About
Edge Cloud is a technical blog about cloud networking, infrastructure automation, and data center architecture. I’m Christian Elsen — a Principal Solutions Architect (Networking Specialist) at AWS and founder of TAK.NZ.
I’ve been writing here since 2013, sharing deep-dives on AWS networking services, IPv6, infrastructure design, and increasingly, AI-augmented engineering workflows.
TL;DR
💼 Current Role: Principal Solutions Architect — Networking Specialist at AWS
🚀 Side Project: Founder of TAK.NZ — real-time common operating platform for emergency responders
🎯 Expertise: Cloud networking, network security, AI/LLM process automation, IPv6
📝 Blog Focus: AWS networking deep-dives, infrastructure automation, tooling, and open-source projects
🌐 Background: 19 years across Cisco, VMware, Cloudflare, and AWS
🔬 Research Network: Owner/operator of AS213151 — BGP routing, network observability, IPv6
What I Do Now
As a Principal Solutions Architect — Networking Specialist at AWS, I:
- Design complex networking and security architectures for AWS’s most strategic customers and partners
- Build AI/LLM-powered quality systems and automation tools that scale knowledge across the organization
- Lead the creation of the AWS Networking Best Practices Guide using a human-led, AI-augmented content model
- Author blogs, whitepapers, and reference architectures; deliver sessions at re:Invent and AWS Summits
- Curate domain knowledge for internal AI agents and mentor specialist architects
Previously, I built and scaled AWS’s Networking & Infrastructure Security specialist team as a Senior Manager (2024–2026), leading 7 Specialist Solutions Architects before transitioning back to principal-level technical leadership.
Career Highlights
Amazon Web Services (2016–Present)
Enterprise Support Lead → Principal Solutions Architect → Senior Manager → Principal Solutions Architect
- Designed networking architectures (Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Network Firewall, CloudWAN) for Fortune 500 customers
- Built and deployed AI/LLM-powered quality systems that replaced external review processes
- Trained and enabled 200+ Solutions Architects, Professional Services Consultants, and TAMs on advanced networking patterns
- Served as dedicated technical advisor for strategic enterprise customers, driving architecture best practices and cost optimization
- Drove AWS networking service roadmap through customer feedback and cross-team collaboration
Cloudflare (2015–2016)
Product Manager — Edge Services
- Shipped HTTP/2 + SPDY support across 1.8 million domains
- Increased HTTP/2 adoption on the Alexa 1M list by 3x
VMware (2012–2015)
Staff Integration Architect
- Architected the VMware Validated Design (VVD) program — design blueprints adopted as the standard for enterprise SDDC deployments
- Led re-architecture of three global data centers
- Served as “Customer Zero” for emerging VMware releases
Cisco Systems (2007–2011)
Software Engineer → M&A Technology Advisory → Product Manager (Technology Intelligence)
- Created Cisco’s Technology Radar — a systematic technology scouting framework used by C-suite for strategic decision-making
- Provided technology advisory for M&A transactions in data center and virtualization
- Built Cisco CloudLab — a global hands-on lab platform for customers and partners
Side Projects
- TAK.NZ — New Zealand’s common operating platform for emergency responders. Built on AWS with GenAI-powered knowledge retrieval (Bedrock + RAG) for first responders in the field.
- AS213151 — Personal research network. BGP routing, network observability, and IPv6 deployment via IXP peering.
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Disclaimer: Views expressed here are my own and don’t represent Amazon Web Services or any employer. This is a personal blog where I share technical insights and experiences.