Azure Cloud Native Lead · Fujitsu Distinguished Engineer

I make complex cloud platforms clear, secure and deliverable.

I help organisations turn ambitious Azure programmes into scalable platforms and working software—connecting architecture, application engineering, DevSecOps and the people who deliver them.

See selected work View résumé
30+ yearsEngineering and technical leadership
6 toolsFree, documented developer products
DistinguishedFujitsu engineering recognition, 2024
Platform → codeInfrastructure and applications

Selected work

Architecture with a job to do.

Cloud foundations, applications and delivery practices framed around the problem, my contribution and the outcome.

See all selected work

How I lead

Three principles, end to end.

From the first whiteboard sketch through to production operations.

01

Secure by Design

Identity, policy and threat thinking are architecture inputs.

Security is designed into the platform and delivery path, rather than becoming a gate at the end.

02

Cloud First

Use managed capabilities deliberately—not automatically.

Choose the smallest, clearest architecture that meets resilience, operability and business needs.

03

Green by Design

Efficiency is a technical and commercial concern.

Reduce waste across infrastructure, build pipelines and team processes while protecting delivery outcomes.

Developer tools

Proof that ships in the open.

I build free, documented tools that solve practical developer problems across AI, identity, security and collaboration.

MCP Explorer XA Docker-first developer workbench for exploring MCP tools, prompts and resources, building workflows, and working with multiple LLM providers.Vue 3 · ASP.NET Core · Docker · MCP Entra Auth CLIA cross-platform .NET global tool that simplifies Microsoft Entra ID token generation across common OAuth 2.0 flows..NET · OAuth 2.0 · Entra ID GitLab SummaryAI-assisted summaries of GitLab projects, merge requests and failed pipelines, designed to reduce the time needed to find useful context.AI · GitLab · Developer experience Cloud ShareSecure peer-to-peer file and text sharing through temporary public HTTPS endpoints, without running dedicated infrastructure..NET · Dev Tunnels · Encryption GIF CreatorA browser-based workflow for producing polished GIFs with sensitive-content redaction, title frames and practical export controls.AI redaction · Browser tooling · Security MCP ExplorerThe original Blazor workbench for testing, debugging and exploring MCP servers, including tool execution, workflows and AI chat.Blazor · MCP · AES-256

Credentials and capability

Depth you can inspect.

The concise profile comes first; the complete, data-driven certification and skills record remains available for technical reviewers.

Certifications

9 credentials across Azure, HashiCorp, green software and AWS.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate

Valid / expiry: 22-02-2027

Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert

Valid / expiry: 25-08-2026

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Valid / expiry: 02-11-2026

Microsoft Certified: Azure IoT Developer Specialty

Retired credential

Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate

Valid / expiry: 30-10-2026

HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (004)

Valid / expiry: 20-01-2028

LFC131: Green Software for Practitioners

No expiry

AWS Developer Associate

Valid / expiry: '20

AWS Solutions Architect

Valid / expiry: '21

Skills

391 entries across 24 capability groups, sourced directly from the résumé data.

AI9 capabilities
  • LLM
  • MCP (+ spec)
  • Claude Code (+ CLI)
  • GitHub Copilot (+ CLI)
  • Claude Sonnet 4.6
  • Claude Opus 4.6
  • GPT-5.4
  • AI Foundry
  • MS Agent Framework
Agile7 capabilities
  • Agile
  • Backlog Refinement
  • Inception
  • Retrospective
  • Sprint Planning
  • Blameless Post mortem
  • Target Process
DevSecOps10 capabilities
  • Azure DevOps Pipelines
  • GitHub Workflow Actions
  • GitLab CI/CD
  • Terraform
  • Terraform Enterprise/Cloud
  • Azure Bicep & ARM
  • Terraform
  • IDP - Backstage
  • CloudFormation
  • SonarQube/SonarCloud
HashiCorp4 capabilities
  • Terraform
  • Vault
  • Nomad
  • Terraform Cloud & Enterprise
Microservices16 capabilities
  • .NET 10.0
  • Aspire
  • ASP.NET Core
  • NodeJS
  • TypeScript
  • Javascript
  • AKS
  • EKS
  • NestJS Framework
  • Dapr
  • Swarm
  • EDA
  • CQRS
  • API Gateway
  • Micronaut
  • Spring Boot
Architecture & Concepts24 capabilities
  • ALZ ('Azure Landing Zones') (fmr Enterprise-Scale Architecture)
  • CAF ('Cloud Adoption Framework')
  • LZ Subscription Vending
  • API Management Platforms
  • BDD
  • Cloud patterns
  • Configuration as Code
  • Design patterns - Structural, Creational & Behavioural
  • DDD
  • DevSecOps
  • Disaster Recovery & HA
  • DNS
  • Firewalls
  • Microservices
  • Queue
  • REST
  • SaaS/FaaS/PaaS/IaaS
  • Serverless
  • SOA
  • SOLID Principles
  • TDD
  • Multithreading
  • VPC
  • Webservices
Analytics4 capabilities
  • Speech analytics
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Emotion detection
  • Big data
Serverless Technology13 capabilities
  • AWS Lambda
  • Amazon API Gateway
  • AWS Step Functions
  • Amazon ECS Fargate
  • Amazon Aurora Serverless
  • Azure Functions (including deploy to K8s)
  • Azure LogicApps
  • Google Cloud Run (Knative)
  • Google Functions
  • Serverless Framework
  • Serverless Application Model
  • Serverless Application Repository
  • Twilio Serverless
Low Code3 capabilities
  • Power Apps
  • Power Automate
  • Power BI
EDA/MDA18 capabilities
  • ActiveMQ
  • Akka .NET
  • Azure Event Grid
  • Azure Event Hub
  • Google Pub/Sub
  • gRPC
  • Apache Kafka
  • Amazon Kinesis Data Firehouse
  • Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
  • Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
  • NATS
  • RabbitMQ
  • Redis Pub/Sub
  • Azure Service Bus
  • Amazon SNS
  • Amazon SQS
  • Azure Storage Queue
  • ZeroMQ
Databases15 capabilities
  • Amazon Aurora - MySQL
  • Amazon ElastiCache - Redis
  • Amazon DynamoDB
  • Amazon ElasticSearch
  • Azure Redis
  • Azure CosmosDB
  • Azure SQL Databases
  • Azure SQL Managed Instaces
  • CockroachDB
  • CoachBase
  • Firebird
  • InfluxDB
  • MongoDB
  • MSSQL
  • PostgreSql
Languages, Operating Systems, Frameworks26 capabilities
  • C#
  • Blazor
  • Aspire 13.2
  • AZD (Azure Developer CLI)
  • NodeJS
  • Java
  • TypeScript
  • Javascript
  • Cluster API (nodejs)
  • NestJS Framework
  • Micronaut
  • Spring Boot
  • KEDA
  • Dapr
  • F#
  • Python
  • go
  • git
  • Windows
  • linux
  • bash
  • PowerShell Core
  • Windows
  • Windows Server
  • Flask
  • Express.js
Microsoft11 capabilities
  • IIS
  • MSSQL
  • .NET Core 2.1 - 9.0
  • .NET Frameworks 4.8
  • ASP.NET Core
  • .NET
  • ASP.NET
  • Aspire
  • TypeScript
  • Razor Pages
  • Blazor
Front-end11 capabilities
  • Javascript
  • MS Playwright
  • JQuery
  • Angular
  • Vue
  • React
  • Ajax
  • Bootstrap
  • CSS
  • HTML5
  • Silveright
IDEs, Dev Tools & Productivities Tools24 capabilities
  • Claude Code
  • Claude Code CLI
  • GitHub Copilot
  • GitHub Copilot CLI
  • Visual Studio
  • VSCode
  • Rider
  • IntelliJ
  • PyCharm
  • WebStorm
  • DataGrip
  • SSMS
  • MySQL Workbench
  • Postman
  • DotTrace
  • DotMemory
  • ANTS Performance Pro
  • ANTS Memory Profiler
  • Slack
  • Skype
  • GotoMeeting
  • Jira Cloud
  • Google Docs & Keep
  • Office 365
Testing & Load Testing20 capabilities
  • SpecFlow (BBD)
  • MS Playwright
  • Jest
  • Artillery.io
  • Postman
  • NUnit
  • XUnit
  • SpecFlow
  • Mocha
  • Cucumber
  • Karma
  • Chai
  • Sinon
  • Istanbul
  • Zombie.js
  • JustMock
  • DotCover
  • JMeter
  • Locust
  • loader.io - blazemeter
System Integration14 capabilities
  • Altitude
  • Amazon Connect
  • Comways
  • DataVoice
  • Dubber
  • Frequentis
  • Novo
  • Redbox
  • ServiceNow
  • Spitch
  • Telax
  • Twilio
  • Twilio Flex
  • ZenDesk
Communication cloud platforms4 capabilities
  • Twilio CLI
  • Twilio Serverless
  • Twilio Flex
  • Twilio SDK
Security16 capabilities
  • OAuth 2.0
  • OIDC
  • Azure B2C
  • Azure Entra Id
  • Active Directory
  • LDAP
  • MFA
  • Cognito
  • VyprVPN
  • PCI DSS
  • Keybase
  • Forms Authentication
  • Windows Authentication
  • JWT
  • IWA
  • SAML
Observability & telemetry14 capabilities
  • Azure Application Insights
  • Azure Monitor
  • Amazon CloudWatch
  • Datadog
  • Epsagon
  • Grafana
  • InfluxDB (Telegraf, Kapacitor, Chronograf)
  • Jaeger
  • Kibana
  • Logz.io (Kibana, Grafana)
  • NewRelic
  • Prometheus
  • Sentry.io
  • Stackify
AWS51 capabilities
  • ACM
  • ADM
  • ALB
  • AMI
  • API Gateway
  • Athena
  • Aurora
  • Backup
  • Cloud9
  • CloudFormation
  • CloudTrail
  • CloudWatch
  • CodeBuild
  • CodeCommit
  • CodeDeploy
  • CodePipeline
  • Cognito
  • Comprehend
  • Config
  • Data Pipelines
  • DynamoDB
  • EBS
  • EC2
  • ECR
  • ECS
  • ECS Fargate
  • EMR
  • EFS
  • Elastic BeanStalk
  • ElasticCache
  • ElasticSearch
  • Glue
  • Kinesis
  • Lambda
  • MarketPlace
  • Metering Service
  • Quick Start
  • RDS
  • Route53
  • S3
  • Simple AD
  • SES
  • SNS
  • SQS
  • SSM
  • Step Functions
  • Transcribe
  • VPC
  • WAF
  • Workspaces
  • X-Ray
Azure38 capabilities
  • Azure Kubernetes Service
  • Application Gateway
  • Azure Functions
  • Azure DevOps
  • Application Insights
  • Kusto query language
  • Azure Container Apps
  • Load Balancer
  • Event Grid
  • GitHub Actions
  • LogicApps
  • App Services
  • Virtual Machines
  • Key Vault
  • ARM & bicep & Terraform
  • Virtual Network
  • VPN Gateway
  • CDN
  • Front Door
  • Traffic Manager
  • Azure Monitor
  • Storge - Table, Queue, File & Blob
  • Service Bus - Messaging & Relay
  • VMSS - Virtual Machine Scale Sets
  • Azure SignalR Service
  • API Management
  • Web Apps
  • Event Hubs
  • Azure Stream Analytics
  • Service Fabric
  • Web App for Containers
  • Container Registry
  • Container Instances
  • Azure Cache for Redis
  • Azure CosmosB (including MongoDB, Core SQL APIs)
  • Azure Database Migration Services
  • Azure Active Directory
  • Azure Backup
Google Cloud14 capabilities
  • Cloud Functions
  • Cloud Run
  • Cloud Run on GKE
  • Stackdriver
  • Knative
  • Cloud Pub/Sub
  • Cloud Shell
  • Compute Engine
  • GKE
  • Cloud Storage
  • Cloud Firestore
  • BigQuery
  • App Engine
  • Container Registry
Platform, Container, Cloud Administration & CI/CD25 capabilities

Experience

Builder. Architect. Multiplier.

A complete career history, from early application and BI roles through CTO, platform leadership and distinguished engineering.

Mar 2024 - Present

Fujitsu Distinguished Engineer

Fujitsu UK

Recognised for sustained technical excellence, innovation and influence. I use the role to set direction, mentor engineers, connect technical communities and help teams make stronger architecture and delivery decisions.

May 2022 - Present

Cloud Native Lead

Fujitsu UK

I lead technical delivery across Azure platforms and cloud-native applications, currently focusing on a high-priority modern workplace agentic platform. My work spans AI agents and MCP, application architecture, secure platform foundations, DevSecOps, policy-driven governance and hands-on reference implementations.

Feb 2021 - May 2022

Head of Cloud Platform

Carfinance247

Led the creation and governance of a new Azure cloud platform for a wider digital transformation. Designed AKS-based hosting, hub-and-spoke networking, private connectivity, DNS, observability and CI/CD approaches that supported the migration of .NET and Node.js workloads while making the delivery path easier for engineering teams to operate.

May 2019 - Jan 2021

Principal Engineer

Carfinance247

Worked across product and platform teams to shape high-level architecture, engineering standards and cloud adoption. Combined active delivery with proofs of concept, coaching and technical talks, including practical work with serverless platforms, NestJS, Dapr and KEDA.

Sep 2008 - Apr 2019

Chief Technology Officer

Qualtrak Solutions

Led a distributed European engineering team and the technical direction of contact-centre quality and coaching products for more than a decade. Introduced agile delivery and CI/CD, architected product and integration platforms, worked with global partners, and remained hands-on in development. Delivered an AWS Quick Start and supported a product listing in AWS Marketplace for Amazon Connect.

Earlier career13 additional roles
Jan 2007 - Sept 2008

Contractor

Qualtrak Solutions

I was employed originally to develop an API for a company’s client/server product. This involved employing Unit testing techniques such as TDD and documentation software and then to ship to integration partners. I was also awarded the project to design and develop an e-learning and coaching web platform, hosted on self-managed Rackspace servers. The work gave me my first experience of AWS services. I worked with partners & system integrators around the world. I was asked to work full-time.

Mar 2004 - Sept 2008

Contractor

Various companies

Using C# .NET and Javascript to create APIs and Web applications

2005 - Jan 2006

Contractor

Co-op

I was commissioned to support and enhance solutions using ASP, ASP.NET, c#, javascript, HTML and CSS. This role also included supporting Cadbury’s with the Holos product (EIS). I was asked to work full-time.

Apr 2003 - 2004

Client-side web developer Team Lead

AIM Technology

I headed up the client-side development effort of a Scorecard web-application. This was eventually bought by Aspect.

Nov 2002 - Aug 2003

Data Architect

AIM Technology

My primary role was to consolidate data from disparate systems into a Scorecard application. My responsibilities included providing an OLAP solution, BI, data analytics, pre-sales support, product installation, support and diagnostics. I worked both onsite and offsite. Other duties included enhancing the corporate website.

Jul 2002 - Sept 2002

Technical Contractor

Toyota

Computer support, process streamlining, help train department managers in best ways to collect data, check stock and compile aids for presentations and department workflow. I was also commissioned to compile a specification for a web based learning application to expedite the learning cycle for new intakes regarding site Health & Safety and the particular machines, and their components of a specific department.

Feb 2001 - Sept 2001

BI Consultant

GE Capital

To develop and maintain a BI applications using the Holos BI tool. My engagement was spread across several months.

Nov 2000 - Sept 2000

BI Consultant

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

To maintain a BI application using the Holos BI tool. Based at Canary Whalf

Jan 2000 - Nov 2000

BI Consultant

GUS

To develop and maintain a BI applications using the Holos BI tool. Responsibilities included working closely with accounting department to translate requirements into features, assessment of work, development, support and maintenance.

Mar 1998 - Dec 1999

BI Consultant

Equitas

I was brought in to develop and maintain a suite of BI applications using the Holos BI tool. My responsibilities included development, support, training, planning, managing a team of BI developers, assess / deliver on requirements, interface with other teams and to project management.

1996 - 1998

Consultant

Crystal Decisions UK

BI Support Engineer then BI Consultant.

1996 Mar - 1996 Oct

Consultant

Lintel Software

Informix DBA and developer.

1994 - 1996

Developer

ITC

Develop and maintain in house applications on a Unix platform using Recital language.

Education

Formal foundations and continued development

1st DanShogun World - SouthportBlack Belt · 2010
Bachelor of Science (Hons)Liverpool Business SchoolBusiness Information Systems · 1990 - 1994
National Diploma in Computer ScienceNorth East Wales InstituteComputer Information Systems · 1988 - 1990
GCSEConnah's Quay High SchoolIncluding Computer Science, Mathematics, Visual Design, Physics, Design Engineering · 1988

Leadership profile

Senior enough to set direction. Hands-on enough to prove it.

“The valuable part of architecture is not the diagram. It is helping a team make better decisions—and ship.”

I’m an agentic engineer, DevSecOps specialist, Cloud Native Lead and Fujitsu Distinguished Engineer working across the Azure ecosystem.

My career connects infrastructure and application engineering: cloud foundations, .NET and distributed systems, identity and security, delivery automation, AI and MCP tooling. I co-lead a technical community, mentor engineers and translate complex technical choices for both delivery teams and senior stakeholders.

FUSION ApplicationsTechnical community co-lead
NDC London ’23Sustainability Transformation in Tech
AWS Quick StartPublished Amazon Connect integration
Former CTOMore than a decade leading product engineering
Read the full résuméGet in touch

Start a conversation

Have a cloud challenge that needs both direction and delivery?

I’m open to conversations about technical leadership, Azure and cloud-native architecture, speaking, collaboration and practical developer tooling.

Email Garrard