Gary Tong
Verified Expert in Engineering
Cloud Solution Architect and Developer
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Toptal member since January 5, 2023
Gary is a seasoned multi-cloud architect, demonstrating proficiency across Azure, AWS, and GCP. In his role as a forward-thinking DevOps leader, he spearheads pioneering projects in containerization and infrastructure evolution. Gary is recognized for his exceptional problem-solving abilities in demanding business contexts. He is the #1 Kubestronaut in Melbourne and serves as a dedicated Kubernetes instructor, delivering engaging educational sessions and insightful articles.
Portfolio
Experience
- Solution Design - 15 years
- Security - 8 years
- Security Architecture - 8 years
- Azure - 6 years
- Cloud Architecture - 5 years
- DevOps - 3 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 3 years
- Veeam - 1 year
Work Experience
Cloud Architect
National Disability Insurance Agency
- Developed Azure foundation architecture for workloads to fix 100+ security risks.
- Led a Veeam enterprise backup solution to fully back up Microsoft 365 products.
- Built cloud solution design patterns, which heavily reduced the time and effort to develop solutions.
Solution Designer
UniSuper
- Prepared solution architecture definition (SAD) documents and presented the solutions to the Design Council.
- Designed a Microsoft Azure Virtual WAN and Aruba SD-WAN solution to interconnect 30 offices and branches to the cloud.
- Developed a VMware micro-segmentation strategy to improve the security posture.
Professional Services Consultant
Fortinet
- Worked as a Fortinet subject matter expert consulting customers about adopting Fortinet security products.
- Led the deployment of a Fortinet FortiDDoS solution for the largest energy company in Australia.
- Provided Fortinet technical support for customers.
Solutions Architect
Telstra
- Provided cloud transformation designs to migrate security products from data centers to AWS clouds.
- Headed the technical design of Telstra's secure internet and next-generation cloud security platforms.
- Worked as a subject matter expert (SME) for security products, such as Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Juniper, etc.
Project History
Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365
Azure Foundations
I was the cloud architect advising stakeholders and translating business and technical requirements into designs for a secure, scalable, and reliable Azure architecture. This project delivered a well-architected cloud infrastructure for workloads and greatly enhanced cloud operations.
Azure Virtual WAN and Azure VMware Solution
I was the solution architect that led the solution design and implementation. The solution uplifted the enterprise office networks to a software-defined network that uses Azure Virtual WAN as the network hub to optimize the network availability and enhance network operations. The Azure VMware solution builds a VMware vSphere environment in Azure to prepare the fastest path for virtual machine migrations.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering
Nanjing University of Science and Technology - Nanjing, China
Certifications
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
The Linux Foundation
Certified Kubernetes Administrator
The Linux Foundation
Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect Expert
Microsoft
Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate
Microsoft
Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
Microsoft
Fortinet Network Security Expert Level 4
Fortinet
Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate
Microsoft
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Microsoft
TOGAF 9 Certification
The Open Group
Cloud Architect
Google Cloud
AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
Microsoft
F5 Certified Technology Specialist
F5
Professional Network Virtualization
VMware
Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Collaboration
Cisco
Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Service Provider
Cisco
Skills
Tools
Visio, Microsoft PowerPoint, Confluence, VMware, Terraform
Platforms
Windows, Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes
Frameworks
TOGAF
Paradigms
DevOps, Azure DevOps
Languages
Python
Other
Cisco, Security, Internetworking, Cloud Architecture, Security Architecture, Solution Design, IP Networks, Cloud Security, Cloud Infrastructure, Veeam, FortiGate, Engineering, Unified Communications, IP Telephony, Network Visualization, Dynamic Load Balancing, Telecom Equipment & Solutions, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), SD-WAN
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring