Azure AZ-305
Timeline
Senior Cloud DevOps & SRE Architect (Payments Platform)
NEXT Technologies UK
01.2023 - Current
Lead - Cloud Infrastructure (DevOps)
UST Global, Technopark
01.2022 - 01.2023
DB-Admin/Lead DevOps
Kerala State IT Mission
01.2022 - 2022
Principal Consultant
ITDOCK Technologies Pvt Ltd
01.2019 - 01.2022
Infrastructure Engineer
Indian Air Force
01.2005 - 01.2019
Master of Science - Computer Science
Woolf University
Master of Computer Applications - Computer Applications
Shobhit University
Bachelor of Computers Application - Computer Applications
EILLM