From Caribbean NOCs to Global Cloud Fabrics

I’m Walter Riopedre — an independent Azure and Identity Security Consultant based in Tampa, Florida. I’ve spent 27+ years engineering infrastructure that can’t fail: national telecommunications, medical research systems, publicly traded financial companies, and healthcare platforms operating across continents. That depth shapes every engagement I take on.

I don’t just deploy Azure. I architect environments that satisfy auditors, survive incidents, and scale globally — and I own the outcome end to end.

The Journey

My career began in November 1996 at ETECSA — the Cuban Telecommunication Company — one of the most demanding operational environments I could have started in. Running national communications infrastructure with minimal redundancy teaches you things that cloud-only engineers never encounter: true zero-downtime constraints, physical plant failure scenarios, and the weight of infrastructure that an entire country depends on.

Over the next 16 years I progressed from Telecom Engineer to IT Director managing a 40-person team, and eventually to Sales and Marketing Director overseeing a 450-person division. By the time I left in 2012, I had a deep operational understanding of large-scale systems, organizational complexity, and the intersection of technology and business outcomes.

From 2012 to 2015 I served as IT Director and CIO at the Cuban Neuroscience Center, a leading medical research institution. My most significant achievement there was directing the complete relocation and modernization of the Center’s headquarters — a $1M+ project delivered three months ahead of schedule, while maintaining research operations and data integrity throughout.

Since relocating to the United States in 2015, I’ve focused exclusively on enterprise cloud transformation: Active Directory and Entra ID modernization, Azure infrastructure at scale, and compliance-ready architectures for regulated industries. I’ve worked across financial services, insurance, healthcare, and law enforcement — always in environments where a misconfigured permission has real legal and regulatory consequences.

Current Engagement

I run an independent consulting practice serving regulated industries across the US — taking on select high-stakes engagements in Azure architecture, identity security, and compliance for financial services, healthcare, and law enforcement clients. Alongside that practice, I serve as Senior Cloud Engineer at Slide Insurance, where I own the complete Azure infrastructure, Active Directory/Entra ID environment, and Intune/Autopilot fleet for 1,000+ devices — an ongoing engagement that keeps my hands in production infrastructure every day, not just strategy decks.

Notable Projects

UPC Insurance — NYSE-Listed Datacenter Exit. Led the complete infrastructure migration from an on-premises datacenter (500+ servers on VMware and Nutanix) to Microsoft Azure across 6 subscriptions. Delivered on schedule with zero downtime to production. Every architectural decision — access controls, audit logging, change management, network segmentation — was designed to withstand SOX external audit scrutiny.

Emperion — Global Healthcare Cloud Platform. Architected the entire Azure environment from zero for a URAC-accredited Independent Medical Examinations provider with 25,000+ providers across 47+ years of operations. Multi-subscription build spanning US East, US West, and Asia Pacific. Full HIPAA-compliant infrastructure: Entra ID, hybrid identity, Intune managing 1,000+ devices across regions, Azure Virtual Desktop delivering a consistent experience to a 24/7 borderless workforce.

Regional Sheriff’s Office — CJIS Compliance. Hardened on-premises infrastructure and prepared a Florida law enforcement agency for Justice Department internal audit. Achieved full FBI CJIS Security Policy compliance — mandatory MFA for all CJI access, end-to-end encryption, detailed audit logging, and personnel security screening exceeding typical enterprise standards.

Expertise

Rather than listing every tool I’ve ever touched, here’s where I deliver consistent, measurable outcomes:

Cloud Architecture & Migration — Azure landing zone design, datacenter-to-cloud migrations (VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix), multi-subscription environments, zero-downtime cutovers. Infrastructure as Code using Azure Bicep and Azure DevOps — migrating manually-built Landing Zone environments into fully version-controlled, pipeline-driven deployments. Scale delivered: 500+ server migrations, 6 simultaneous Azure subscription environments, multi-region US and Asia deployments.

Identity & Zero Trust Security — 27+ years managing directory services, from NT4 through Entra ID. Active Directory hardening and modernization, hybrid identity architecture, Conditional Access, Privileged Identity Management, and Zero Trust network access. Identity is the foundation of every compliance framework — I design it that way.

Endpoint & Modern Workplace — Microsoft Intune and Autopilot deployments at scale (1,000+ device fleets). Multi-platform environments (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android). Security baseline enforcement aligned to CIS, NIST, and CJIS. GLBA and HIPAA-compliant device management configurations.

Compliance & Audit Readiness — SOX, HIPAA, CJIS, and GLBA compliance engineered into every architecture layer. Audit trail design, evidence packaging for external auditors, privileged access management, and change control processes that satisfy regulators — not just internal teams. I’ve been in the room during Justice Department audits; I know what auditors actually look for.

For the full service menu, see the Expertise page.

Certifications & Credentials

  • Project Management Professional (PMP) — PMI, 2019
  • ITIL v4 Foundation — 2020
  • Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) — 2017
  • Cisco Meraki Network Operator (CMNO) — 2018
  • VMware Data Center Operation — 2013
  • Information Security Leadership — Practicing CISSP/ISO 27001 frameworks; formal certification in progress

Education

  • Master of Sciences, Telematics — Technological University of Havana (CUJAE), Cuba, 2004
  • Telecommunications & Electrical Engineering (BS) — University of Oriente, Cuba, 1993
  • Business Administration — University of Havana, Cuba, 2000–2001

Regulated Industry Experience

The majority of my career has been spent in environments where compliance is mandatory and security failures carry legal consequences. I understand what it means to build infrastructure that satisfies auditors, regulators, and executive leadership simultaneously.

Financial Services (SOX / GLBA): Every architectural decision at UPC Insurance — access controls, audit logging, change management, network segmentation — was designed to withstand SOX external audit review. Currently maintaining the same standards at Slide Insurance under GLBA and Florida state insurance regulations.

Healthcare (HIPAA / HITECH): As IT Director at a major Medical Research Institute, PHI protection was a daily engineering discipline, not a policy document. System access was designed with minimum-necessary principles, audit logging was non-negotiable, and Business Associate Agreements governed every vendor relationship. Built the complete HIPAA-compliant cloud platform for Emperion, a URAC-accredited healthcare provider.

Law Enforcement (CJIS / FBI): Consulting with Regional Sheriff offices required meeting FBI CJIS Security Policy — mandatory MFA for all CJI access, end-to-end encryption, detailed audit logging, personnel security screening, and strict access controls verified through regular Justice Department audits.

Frameworks I work in: SOX · HIPAA / HITECH · FBI CJIS Security Policy · GLBA · SEC Regulation SP · NIST SP 800-53 · URAC · SOC 2

Philosophy

Risk-first design. Every migration, every identity architecture, every compliance project starts with: “What breaks, what’s exposed, and what are the consequences?” That lens — developed over 27 years of running infrastructure that can’t go down — is the difference between an engineer who deploys Azure and a consultant who architects resilient systems.

Single-point accountability. When you work with me, there are no handoffs between a network team, a security team, and a cloud team. I own the entire stack. That means faster decisions, fewer gaps, and a single throat to grab if something goes wrong.

Outcomes, not checkboxes. A compliance framework is not a destination. SOX audit trails, HIPAA access controls, and CJIS encryption standards all exist to protect real people and real organizations from real harm. I build to that standard, not to the minimum that passes a scan.

Availability

I take on select consulting engagements with particular focus on:

  • Azure architecture, IaC (Bicep / DevOps), and datacenter migration projects
  • Active Directory / Entra ID modernization
  • Compliance and audit readiness programs (SOX, HIPAA, CJIS, GLBA)
  • Infrastructure hardening and security assessments
  • Strategic cloud advisory for regulated industries

Serving clients nationwide. Bilingual English / Spanish — particularly well-positioned to serve the Hispanic business community.

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