I’m a Network & Cloud Specialist student at ITS Academy Angelo Rizzoli, following the VET course and working toward graduation in July 2027. Enterprise-grade networking, cloud technologies, and dependable infrastructure are my focus.
I learn by designing, deploying, breaking, and improving systems. My home lab turns abstract concepts into practical experience with virtualization, access control, observability, and recovery.
Adaptable. Detail-oriented. Operations-ready.
My background in technical and administrative operations has taught me to adapt quickly and work methodically. I’m eager to bring that mindset to data center operations and infrastructure teams.
02 / Validated knowledge
A foundation built to keep growing.
Achieved
Amazon Web Services
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Cloud fundamentals
Achieved
Microsoft
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
AZ-900 · Cloud foundations
Achieved
Microsoft
Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals
SC-900 · Security foundations
Next on the roadmap
Next goal
Linux Foundation
Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator
LFCS · Linux administration
Next goal
Cisco
Cisco Certified Network Associate
CCNA · Routing & switching
03 / Built, not just studied
Small footprint. Enterprise thinking.
What started with an ISP FastGate router has evolved into a fully virtualized, enterprise-grade home lab. Workloads are deliberately distributed: heavy compute on the main host, critical network services on a dedicated node, and backups on isolated hardware.
The main compute host runs all heavy virtual machines, backend containers, and the OPNsense firewall and gateway. Proxmox VE provides the foundation for a fully virtualized environment. The OS lives on the 1 TB NVMe SSD, while a 1 TB external HDD stores Immich’s photo and video library.
Proxmox VE
Heavy VMs
Backend containers
OPNsense
02. Network node 24/7
Raspberry Pi 4
2 GB RAM · 120 GB SSD
AdGuard Home provides DNS and DHCP, WireGuard secures VPN access, RustDesk handles remote support, and Prometheus scrapes the physical nodes for Grafana on AWS EC2.
DNS
VPN
Remote support
Prometheus
03. Isolated backup node
HP Notebook
4-core CPU · 8 GB RAM · 1 TB HDD · Headless
Proxmox Backup Server keeps secure, isolated incremental backups of the main Geekom node. Recovery is a separate responsibility, not an afterthought.
Proxmox Backup Server
Incremental backups
04. Development workstation
MacBook Air M3
Development + local virtualization
The MacBook Air M3 is the development workstation for the lab, supporting hands-on engineering and local virtualization alongside the dedicated infrastructure nodes.
Development
Virtualization
05. Cloud monitoring VM
AWS EC2 · Grafana
Grafana only · Private VPN connection
Grafana is the only service hosted on this cloud VM. It queries Prometheus running on the Raspberry Pi 4 at home through the private WireGuard VPN.
AWS cloud
Grafana dashboards
WireGuard VPN
Security isn’t a layer added later.
Perimeter security
A considered perimeter.
OPNsense
Hybrid NAT and GeoIP filtering block malicious inbound traffic from high-risk regions and define the lab’s firewall and gateway boundaries.
Firewall
Hybrid NAT
GeoIP filtering
Identity & access
One source of identity.
Authentik
Authentik acts as a Single Source of Truth for centralized authentication, bringing identity and access management into a coherent system.
Centralized authentication
SSoT
Reverse proxy & access control
Private by intention.
Nginx Proxy Manager + Cloudflare
SSL certificates use the custom jhonnylab.com domain managed on Cloudflare. Strict Access Lists keep critical services reachable only from the local LAN or WireGuard VPN.
SSL
Access Lists
LAN or VPN only
Multimedia & storage
My photos. My infrastructure.
Immich
Self-hosted photo management and synchronization, backed by a dedicated 1 TB external HDD on the main node, provide a practical workload for storage, service deployment, and maintaining control of personal media.
Photo management
Synchronization
Self-hosted
Governance & monitoring
Visibility before guesswork.
Prometheus at home · Grafana on AWS EC2
Prometheus runs on the Raspberry Pi 4 at home and scrapes the physical nodes. Grafana is the only service hosted on the AWS EC2 instance and queries Prometheus over the private WireGuard VPN, providing dashboards and visibility across the lab.
Pi 4 · Proxmox nodesPrometheusGrafana · EC2
Local metrics
Private VPN
Cloud dashboards
This is an architecture showcase, not an open service directory. Critical services are intentionally restricted to the local LAN or WireGuard VPN.
04 / The next iteration
Always a work in progress. By design.
The next stage is about making the architecture more resilient, repeatable, and secure. I’m scaling the lab toward enterprise-level practices while continuing to learn from every deployment.
01 / Redundancy
Resilience by design.
Enterprise-level reliability
Scale toward enterprise-level redundancy, reduce single points of failure, and make recovery an integral part of the architecture.
Next / Reliability and continuity
02 / Automation
Repeatable, not repetitive.
Ansible
Deepen automation with Ansible, bringing greater consistency to provisioning, configuration, and the everyday management of services.
Next / Infrastructure automation
03 / Continuous improvement
Security keeps evolving.
Stronger security practices
Continuously expand security practices, refine access boundaries, and strengthen the operational habits that keep infrastructure dependable.
Next / Hardening and governance
05 / Let’s connect
Good infrastructure starts with a conversation.
Interested in networking, cloud infrastructure, or the next challenge? I’d be glad to connect. Send a message or reach me directly.
