The author of this text, a Cloud Security Engineer, created their own personal cloud platform named 'Oxide' to push past their current understanding of cloud computing. Oxide is built using a multi-node Kubernetes cluster and hosts sophisticated AI models locally. The platform features an inter-service authentication system designed to provide secure communication between services. This system leverages JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) for stateless, compact, and lightweight authentication, and Doppler Secrets Manager for secure storage and management of signing keys. The system is further enhanced with rate limiting and audit logging capabilities using Doppler's features. The author aims to continue improving Oxide's security posture by exploring new ways to leverage Doppler's capabilities.