Mahendran Chinnappan
Summary
Seasoned Cloud DevOps and Senior Systems Infrastructure Engineer with over 14 years of IT experience, including 11 years in Linux/Unix Systems Administration and 3 years in Cloud DevOps. Skilled in architecting and optimising multi-cloud solutions across AWS and Azure, integrating automation, CI/CD, containerisation, and Site Reliability Engineering to enhance performance and maintain SLA compliance in regulated sectors.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Technical Lead / Cloud DevOps Engineer
Happiest Minds Technologies
07.2022 - Current
- Provisioned and managed cloud resources including AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, VPC) and Azure (Virtual Machines, Storage Accounts, VNets, App Services)
- Supported and maintained cloud infrastructure solutions for e-commerce applications across AWS and Azure platforms, ensuring high availability and performance
- Designed and configured Azure Virtual Servers, Flexible Database Servers (PostgreSQL), Load Balancers, API Gateway
- Implemented monitoring using AWS CloudWatch and Azure Monitor for proactive infrastructure health checks
- Implemented Web Application Firewall (WAF) policies to secure HTTP/HTTPS traffic for hosted applications
- Managed TLS/SSL certificate integration for AWS services such as AWS ELB and web applications using ACM
- Executed Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) projects, migrating workloads from MySQL Single Server to Flexible Server, enhancing performance and scalability
- Designed and maintained CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, supporting automated build and deployment processes
- Maintained and troubleshot Jenkins master-slave architecture, including upgrades, user management, and plugin integrations
- Performed backup and snapshot management for AWS EC2/RDS instances and Azure VMs/Databases
- Configured Apache Tomcat and Nginx on Linux servers, optimising service delivery for backend and frontend applications
- Performed log analysis and troubleshooting for Tomcat and WSO2 applications to resolve performance and functional issues
- Provided support across the CI/CD lifecycle, ensuring smooth and reliable application delivery
- Built and packaged applications using Maven (WAR/JAR builds)
Senior Administrator / Offshore L3 Systems Engineer
Wipro Technologies
05.2017 - 07.2022
- Administer large-scale Unix/Linux infrastructure (RHEL 6/7) supporting 9,000+ servers across distributed APAC environments
- Manage high-availability VERITAS clusters, executing failover/failback operations to ensure application continuity
- Executed advanced filesystem management (ext3/ext4, XFS, VxFS) to enhance storage efficiency through provisioning, resizing, and performance tuning
- Troubleshot system health and performance issues, resolving BAU incidents to maintain alignment with operational SLAs
- Maintain and troubleshoot enterprise-grade physical servers such as HP ProLiant (DL360 Gen9, DL380) and Dell PowerEdge (R720, R740xd, R920), including performing firmware upgrades as per client
- Coordinated decommissioning activities for physical and virtual servers, ensuring smooth transitions with application and server owners
Senior Administrator / Offshore L3 Systems Engineer
Wipro Technologies
05.2017 - 02.2021
- Managed 4000+ Linux servers (RHEL 5/6/7, SLES 11) across EMEA/APAC/NA in hybrid (on-prem & cloud) environments
- Executed Linux patching and vulnerability remediation via Red Hat Satellite to enhance system security
- Conducted daily health checks and performance tuning, collaborating with application teams to ensure system reliability
- Provisioned and administered Azure VMs and AWS EC2 instances as per application requirements
- Deployed and managed VMware VMs with CPU, memory, and VLAN configurations via vCenter
- Handled VMware troubleshooting (CPU, memory, network, disk, logs) in vSphere/ESXi environments
- Administered physical servers (HP/Dell/Fujitsu) and coordinated hardware maintenance with vendors
- Managed filesystem operations (ext3/ext4, VXFS) including creation, resize, and extension
- Coordinated NFS mounts and storage provisioning with NetApp/Hitachi teams to optimise storage solutions
- Supported DR, HA, and BCP initiatives along with ITIL processes (Incident, Change, Problem Management)
- Contributed to RHEL upgrades (6 to 7) and deployed security tools (Trend Micro agent)
IT Analyst / Offshore Systems Administrator
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
12.2014 - 05.2017
- Managed and supported 11,700+ Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 5/6/7) servers in a highly regulated banking environment (Northern Trust), ensuring availability, compliance, and operational excellence
- Executed automated patch management via Red Hat Satellite Server to ensure compliance with audit frameworks
- Resolved Priority 1 and 2 incidents within defined SLAs through structured Major Incident Management (MIM) processes and real-time root cause diagnostics
- Enhanced performance and reliability through firmware management, OS performance tuning, and resource utilisation analysis
- Managed hardware lifecycle operations, performing firmware upgrades, server health checks, and physical component replacements (DIMMs, disks, fans) across bare-metal and HP Blade Chassis systems to maintain operational integrity
- Scheduled and executed controlled reboots on standalone and clustered Linux servers as part of routine maintenance and patch deployment cycles
- Client Portfolio: Northern Trust, Chicago (Banking Domain)
Systems Administrator
Aforeserve.com Pvt. Ltd (HP Support Partner)
03.2011 - 11.2014
- Managed 150+ data center servers and 1500+ branch servers, ensuring high availability and performance
- Administered HP ProLiant (ML350, ML110) servers and HP Storage (MSA1500cs, MSA2000cs)
- Resolved Linux boot and OS-level issues in Red Hat environments
- Monitored system performance with top, vmstat, iostat, free, mdstat; responded to alerts for CPU, memory, and disk issues
- Performed disk and filesystem management, including LVM configuration and software RAID setup
- Conducted root cause analysis (RCA) and implemented corrective actions to resolve recurring issues
- Coordinated with DB, Storage, and Hardware teams for issue resolution within SLA timelines
- Supported 1850+ servers regionally, ensuring timely issue resolution based on customer requests
- Collected and shared system and hardware logs for cross-team troubleshooting
- Collaborated with project and delivery teams for smooth transition and execution
- Scheduled and automated tasks using crontab
- Managed backup operations on LTO3 tapes using HP Data Protector Express, ensuring data integrity and recovery readiness
- Provided remote server support via SSH, VNC, and PuTTY
- Managed client portfolio for Life Insurance Corporation of India on EDMS Project
Associate Consultant / Infrastructure Engineer
Symphony Services Corp (India) Pvt. Ltd
10.2010 - 01.2011
- Installed, configured, and maintained 1200+ Linux production servers ensuring system stability
- Supported daily IT operations and managed infrastructure activities to ensure seamless service delivery
- Configured and managed Linux firewall rules using iptables
- Delivered remote support using SSH, VNC, PuTTY, and RDP
- Executed secure file transfers using FTP/SFTP protocols to facilitate reliable data exchange
- Managed cron scheduling, backup, and recovery operations
- Performed user and group administration in Linux environments
- Collaborated with onshore teams for issue resolution and operational support
- Provided L1/L2 support for client applications and OS environments (RHEL 4/5, Windows XP/Vista)
- Generated reports and analysed data to meet customer requirements and inform decision-making
- Supported production applications, executing tasks according to client production schedules.
Education
Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) - Electronics and Communication Engineering
Sri Subramanya College of Engineering and Technology
01-2009
Skills
- Cloud Infrastructure: Cloud Platforms: AWS Microsoft Azure
- DevOps & CI/CD: Jenkins Git GitHub repo Bitbucket Maven Automation & Scripting (Bash/Crontab) Ansible
- Containerization & Orchestration: Docker Kubernetes (Amazon EKS) OpenShift (Beginner)
- Observability & Monitoring: AWS CloudWatch Azure Monitor Datadog Grafana Manage Engine
- Operating Systems: RHEL 5/6/7/8 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES 11/12) Ubuntu 18x,20x,22x
- IaC & Automation: Terraform Ansible Shell Scripting
- Agile & Incident Management: Jira ServiceNow Remedy HP Service Manager
Accomplishments
- Cloud Migration Success
Designed and executed Azure Database Migration, improving application performance by 25%.
- Cloud Reliability Excellence
Achieved 99.95% service availability across AWS and Azure environments through proactive monitoring and reliability engineering practices.
- CI/CD & Automation Excellence
Implemented CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and DevOps practices, reducing deployment time by 45% and improving release reliability.
- Linux Platform Operations
Managed and supported 11,700+ Linux servers globally, ensuring high availability, security compliance, and operational excellence.
- Observability & Incident Management
Enhanced monitoring and alerting using Grafana, Datadog, CloudWatch, and Azure Monitor, reducing MTTR by 30% and improving service reliability.
Certification
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
- Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) - RHEL
Timeline
Technical Lead / Cloud DevOps Engineer
Happiest Minds Technologies
07.2022 - Current
Senior Administrator / Offshore L3 Systems Engineer
Wipro Technologies
05.2017 - 07.2022
Senior Administrator / Offshore L3 Systems Engineer
Wipro Technologies
05.2017 - 02.2021
IT Analyst / Offshore Systems Administrator
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
12.2014 - 05.2017
Systems Administrator
Aforeserve.com Pvt. Ltd (HP Support Partner)
03.2011 - 11.2014
Associate Consultant / Infrastructure Engineer
Symphony Services Corp (India) Pvt. Ltd
10.2010 - 01.2011
Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) - Electronics and Communication Engineering
Sri Subramanya College of Engineering and Technology