The Mountain Ascent • A DevOps Career Story

How I Climbed From Ground Zero to DevOps Engineer

In 2023, I started with desktop & Active Directory support. Step by step, I mastered bare-metal Linux hypervisors, supported 2.5 million live banking sessions under pressure, and earned my promotion to lead cloud container clusters. Here is my honest journey.

Dnyaneshwar Shekade
Dnyaneshwar's Mountain Climb

From Enterprise IT Support → Linux Engineer → Cloud DevOps Lead

Summit Peak: 8,848m
•
2.5M+ VKYC Sessions
•
Docker Swarm & AWS
SUMMIT: 8,848m • PROMOTED TO DEVOPS
Active Climb: 8,848m
My Personal Perspective (Dnyaneshwar's Words)

“When I started in 2023, I was doing desktop support and configuring Active Directory at Reliance. I didn't have a roadmap to becoming a cloud architect—I just had curiosity and a refusal to give up. Moving into bare-metal Linux servers at Softaculous, handling 2.5 million live banking verification sessions for Unity Small Finance Bank, and eventually earning my promotion to DevOps Engineer at Think360.ai taught me that real engineering isn't about knowing everything on day one—it's about learning how to keep the servers running when everything is on the line.”

Gear Kit:
8,848m • Cloud SummitPromoted to DevOps EngineerSummit Conquered • Promoted
Summit Peak: The Distributed Cloud Horizon

Think360.ai

DevOps Engineer / Software Engineer L2•August 2025 - Present•Mumbai, India (Hybrid / Production Cloud)
★Promoted from L2 Technical Support Engineer (Client Side – Unity Small Finance Bank) to lead Cloud Container Infrastructure & DevOps Automation
Environment: Sunrise Above The Clouds • Zero-Downtime Cruising
Dnyaneshwar
Dnyaneshwar's Perspective & Experience

“Earning this promotion to DevOps Engineer was a massive personal milestone for me. I went from answering client support tickets to architecting production cloud systems. Today, I design Python REST microservices (FastAPI/Django), manage Docker Swarm clusters across multi-node AWS EC2 instances, and automate zero-downtime CI/CD pipelines. For me, good DevOps isn't just about buzzwords—it's about building systems so reliable that the team can ship code on a Friday afternoon with complete peace of mind.”

Real Production Challenge Solved

We needed to eliminate deployment downtime for our microservices. I architected rolling update configurations on Docker Swarm with overlay networks and health checks across AWS EC2 instances. Now our team deploys updates smoothly with zero downtime and sub-second failovers.

Multi-Node EC2
Swarm Nodes
FastAPI & Django
API Frameworks
DynamoDB NoSQL
Database Speed
0-Downtime Rollouts
Deployment
Tools & Stack Deployed in this Role
Orchestration & Cloud
Backend & APIs
CI/CD & Automation
$docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.prod.yml think360_swarm --with-registry-auth
Daily Responsibilities & Deliverables (11)
Developed robust RESTful APIs using Python frameworks including Django REST Framework, FastAPI, and Flask, designing scalable backend services for web applications.
Created and maintained API endpoints with proper authentication, authorization, and error handling mechanisms to ensure secure and reliable API interactions.
Implemented comprehensive API testing strategies including unit tests, integration tests, and endpoint testing to ensure code quality and API reliability.
Designed and optimized database schemas and queries for DynamoDB NoSQL databases, ensuring efficient data access patterns and high performance.
Built responsive frontend applications using React, Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, creating seamless user experiences and interactive interfaces.
Implemented and managed Docker Swarm clusters, initializing swarm managers and worker nodes across multiple EC2 instances for high availability and fault tolerance.
Deployed containerized services to Docker Swarm using stack files and service definitions, enabling automatic load balancing and service discovery across swarm nodes.
Configured Docker Swarm overlay networks for secure multi-host container communication and implemented service scaling to handle varying workloads dynamically.
Managed Docker Swarm services with rolling updates, health checks, and service rollbacks, ensuring zero-downtime deployments and maintaining application reliability.
Managed AWS cloud infrastructure including EC2 instances and S3 buckets, implementing best practices for scalability, security, and cost optimization.
Collaborated with cross-functional teams to implement CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI/CD, automating software delivery and deployment processes.
Stack:
5,000m • Storm RidgeClient: Unity Small Finance Bank2.5M+ Annual VKYC
Camp 3: High-Altitude Banking Storm

Think360.ai

L2 Technical Support Engineer (Client Side – Unity Small Finance Bank)•August 2025 - Present•Mumbai, India (Client-Side Banking Production)
Environment: Live Banking Rush • 2.5M Sessions • Zero Room for Downtime
Dnyaneshwar
Dnyaneshwar's Perspective & Experience

“This was the role where the stakes became real. Supporting Unity Small Finance Bank's Video KYC platform processing over 2.5 million customer sessions annually taught me how to stay calm under intense pressure. When thousands of live banking verification calls are active and an alert triggers, you don't panic. Prometheus, Loki, and Grafana dashboards were my eyes. I spent hours tuning alerts, writing Python automation scripts for AWS EC2/DynamoDB, and leading client war rooms to ensure 99.9% uptime.”

Real Production Challenge Solved

During heavy banking customer campaigns, sessions spiked dramatically. Using Grafana dashboards and Prometheus metrics, I pinpointed network bottlenecks in real time, coordinated live hotfixes with the dev team, and maintained the strict banking SLA without dropping customer calls.

2.5M+ Interactions
Annual Volume
Grafana & Loki
Observability
Prometheus Monitoring
Telemetry
Python AWS Scripts
Automation
Tools & Stack Deployed in this Role
Observability & Monitoring
AWS Cloud Stack
Automation Scripts
$curl -s http://prometheus:9090/api/v1/query?query=vkyc_active_sessions_total | jq .
Daily Responsibilities & Deliverables (11)
Developed robust RESTful APIs using Python frameworks including Django REST Framework, FastAPI, and Flask, designing scalable backend services for web applications.
Created and maintained API endpoints with proper authentication, authorization, and error handling mechanisms to ensure secure and reliable API interactions.
Implemented comprehensive API testing strategies including unit tests, integration tests, and endpoint testing to ensure code quality and API reliability.
Designed and optimized database schemas and queries for DynamoDB NoSQL databases, ensuring efficient data access patterns and high performance.
Built responsive frontend applications using React, Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, creating seamless user experiences and interactive interfaces.
Implemented and managed Docker Swarm clusters, initializing swarm managers and worker nodes across multiple EC2 instances for high availability and fault tolerance.
Deployed containerized services to Docker Swarm using stack files and service definitions, enabling automatic load balancing and service discovery across swarm nodes.
Configured Docker Swarm overlay networks for secure multi-host container communication and implemented service scaling to handle varying workloads dynamically.
Managed Docker Swarm services with rolling updates, health checks, and service rollbacks, ensuring zero-downtime deployments and maintaining application reliability.
Managed AWS cloud infrastructure including EC2 instances and S3 buckets, implementing best practices for scalability, security, and cost optimization.
Collaborated with cross-functional teams to implement CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI/CD, automating software delivery and deployment processes.
Stack:
2,500m • Rocky CragsCore Mastery
Camp 2: The Bare-Metal Linux Crags

Softaculous Limited

Linux Support Engineer•Feb 2024 - Aug 2025•Mumbai, India (Production Infrastructure)
Environment: Deep Terminal Sessions • Late Night Debugging • 99.99% Reliability
Dnyaneshwar
Dnyaneshwar's Perspective & Experience

“Softaculous is where my love for Linux became an obsession. There were no managed cloud buttons here—just raw bare-metal servers, KVM/Xen hypervisors, and Nginx configs. I debugged issues at 2 AM, learned how the Linux kernel handles processes, and realized that if you don't write Bash and Python scripts to automate your routine tasks, the servers will eat your weekend.”

Real Production Challenge Solved

Automated repetitive VM provisioning, health audits, and backup rotations across dozens of hypervisor nodes using custom Bash and Python automation scripts, cutting down manual maintenance time by over 70%.

KVM / Xen / LXC
Virtualization
Nginx & Apache
Web Servers
Bash & Python
Scripting
99.99% Reliability
Uptime Focus
Tools & Stack Deployed in this Role
Virtualization Hypervisors
Web Servers & Network
Shell Scripting
$virsh list --all && nginx -t && systemctl status virtualizor
Daily Responsibilities & Deliverables (10)
Administered the Virtualizor control panel, effectively managing and deploying virtual machines using KVM, Xen, OpenVZ, and LXC. Oversaw complete VM lifecycle management including creation, configuration, and monitoring.
Led the implementation and management of the Webuzo control panel, streamlining server administration and application deployment. Used Softaculous for seamless one-click installation and ongoing application maintenance.
Configured and optimized Apache and Nginx web servers to improve performance, ensure high availability, and address troubleshooting needs for a wide range of server environments.
Administered MySQL and MariaDB databases, focusing on database creation, user access management, and performance tuning to support application efficiency.
Developed and maintained automation scripts and custom server functionality using PHP, Python, and Bash scripting to enhance server automation and operational workflows.
Configured and administered email services using Exim and Postfix, while managing IMAP/POP3 services with Dovecot and Courier.
Implemented SSL/TLS encryption protocols to secure communications and managed system-level firewalls for strong security postures.
Managed backup and restore operations for critical applications, databases, and server configurations for disaster recovery and data protection.
Managed Linux environments using RPM/YUM (CentOS) and APT (Ubuntu) for system stability and efficient software updates.
Configured and managed DNS services with BIND, overseeing domain name resolution and ensuring uptime for key web services.
Stack:
500m • Base CampBase Camp Genesis
Base Camp: Enterprise Foundation

Reliance Industries Limited

System Engineer•Jan 2023 - Jan 2024•Navi Mumbai, India (Enterprise Operations)
Environment: Ground Zero • Learning How 1000s of Enterprise Systems Talk
Dnyaneshwar
Dnyaneshwar's Perspective & Experience

“My entry into the IT world. Starting at Reliance Industries gave me solid discipline at massive enterprise scale. Handling Active Directory RBAC policies, Citrix virtualization, and enterprise user systems taught me the fundamentals of corporate network security and how thousands of machines talk to each other. This was where I decided I wanted to dive deep into Linux and Cloud.”

Real Production Challenge Solved

Integrated Ubuntu Linux developer machines directly into the corporate Active Directory domain, giving our engineers native Linux tools while fully maintaining enterprise Data Loss Prevention (DLP) compliance.

Enterprise Scale
Infrastructure
Citrix & Accops
Virtual Desktop
Active Directory
Identity
DLP & Whitelisting
Security
Tools & Stack Deployed in this Role
Enterprise Identity & Auth
Virtual Desktops
Security & Linux
$Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties * | Export-Csv -Path C:\EnterpriseAudit.csv
Daily Responsibilities & Deliverables (8)
Managed and resolved desktop-related issues via remote access in a large-scale enterprise environment.
Installed and configured whitelist applications within the Reliance network, ensuring smooth application deployment.
Provided and managed access to specific websites through Active Directory, maintaining network security and compliance.
Applied and maintained Windows patches, keeping systems up-to-date and secure.
Tested and implemented virtualization solutions using Accops and Citrix desktop environments, optimizing remote work capabilities.
Handled Data Loss Prevention (DLP) issues, ensuring data protection and security standards.
Troubleshot Office 365 and Office 2019 issues, including migrating users to Azure licenses, enhancing productivity.
Integrated and deployed Linux Ubuntu within the Reliance network, improving system performance and flexibility.
Stack:
NEXT PEAKContinuous Exploration

The Multi-Cluster & Autonomous Frontier

Advancing deep into Kubernetes (K8s) multi-cluster federation, GitOps automation (ArgoCD/Flux), edge infrastructure, and AI-driven telemetry monitoring. Always building for zero-downtime scalability and high availability.

Kubernetes (K8s)GitOpsTerraformArgoCDPrometheus & GrafanaEdge NodesService Meshes
Official Career Dossier

Ready to inspect the complete engineering blueprint?

Download the comprehensive resume with verified credentials, architecture breakdowns, and full infrastructure histories.

View Full Resume
Dnyaneshwar's Logo

I'm Dnyaneshwar - a Linux Server & DevOps Engineer. Thanks for checking out my site!

© 2026 Dnyaneshwar Shekade

X (formerly Twitter)LinkedInGitHub