DevOps · Cloud · Platform Engineering

From the
Trenches

Long-form writing on DevOps, Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and platform engineering. No fluff. No hot takes. Just the stuff that matters from 8 years of running production systems. By Gaurav Kaushal, Senior DevOps Engineer.

8+ Years in production
AWS Primary cloud
K8s Daily driver
Latest Why your Terraform modules are too big — and how to fix them

Recent Articles

Each card links to a full article.

Why Your Terraform Modules Are Too Big — And How to Fix Them
Most IaC problems aren't about syntax. They're about scope. A practical guide to module boundaries that scale with your team.
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Kubernetes Troubleshooting: Common Errors and How to Fix Them
CrashLoopBackOff, Pending pods, ImagePullBackOff — a production-focused guide to diagnosing the most common Kubernetes errors.
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GitHub Actions vs Jenkins: An Honest Comparison from Production
Both work. The question is which works for your situation. A no-hype comparison based on real migration experience.
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Setting Up Prometheus and Grafana on EKS: A Production Guide
Install kube-prometheus-stack, configure alerts, and build the observability foundation your cluster needs before it scales.
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Dockerfile Best Practices for Production
Most Dockerfiles work in dev but create security and performance problems in production. Here's what actually matters at scale.
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AWS Cost Optimization: How to Cut Cloud Spend by 20% Systematically
From tagging and right-sizing to S3 lifecycle policies and NAT Gateway audits. The process that actually works.
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ArgoCD and GitOps: A Production Setup Guide
Repo structure, Application manifests, progressive delivery with Argo Rollouts, and the mistakes that will bite you if you skip them.
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Ansible for Server Automation at Scale: A Practical Guide
Project structure, idempotent tasks, automated OS patching with serial execution, and running it all from CI/CD pipelines.
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Building a DevSecOps Pipeline: Security That Doesn't Slow Teams Down
SAST, SCA, container scanning, and secret detection wired into CI/CD in a way teams actually use — not bypass.
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When Internal Tooling Becomes a Barrier: A DevOps Mindset Problem
A DNS change that took hours instead of minutes. This isn't just a tooling issue — it's a mindset issue about how we build internal platforms.
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Cut AWS EC2 Costs by 60% with Instance Scheduling
Non-production instances running 24/7 is one of the most fixable sources of AWS waste. Lambda + EventBridge scheduler with full Terraform code.
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Hands-On Always Beats Theory: How to Actually Learn DevOps
The knowledge that matters most only comes from operating real systems. How to learn DevOps in a way that actually sticks after 8 years in production.
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Stop Hardcoding Environment Variables in CI/CD Pipelines
Hardcoding variables is a bomb waiting to go off at scale. How to manage environment-specific config properly with GitHub Actions, Secrets Manager, and Terraform.
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DevOps, cloud, and infrastructure explained on YouTube — from CI/CD pipelines to Kubernetes deep dives.

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CI/CD Pipeline Explained — Step by Step
What CI/CD actually is, the tools involved, and how a pipeline flows from commit to production.
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Top 10 Linux Commands Every DevOps Engineer Must Know
The Linux commands that come up every day when managing servers and debugging production systems.
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