Edward Hakin’s path into cloud computing started in one of the most hands-on places in IT: a data center, loading tapes and learning the foundations of infrastructure from the ground up. From there, he found an opportunity to dive headfirst into cloud computing and has not looked back since, though he admits there is still a small part of him that misses hooking up crash carts.

Since then, Edward has built a strong career across systems engineering, cloud infrastructure, automation, and enterprise migration work. Before joining Cloudforce, he held engineering roles with organizations including SAS and Parexel, where he supported large-scale hybrid environments, automated infrastructure deployments, strengthened governance and compliance practices, and helped teams modernize their cloud operations. His work has spanned Azure, AWS, VMware, Terraform, PowerShell, Python, FedRAMP environments, and complex migration efforts.

Now as a Cloud Solutions Engineer at Cloudforce, Edward brings deep technical experience and a practical, solutions-first mindset to customer environments. He develops infrastructure automation for nebulaONE®, supports sales and client-facing consulting, and helps design cloud strategies that make complex systems more secure, scalable, and manageable.

Outside of work, Edward’s interests are as wide-ranging as his technical toolkit. He loves mountain biking, hiking, playing guitar, discovering new music, visiting comedy clubs, reading, wandering through bookstores, and finding unexpected gems in thrift stores.

Other fun facts about Ed:

What is your guilty pleasure song? 

• Every day is a Winding Road: Sheryl Crow…always brings me back to riding in my Mom’s car as a kid, plus the song speaks truth. 

Who would be the first celebrity guest in your very own talk show? 

• Prince without a doubt, could talk to him for hours. 

What is the most fantastic thing that has ever happened to you (thus far)? 

• Graduating college, I never thought something like that was possible for me, and I’ve been able to use that achievement as a solid cornerstone for my life hence. 

Do you have any passion projects? If so, what are you working on? 

• During COVID I got into building guitar pedals, it’s like a puzzle that you can then use! I’m probably going to work on an analog vibrato or delay next. 

If you had to crack a joke during some awkward silence, which joke would you crack? 

• Not a joke, however, I do like to bring up that a southern colloquialism for a groundhog is whistle pig, this is usually good for such scenarios.