I build the plumbing that makes campus identity and cloud storage feel like one system.

Kumo: cloud storage as a local drive, tied to campus identity

Kumo mounts a student's or researcher's cloud storage as network drives on managed lab machines, next to the C: drive, signed in with their university account. They pick a drive letter or let Kumo choose a free one. Nothing to install on a personal device and nothing to configure at the keyboard.

The platform was first architected in 2013 and 2014, and I took it over in 2018. I have been its technical lead since, covering architecture, security, delivery, and support for a service used by 18 universities and about 400,000 students.

Now

Moving .NET Framework code to .NET Core and Blazor, and rewriting the Kumo Portal on a modern stack.

Recent decisions

HMAC authentication migration, CBFS driver migration, ADFS versus Microsoft Entra.

Delivery

Azure DevOps pipelines and Docker.

Operations

12+ servers, the ADFS environment, and SSL certificate management.

Partners

Billing and MSA renewals for the external universities that use Kumo, and the technical onboarding and support that goes with them.

Go.IU: a link shortener built for a university

I led Go.IU from start to finish. Faculty, staff, and students sign in with their IU account to shorten long URLs, and anyone can follow the short links without logging in. It runs in Docker containers on Kubernetes, deployed with Helm, with SQL Server behind it.

Visit go.iu.edu

• Unified Copy Machine & PrintContributor · 2022 to now

  Inventory and invoicing for IU copy machines and print services. Runs in Docker on Kubernetes, deployed with Helm.

• RivetBlazorContributor · 2021 to now

  Blazor UI components for Rivet, the design system Indiana University builds and uses.

• IT PeopleContributor · 2021 to now

  A directory of the people who do or support IT work across Indiana University.

• Full-Stack Software Engineer, Indiana University2020 to now

  Lead the modernization of Kumo across 18 universities and handle its billing and MSA renewals with external partners. Work across C#, .NET, ASP.NET Core, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Azure DevOps, and enterprise identity.

• Web & Software Developer, Indiana University2018 to 2020

  Built and supported web applications and enterprise software in C#, .NET, SQL, and JavaScript.

• Earlier .NET roles2017 to 2018

  Software Developer at Control Station, Application Developer at Eniac Systems, and Software Engineer at GP Technologies.

Kumo Engineering, a technical series

Notes from running a long-lived identity and storage platform. The first posts are in review and will appear on Dev.to and Medium.

• Migrating Kumo authentication to HMAC Coming soon

  Why the old scheme had to go, how requests are signed now, and how clients moved without downtime.

• Replacing the CBFS driver layer Coming soon

  The migration path for the file system driver that makes a cloud account look like a local disk.

• ADFS or Entra: how we chose Coming soon

  The trade-offs behind the identity provider decision for a campus-wide service.

Next: papers, talks, and open-source work

I am working toward peer-reviewed papers, conference talks, and open-source or whitepaper releases in two areas: security and identity, and cloud and infrastructure. This page will list them as they publish.

• Security and identityIn progress

  Federated sign-in, token and request signing, and identity provider migration in higher education.

• Cloud and infrastructureIn progress

  Infrastructure as code, containerized delivery, and modernizing long-lived .NET services.

Also completed: LinkedIn Learning courses in Python (Learning and Advanced), React.js and React Hooks, Rust for C# Developers, DevOps Foundations, Ansible, Puppet, and Microsoft Power Apps.

Working on identity, cloud storage, or modernizing a long-lived platform? Let's talk.