<div class="wp-block-group vk-hero"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h1 class="wp-block-heading">Val Kafedzhy</h1> <p class="vk-sub wp-block-paragraph">AI Infrastructure & Enterprise Platform Architect</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Washington, D.C. · 20+ years on the infrastructure layer under large systems — lately, the networking, platform, and security underneath AI at scale. I write it up here: reference architectures with working configs, honest trade-offs, and the failure modes that actually bite in production. Not vendor slideware.</p> <p class="vk-creds wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Certified:</strong> CKA · CKAD · CKS · AWS Solutions Architect – Professional · Google Professional Cloud Architect · Cisco CCNP · RHCE</p> <div class="wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex"> <div class="wp-block-button vk-btn"><a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button" href="/writing/">Read the writing</a></div> <div class="wp-block-button is-style-outline vk-ghost is-style-outline--1"><a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vkafed/">LinkedIn</a></div> <div class="wp-block-button is-style-outline vk-ghost is-style-outline--2"><a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button" href="https://github.com/initv0">GitHub</a></div> </div> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group vk-section"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Start here</h2> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The flagship pieces — each ships with a working reference config or policy, not just prose.</p> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillars"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillar"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">BGP for the AI Era</h3> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Multi-region routing for inference: anycast + BGP that fails over on real inference SLOs, not process liveness. Ships with a working FRR config and health agent.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a class="vk-pillar-link" href="/bgp-for-the-ai-era-multi-region-routing-for-inference-workloads/">Read →</a></p> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillar"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">eBPF in Production</h3> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Kernel-level observability and security without sidecars — with runnable Tetragon and Cilium samples on GitHub.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a class="vk-pillar-link" href="/ebpf-in-production-kernel-level-observability-and-security/">Read →</a></p> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillar"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Zero Trust, Beyond the Buzzword</h3> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">A vendor-neutral reference architecture: PDP/PEP, SPIFFE identity, and a real Cilium policy for production.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a class="vk-pillar-link" href="/zero-trust-networking-beyond-the-buzzword-an-enterprise-reference-architecture/">Read →</a></p> </div></div> </div></div> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="/writing/">See all writing →</a></p> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group vk-section"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Focus areas</h2> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillars"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillar"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Networking & Routing</h3> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">BGP, enterprise routing, IPv6, high-performance networking, multi-region connectivity.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a class="vk-pillar-link" href="/category/networking-routing/">Read more →</a></p> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillar"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Cloud & Platform Networking</h3> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Cloud networking, service meshes, and eBPF-native data planes.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a class="vk-pillar-link" href="/category/cloud-platform-networking/">Read more →</a></p> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillar"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Zero Trust & Platform Security</h3> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Zero Trust networking and enterprise platform security architecture.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a class="vk-pillar-link" href="/category/zero-trust-platform-security/">Read more →</a></p> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillar"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">AI Infrastructure Networking</h3> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The networking layer under AI training and inference at scale.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a class="vk-pillar-link" href="/category/ai-infrastructure-networking/">Read more →</a></p> </div></div> <div class="wp-block-group vk-pillar"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Systems & Ops Notes</h3> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Field notes from 20+ years across Linux, DevOps, SRE, and encryption.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a class="vk-pillar-link" href="/category/systems-ops-notes/">Read more →</a></p> </div></div> </div></div> </div></div>