Hi!

My name is Jeff and I am an independent consultant. I am a certified cloud architect, and my backround is in software engineering, DevOps, big-data, and natural language processing. I have earned many AWS and Google Cloud certifications. I am a software engineer at heart, but I enjoy everything from cloud architecture, to programming, and AI/ML.

I am available to hire for consulting! I can help with your cloud (AWS/Google Cloud) architecture, software development, and big-data/NLP projects. Please email me for a PDF resume.

My AWS and Google Cloud Experience

I am proud to have a lot of AWS and Google Cloud certifications. You can see my AWS certifications transcript and my Google Cloud certifications transcript. I have been an AWS Community Builder in 2023, 2022, and 2021, for Machine Learning. My first AWS certifications were obtained in 2014. Back then the certifications had issue numbers!

I am an AWS SME (since February 2020) and an AWS Lead SME, which means I help contribute to the development of the AWS certifications exams. I have found there is no better way to learn because it requires in-depth knowledge of AWS!

My Background

I have worked in many industries from government, security, healthcare, logistics, and education. I first started with cloud when AWS first launched around 2008.

My interest in NLP was sparked in 2012 when I was working with unstructured data and learning about the difficulties in processing it. That led me to the Apache OpenNLP project. I started contributing to the Apache OpenNLP project where I could and today I am the current chair of the Apache OpenNLP PMC. I owe the Apache OpenNLP team a lot of gratitude for their help and guidance over the years. Most recently, I added ONNX Runtime support to Apache OpenNLP to facilitate the use of large-language models from Java. Check out the blog post I wrote!

As a programmer, I started with QBasic, QuickBasic, and Visual Basic for DOS. I picked up C++ through Visual Studio 6 before moving to .NET. I moved to Java around 2010 and have since predominantly used Java as my high-level language. I also develop in Python and Go, and have experience with Scala. I do a lot of Bash, CloudFormation, and Terraform scripting and use Linux almost exclusively. Ubuntu has been my first pick since it was versioned using single digits and mailed on CD-ROMs!

My Work

Today, I do consulting primarily in the areas of cloud, big-data, and NLP through my company Mountain Fog. I enjoy tackling problems around data ingestion, search, and AI/ML because those problems often fall directly in the intersections of my interests.

Some of my favorite tools are Apache Kafka and Apache NiFi, along with cloud services like Google Cloud Cloud Functions and AWS Lambda. Combining these applications and frameworks with the scalability of the cloud can create very powerful platforms for data ingestion and manipulation. I believe search is important (and often overlooked!) because without the ability to efficiently locate data, the data is almost worthless. Vector search is now adding a new dimension to search - pun totally intended.

I maintain the Phileas project, along with the Philter software, under Philterd, LLC. Redacting PII and PHI from text is very challenging but important and necessary.

The Future

I believe the future lies in distributed computing across disparate cloud platforms. The internet of things and AI/ML will continue to expand and both will bring lots of technical and ethical challenges. I hope I can find ways to contribute for the betterment of society.

Connect

• GitHub
• LinkedIn

Blog Posts

I moved my blog to Medium. Check it out!

• PHI in a DevOps Environment
  
• Using AWS Kinesis Firehose Transformations to Filter Sensitive Information
  
• Filtering Sensitive Information using Apache NiFi with Philter
  
• Challenges in Finding Sensitive Information in Text

My work:

Mountain Fog, Inc. offers consulting services in the areas of cloud, big-data, and NLP. Learn more at www.mtnfog.com.

Philterd offers AI-powered software to identify, redact, and manage sensitive information in text. Learn more at www.philterd.ai.