Writing on AI systems, cloud & infra
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Kevin Tan

Cloud Architecture · AI Engineering · Distributed Systems

About

Singapore-based cloud architect and engineering leader with 17+ years building enterprise systems that scale and stay operational when things go wrong. My work spans high-availability platforms, distributed systems, and cloud-native architecture in mission-critical environments. Currently exploring production-ready AI agent integration with enterprise systems.

In production systems, silence is not neutral. It's dangerous.

What I write about

  1. 01 Cloud Architecture Resilient, scalable systems on AWS. Multi-region strategies, failure modes, and cost discipline.
  2. 02 AI Engineering Building with GenAI and agentic AI — retrieval, MCP servers, evals, and making LLMs behave in production.
  3. 03 Distributed Systems Patterns for reliable software at scale. Consistency, consensus, and the trade-offs you don't notice until you do.
  4. 04 Engineering Leadership Building and leading technical teams — hiring, mentoring, and the parts of the job that aren't in the code.

Open source

  1. 01 pdf-mcp MCP server for reading large PDFs without hitting context limits. Chunked reading, hybrid search, OCR, and SQLite caching. GitHub · PyPI
  2. 02 blueclaw Observable AI agent runtime with structured tracing, regression testing, and trace replay. Model-agnostic. Built on Strands Agents SDK. GitHub · PyPI
  3. 03 redmine-mcp-server Production-ready MCP server for Redmine. Connects AI agents to project management with security, pagination, and enterprise features. GitHub · PyPI

Certifications

  1. 01 AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional 2026 · Credly
  2. 02 AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate 2024 · Credly

Experience

  • 2022
    Deputy R&D Director, GDC Technology
    Directing architecture of enterprise digital cinema software sustaining GDC's industry leadership. Owns AWS serverless platforms supporting mission-critical operations — 50% scalability improvement, 40% reduction in operational overhead. Leading 10+ engineers across two regions.
  • 2013
    Senior R&D Manager, GDC Technology
    Built and scaled cross-functional engineering teams through rapid growth. Led delivery of Cinema Automation 2.0, the second-generation Theatre Management System modernizing cinema operations globally. Introduced Git-Flow and Kanban, cutting development cycles by 30%.
  • 2007
    Senior R&D Engineer, GDC Technology
    Designed and delivered the first-generation Theatre Management System deployed across large cineplex environments. Built electronic cinema playback systems with HDCP security compliance and high-availability requirements.
  • 2006
    Software Engineer, Cyberlink
    Started career building multimedia software. BSc Computer Science, National Taiwan University.

Elsewhere

Last updated · May 2026 Singapore

The Dispatch

Follow the engineering behind the writing.

AI agents, cloud systems, and production decisions, roughly weekly.