Rafael Cortes

Systems Architect
Infrastructure Engineer

I help organizations modernize enterprise infrastructure through systems engineering, infrastructure architecture, automation, resilient design, and hybrid cloud transformation.

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Based in San Antonio, TX. Open to full-time (FTE), remote or hybrid roles, consulting, and systems architecture.
Systems Overview
STATUS Open to FTE, remote/hybrid, & consulting (Public Trust)
CERTIFICATIONS Security+ • Azure • VMware • Microsoft Windows Server Administration
FOCUS Enterprise Infrastructure
Architecture & Technical Strategy
Hybrid Cloud & Automation
Resilience & Disaster Recovery
BACKGROUND Enterprise infrastructure spanning virtualization, hybrid cloud, identity, automation, and operational resilience.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY Design → Implement → Verify → Document
Systems Architecture // Cloud & Infrastructure // Identity & Security // Automation & Orchestration
// 01 : PROJECT LOGS

Infrastructure Transformation Projects

Proven track record of high-availability infrastructure deployments, secure migrations, and automation engineering.

USAF Azure Government Cloud Infrastructure Development

SECURE MILITARY CLOUD PLATFORM BUILD

Collaborated in a team to design and establish a secure, hardened Azure Government Cloud infrastructure adhering to strict DoD compliance, enabling developers to deploy modernized cloud-based training platforms.

Infrastructure Scope Azure Gov Cloud, VM Clusters, Elastic SAN Storage, PowerShell post-boot deployment automation, WAF & DDoS Shielding
Safeguards & Planning DoD security standards, DISA STIG controls, and infrastructure policy alignment
Execution Outcome Provided a secure, compliant hosting platform for successful rollout of modernized training workloads
Read Architecting in a Government Cloud Log

Multi-Tenant Endpoint Security Datacenter Migration

EAST-TO-WEST US DATACENTER RELOCATION

Successfully planned, staged, and relocated a high-availability production environment hosting endpoint security services for thousands of active servers without disrupting real-time security operations.

Infrastructure Scope 10 Compute VM Nodes, 2 Active-Active SQL Server VM Nodes, 150 Active Enterprise Tenants
Safeguards & Planning Rigorous dry-run staging, continuous warm replication, hourly database transaction backup verification
Execution Outcome Maintained data integrity and service continuity throughout the migration with no reported customer impact
Read Validated Disaster Recovery Log

3-Node Proxmox HA Virtualization Cluster

HYPERVISOR UPGRADE & REPLICATION

Architected, configured, and deployed a robust multi-node Proxmox hypervisor infrastructure with local storage replication to replace an insecure, vulnerable single-server legacy design.

Infrastructure Scope 3 Proxmox VE Compute Nodes, Redundant Enterprise Storage Pools, Proxmox SD-WAN, Site-to-Site VPN to Cloud VPC
Safeguards & Planning ZFS snapshot schedules, multi-channel network backup triggers, comprehensive restore verification
Execution Outcome Improved platform resilience through HA design, automated failover, and replicated storage
Read Patching Automation Log

SMB Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 Migration

ZERO-DOWNTIME SMB COLLABORATION TRANSITION

Designed and executed a full tenant migration from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 for a 20-employee business, establishing centralized identity controls, device management, and Microsoft Copilot assistance workflows.

Infrastructure Scope 20 Users, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 Business Premium / Basic, Defender for Business
Safeguards & Planning Pre-migration data dry-runs, dual-delivery mail routing, conditional access security rules
Execution Outcome Consolidated collaboration platforms and deployed Defender for Business endpoint agents with zero downtime

Defense Health Agency Virtual Server Hardening & Patching

10K+ SERVER FLEET COMPLIANCE & PATCHING

Part of the team that managed, patched, and hardened a private cloud infrastructure for the Defense Health Agency (DoD) consisting of Windows Server and Red Hat Linux (RHEL) instances across 18 distributed locations.

Infrastructure Scope 10,000+ Virtual Servers, VMware ESXi & Hyper-V Clusters, 18 Locations
Safeguards & Planning NIST CSF alignment, DISA STIG hardening controls, and DoD patching compliance guidelines
Execution Outcome Maintained high patch compliance and minimized vulnerability exposure windows across the distributed fleet
Read Systems Hardening Log

Microsoft Bare Metal Deployment

400-SERVER MANUAL BUILD STANDARDIZATION

Deployed 400 bare-metal servers at Microsoft without a centralized imaging server by standardizing physical setup procedures and scripting post-boot configurations via USB.

Infrastructure Scope 400 Bare-Metal Servers, Remote Management Boards (RMB), RAID Controllers
Safeguards & Planning Strict Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for physical setup, scripted post-boot baseline configurations
Execution Outcome Cut overall deployment times by 25% and delivered the servers one full week ahead of schedule
Read Bare Metal Deployment Optimization Log

IronPulse Security Assessment Platform

EDGE-TO-DOCKER ORCHESTRATION

Orchestrated a fully automated vulnerability scanning loop using Cloudflare Workers, n8n runners, and containerized Docker scanners with secure R2 storage.

Infrastructure Scope Cloudflare Workers API, n8n Orchestration Server, Ephemeral Docker Scanners
Safeguards & Planning Secure webhooks, API hardening, tokenized runner authentication, and AI-augmented (Gemini/ChatGPT) scripting pipelines
Execution Outcome Reduced ongoing maintenance requirements through automation and serverless components
Read Automated Edge-to-Container Security Scanning Log

Legal PM Corporate Website Modernization

WORDPRESS TO STATIC EDGE MIGRATION

Migrated a dynamic corporate legal consulting site from a vulnerable WordPress setup to a highly secure, database-free static architecture hosted at the edge.

Infrastructure Scope Astro Static Framework, Cloudflare Pages CDN, Git-Backed PagesCMS
Safeguards & Planning Decoupled database layers, hardened edge delivery rules, removed server-side attack vectors, and AI-assisted Astro framework template modernizations
Execution Outcome Reduced maintenance overhead and attack surface through a static-first architecture
Read WordPress to Static Edge Migration Log
// 02 : Technical Expertise

Systems & Technology Stack

Core competencies and tools across virtualization, cloud platforms, security operations, automation, and generative AI.

Virtualization & Containers

VMware vSphere / vCenter Hyper-V Proxmox VE Docker & Podman SAN / NAS Storage Site-to-Site VPN / SD-WAN

Cloud Platforms

Azure (Gov / Commercial) Cloudflare (Zero Trust, Tunnels, Workers) Microsoft 365

Security & Operations

Trend Micro Endpoint Security Enterprise Firewalls Splunk (SIEM) WireGuard VPN

Automation & IaC

PowerShell OpenTofu (Terraform IaC) ARM Templates Ansible n8n GitHub Actions

AI-Assisted Engineering

Generative AI AI-Assisted Automation AI-Assisted Scripting Prompt Engineering GitHub Copilot
// 03 : CONTACT

Contact

Reach out directly to discuss full-time (FTE) or consulting opportunities, start an infrastructure project, or request my resume.

Looking for someone to lead your next infrastructure modernization?

I am open to full-time (FTE) roles, remote/hybrid positions, consulting engagements, and systems architecture projects.

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