Official UoVT Web Application
A ground-up rebuild of the university's digital presence, moving from legacy WordPress to a high-performance Next.js architecture deployed on a highly secure, automated dual-server infrastructure.
Role
Web Team Lead & Infrastructure Engineer
Institution
University of Vocational Technology
Timeline
Jan 2026 – Present
Tech Stack
Overview
The University of Vocational Technology's legacy WordPress infrastructure had become a critical liability, unable to scale for peak admissions and lacking modern security. With a nationally visible launch mandated by the Prime Minister's office, we required a robust digital overhaul built from the ground up.
As the Web Team Lead, I owned the production infrastructure, deployment automation, and system reliability, while coordinating a rotating student engineering team under the technical guidance of our Lecturer & Tech Lead. We successfully replaced the outdated PHP environment with a modern, SEO-optimized digital ecosystem.
Architecture & Modernization
To meet the stringent requirements for SEO performance and high-traffic resilience, we abandoned the legacy WordPress setup entirely. The foundation was rebuilt using Next.js for server-side rendering and static generation, paired with a typed TypeScript codebase. This transition not only dramatically reduced our time-to-interactive but also enforced long-term maintainability for future generations of student engineers.
Building the V2 Admin Ecosystem
As the platform evolved, managing rapidly changing university content manually became unsustainable. For Version 2, we architected a fully customizable, role-based admin panel backed by PostgreSQL. We implemented a strict editorial workflow—Content Editor → Validator → Publisher—ensuring that all public information goes through a rigorous, secure approval pipeline before ever going live.
Infrastructure & 80% Cost Reduction
By fully owning and provisioning our own Ubuntu production VMs, I was able to slash the university's monthly server costs from 75,000 LKR down to just 15,000 LKR—an 80% reduction. The infrastructure utilizes a secure dual-server (Staging and Production) architecture. Every server was hardened with SSH key-based access, UFW firewall rules, and an Nginx reverse proxy handling SSL termination and HTTP security headers.
Zero-Touch CI/CD Deployments
Manual deployments are fragile, especially under pressure. I engineered a zero-touch CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions that automatically builds Docker images, pushes them to the GitHub Container Registry, and triggers zero-downtime rolling updates on the production server upon merging to the main branch. This eliminated manual SSH interventions and enforced a peer-reviewed release process.
Observability & The PLG Stack
To guarantee absolute reliability during the Prime Minister's inauguration and beyond, we deployed the PLG Stack (Prometheus, Loki, Grafana). Prometheus scrapes hardware and application metrics, Promtail streams container logs directly to Loki, and custom Grafana dashboards provide real-time visibility. I also configured automated Telegram alerts for high CPU usage, database downtime, and potential DDoS spikes.
Disaster Recovery & 3-2-1-1-0 Backups
Data integrity is non-negotiable. I implemented a strict 3-2-1-1-0 backup standard: three copies of data, across two formats, with one offsite copy stored securely in Cloudflare R2 object storage. A daily automated cron job runs programmatic verification on the staging server, restoring the PostgreSQL dump to guarantee zero corruption. I also authored a comprehensive production runbook to ensure future teams can operate the system without depending on me.
Engineering Leadership
Beyond the code, this project was about building a culture of engineering excellence. I established structured Git workflows, enforced Clean Code standards through mandatory pull request reviews, and led daily standups to maintain momentum. Delivering this platform under exceptional pressure was only possible due to the dedication of our incredible student engineering team and the foundational mentorship of Mr. Viraj Shakya Samaranayake.
