Current Side Project: "trogl"

Project

Over the past years, we at StoneAge IT GmbH — where I'm a co-founder — have been actively building our expertise as a Full Stack Development and DevOps-driven company.

Our latest endeavor, "trogl," is a SaaS solution designed to streamline job assignment for companies with dynamic labor pools. Built with a React frontend, React Native mobile app for iOS and Android, and a Node.js backend, the "trogl" application suite is now in beta. The web app is served as static assets in an Nginx container, while the backend runs in a Node.js container on Kubernetes.

The entire system is engineered for secure, high-performance deployment on AWS, with all data hosted in Switzerland. Visit our landing page at trogl.ch for more information!

"trogl" use case abstract

In a scenario where a company employs hourly-paid workers to fill internal positions, trogl offers a streamlined approach to job distribution. Managers can create job listings that are visible only to eligible employees within the organization. Based on job role and other potential criteria, trogl notifies the appropriate subgroup of users about new opportunities through push notifications (web and mobile), email, or SMS. Workers can then apply to the jobs on a first-come, first-served basis, with automatic assignment upon application.

"trogl" technology stack, process and tools

Web Application: React (Single Page Application), served as static assets in an Nginx container

API/Backend: Node.js, deployed in a container on Kubernetes

Mobile Applications: React Native for iOS and Android

Persistence and Security: AWS RDS with encrypted storage, hosted in Switzerland; TLS-secured database connections with client-server certificate validation

AWS Infrastructure
AWS Services
:
- Amazon RDS (with data encryption at rest and TLS connections)
- Amazon S3 for storage and static asset serving
- Amazon SNS for push notifications, emails, and SMS
- Amazon ECR for containerized applications

Infrastructure as Code:
AWS CDK (Cloud Development Kit) for streamlined, repeatable tenant deployments in the SaaS environment

Methodology and Tools
Our team follows Agile principles with three-week sprints, using Jira Cloud and Confluence Cloud to document and track progress. For version control and CI/CD, we leverage Bitbucket with Bitbucket Pipelines. Each deployment includes unit testing and Selenium Grid-based testing for end-to-end functionality.

2048k

lines of Script Code

8192

cups of coffee

4096+

JIRA Tickets done

1024+

satisfied Stakeholders

My Specializations

What i do

AWS cloud platform engineering

I think that clouds like AWS will be one of the the key factors for success when it comes to (flexible) ICT infrastructure.
Working with different kind of AWS resources on a daily basis gaining more and more experience. All the "cloud engineering" I've usually done by IaC with AWS CloudFormation or Ansible.

Pipelines and automation

A must have for any software developing company: Pipelines for building, running and testing your code automatically, bringing very important feedback in a matter of minutes. I work with Bitbucket/Github pipelines, and I'm also familiar with Bitbucket and Github Runners.

Elasticsearch and Beats

I maintained multiple Elasticsearch Clusters within Elastic Cloud  (when working for JobCloud). The Elasticsearch Clusters are searchable using a "Cross Cluster Search (CCS)" Cluster. Lots of "beaters" - mostly Filebeat from on premise and AWS applications - are sending log data to these Elastic Cloud Clusters. I builded everything up from scratch including all the Ingest pipelines to parse the log data received from the different Beaters.

See Blog Posts

Docker & Containers

If it's not AWS Lambda it's done with Docker or Containers. Working with Docker on a daily basis. Familiar with multi-stage builds, docker-compose, Docker Hub registry, Azure Container Registry (ACR) and Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR). I have also some experience with deployments on Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift 4.

Jenkins CI/CD

I maintained two dockerized Jenkins installations (when working for JobCloud); Jenkins CI (continuous integration) & Jenkins CD (continuous delivery) on a weekly/monthly basis. All Jenkins jobs have been configured using DSL (Job DSL Plugin). DSL allows you to have "jenkins jobs as code" which you can put inside a repository for version control.

React / Nodejs

I started with React about 3 years ago for the web technologies 2 & 3 courses and I really enjoy to develop with ECMAScript (javascript) / Nodejs and React. I certainly have still a lot to learn but I'm kind of fallen into love with React & Co. The frontend of the project trogl is developed by me with React.

Shell scripting

I've to admit that doing some shell scripting is one of the things I enjoy the most ❤️ . No need for tons of libraries and dependencies, fancy objects, complicated design patterns, or other shiny packages, just run the shell script with the usual set of binaries you can find on most of the Linux machines. Keep it simple, fast and clean.
Doing shell scripts for over a decade, I should have gained some experiences by now.

DevOps & GitOps

For me DevOps is one of the most important things when it comes to team collaboration, culture and philosophy . A DevOps minded work environment is always more effective than a "throwing over the fence" kind of attitude. It's not done until it is running in a secure, fast and reliable way in production.

What is DevOps


A particularly important DevOps best practice is GitOps which should be considered to be a de facto standard and implemented wherever possible in the software development lifecycle.

What is GITOps

Experiences

EXPERIENCES

present
MAI 2023 – present
ICT Application Developer

Helsana Versicherungen AG

Backend and application developer specializing in a microservices architecture with Spring Boot and Kotlin, supporting customer-facing applications through scalable, multi-zone deployments on OpenShift. Experienced in enterprise integration and deploying robust solutions using tools like Apache Camel, Azure DevOps, and a variety of supporting services and integrations.

... read all

Areas of responsibility:

  • Design and develop backend services for iOS, Android, and Angular web applications, handling key customer tasks like invoice uploads and health insurance information access.

  • Apply Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles and HATEOAS to create well-structured and scalable systems.

  • Manage deployments across multiple OpenShift zones (projects) using Azure DevOps with Kustomize and Azure Pipelines.

  • Implement and maintain over 30 microservices using enterprise integration patterns with Apache Camel.

  • Utilize Docker (Community Edition), Proxyman, Maven, Homebrew, and Azure DevOps to streamline development workflows.

  • Develop, maintain, and provide 3rd-level support for Spring Boot applications, covering integration and frontend layers.

  • Conduct code reviews on pull requests, ensuring high-quality standards and code integrity across the team.

  • Integrate security and quality checks using Snyk and SonarCloud in CI/CD pipelines or for local development.

  • Leverage Jira and Confluence for task management, project tracking, and documentation.

  • Utilize Azure Service Bus, S3 (NooBaa), QUAY registry, Apicurio studio, Argo CD, 3scale API management, Oracle, and MongoDB (Atlas) to support robust backend functionality.

  • Develop, maintain, and provide 3rd-level support for Spring Boot applications, covering integration and frontend layers.

  • Integrate SOAP and REST APIs also with Syrius API Bridge for seamless interoperability.

2023
2022
Mar 2022  –  MAR 2023
SENIOR CONSULTANT

Innovation Process Technology AG

My current mandate as a Senior Consultant is with one of the largest health insurance companies in Switzerland. The project is about replacing legacy integrations with newly developed and Java Spring Boot based integrations using containerised microservices.

... read all

Areas of responsibility:

  • New development (Java Spring Boot and Apache Camel) and replacement of integrations based on Oracle SOA Suite (legacy system).

  • API Design with Apicurio Studio (API First)

  • Creating and maintaining of Azure DevOps repositories and CI/CD pipelines

  • Integration development using wsdl, xsd, xslt, SOAP and REST.

  • Deploy, maintain and manage integrations on Red Hat OpenShift 4 clusters using helm and/or kustomize.

  • Manage and configure Red Hat 3Scale

  • Intensive collaboration through working within the client's team(s)

  • Know-how transfer within ipt and the client team(s)

  • Other technologies involved: 
    Adcubum Syrius Insurance Platform,
    Syrius API-Bridge,
    Oracle Databases,
    LDAP, Nevis,
    Quay container registry

FEB 2021 – FEB 2022
CTO

StoneAge IT GmbH

Working as Full Stack Software Developer / CTO (60%-100%) for the startup StoneAge IT GmbH

Areas of responsibility:

... read all
  • Project Lead/Manager and Full Stack Developer for the "trogl" application (ongoing, see Project "trogl").

  • Coaching and consulting internal and external clients

  • Concept, planning, implementation and administration of software as a service (SaaS) solutions with various AWS products.

  • Project exchanges, management as well as recruitment, coordination and management of freelance project employees.

  • Operating and monitoring of all ICT services of StoneAge IT GmbH.

2021
2018
2018  –  2022
B. Sc. of Science in Computer Science UAS Zurich

ZHAW School of Engineering

In 2018 I started my Bachelor's degree part-time program in Computer Science. There are total of 8 semester (including project thesis & Bachelor thesis) in part-time. I finally graduated in summer 2022 as Bachelor of Science in Computer Science UAS Zurich.

... read all

Informations on the modules and theses attended:

1. Semester

Module type

Subject

Context

Project

Specialist

Mathematical &
natural science

  • Program 1 (Java)

  • Databases 1

  • Web technologies 1

  • Software project 1

  • Communication Competence Scenario Starter

  • Analysis 1

  • Fundamentals of discrete mathematics

2. Semester

Module type

Subject

Context

Project

Specialist

Mathematical &
natural science

  • Web technologies 2

  • Information and coding

  • Theoretical computer science

  • Software project 2

  • Communication Competence Scenario Professional

  • Analysis 2

  • Linear algebra for computer science

3. Semester

Module type

Subject

Context

Specialist

Mathematical &
natural science

  • Program 2 (Java)

  • Web technologies 3

  • Programming in C

  • Communication technology

  • Algorithms and data structures

  • Communication Competence Scenario Booster

  • Physics for computer science

4. Semester

Module type

Subject

Context

Project

Specialist

Mathematical &
natural science

  • Software development 1

  • Databases 2

  • Computer technology for IT 1

  • Software project 3

  • Economy for engineers

  • Numerics 1

5. Semester

Module type

Subject

Context

Elective

Specialist

Mathematical &
natural science

  • Software development 2

  • Computer technology for IT 2

  • Artificial Intelligence 1

  • Communication Competence Scenario Academic

  • Stochastics

  • Numerics 2

6. Semester

Module type

Subject

Context

Elective

Specialist

Mathematical &
natural science

Project

  • Operating Systems

  • IT Security

  • Artificial Intelligence 2

  • Communication Competence Scenario Business

  • Quantitative Methods in Operations

  • Software Project 4

7. Semester

Module type

Subject

Context

Elective

Project Thesis

  • Digital Health

  • Serverless and Cloud Application Development

  • Software and System Security 1

  • Visual Computing 1

  • IT Law

8. Semester

Module type

Subject

Context

Elective

Bachelor Thesis

  • Game Development

  • Software and System Security 2

  • Visual Computing 2

  • Investment and financing

  • Marketing and market development

More informations about the modules: ZHAW module search

JUL 2017 – Present
CO-FOUNDER

StoneAge IT GmbH

Co-founder and ICT Manager of StoneAge IT GmbH

Areas of responsibility:

... read all
  • Concept, planning, implementation and administration of software as a service (SaaS) solutions with various AWS products.

  • AWS Cloud and Office 365 migrations.

  • Consulting, planning, design and development of websites including "Webflow".

  • Administration and configuration of cloud-based services such as Atlassian cloud products (Jira, Jira service desk, Confluence, Bitbucket), Google Business, Domains (Swizzonic), DNS (AWS Route 53)

  • Kibana & Elasticsearch Cluster (LXC on premise) & Beats, NGINX (reverse) proxy, Docker CE.

  • Ubiquiti UniFi network planning, configuration and setup

  • Project exchanges, management as well as recruitment, coordination and management of freelance project employees.

  • Installation, operation and administration of various web-based applications such as Ghost, Wordpress, Joomla, Chamilo LMS, Vtiger CRM, OpenOlat LMS, OrangeHRM, etc. Most of them run inside Docker containers.

  • Operating and monitoring of all ICT services of StoneAge IT GmbH.

2017
2016
Mar 2016  – DEC 2021
OperAtions Engineer

JobCloud AG

I changed jobs internally and started as Operations Engineer (80%). Later, when the studies started, I reduced to 60%.

... read all

Areas of responsibility:

  • Concept, implementation, set-up, maintenance and care of our cloud-based infrastructure (AWS)

  • Maintenance, further development and care of the hosted infrastructure (managed hosting)

  • Design, setup and maintenance of the infrastructure of our container-based applications (Docker)

  • Evaluation and operation of various SaaS products

  • Configuration and operation of modern services like NGiNX, Elasticsearch, Galera Cluster, Varnish, MongoDB, Kafka, haproxy

  • Development of automated pipelines for Continuous Integrations / Continuous Deployment

  • Maintenance of various internal tools such as Jenkins, JIRA, Confluence, Nagios, Grafana, Prometheus

  • Implementation of planned projects in cross-departmental teams

  • Close cooperation with the development teams (in-house and near shoring) in an agile environment

  • Know-how transfer within the own team

  • Complete planning, implementation, further development and operation of the central logging system (Elastic Cloud, Beats, Ingest Pipelines)

NOV 2005 – Mar 2016
System Administrator / ICT Supporter

JobCloud AG

Lorem Ispum

... read all

Areas of responsibility:

  • First, second and third level support client computers

  • Software rollouts including project planning

  • Packaging of updates, update management

  • Administration & configuration of web servers, databases, fileserver, printer server, active directory, GPO

  • Administration & configuration Server Microsoft & Linux (Ubuntu)

  • Administration & configuration firewall cluster (Fortigate)

  • Administration & configuration of Hyper-V Cluster / SAN

  • Administration & configuration DHCP, DNS

  • Backup management with Veeam

  • Material orders and administration

  • Network management routing, switches, VLAN

  • Administration & configuration telephone system

  • WLAN network administration and management (Ubiquiti Unifi)

  • Administration & configuration VPN IPSec and SSLVPN

  • OS X server management

  • Exchange management via Exchange Control Panel

2005
2005
2005 – 2005
Service Engineer

Bauteil AG

Temporary employment at Bauteil AG. Repairs, maintenance and renovation of various industrial doors. The work involved trips to half of Switzerland.

2004
2004 – 2005
ICT Freelancer

Professional ICT Freelancer

Worked as a freelancer on various website projects, including as a web programmer at Cyberlink Internet Services AG in Zurich.

2002
2002 – 2004
dipl. technician specializing in computer science

Schweizerische Technische Fachschule Winterthur (STFW)

2 years full-time education at the STFW

... read all

General knowledge:

  • Business English

  • German / text design

  • Learning and working technique

  • Mathematics

Technical subjects:

  • C / C ++

  • CGI with Perl

  • Command Script & Windows NT

  • Database technology

  • UNIX introduction & administration

  • Electrical & Electronics Basics

  • Basic network technology, Cisco router

  • Basic IT knowledge

  • Internet programming

  • Measurement, control and regulation technology (MSR)

  • Microcontroller programming

  • Software engineering

  • Telecommunications, Windows NT server

Diploma thesis:

  • Digital learning software

2002
2002 – 2002

Language study trip to Toronto, Canada

One and a half months language course in Toronto, Canada.

2001
JUL 2001 – APR 2002
Fusilier (Mechanized) DD

Schweizer Armee

Durchdiener DD-RS 210 (PILOT)

... read all

The "Durchdiener" recruit school offered six months of training with in-depth preparation for subsidiary assignments in all of Switzerland. We learned the military basics and prepared ourselves for the following four months in Switzerland with special training:

  • Guard

  • Monitor

  • Direct traffic

  • Transport

  • Education

During the deployment phase, Chur (GR) is the base for operations throughout Switzerland.

Classification:

  • Infantry, Fusilier (Mechanized) DD

Locations:

  • St. Maurice (VS)

  • Payerne

  • Chur

  • Bern

Additional training worth mentioning:

  • Personal and vehicle control

  • Melee training I & II

  • Motor vehicle training - Cat. III / 1

  • Dangerous goods transport training (ADR certificate)

  • Spin course with small trucks (Duro)

1997
AUG 1997 – AUG 2001
Electro mechanic

Liggenstorfer AG,
Elektromotoren + Maschinenbau

Apprenticeship as an electro-mechanic.

1997 – 2001

TBZ Technische Berufsschule Zürich

Swiss vocational school: https://tbz.ch/

1994
1994 – 1997

Sekundarschule, Seuzach

Swiss secondary school (high school)

1988
1988 – 1994

Primarschule, Hettlingen

Swiss elementary school

void

Skills

Skills

Soft Skills

Collaboration/Teamwork
95%
solution oriented
96%
Problem Solving
98%
Active Learning
95%
Strong analytical
95%
Physically Fit
98%
independent working
98%

Hard Skills

Amazon Web services (AWS)
92%
show details

AWS has soo many products/services and it's nearly impossible to know them all in detail.
Usage frequency: daily/weekly (til today)
Here are the most important products/services i work with:

AWS networking

VPC, VPC Endpoint, VPC Peering, Subnets, Route Tables, Security Groups, NACL, Internet Gateway (IGW), Elastic IPs (EIP), ...

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
AWS Auto scaling (ASG)
Amazon Elastic load balancer (ALB, NLB)
AWS Identity & Access Management (IAM)
Amazon Route 53
Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
AWS Lambda
AWS S3 / GLacier
AWS Cloudfront CDN
AWS Elastic File system (EFS)
AWS ElastiCache
AWS Systems Manager
AWS Secrets Manager
AWS Certificate manager (ACM)
AWS CloudFormation
AWS Cloudwatch
AWS Backup
AWS WAF
Amazon SNS
AWS CodeCommit, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline
Elasticsearch / Kibana / Beats / Logstash
81%
show details

Usage frequency: weekly/monthly (a year ago)
Here are the most important products/services i work with from the Elastic ecosystem:

Elasticsearch Cluster
95%
INGEST PIPELINES
95%
Kibana
80%
BEATS
75%
Logstash
60%
MICROSOFT: ADDS / SERVER / HYPER-V / O365
63%
show details

It has been a while (around 4 years ago) since i actively managed Microsoft products/services not running on Microsoft Azure.
Here are the most important products/services i worked with from the Microsoft ecosystem:

AD / ADDS
60%
Server 2012
60%
Hyper-V
65%
O365
75%
GPO
55%
IAC: AWS CloudFormation / AWS-CDK / Ansible / CHef
88%
show details

Usage frequency
- AWS CloudFormation & AWS CDK: weekly/monthly (til today)
- Ansible: weekly/monthly (years ago)
- Chef: weekly/monthly  (years ago)

AWS CloudFormation
90%
Ansible
95%
CHEF / KNIFE
80%
Docker / Docker-compose
93%
show details

Usage frequency: daily/weekly (til today)

Docker
95%
Docker-compose
90%
Agile: Scrum / Kanban
85%
show details

Usage frequency: daily/bi-weekly (til today)

SCRUM
90%
KANBAN
80%
Atlassian: JIRA, Confluence
(ONPrem & Cloud)
90%
show details

Usage frequency:
- Cloud: daily/weekly (til today)
- On-premise: daily/weekly (til today)

JIRA / JIRA CLOUD / JIRA Service Desk CLOUD
90%
Confluence / CONfluence CLOUD
90%
GIT: GITHUB / GITLAB / BITBUCKET
89%
show details

Usage frequency:
- Github: weekly (til today)
- Bitbucket: daily/weekly (til today)
- Gitlab: monthly (years ago)

Github
95%
Bitbucket
95%
Gitlab
75%
Jenkins
90%
show details

Usage frequency: weekly (years ago)
Important Jenkins plugins worth mentioning:

Jenkins Job DSL Plugin
85%
Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) / Fargate
95%
DAtabases: MySQL / Mariadb / Postgresql / Sql Server
95%
SHELL: SH / BASH / ZSH
99%
LXC / LXD
80%
LINUX: UBUNTU / DEBIAN / Amazon Linux
95%
SSH / SSH KEYS
95%
ECMAScript / NOdejs
89%
NETWORKING: ROUTING / DNS / DHCP / VLAN / NAT
92%
Apache / NGINx
90%
Azure / AZURE SERVICE BUS
25%
Monitoring: PROmethEUS / Grafana / Nagios (CHECK_MK)
90%
UBIQUITI UNIFI: SWITCH / AP / USG / UDM
85%
React / REACT NATIVE / JSX
75%
  • Fortigate / Forticlient
  • Trend Micro Endpoint Security
  • VPN: IPsec / SSL-VPN
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Proxyman
  • Expo (eas-cli, expo cli)
  • … etc.
  • Python (mainly for A.I.; neural networks, machine learning, quantum circuits, quantum computing)
  • Java/Kotlin (Intellij, Maven, Spring Boot, Apache Camel, Gradle)
  • Terraform
  • Quantum Computing (Circuits with Gates, Qiskit, Pennylane, Amazon Braket)
  • … etc.
  • Matlab
  • Veeam
  • macOS Server (MDM, Profiles)
  • PDQ Deploy
  • Red Hat OpenShift 4 & Red Hat 3Scale
  • Splunk
  • ... etc.