Published 24 June 2026
AWS Cost Protection Strategy
How a billing audit led to a layered AWS cost protection strategy using budget alerts, monthly reviews, region restrictions and IAM guardrails to reduce the risk of unexpected charges.
Read note →Cloud Engineering Portfolio
AWS projects by Cliff Smith
Cliffable is a cloud engineering portfolio documenting my transition from music and education into cloud architecture.
Through hands-on AWS projects, I design, build and document real systems covering web hosting, DNS, networking, monitoring and automation. Each project focuses on the architecture, implementation decisions and lessons learned along the way.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Featured AWS Projects
Server-Based to Serverless Website Hosting
Built a highly available EC2-based website with multi-AZ networking, load balancing, Auto Scaling and serverless microservices, then migrated the static frontend to Amazon S3 and CloudFront to reduce complexity and operational overhead.
Designing a Secure AWS Infrastructure
Designed and built a security-focused AWS architecture with private networking, controlled SSH access, Gateway VPC Endpoints and a custom least-privilege IAM policy, then validated the completed infrastructure.
Latest Engineering Notes
Short technical notes from building, operating and improving real cloud systems.
Published 12 June 2026
A WordPress Infrastructure Review
How a security alert and monitoring alarms led to a broader review of my WordPress infrastructure, exposing weaknesses in security, domain management and operational processes.
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Published 5 June 2026
Organising Domains, DNS and SSL in AWS
How I consolidated Cliffable domains into a dedicated AWS account and built HTTPS redirects for secondary domains using Route 53, CloudFront, ACM and S3.
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Published 31 May 2026
When a 1GB Lightsail Instance Wasn't Enough
How a production outage and memory exhaustion revealed the limitations of a 1 GB Lightsail instance and led to an infrastructure upgrade.
Read note →About
I’m transitioning into cloud architecture, focused on designing and building real-world systems on AWS.
Through hands-on projects, I explore how cloud services fit together in practice from networking and DNS to scalable, production-ready architectures.
This site documents that journey, with a focus on clarity, structure, and implementation.
Background in music and education (BMus Hons). AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner.