infra-engineer

What this skill does

# Infrastructure Engineering Skill

Comprehensive guide for modern infrastructure engineering covering DevOps practices, multi-cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, Cloudflare), FinOps cost optimization, and DevSecOps security practices.

## When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:
- **DevOps**: Setting up CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins), implementing GitOps workflows (ArgoCD, Flux)
- **AWS**: Deploying to EC2, Lambda, ECS, EKS, managing S3, RDS, using CloudFormation/CDK
- **Azure**: Working with Azure VMs, App Service, AKS, Azure Functions, Storage Accounts
- **GCP**: Managing Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud Storage, App Engine
- **Cloudflare**: Deploying Workers, R2 storage, D1 databases, Pages applications
- **Kubernetes**: Managing clusters, deployments, services, ingress, Helm charts, operators
- **Docker**: Containerizing applications, multi-stage builds, Docker Compose, registries
- **FinOps**: Analyzing cloud costs, optimizing spend, reserved instances, spot instances, rightsizing
- **DevSecOps**: Security scanning (SAST/DAST), vulnerability management, secrets management, compliance
- **IaC**: Terraform, CloudFormation, Pulumi, configuration management
- **Monitoring**: Setting up observability, logging, metrics, alerting, distributed tracing

## Platform Selection Guide

### When to Use AWS

**Best For:**
- General-purpose cloud computing at scale
- Mature ecosystem with 200+ services
- Enterprise workloads with compliance requirements
- Hybrid cloud with AWS Outposts
- Extensive third-party integrations
- Advanced networking and security controls

**Key Services:**
- EC2 (virtual machines, flexible compute)
- Lambda (serverless functions, event-driven)
- ECS/EKS (container orchestration)
- S3 (object storage, industry standard)
- RDS (managed relational databases)
- DynamoDB (NoSQL, global tables)
- CloudFormation/CDK (infrastructure as code)
- IAM (identity and access management)
- VPC (virtual private cloud networking)

**Cost Profile:** Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances (up to 72% discount), savings plans, spot instances (up to 90% discount)

### When to Use Azure

**Best For:**
- Microsoft-centric organizations (.NET, Active Directory)
- Hybrid cloud scenarios (Azure Arc, Stack)
- Enterprise agreements with Microsoft
- Windows Server and SQL Server workloads
- Integration with Microsoft 365 and Dynamics
- Strong compliance certifications (90+ certifications)

**Key Services:**
- Virtual Machines (Windows/Linux compute)
- App Service (PaaS for web apps)
- AKS (managed Kubernetes)
- Azure Functions (serverless compute)
- Storage Accounts (Blob, File, Queue, Table)
- SQL Database (managed SQL Server)
- Active Directory (identity management)
- ARM Templates/Bicep (infrastructure as code)

**Cost Profile:** Pay-as-you-go, reserved instances, Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows/SQL Server licenses

### When to Use Cloudflare

**Best For:**
- Edge-first applications with global distribution
- Ultra-low latency requirements (<50ms)
- Static sites with serverless functions
- Zero egress cost scenarios (R2 storage)
- WebSocket/real-time applications (Durable Objects)
- AI/ML at the edge (Workers AI)

**Key Products:**
- Workers (serverless functions)
- R2 (object storage, S3-compatible)
- D1 (SQLite database with global replication)
- KV (key-value store)
- Pages (static hosting + functions)
- Durable Objects (stateful compute)
- Browser Rendering (headless browser automation)

**Cost Profile:** Pay-per-request, generous free tier, zero egress fees

### When to Use Kubernetes

**Best For:**
- Container orchestration at scale
- Microservices architectures with 10+ services
- Multi-cloud and hybrid deployments
- Self-healing and auto-scaling workloads
- Complex deployment strategies (blue/green, canary)
- Service mesh architectures (Istio, Linkerd)
- Stateful applications with operators

**Key Features:**
- Declarative configuration (YAML manifests)
- Automated rollouts and rollbacks
- Service discovery and load balancing
- Self-healing (restarts failed containers)
- Horizontal pod autoscaling
- Secret and configuration management
- Storage orchestration
- Batch job execution

**Managed Options:** EKS (AWS), AKS (Azure), GKE (GCP), managed k8s providers

**Cost Profile:** Cluster management fees + node costs (optimize with spot instances, cluster autoscaling)

### When to Use Docker

**Best For:**
- Local development consistency
- Microservices architectures
- Multi-language stack applications
- Traditional VPS/VM deployments
- Foundation for Kubernetes workloads
- CI/CD build environments
- Database containerization (dev/test)

**Key Capabilities:**
- Application isolation and portability
- Multi-stage builds for optimization
- Docker Compose for multi-container apps
- Volume management for data persistence
- Network configuration and service discovery
- Cross-platform compatibility (amd64, arm64)
- BuildKit for improved build performance

**Cost Profile:** Infrastructure cost only (compute + storage), no orchestration overhead

### When to Use Google Cloud

**Best For:**
- Enterprise-scale applications
- Data analytics and ML pipelines (BigQuery, Vertex AI)
- Hybrid/multi-cloud deployments
- Kubernetes at scale (GKE)
- Managed databases (Cloud SQL, Firestore, Spanner)
- Complex IAM and compliance requirements

**Key Services:**
- Compute Engine (VMs)
- GKE (managed Kubernetes)
- Cloud Run (containerized serverless)
- App Engine (PaaS)
- Cloud Storage (object storage)
- Cloud SQL (managed databases)

**Cost Profile:** Varied pricing, sustained use discounts, committed use contracts

## Quick Start

### AWS Lambda Function

```bash
# Install AWS CLI
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip && sudo ./aws/install

# Configure credentials
aws configure

# Create Lambda function with SAM
sam init --runtime python3.11
sam build && sam deploy --guided
```

See: `references/aws-lambda.md`

### AWS EKS Kubernetes Cluster

```bash
# Install eksctl
brew install eksctl  # or curl download

# Create cluster
eksctl create cluster \
  --name my-cluster \
  --region us-west-2 \
  --nodegroup-name standard-workers \
  --node-type t3.medium \
  --nodes 3 \
  --nodes-min 1 \
  --nodes-max 4
```

See: `references/kubernetes-basics.md`

### Azure Deployment

```bash
# Install Azure CLI
curl -L https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCli | bash

# Login and create resources
az login
az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus
az webapp create --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name myapp --runtime "NODE:18-lts"
```

See: `references/azure-basics.md`

### Cloudflare Workers

```bash
# Install Wrangler CLI
npm install -g wrangler

# Create and deploy Worker
wrangler init my-worker
cd my-worker
wrangler deploy
```

See: `references/cloudflare-workers-basics.md`

### Kubernetes Deployment

```bash
# Create deployment
kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx:latest
kubectl expose deployment nginx --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer

# Apply from manifest
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

# Check status
kubectl get pods,services,deployments
```

See: `references/kubernetes-basics.md`

### Docker Container

```bash
# Create Dockerfile
cat > Dockerfile <<EOF
FROM node:20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --production
COPY . .
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "server.js"]
EOF

# Build and run
docker build -t myapp .
docker run -p 3000:3000 myapp
```

See: `references/docker-basics.md`

## Reference Navigation

### AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- `aws-overview.md` - AWS fundamentals, account setup, IAM basics
- `aws-ec2.md` - EC2 instances, AMIs, security groups, auto-scaling
- `aws-lambda.md` - Serverless functions, SAM, event sources, layers
- `aws-ecs-eks.md` - Container orchestration, ECS vs EKS, Fargate
- `aws-s3-rds.md` - S3 storage, RDS databases, backup strategies
- `aws-cloudformation.md` - Infrastructure as code, CDK, best practices
- `aws-networking.md` - VPC, subnets, se