Principal Consultant · Microsoft

Hi, I'm Raghu Nandan Shukla.

Principal Consultant — Cloud, Kubernetes & Generative AI.

Principal Consultant with 18+ years of experience in Cloud Architecture, Kubernetes, and Generative AI (LLMs, RAG, Agentic AI). I design, migrate, and operate mission-critical platforms for global enterprises on Azure — combining Landing Zones, AKS, and AI engineering to deliver outcomes at scale: faster delivery, stronger resilience, tighter security, and material cost wins.

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18+

Years in industry

230+

Workloads migrated to cloud

500+

Microservices on AKS

~40%

MTTR reduction

3 clouds

Azure · AWS · GCP

10+

Industry certifications

Selected impact

Achievements that move the needle

A snapshot of outcomes I've helped deliver across enterprise programs in cloud, Kubernetes, and Generative AI.

230+ workloads migrated across Azure, AWS, and GCP
Azure Landing Zones (CAF) standardized across multiple business units
AKS platforms supporting 500+ microservices with HA/DR
GenAI / RAG / Agentic AI on Azure OpenAI + AI Search in production
MTTR cut ~30–40% via automation, proactive RCA, and AI-assisted diagnostics
Cloud deployments reduced from days to hours via Terraform + GitHub Actions
BCP/DR architected for ~280 mission-critical VMs with agreed RTO/RPO
2nd Prize — Agentic AI hackathon (multi-agent solution design)

Leadership

How I lead, not just what I build

18+ years across global enterprises — leading delivery, advising executives, growing accounts, and mentoring teams.

Trusted advisor to CXOs & enterprise architects

Influenced cloud strategy and architecture decisions across global enterprises; led discovery workshops, executive presentations, and PoCs/PoVs that improved adoption and conversion rates.

Cross-functional delivery leadership

Led engineering, product, and partner teams across 10+ enterprise clients; aligned roadmaps, sized solutions, and shipped large-scale cloud-native programs with measurable business outcomes.

Pre-sales & account growth

Shaped large deal cycles, built proposals/SOWs with sales and TAM teams, and grew accounts by enabling Azure, Kubernetes, and Generative AI adoption.

Mentor, hiring lead, and enablement champion

Mentored consultants and engineers, ran hiring loops, and delivered Kubernetes / Linux / Cloud / Automation enablement programs across client and internal teams.

Crisis leadership & resilience

Led data-centre recovery from storage corruption — restored 20 clusters without backup metadata and held BC within agreed SLA/SLO.

Community & open-source contribution

CNCF contributor on a Kubernetes-based project on behalf of the organization; Platinum Award for Microsoft documentation impact.

About

What I do

I help enterprises design and run mission-critical platforms on Azure — from landing zones and AKS to Generative AI systems built on Azure OpenAI and AI Search. This site is the home for my notes, demos, and an AI assistant you can chat with about my work.

Expertise

Where I go deep

Cloud Transformation

Kubernetes & Containers

Generative AI / LLMs

Platform & DevOps

Security & Reliability

Experience

18+ years across global enterprises

Microsoft Jan 2026 – Present
Principal Consultant
- Lead enterprise cloud migrations and modernization across Azure, AWS, and GCP.
- Design Azure Landing Zones (CAF) and AKS platforms for mission-critical workloads.
- Deliver GenAI solutions (Azure OpenAI, RAG, vector search) and LLMOps pipelines.
- Trusted advisor to CXOs; lead architecture workshops, PoCs/PoVs, and pre-sales.
Microsoft Aug 2022 – Dec 2025
Senior Embedded Escalation Engineer
- 24x7 production support for enterprise Azure workloads; deep RCA on AKS.
- Built AI-driven diagnostics with RAG, embeddings, semantic search, Azure ML.
- Automated operations to reduce MTTR and recurring incidents.
Google Apr 2021 – Aug 2022
Cloud Technical Solutions Engineer
- Enabled enterprise adoption of GKE, Anthos, and microservices.
- Delivered automation and IaC; led customer onboarding and architecture guidance.
HCLTech Dec 2015 – Apr 2021
Senior Consultant
- Data centre builds/migrations; HA over cloud for Docker EE; AKS automation.
- Company-wide BCP/DR for ~280 mission-critical VMs on Azure + Kubernetes.
- Cut cloud deployment from days to hours via Ansible / Terraform / Helm.
Macquarie Group Sep 2014 – Dec 2015
Assistant Manager
- 4,000+ Linux VMs and ~200 RedHat/Veritas clusters; site consolidation via P2V.
Dell Sep 2013 – Sep 2014
Senior Advisor
- Managed telecom client across 6 data centres; built zero-cost automated patching.
HCL Technologies Feb 2011 – Sep 2013
Senior Specialist
- Pharma client with ~4,500 servers; Solaris→Linux migration; 200+ Veritas clusters.
- Recovered 20 clusters without backup metadata to maintain BC within SLA.

Certifications

Validated, not just claimed

Recognition

Awards & education

Platinum Award — Microsoft Doc Contribution
CNCF contributor (Kubernetes-based project)
2nd Prize — Agentic AI buildup hackathon (multi-agent solution)

Education

MCA — Sikkim Manipal University (2013)
B.Com — Delhi University (2007)

Roadmap

What's next on this site

Building this in the open. Each item below maps to a real demo of an enterprise-scale Azure pattern.

AI Chat

Live

Conversational interface grounded in this profile, powered by GitHub Models (gpt-4o-mini) with an Azure OpenAI / Foundry fallback.

IoT + Database + AKS demos

Planned

Live enterprise-scale demos: device telemetry → Event Hubs → AKS workloads → Cosmos DB / SQL.

Global, resilient delivery

Planned

Azure Front Door + multi-region active/active with DR runbooks.

Let's talk

Architecture review, cloud transformation, or a GenAI proof of value — happy to chat.

study1987@gmail.com

Email me LinkedIn GitHub

+91 9560897222 · Bangalore, India