Architecture is a continuous, socio-technical activity — not a one-off decision.
SA Manager @ AWS · DDD & Event Storming facilitator · writing at
kimkao.dev
Best for leaders who need modernization, Event Storming facilitation, or architecture decisions that survive the engine room — not slideware.
name: Kim Kao (humank)role: Manager, Solutions Architecture @ AWSwebsite: https://kimkao.devidentity:
- Lead SA teams helping customers architect on AWS
- Hands-on DDD practitioner & workshop facilitator
- Architect Elevator — C-suite strategy to engine-room delivery
- Write about Continuous Architecture at kimkao.devindustries: [ Financial Services, Retail, Public Sector ]focus:
- Continuous Architecture (socio-technical)
- Domain-Driven Design on Cloud (AWS)
- Event Storming & Event-Driven Architecture
- Serverless, Cloud-Native & Multi-Region resilience
- Rozanski & Woods — Viewpoints & Perspectivescommunity:
- aws-samples contributor (cloud-native microservices + EventStorming)
- DDD Practitioners workshop adopted globally
- DDD Taiwan · AWS Community Day · re:Invent speakermotto: "The best architecture decisions are business decisions."I don't just reference the Architect Elevator — I live it. Every day I shift between business strategy and hands-on implementation, translating customer needs into architecture decisions that actually ship.
🏢 PENTHOUSE — Business & Stakeholder Alignment
Customer discovery · Business case · ROI · Compliance · Executive communication📊 UPPER FLOORS — Enterprise Architecture
Rozanski & Woods Viewpoints & Perspectives · ADRs · Technology strategy🎯 MIDDLE FLOORS — Solution Architecture
DDD · Event Storming · Domain Storytelling · Context Mapping · CQRS · Saga🔧 LOWER FLOORS — Specialist Architecture
Software · Networking · Security · Data · Analytics · GenAI⚙️ ENGINE ROOM — Build & Ship
AWS CDK · Serverless · EKS/ECS · Multi-Region · Bedrock · CI/CD
Rozanski & Woods | Event Storming · Domain Storytelling | 60+ repos · community samples |
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✍️ Continuous Architecture — kimkao.dev
Essays, talks, and workshops on making architecture a continuous practice — from framing strategy to the design that ships.
Compared to What? Architecture Is a Verb | They Knew the Answer Before They Understood the Problem · VirtualDDD |
| Role | Work |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Domain-Driven Design: The First 15 Years (zh-Hant) · DDD Taiwan |
| Technical reviewer | Domain Storytelling — Hofer & Schwentner |
| Foreword | Building Multi-Tenant SaaS Architectures on AWS |
| Foreword | SRE & Internal Developer Platform Guide |
☁️ Designing Cloud Native Microservices on AWS · |
Enterprise platform that automates COBOL → Java/DDD with generative AI. Nine specialized agents across three squads, eight-phase pipeline from Domain Storytelling extraction to canary deploy. Code stays private; the problem framing is public:
🎤 They Knew the Answer Before They Understood the Problem · VirtualDDD
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Architect Elevator in code — Rozanski & Woods, 13 bounded contexts, Active-Active multi-region on AWS. Blueprint, not a toy demo.
| Event Storming workshop: strategic & tactical DDD, Wardley Maps, Impact Mapping, Bounded Context Canvas, AWS Serverless lab.
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More open-source work
- ☕ Coffeeshop DDD Quarkus — tactical DDD, cross-BC communication via external Aggregate Roots
- 🛡️ DR with Managed Services — multi-region DR with API Gateway private integration, VPCLink, Route 53
- 🐳 Fargate Java Sample — Spring on ECS/Fargate + ECR
- 🎨 Aggregate Canvas — EventStorming Level 3 → DDD tactical design objects
Who I work with: product & engineering leaders facing legacy modernization, cloud-native redesign, or messy domain boundaries — and who want facilitation (Event Storming / Domain Storytelling) before picking a stack.
How: advisory + workshops from strategy framing down to the design that ships.
→ kimkao.dev/consulting
