About
John brings two decades of business ownership and management experience to cloud consulting — a background that shapes how he approaches infrastructure: with sharp cost awareness, a bias toward simplicity, and direct accountability for outcomes.
In addition to Level-Up Cloud Consulting, he works embedded with a midsized defense contractor in Huntsville, AL, where he serves functionally as their hands-on cloud architect on production infrastructure. He holds an M.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from Western Governors University and certifications across AWS, Azure, HashiCorp Terraform, and a broad suite of CompTIA security credentials — including SecurityX, CompTIA's highest-level security certification.
Cost optimization is where the business background and the technical work intersect most directly. In one engagement, a few hours of analysis was enough to identify the waste driving a client's monthly cloud bill — bringing it from over $20,000 to under $4,000. The same discipline applies to every engagement: if there's a simpler, cheaper path that doesn't sacrifice reliability, that's the right path.
Education
- Western Governors University B.S. Cloud Computing
- Western Governors University M.S. Cybersecurity and Information Assurance
Certifications
- Amazon Web Services AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
- Microsoft Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
- HashiCorp HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate
- CompTIA CompTIA SecurityX
- CompTIA CompTIA Cloud+
- CompTIA CompTIA Secure Cloud Professional
- CompTIA CompTIA PenTest+
- CompTIA CompTIA CySA+
- CompTIA CompTIA Cloud Admin Professional
- CompTIA CompTIA Secure Infrastructure Expert
- CompTIA CompTIA Security Analytics Expert
- CompTIA CompTIA Network Security Professional
- CompTIA CompTIA Network Vulnerability Assessment Professional
- CompTIA CompTIA Security Analytics Professional
- CompTIA CompTIA Security+
- CompTIA CompTIA Secure Infrastructure Specialist
- CompTIA CompTIA IT Operations Specialist
- Amazon Web Services AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- Microsoft Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
- AXELOS Global Best Practice ITIL® 4 Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management
- Linux Professional Institute Linux Essentials (LE-1)
- CompTIA CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA CompTIA A+