Is Your Cloud
Costing Too Much
and Moving
Too Slow?
I fix platform velocity and optimize spend for companies that need enterprise-grade infrastructure without the enterprise-sized headcount.
Real Results for Real Companies
$1.2M
Saved Annually
Optimized cloud infrastructure for enterprise healthcare company (Google & Microsoft clients), eliminating waste and right-sizing resources.
16X
Faster Deployments
Reduced service deployment time from 8 months to 30 days at Northwestern Mutual through "Golden Path" platform engineering.
99.99%
Uptime
Reduced deployment downtime from 4 hours to under 2 minutes at Advinow Medical through SRE best practices and automation.
Is Your Engineering Team Drowning in These Challenges?
Cloud Bills Keep Rising
Your AWS or GCP bill doubled this year, but you're not sure why. Every team spins up resources, but no one's optimizing them.
Deployments Take Forever
Your developers complain that deploying a simple feature takes days or weeks. Innovation is slowing down, competitors are moving faster.
Frequent Production Incidents
Your team is firefighting production issues instead of building features. Every incident feels like a crisis, and you're losing customer trust.
Infrastructure Is Too Complex
Kubernetes, microservices, observability stacks—your infrastructure grew organically and now no one fully understands it. Hiring is hard because onboarding takes months.
Here's How I Help
Cloud Cost Optimization
I audit your cloud infrastructure, identify 30-60% waste, and provide a clear implementation roadmap. Most clients save 10X what they invest in the first year alone.
Platform Engineering
I design "Golden Path" developer platforms that standardize tooling, automate infrastructure, and accelerate deployments by 5-15X. Your developers become more productive overnight.
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
I implement SRE practices—chaos engineering, observability, incident response frameworks—to eliminate costly downtime and build resilient systems.
Kubernetes & Cloud Architecture
I simplify complex infrastructure, implement best practices for security and scalability, and create operational playbooks so your team can confidently manage production.
Fast-Impact Consulting Services
Project-based engagements designed to deliver measurable results in days or weeks, not months.
Cloud Cost Optimization Sprint
Comprehensive cloud cost analysis across AWS or GCP. I'll identify 30-60% waste and provide an implementation guide for quick wins.
Ideal For
Companies spending $20K+/month on cloud infrastructure.
SRE Rapid Response
Deep-dive post-mortem of your recent incident. Includes root cause identification, architectural recommendations, and incident response playbook.
Ideal For
Companies that just experienced a major outage.
Developer Velocity Assessment
Identify bottlenecks in your CI/CD pipeline and developer experience. Includes a 90-day roadmap to 2-3X deployment velocity.
Ideal For
Teams with 10+ devs complaining about slow builds.
Kubernetes Rescue Mission
Cluster health audit, right-sizing recommendations, and security hardening. I'll turn your complex K8s headache into a manageable platform.
Ideal For
Companies struggling with K8s complexity or costs.
Fractional CTO / Platform Lead
Strategic technical leadership, architecture reviews, and team mentoring. Senior expertise without the full-time executive cost.
Ideal For
Startups needing verified senior leadership.
Who You're Working With
Principal Software Engineer & Cloud Architect
I'm Carl Parrish, a Principal Software Engineer with 20+ years architecting high-scale, resilient distributed systems for Fortune 500 companies and fast-growing startups.
I'm not a generalist. I don't do IT helpdesk or manage your email servers. I specialize in high-value, strategic infrastructure work that delivers measurable ROI: faster deployments, lower costs, fewer incidents.
Background
- • Northwestern Mutual: Led Platform Engineering
- • USAA: Chaos Engineering Leadership
- • Advinow Medical: SRE Architecture
- • Foodsmart: VP of Engineering
Specializations
- • Platform Engineering & "Golden Path"
- • Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
- • Cloud Cost Optimization (FinOps)
- • Kubernetes & Microservices at Scale
Proven Results
These case studies demonstrate how I apply SRE and platform engineering principles across AWS, GCP, and Cloudflare environments.
Northwestern Mutual
Financial Services (Fortune 500)
The Challenge
Teams were waiting many months to deploy new microservices due to manual infrastructure setup, inconsistent configurations, and lack of standardization.
The Solution
- • Designed and implemented an enterprise "Golden Path" developer platform
- • Automated infrastructure provisioning using Terraform and AWS
- • Built a self-service developer portal for streamlined service creation
Key Results
- Reduced service deployment time from many months to a few weeks
- Cut developer onboarding time from months to just a few days
- Increased engineering velocity across dozens of teams
Foodsmart
Enterprise Healthcare Technology
The Challenge
Enterprise clients were experiencing high infrastructure costs with unclear ROI. Cloud spending was growing significantly year-over-year without proportional business growth.
The Solution
- • Conducted a comprehensive infrastructure and cost optimization audit
- • Right-sized over-provisioned resources and migrated workloads
- • Implemented FinOps monitoring and alerting for ongoing optimization
Key Results
- Reduced annual cloud infrastructure costs by well over $1M
- Achieved 40%+ reduction in cloud infrastructure spend
- Improved application performance through better resource allocation
Advinow Medical
Healthcare AI/ML SaaS
The Challenge
Frequent deployment-related downtime was impacting customer trust and revenue. The release process was manual, error-prone, and stressful for the team.
The Solution
- • Re-architected the release process for near zero-downtime deployments
- • Migrated from legacy Jenkins to modern GitLab CI/CD pipelines
- • Implemented blue-green deployment strategies and automated rollback
Key Results
- Reduced deployment-related downtime by more than 99%
- Increased release frequency from occasional releases to multiple times per week
- Improved engineering team confidence and deployment reliability
USAA
Financial Services (Banking)
The Challenge
Banking infrastructure needed to meet strict regulatory requirements while maintaining high availability. There was no systematic, proactive resilience testing in place.
The Solution
- • Pioneered adoption of chaos engineering workflows for proactive resilience testing
- • Defined disaster recovery guidelines for critical banking infrastructure
- • Architected enterprise-scale microservices using Java/Spring Boot and Kafka
Key Results
- Identified and mitigated failure modes before they impacted customers
- Helped achieve and maintain key regulatory compliance requirements
- Provided technical leadership for an engineering organization of ~30 people
How We Work Together
1. Discovery Call
15-30 minutes, free
We'll discuss your biggest challenges—high cloud costs, slow deployments, frequent incidents, or complex infrastructure. I'll assess if I can help and recommend the right engagement.
2. Proposal & Kick-Off
Same day
If it's a fit, I'll send a simple 1-page proposal with clear deliverables, timeline, and investment. Once signed, we can start immediately (often same week).
3. Delivery
Days or weeks, not months
I work fast and communicate clearly. You'll get daily updates and tangible progress every few days. No surprises, no scope creep.
4. Results & Next Steps
Clear ROI
At project completion, you'll have actionable deliverables—cost savings, faster deployments, resilient architecture. If there's more work, we can discuss next phases.
Why This Works
Fast
Projects designed for quick wins, not 6-month engagements
Transparent
Fixed pricing, clear deliverables, no hidden costs
Flexible
Pay per project, or retain me monthly for ongoing support
High ROI
Most clients see 5-20X return on investment
Frequently Asked Questions
Experience Delivering Results For
Northwestern Mutual
Fortune 500 Financial Services
USAA
National Banking & Insurance
Foodsmart
Enterprise Healthcare Technology
Advinow Medical
Healthcare AI/ML SaaS
Google & Microsoft Clients
Global Technology Leaders
Ready to Accelerate Velocity, Cut Costs, and Eliminate Downtime?
Book a free 30-minute Cloud Cost Assessment. I'll analyze your AWS or GCP spending and identify at least 3 quick wins you can implement immediately.
Not ready to talk? Download my free checklist:
"15 Ways to Cut Your AWS Bill by 30%+"