Microsoft · Azure DNS

Rahis Shaikh

The systems the rest of the cloud depends on — DNS, distributed systems, and reliability at scale.

Location
Redmond, Washington
Focus
Cloud infrastructure & distributed systems
Distinction
CNCF Kubestronaut
Career

Professional Work

2022 — present

Senior Software Engineer · Microsoft

Azure DNS — Redmond, Washington

I lead the Kubernetes migration of Azure DNS and Azure Private DNS — services that nearly everything else in the cloud resolves through. The work spans migration architecture, execution strategy, reliability, observability, security, and the operational readiness of a system that cannot be allowed to fail quietly.

2019 — 2022

Software Engineer II · Microsoft

Azure DNS — Hyderabad, India

Built and extended the Azure DNS platform surface: Azure Portal, CLI, and PowerShell integrations, the DNS Forwarder, and Name Reservation Services — with an emphasis on maintainability and operational efficiency.

2018 — 2019

Senior Software Engineer · Cisco

Bangalore, India

Worked on the Cisco Umbrella Identity platform, which integrates roughly 100 million user identities across more than ten thousand enterprise customers. Built Windows client software in C# against AWS-based backends.

2017 — 2018

Senior Software Engineer · Sapience Analytics

Pune, India

Enterprise workforce-analytics platform engineering.

2015 — 2017

Software Engineer · Cisco

Bangalore, India

Contributed to the AnyConnect VPN Posture module — endpoint security and compliance checking — in C#, .NET, and C++. Recognized with a Cisco award for build automation and code-coverage integration.

2014 — 2015

Engineering Intern · Intel

India

Built a travel budget management system in .NET; received an employee recognition award for it.

2011 — 2013

Software Engineer · Persistent Systems

Pune, India

First industry role — product engineering across enterprise software.

Portfolio

Selected Projects

Azure DNS on Kubernetes

Architecture and execution of migrating Azure DNS and Azure Private DNS from their legacy hosting environment onto Kubernetes — re-platforming one of the most depended-upon services in Azure without interrupting it.

KubernetesAKSC#Reliability

Azure DNS Platform Surface

The interfaces engineers actually touch: Azure Portal, CLI, and PowerShell integrations for DNS, plus the DNS Forwarder and Name Reservation Services behind them.

Azure.NETAPIs

Cisco Umbrella Identity

Identity integration at serious scale — around 100 million user identities across 10,000+ enterprise customers, connecting endpoint clients to cloud-delivered security.

C#AWSIdentity

AnyConnect VPN Posture

Endpoint security and compliance checking inside Cisco's AnyConnect VPN client — deciding, at connection time, whether a machine is healthy enough to be let in.

C++.NETSecurity
Craft

Skills

Cloud & Infrastructure

  • Microsoft Azure
  • Kubernetes / AKS
  • AWS
  • Cloud networking
  • Distributed systems

Programming

  • C#
  • .NET
  • C / C++
  • Python
  • Bash

Data & Observability

  • MySQL
  • Oracle
  • Cosmos DB
  • Kusto
  • Linux

Practice

  • Reliability engineering
  • Resiliency & security
  • Performance optimization
  • Design patterns
  • Multithreading
CNCF Kubestronaut badge

CNCF Kubestronaut

Recognized by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation for holding all five Kubernetes certifications, and listed in the official Kubestronaut directory. Educated at Vellore Institute of Technology (M.Tech., Computer Engineering) and Savitribai Phule Pune University (B.E.).

Certified Kubernetes Administrator badge CKA Certified Kubernetes Administrator Certified Kubernetes Application Developer badge CKAD Certified Kubernetes Application Developer Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist badge CKS Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate badge KCNA Kubernetes & Cloud Native Associate CNCF Kubestronaut badge Kubestronaut CNCF program badge
Research

Publications

My work has always sat close to hard systems problems — information retrieval in low-bandwidth settings, large-scale data processing, and mobile data services. A selection of published work:

Contact

Let's talk systems.

Cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, DNS, or an interesting problem at scale — email is the most reliable way to reach me.

Email me LinkedIn