# Alex Mercer > I’m a Principal Cloud & Platform Architect focused on resilient, low-latency distributed systems—designing multi-region edge architectures, declarative Terraform pipelines, and zero-SSR static web platforms. This site runs on The Navigator—an open-source Astro 7.4 + Tailwind CSS v4 starter theme with optional AWS S3 Multi-Region Access Point (MRAP) + CloudFront SigV4a infrastructure and automated GitHub Actions / GitLab CI pipelines. Follow the 3-part setup flow below to make it yours without touching a single .astro template. I’m a Principal Cloud & Platform Architect with over a decade of experience designing resilient distributed systems, multi-region edge delivery networks, and declarative infrastructure-as-code workflows. My engineering philosophy centers on simplicity, observability, and removing moving parts at runtime. Whether architecting global storage replication with AWS S3 Multi-Region Access Points or building zero-SSR static web applications, I prefer systems whose failure modes are predictable and whose deployments are fully reproducible from version control. Outside the terminal, I spend my time photographing minimalist architecture, coastal geometry, and alpine landscapes. - **Name:** Alex Mercer - **Role:** Principal Cloud & Platform Architect - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Website:** https://www.example.com - **GitHub:** https://github.com - **GitLab:** https://gitlab.com - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com - **Instagram:** https://www.instagram.com ## Core Pages - [Home](https://www.example.com/): Alex Mercer — Principal Cloud & Platform Architect. Multi-region AWS infrastructure, Terraform automation, Astro static architecture, and photography. - [About](https://www.example.com/about/): About Alex Mercer — Principal Cloud & Platform Architect specializing in multi-region AWS infrastructure, Terraform IaC, and resilient systems. - [Now](https://www.example.com/now/): Living snapshot of current projects and focus. - [Log](https://www.example.com/log/): Operational field notes, status-updates, site changelogs, and photo rolls. - [Blog](https://www.example.com/blog/): Complete archive of technical write-ups, architecture case studies, and homelab experiments. - [Photography](https://www.example.com/photography/): Curated portfolio of landscape, architecture, and street photography. - [Tags & Topics](https://www.example.com/tags/): Taxonomy of technical topics and categorized posts. - [Contact](https://www.example.com/contact/): Direct contact form and social channels. ## Engineering Articles - [Part 1 — Customizing This Astro Theme: Identity, Feature Toggles, and Content](https://www.example.com/blog/2026-11-03-part-1-customizing-this-astro-theme/): A practical guide to cloning, running, and customizing this modular Astro 7.4 + Tailwind CSS v4 site—toggling features, choosing your homepage, and adding content without editing a single .astro template. - [Part 2 (Optional) — Provisioning the Multi-Region AWS Stack with Terraform (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions & Local CLI)](https://www.example.com/blog/2026-11-03-part-2-provisioning-aws-mrap-cloudfront-terraform-gitlab-ci/): How to provision globally replicated AWS S3 buckets, a Multi-Region Access Point (MRAP), native CloudFront SigV4a Origin Access Control (OAC), ACM SSL, and Route 53 DNS using Terraform 1.10+ via GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, or Local CLI. - [Part 3 — Automated CI/CD Pipelines, Starter Dry-Run Mode & Deploying to Any Static Host](https://www.example.com/blog/2026-11-03-part-3-ci-cd-pipelines-dry-run-mode-and-static-hosting/): How The Navigator's dual GitLab CI and GitHub Actions pipelines run in 5-second Starter Template Dry-Run Mode out of the box, how to deploy ./dist/ to Vercel, Netlify, or Cloudflare Pages, and how scripts/s3-deploy.sh pairs ETag delta sync with 4-tier Edge/Browser Cache-Control headers. - [Kitchen-Sink Markdown Showcase: Mermaid, Alerts, Tooltips & YouTube Facades](https://www.example.com/blog/2026-11-02-kitchen-sink-markdown-showcase/): A self-documenting tour of every custom Remark and Rehype build-time extension included in this Astro 7.4 starter theme: inline SVG Mermaid diagrams, GitHub-style callout alerts, zero-JS technical acronym tooltips, click-to-load YouTube facades, and syntax-highlighted code blocks. - [Why Zero-SSR Static Architecture Still Wins at the Global Edge](https://www.example.com/blog/2026-10-28-designing-zero-ssr-edge-architectures/): Evaluating latency, operational failure modes, and cost economics of pre-rendered static edge architectures fronted by CloudFront and multi-region S3 object storage. ## Topics & Taxonomy - [Architecture](https://www.example.com/tags/architecture/): 21 items across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. - [AstroJS](https://www.example.com/tags/astrojs/): 10 items across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. - [Infrastructure](https://www.example.com/tags/infrastructure/): Core systems engineering, reliability patterns, and bare-metal diagnostics. - [AWS](https://www.example.com/tags/aws/): Multi-region S3, CloudFront CDN, Lambda@Edge, and cloud architecture. - [CI/CD](https://www.example.com/tags/cicd/): 5 items across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. - [Tailwind CSS](https://www.example.com/tags/tailwind-css/): 4 items across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. - [Terraform](https://www.example.com/tags/terraform/): HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), automated provisioning, and repeatable infrastructure as code. - [Design](https://www.example.com/tags/design/): 5 items across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. - [CloudFront](https://www.example.com/tags/cloudfront/): 1 item across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. - [Engineering](https://www.example.com/tags/engineering/): 1 item across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. - [Performance](https://www.example.com/tags/performance/): 2 items across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. - [Photography](https://www.example.com/tags/photography/): 2 items across articles, operational logs, and career highlights. ## Full Context & Machine-Readable Indexes - [Full Site Archive (llms-full.txt)](https://www.example.com/llms-full.txt): Complete, concatenated Markdown archive of all enabled site collections for direct ingestion into LLMs or RAG systems. - [Structured Index (llms.json)](https://www.example.com/llms.json): Machine-readable JSON index of pages, articles, topics, feeds, and LLM files, generated at build time.