NetApp Experts in Germany

• Documenting the current Incident Management, IT Service Request Management, Problem Management, Change Management and Service Configuration Management processes (including CMDB)
• Conducting maturity assessments for these processes based on the ITIL® 4 Maturity Model
• Analyzing the various service value streams based on the ITIL® 4 value stream model
• Agreeing on maturity levels for the assessed processes
• Developing and approving a roadmap to achieve and measure the respective maturity levels
• Presenting the approach, including milestones, to management for approval
• Managing external service providers in 1st Level Support

Unified ITSM framework

• Definition of a company-wide ITSM target picture
• Introduction of a uniform service structure across all business units

SLA and OLA management

• Building a standardized SLA framework
• Definition of service classes (Business Critical, Standard, Low Priority)
• Introduction of OLAs between internal teams
• Building meaningful SLA reporting
• Definition of KPI and service dashboards for business units

Service portfolio management

• Definition of service descriptions
• If needed, preparing possible cost and service billing

Ticketing & processes

• Incident management
• Uniform ticket categories
• Standardized prioritization
• Escalation matrix
• Automations
• Self-service optimization

Request fulfillment

• Service catalog across all business units
• Approval workflows

Problem management

• Introduction of root cause analysis
• Known error database
• Problem review process

Complete asset management concept

• Hardware lifecycle management
• Software lifecycle management
• Leasing lifecycle
• Mobile device lifecycle
• Monitor lifecycle
• Phone lifecycle

Processes

• Procurement
• Goods receipt
• Inventory
• Assignment
• Return
• Disposal
• Leasing return Goal: single source of truth for all assets

CMDB design

• Definition of all configuration items:
• Workplace
• Notebooks
• Monitors
• Mobile phones
• Printers

Infrastructure

• Servers
• Firewalls
• Switches
• WLAN
• Storage
• Backup systems

Cloud

• Azure resources
• Microsoft 365
• SaaS services

Relationships

• User ↔ Asset
• Asset ↔ Service
• Service ↔ Infrastructure
• Location ↔ Asset
• Goal: make all service dependencies visible

Software asset & license management

• License management concept
• License balancing
• Compliance reporting
• Microsoft license management
• Adobe license management
• SaaS management
• Contract management
• Renewal management

Interfaces & automation Existing systems

• Workday
• Joiner
• Mover
• Leaver

TESMA

• Leasing data
• Contract data

Matrix42

• Asset synchronization
• User synchronization

Active Directory / Entra ID

• User management

Microsoft 365

• License assignment
• Group management

Dormakaba

• Access processes

• Lifecycle services

Monitoring platforms

• PRTG
• Palo Alto
• Cisco

Reporting & KPI framework

• Definition of a management dashboard
• KPIs
• Ticket volume
• SLA fulfillment
• MTTR
• First resolution rate
• Asset accuracy
• License compliance
• Change success rate
• Service availability
• Degree of automation

Network redesign support

• Governance
• Support of the network redesign from an ITSM point of view
• Definition of affected services
• Change management structure
• Communication concept

CMDB integration

• Recording of all network components
• Service mapping
• Dependency analysis

Validation of documentation and knowledge base articles

• Network documentation
• Operations documentation
• Standard changes

Monitoring & event management

• Target picture
• Central monitoring concept
• Event management process
• Alerting strategy
• Escalation model

Systems

• Cisco

• Palo Alto

• Fortinet

• Rubrik

• Veeam

• Matrix42

• Azure

• Microsoft 365 Automation

• Ticket creation from monitoring

• Escalations

• Standard actions

Audit, compliance & information security

• ISO 27001 consulting
• TISAX consulting
• NIS2 preparation - consulting
• Audit-ready processes
• Documentation structure
• Evidence tracking in Matrix42

Roadmap

• 12-month roadmap
• Prioritization of all measures
• Quick wins
• Medium-term projects
• Long-term target picture
• Documentation

• Error analysis and fixes including performance optimization of the in-house developed platform API
• Change and incident management in day-to-day operations
• Responsible for compliance with security and compliance requirements
• Vendor management for software development and maintenance
• Planning and execution of migration of legacy services to a cloud native platform

Role in the project: project staff, implementation team

Used skills: requirements analysis, IT service and application management, IT operations, error analysis and performance optimization, software maintenance and lifecycle management

Project environment: Cloud Native Platform (Kubernetes, Crossplane, AWS, ArgoCD, Grafana)

• Creation, maintenance and hardening of Kubernetes clusters employing Ansible and ArgoCD
• Keywords: Ansible, AWX, Kubernetes, NetApp, Prometheus, CI/CD ArgoCD, SSO, Fluent-bit, HAProxy, Calico, Keycloak, oauth2-proxy, SealedSecrets, kubeseal, Aqua kube-bench, CIS-Benchmarks, Aqua Trivy operator

Windows Administrator, software deployment, user support, Azure / Entra administrator, hardware support, software packaging, defining and introducing processes

Tasks performed:

• Handling incidents, service requests & changes in the Matrix42 ticket system
• Handling / resolving incidents
• User creation / permissions
• Installation and patch management for Windows
• Permissions and license management in Entra
• Process improvement and documentation

Tools and methods used: Windows Server 2016 / 2019, Active Directory, Windows 11, Office 365, Azure / Entra, Ivanti, VMWare & ESX, Dell & Kyocera Minolta & Zeus hardware support

• PRISMA project
• Ansible automation
• Windows third-level support for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2013, Windows 2016, Windows 2019

• Idea, design and initial implementation of a service that aggregates publicly available data to estimate prices for certain types of objects
• Collection of data from different data sources and its normalization. Embedding the data using SentenceTransformer and training gradient boost models
• Implementation of a web service that
• reads arbitrary user text
• extends it if some parts of data are missing
• uses a local LLM model to prepare the data for prediction
• embed the data and call for prediction from the gradient boost model
• uses a LLM model to generate a report for the user request including explanations
• Stack: BigQuery, Vertex AI, Cloud Run (GCP), Python, Terraform, DBT, SentenceTransformer, Qwen
• Minor SEO optimizations
• More to come...

• Disciplinary and professional leadership of the IT and service team
• Definition and documentation of the Current Mode of Operation (CMO) in Confluence: application landscape, infrastructure, networks, backup & storage
• Development of the Future Mode of Operation (FMO) including process analysis & stakeholder interviews with all departments using BPMN and flowcharts
• Optimization of license management: reduction of ongoing software costs by approx. 17% p.a.
• Introduction and establishment of Jira as the central tool for project and service management
• Introduction and rollout of the HR software MindKey to digitize HR processes
• Introduction of a VoIP solution with Microsoft Teams incl. PSTN connection to replace classic telephony
• Introduction of the production and planning software OptiControl to digitize operational processes
• Rollout of Intune as a Mobile Device Management solution for Windows, iOS and Android
• Build-up of Power BI dashboards for machine park monitoring and financial reporting
• Planning and execution of the IT consolidation of two locations for 170 users
• Introduction of automated penetration testing with Pentera
• Coaching and mentoring the team in agile methods & project management
• Operational support in day-to-day business: administration, incident & change management
• Management of external service providers and assurance of the quality of outsourced IT services
• Responsibility for the IT budget incl. planning and controlling
• Direct reporting line to management with regular management reports on IT KPIs, budget and project status

• Analysis of requirements and the current situation
• Migration of an old domain structure and Tobit to Exchange 2019 with connection to MS365
• Review of implementation options and planning for the protection of sensitive data
• Planning with regard to BSI Grundschutz, BDSG, and DSGVO
• IT governance and IT security backtests
• Support with ERP setup and securing mail transfer
• Hyper-V 2016/2022, Microsoft Terminal Services Cluster, Microsoft Exchange 2019
• Office 365, Microsoft 365, Azure AD, Teams, Salesforce
• Cisco, Zyxel, and HP switches, Sophos firewalls/UTMs, SecurePoint
• Microsoft IIS 2022, IPv4/IPv6, Veeam, Wortmann Online Backup, NextCloud
• Services: DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP, subnetting, firewalling, routing, VoIP, group policies (GPO), SIEM, remote work, home office, high availability, failover, VLAN, PRTG

• The customer is undergoing a comprehensive transformation. All SAP ECC landscapes worldwide are being migrated to SAP S/4HANA, with the goal of introducing a standard template worldwide.

• The program also includes the “RISE with SAP” migration and modernization program, which may involve migrating the landscapes of selected country installations to the SAP Private Cloud.

• On the stakeholder side, the program reporting line extends to the company’s executive board and that of the implementation partner.

• Fiserv Germany’s ERP landscape currently includes several non-standard SAP tools and applications that extend the functionality of the ECC environment and can often be integrated into downstream systems. As part of the transition to SAP S/4HANA, it is essential to assess the core functionality, integration points and future viability of these applications in order to determine their alignment with the target architecture.

• The focus of the work is on providing expert advice and assessment to define the scope, strategy and roadmap for transitioning Fiserv Germany’s SAP ECC system to SAP S/4HANA.

• The recommended best practices from SAP are followed and a structured approach is used to ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption while maximizing business value.

• This assessment forms the basis for a successful SAP S/4HANA transformation and ensures alignment with industry best practices, regulatory compliance and future scalability.

• Migration Strategy Definition – assessment of available transition approaches based on business objectives, technical feasibility and SAP Best Practices.

• Technical Readiness Assessment – conducting a system analysis to assess compatibility, custom code impact, data volume management, integration points and infrastructure readiness for SAP S/4HANA.

• Business Process Impact Analysis – reviewing the latest business process documentation to define the scope and effort required to implement the necessary functions in SAP S/4HANA and to identify opportunities for process optimization.

• Roadmap for Non-SAP Systems and Applications – assessment of third-party and legacy applications regarding their integration with SAP S/4HANA and recommendation of consolidation, migration or replacement strategies.

• Deployment & Implementation Planning – defining a phased approach for implementation, including project schedules, risk mitigation strategies and key milestones aligned with business priorities.

• This transformation takes place in phases: the Discovery phase leads to the Explore phase, which is followed by the Design phase and finally implementation.

• Program management

• Change management

• Requirements management

• Transition management

• Stakeholder management

• Risk management

• Comprehensive coordination

• As part of the project, I was responsible for operating a Citrix farm for 600 users, including optimizing the user experience and ensuring high availability.

• I managed and optimized the entire application landscape of a major customer, evaluated and implemented application updates, and ensured the compatibility and security of the software in use.

• I managed user accounts, implemented security policies, and monitored system performance.

• I administered Azure Entra ID to control identities and access rights, implemented security policies, and synchronized on-premises directories with the cloud.

• I implemented and managed Microsoft Intune for central management of client devices, including the configuration and management of BitLocker for disk encryption.

• I managed file servers and NTFS permissions to ensure secure and efficient data access management.

• I handled change requests and last-level support tickets efficiently to solve complex system issues and improve user satisfaction.

• I supported and advised the customer team on various topics and projects, identified areas for improvement, and implemented best practices.

Technologies used:

• Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012R2 and 2022
• Exchange 2016 and Exchange Online
• Entra ID (Azure AD)
• Entra ID Connect
• BitLocker
• PowerShell scripting
• Microsoft Intune
• LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
• DNS services (Domain Name System)
• Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)

• Holistic responsibility for modernizing and expanding federal networks and upgrading critical data center and telecom infrastructure in the high-security agency environment of BDBOS
• Planning and management of the expansion of national BOS network infrastructure in the VS-NfD/KRITIS environment with technical decision authority at the architecture and component level (Cisco, Layer 2/3, WAN redundancy)
• Planning, tendering (EVB-IT/UVgO) and oversight of the upgrade of security-critical telecom infrastructure for emergency call 110/112 (ACD)
• Capacity planning, rack integration, structured cabling, power supply, cooling concept (CRAC/In-Row) and DCIM monitoring for data center expansion
• Building the IT department from scratch: structures, governance, processes, team recruiting, vendor selection and long-term IT strategy
• Planning and managing infrastructure and application migrations: migration strategies, batch planning, hypercare stabilization and rollback concepts
• Creating vendor-neutral specifications (telecom systems, signature solutions) according to EVB-IT and UVgO; contract award and vendor management
• Setting up a secure IT environment according to BSI basic protection, ISO 27001 and VS-NfD; developing IT security concepts and CMDB analyses
• Hands-on program leadership: decision papers for management and steering committees, risk management, reporting and change request control

• Installation, planning, maintenance and further development of the server farm in the area of hardware and software
• Migration of live systems with minimized downtime
• Processing tickets and changes in daily business
• Documentation of changes and processes in Confluence
• Test runs in the development environment
• Configuration and administration of Linux systems
• Configuration and administration of backup systems (Dell Networker, DataDomain)
• Administration of the Checkpoint firewall

• Configuration and expansion of monitoring
• Setup of a monitoring test instance and inclusion of Windows and Linux servers
• Creation of documentation for the checkmk environment
• Handover to operations
• Administration, installation, documentation
• IT environment: Windows Server 2019, Ubuntu Server, Checkmk