---
title: Balázs Páldi
url: https://devopstales.github.io/balazspaldi/
date: 2026-08-07
---


![Balázs Páldi](/img/avatar1.webp)
* **Budapest, Hungary**
* DevOps Architect at [Shiwaforce](https://www.shiwaforce.com/)
* Hungarian (native), English (B2)
* Based in Budapest · Prefer hybrid
* [LinkedIn](https://hu.linkedin.com/in/bal%C3%A1zs-p%C3%A1ldi-492774143) · [Credly](https://www.credly.com/users/balazs-paldi) · [DevOpsTales](https://devopstales.github.io/) · [Shiwaforce](https://www.shiwaforce.com/)

## About

I help engineering organisations move from ad-hoc infrastructure work to operable cloud-native platforms: clear ownership, automated delivery, observable production, and security controls teams will actually use.

As a DevOps Architect at [Shiwaforce](https://www.shiwaforce.com/), I work with enterprise customers across banking, telecom, and pharma — assessing maturity, designing target operating models, implementing platforms, and enabling teams through training. I collaborate daily with developers, architects, and consulting colleagues: translating constraints into pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and runbooks rather than handing over a cluster and walking away.

I publish hands-on guides on [DevOpsTales](https://devopstales.github.io/) covering Kubernetes networking, GitOps, policy, and platform engineering.

## Selected work

Public writing that shows how I think about production platforms:

- [AI for DevOps](/ai/ai-for-devops/) — agentic AI for platform engineering and SRE workflows
- [Best Practices for Keeping Kubernetes Clusters Secure](/kubernetes/k8s-security/) — security baseline for production clusters
- [Separating Kubernetes Ingree into DMZ](/kubernetes/k8s-dmz-bgp-external-haproxy/) — DMZ ingress without Cilium external workload
- [Kubernetes Egress Gateway Options with Cilium](/kubernetes/cilium-egress-gateway/) — egress patterns for locked-down clusters
- [Kubernetes Multicluster with Cilium Cluster Mesh](/kubernetes/cluster-mesh-with-cilium/) — multi-cluster connectivity and trade-offs

## Community projects

Open-source Kubernetes tools I maintain under [devopstales](https://github.com/devopstales):

- [trivy-operator](https://github.com/devopstales/trivy-operator) — continuous image scanning and admission control with Trivy
- [KubeDash](https://github.com/devopstales/KubeDash) — Python-based Kubernetes dashboard for cluster observability and ops

## Professional Experience

### DevOps Cloud Architect — Shiwaforce / DevOps Natives

**Mar 2024 – Present** · Budapest, Hungary · Enterprise consulting (banking, telecom, pharma)

- Own platform architecture for customer Kubernetes and cloud engagements from design through handover
- Drive DevOps maturity for **Egis**: assessment, strategy, and delivery of cloud-native operating models
- Partner with engineering and consulting teams at **OTP** on platform, CI/CD, and infrastructure standards
- Deliver GitLab CI/CD and platform enablement for **MBH Bank** and **Lexholding**
- Deliver Kubernetes training for engineering teams at **Telenor** and **Telekom**
- Set reusable infrastructure and delivery standards across consulting engagements (IaC, pipelines, observability, security baselines)

### DevOps Cloud Engineer — Shiwaforce

**Oct 2023 – Mar 2024** · Budapest, Hungary · Platform automation

- Replaced manual environment setup with Terraform-driven VM provisioning for Kubernetes workloads
- Codified Kubernetes install and lifecycle with Ansible so clusters were repeatable across projects
- Automated Shiwa Enterprise CMS installation for consistent product environment delivery

### DevOps Engineer — Shiwaforce

**Nov 2017 – Oct 2023** · Budapest, Hungary · Hybrid on-prem and multi-cloud

- Designed and ran a highly available Proxmox VE platform with Proxmox Backup Server — including backup and recovery for production workloads
- Built and operated production Kubernetes estates across OpenShift, upstream Kubernetes, and RKE2
- Delivered cloud Kubernetes on EKS, AKS, and GKE for customer and internal workloads
- Established build/deploy pipelines in GitLab, GitHub, Bitbucket, and Bamboo
- Standardized environment creation with Terraform, Ansible, Chef, and Helm
- Worked with developers on delivery friction: pipelines, environments, networking, policy, and platform reliability

### System Administrator — ITware Kft.

**Jun 2015 – Nov 2017** · Budapest, Hungary · Software delivery environments

- Operated Linux and middleware for software development and system integration projects
- Supported the shift toward containers, microservices, and cloud-oriented delivery

## Skills

| Depth | Area | Technologies |
|-------|------|----------------|
| Primary | Containers & orchestration | Kubernetes, OpenShift, RKE2, Helm |
| Primary | Networking & policy | Cilium, Calico, eBPF, network policies, service mesh |
| Primary | Infrastructure as code | Terraform, Ansible, Helm |
| Primary | CI/CD & GitOps | GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Argo CD / Flux, Kyverno |
| Strong | Cloud | AWS (EKS), Azure (AKS), GCP (GKE) |
| Strong | Virtualization & backup | Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server |
| Strong | Observability & security | Prometheus/Grafana ecosystem, Datadog, admission policy, image signing |
| Familiar | Other tooling | Bitbucket Pipelines, Bamboo, Chef |

## Top certifications

Highest-signal badges for platform, networking, and delivery roles. Full wallet on [Credly](https://www.credly.com/users/balazs-paldi).

| Certification | Issuer | Year |
|---------------|--------|------|
| [IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Professional Certificate](https://cognitiveclass.ai/certificates/bd666529-ae0d-4900-a746-6216ac1abc04) | IBM / Cognitive Class | 2026 |
| GitLab Solutions Architect Core Verified Associate | GitLab | 2023 |
| [Kubernetes Operators Advanced](https://courses.cognitiveclass.ai/certificates/6c2fe3cd43ab4b3180fb648ea00989a2) | IBM / Cognitive Class | 2026 |
| [Prompt Engineering for Everyone](https://courses.cognitiveclass.ai/certificates/881b9cdf60a444358fbcc3d91d0dccb1) | IBM / Cognitive Class | 2026 |
| Certified Calico Operator - AWS Expert | Tigera | 2025 |
| Certified Calico Operator - Azure Expert | Tigera | 2025 |

## Education

**Bachelor of Science (BSc), Engineering Information Technology**  
Dennis Gabor College · 2010 – 2014