Case study
Elevating Engineering Capabilities with CDN, GitOps, and Terraform Training at Marriott International
Problem
Development teams relied heavily on the CDN engineering group for cache management and infrastructure updates, slowing delivery and creating operational bottlenecks.
Solution
Designed and delivered hands-on training programs covering CDN operations, GitOps workflows, and Terraform infrastructure management, enabling teams to self-service common tasks.
Result
Reduced support ticket volume by <strong>45%</strong>, accelerated deployment timelines, and improved team-wide proficiency in modern DevOps practices.
When I joined Marriott International in 2024 as a Senior Systems Engineer, the CDN team — myself included — handled most requests for cache clearing, Akamai configuration changes, and infrastructure updates. While this ensured accuracy, it also created a bottleneck that impacted development velocity across multiple business units.
The underlying issue wasn’t just tooling; it was knowledge. Developers had limited familiarity with the inner workings of CDN management, GitOps principles, and infrastructure-as-code workflows using Terraform. Without these skills, teams defaulted to submitting tickets rather than executing tasks themselves.
Strategic Actions
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Needs Assessment
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Analyzed ticket data to identify the most common requests and recurring dependency patterns.
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Conducted developer surveys to gauge existing skill levels in CDN operations and infrastructure automation.
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Curriculum Development
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Designed structured training modules covering:
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CDN Fundamentals – Akamai caching, purge strategies, performance tuning.
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GitOps Principles – Git-based configuration management and deployment workflows.
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Terraform Usage – Writing, applying, and maintaining infrastructure-as-code modules.
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Developed interactive lab exercises that mirrored Marriott’s real-world environments.
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Delivery & Engagement
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Hosted live workshops and recorded on-demand video sessions for asynchronous learning.
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Created documentation and quick-reference guides for daily operations.
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Post-Training Support
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Established an internal “office hours” system for live Q&A and troubleshooting.
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Integrated knowledge checks and feedback loops to continuously refine the content.
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Impact
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45% reduction in CDN-related support tickets within 3 months of training rollout.
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Improved deployment timelines, as developers could independently perform cache purges, apply infrastructure changes, and troubleshoot CDN-related issues.
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Increased confidence across teams, with post-training surveys showing a 60% boost in self-reported proficiency in CDN, GitOps, and Terraform.
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Freed CDN engineers to focus on strategic projects rather than repetitive operational tasks.
This initiative transformed developer dependency into developer empowerment, creating a more self-sufficient engineering organization while preserving high operational standards.