HEARTIN J KANIKATHOTTU

Author, Architect, Trainer & Tech Evangelist

Heartin Kanikathottu is an experienced Multi-Cloud and Solution Architect with over 16 years of experience, renowned for leading technological transformations in various organizations. He currently focuses on secure identity, payments, and loyalty platforms on AWS, with a growing emphasis on agentic AI. Heartin has held strategic and leadership roles in companies like Suncor, Morgan Stanley, Societe Generale, VMware, and IG group. Heartin has also worked at Software AG, SAP Ariba and TCS.

He is also an internationally published author, recognized globally, with his books available on platforms including Amazon, O'Reilly, and Packt. His book 'AWS Security Cookbook' was honored as the 8th best cloud computing book of all time in 2020. He is also an enthusiastic reader of a wide range of literature, and holds the ambition of writing a techno-fiction thriller.

His passion extends beyond writing to teaching, where he serves as a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and as a speaker at various technical forums, including the Agile India Conference, IEEE Serverless Computing, and meetups at Google, Oracle, and Elasticsearch. He also authors the popular Java blog JavaJee.com.

He has dual Master's degrees in cloud computing and data analytics, which is further bolstered by 16+ professional certifications from companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Pivotal, and IBM.

Experience

Solution Architect

Suncor (Contract)

As a Solution Architect at Suncor, I design secure identity, payments, and loyalty platforms for the retail and wholesale fuel space. My work spans customer identity (CIAM with Amazon Cognito), machine-to-machine authentication, flexible payment flows, and event-driven integration across distributed systems. I architect on AWS with an emphasis on least-privilege IAM, Terraform-based infrastructure as code, and Kafka-driven data synchronization, keeping architecture decisions documented and traceable. I am also bringing agentic AI into the architect toolkit, building custom agents and automation for decision records, API contract reviews, and cross-project dependency tracking, always with human-in-the-loop and auditability built in. Engaged as an independent contractor through my company, Communities Canada, via Improving.

March 2026 - Present

Founder & Principal Consultant

Communities Canada

Communities Canada is my own incorporated practice, through which I take on independent cloud and solution architecture consulting, training, and technical advisory engagements for enterprise clients. Current and past engagements are delivered both directly and through partners, with my present focus being a Solution Architect role at Suncor (via Improving).

October 2024 - Present

Principal Architect & Director

Trainso

As a Principal Architect and Director at Trainso, I spearhead the company's strategic evolution from primarily a training-focused organization to a leader in cloud-based solutions, with a particular emphasis on developing software for training and membership management solutions. My responsibilities include the design and development of innovative cloud solutions that precisely meet the specific requirements of training and membership management, integrating advanced identity and access management to assure both security and operational efficiency. My commitment at Trainso is to revolutionize the fields of training and software development with state-of-the-art cloud technologies, placing a strong emphasis on creating secure and high-performance systems. Furthermore, these real-world systems provide a unique opportunity for Trainso's students and interns to gain hands-on, real-world experience, transcending beyond theoretical learning or sample projects.

August 2023 - Present

Vice President, Cloud & Infrastructure Architect

Morgan Stanley

During my relatively brief tenure at Morgan Stanley, lasting just over a year, I contributed towards strategic planning, team leadership, and hands-on architectural guidance. My primary focus was on facilitating the company's major transition from on-premises systems to Azure cloud, a shift that greatly enhanced our infrastructural capabilities. As a key member of the infrastructure team in India, I provided mentorship and fostered collaboration with global teams, ensuring a unified and effective approach in our cloud migration and infrastructure development projects.

June 2022 - August 2023

Principal Architect

Societe Generale

I work cross-functionally, engaging/influencing business teams and identifying modernization engagements. I also mentor other architects and team members. As part of this role, I need to apply technical knowledge and insights to create a modernization roadmap for different business teams. I architect solutions to meet business and IT needs, ensuring technical viability of new projects and successful deployments, while orchestrating key resources and infusing key Infrastructure technologies (e.g. Windows and Linux IaaS, Security, Networking, etc.), and Application Development and DevOps technologies (e.g. App Service, containers, serverless, cloud native, etc.) as appropriate.

July 2020 - May 2022

Head of Engineering

1Inclusion, Societe Generale

I also worked as the Engineering Head for a Corporate Social Responsibility project called 1Inclusion that aims to help people with special abilities. The platform is completely on Azure cloud and we are building an end-to-end solution. Unlike my primary role as an architect, here I get involved in hands on coding, interacting with other stakeholders outside company and work closely with leadership team within Societe Generale. I also occasionally take knowledge sharing sessions to people with special abilities which I believe has helped me create better accessibility designs.

July 2020 - May 2022

AWS Solution Architect & Team Lead

VMware

I started as the technical lead on a new cloud-based microservices project, with architecture, designing and developing solutions using Java, Spring, Angular, AWS, Containers, Networking and Big Data technologies. Project involves capturing data from various sources into a platform built on AWS cloud, where we can run automations, reports etc. I was also responsible for maintaining the overall quality of the project with code reviews, and by suggesting new tools and processes. Later, I have been also working on architecting other high-impact multi-cloud projects involving other cloud providers such as the AWS, Azure and GCP. On my latest role, I was chairing the Governance Council for public cloud and was responsible for managing all public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) accounts across VMware.

September 2016 - July 2020

Technical Specialist

IG Infotech

The project primarily takes care of development and maintenance of systems for back office functions such as account opening, account activation etc. The project uses latest technologies and stacks like Java 8, Spring, Hibernate etc.

November 2015 - August 2016

Engineering Specialist

Software AG

The project primarily takes care of building multithreaded integration solutions using Java, J2EE and related technologies for webmethods product suite, both on premise and cloud. Technologies and products include JDBC, SAP ERP, Webshphere MQ, Salesforce, EJB etc. I am primarily responsible for developing integration solutions with JDBC and SAP ERP.

April 2013 - November 2015

Project Engineer

Ariba, An SAP Company

The project takes care of integrating Ariba applications with ERP systems like SAP, Oracle Fusion etc. using Java, J2EE and cloud technologies. We build JCA compliant adapters to be used along with various ERPs and J2EE application servers. I have worked with SAP Netweaver platform, Oracle Fusion and Weblogic server.

May 2012 - April 2013

Software Engineer

Tata Consultancy  Services

The project takes care of the front end (VXML), middle tier (J2EE) and backend (Core Java + J2EE) for a US Based credit cards company. The team also takes care of the development of tools to be used within the team and by external support teams.

February 2008 - May 2012

To understand more about my career apart from the above the listed roles, please check my LinkedIn profile.

Education

BITS Pilani

Master of Technology (MTech)

Software Systems - Data Analytics specialization

December 2020

Sikkim Manipal

Master of Science

Information Technology with Cloud Computing specialization

November 2014

Rajagiri School of Engineering, MG University  

Bachelor of Technology (BTech)

Computer Science

July 2007

Skills

Programming Languages and Tools
  • Expert: Cloud, Java, REST, SQL and JSON.
  • Languages & Scripting: JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, PowerShell, VXML.
  • Frameworks: Spring Boot, Spring, Hibernate, React, Angular.
  • Processes: Agile Development & Scrum
  • Cloud / Containers: Azure, AWS, Docker, VMware vSphere, and Kubernetes.
  • Identity & Access: CIAM, Amazon Cognito, least-privilege IAM, machine-to-machine authentication.
  • Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM, Bicep.
  • CI/CD & DevOps: Git, GitHub, GitLab, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Azure DevOps Pipelines.
  • Monitoring & ITSM: Datadog, Splunk, Amazon CloudWatch, ServiceNow, Control-M.
  • AI: Agentic AI, custom agents and automation with human-in-the-loop and auditability.
  • Databases (Relational): PostgreSQL, MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle.
  • BigData / NoSQL: Azure CosmosDB, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Redshift, Hadoop, Spark.
  • Middleware: Apache Kafka, AWS Kinesis, RabbitMQ.
  • Servers: Apache Tomcat, Websphere Application Server, Webmethods Integration Server.
  • Domain: Data Analytics, Investment Banking, Credit Cards and Payments, EAI.

Publications

AWS Security Cookbook (Second Edition)

Packt Publishing

Practical solutions for securing AWS cloud infrastructure with essential services and best practices. A fully updated edition of the AWS Security Cookbook.

2024

AWS Security Cookbook (First Edition)

Packt Publishing

Practical solutions for managing security policies, monitoring, auditing, and compliance with AWS. Recognized as the 8th best cloud computing book of all time by BookAuthority in 2020.

2020

Serverless Programming Cookbook

Packt Publishing

Practical solutions to building serverless applications using Java and AWS.

2019

The books are available on major platforms including Amazon, O'Reilly, and Packt.

Interests

Apart from being a software engineer, I enjoy writing and teaching. I have published two books across three editions on cloud computing titled Serverless Programming Cookbook and AWS Security Cookbook, and they are available on all major platforms including Packt, Amazon and O'Reilly.

When I am not working with or writing about technology, I like to travel and eat good food with family, and write all about them in my blog. I read a lot of non-technical books and also watch some good crime drama on TV. I am hoping to write a techno-fiction thriller soon.

Awards & Certifications

  • 8 th Best cloud computing book of all time (BookAuthority, 2020)
  • Microsoft Certified Trainer
  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
  • Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate
  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
  • Pivotal Certified Spring Professional
  • Oracle Certified Professional, Java EE 5 Web Component Developer
  • IBM Certified Solution Developer - Web Services Development
  • IBM Certified Solution Designer – Object Oriented Analysis and Design
  • IBM Certified Solution Designer – Rational Unified Process
  • IBM Certified Application Developer - Rational Application Developer for Websphere
  • AWS Certified Developer Associate
  • Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform, SCJP 5.0
  • Microsoft Certified Professional for C#
  • Microsoft Certified Professional for SQL Server

Contact Me

You may contact me using the LinkedIn and Facebook messaging using links added to the icons below. I always prefer LinkedIn messaging over Facebook as it will be seen by me directly whereas Facebook page messages are mostly handled by my students and then forwarded to me.