VMware vSphere Experts in Munich

In my role as Senior Cloud DevOps Architect for BP, an oil and gas company, I had the mission to migrate the Electric Vehicle Charging platform of the EV Division from on-premises and Azure to AWS cloud, resulting in a hybrid multi-cloud, multi-tenant SaaS solution.

Deployment with Kubernetes for the application layer meant provisioning Kubernetes clusters managed by EKS and AKS, with a focus on integrating them into a multi-tenant environment. This integration was achieved by using Kubernetes namespaces and access controls to ensure data isolation and privacy enforcement.

In the database layer, we chose an RDS instance with PostgreSQL to support the backend infrastructure of our applications. Tenants shared the same RDS instance, but each had a dedicated schema.

To ingest near real-time data from physical charge points (CPOs), as IoT devices, via the OCPI protocol, we ran into significant delays with batch processing. As a result, we built a real-time streaming data pipeline using Apache Kafka, while prioritizing an event-driven architecture.

Led collaboration across multiple internal teams, external vendors, cloud providers, and on-site partners to integrate over five systems into a unified solution.

Achievements:

• Successfully designed and implemented hybrid multi-cloud solutions, integrating multiple cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) with on-premises infrastructure, using Site-to-Site VPNs, Firewalls, and Load Balancing.
• Led the migration of on-premises infrastructure to multi-cloud, multi-tenant infrastructure, resulting in 30% faster processing times.
• Migrated workloads from VMware and Hyper-V environments to cloud-based VMs, leveraging cloud-native services to optimize performance, cost efficiency, and scalability.
• Designed a multi-tenant Kubernetes platform leveraging the Kubernetes ecosystem, using Karpenter for dynamic EC2 node provisioning, KEDA for event-driven pod autoscaling (e.g., Kafka message lag), and Rancher for centralized monitoring of multiple clusters (EKS, AKS, or on-prem K8s), replacing Microsoft-centric Azure Arc management service.
• Designed and implemented Python-based FastAPI microservices as part of the EV core-backend on AWS EKS application layer, powering data ingestion and customer analytics pipelines.
• Developed asynchronous, event-driven APIs (Python-FastAPI) for real-time integration with CPOs, supporting OCPI 2.3 and OICP protocols.
• Designed and implemented a secure, production-grade Azure Databricks platform using Terraform, ensuring scalability and cost efficiency.
• Migrated on-premises ERP to a hybrid Dynamics 365 architecture with ERP hosted locally and CRM running in Azure, integrated via Azure Arc.
• Automated CI/CD pipelines for Databricks notebooks and jobs using GitHub Actions & Databricks CLI, reducing deployment time. Reduced infrastructure provisioning time by 70% by automating cloud resource deployment with GitOps.
• Ensured compliance with internal audit and data governance standards (GDPR) through OAuth2/OIDC-based authentication and fine-grained role-based access controls.
• Developed a Zero Trust security model, enforcing least-privilege access and microsegmentation, enhancing security posture and compliance with GDPR and NIST.
• Built interactive analytics dashboards in Amazon QuickSight, integrating data from S3 and Redshift to deliver real-time business insights and visualizations with embedded access for multi-tenant users.
• Led cloud security assessments and full-lifecycle cybersecurity integration during M&A, covering AWS, Azure, IAM (Entra ID), and data protection, while aligning security posture with NIST, ISO 27001, and GDPR across hybrid and cloud-native environments.
• Reduced cloud costs by 64% for a client's dev environment by implementing automated start/stop schedules for EC2 and RDS instances via AWS CDK with EventBridge Scheduler or AWS Systems Manager.

Tech stack:

• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, AWS CDK, Ansible.
• Containers: Kubernetes on EKS, AKS, Docker.
• Streaming Data Processing: Kafka to Confluent Cloud, after AWS MSK.
• Frontend: TypeScript, React, NextJS, Hooks, Styled Components.
• Backend: Python with FastAPI, also Node.js with NestJS.
• Database: Aurora on PostgreSQL with TypeORM, RDS on SQL Server, Azure Databricks full setup and administration, ETL Pipelines.
• CI/CD and GitOps: GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, ArgoCD.
• Monitoring and Observability: Prometheus and Grafana.
• Virtualization: Hyper-V, VMware Cloud on AWS, Azure Migrate.
• ERP Systems: Odoo, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on Azure, integrated with Azure Arc.
• Networking: Site-to-Site VPNs, AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Firewalls (AWS Network Firewall, Azure Firewall).
• Security: IAM, NIST Framework, Zero Trust Security, AWS WAF, AWS Shield, GuardDuty.

• Designed and implemented Azure Kubernetes Clusters, and managed DNS and Firewall solutions, enhancing network security and reliability.
• Led projects using Agile Scrum methodologies to streamline development cycles and improve project efficiency.
• Fostered and maintained relationships with suppliers to ensure timely project deliverables and resource availability.
• Managed continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines using Jenkins, Sonar, GitHub, Bitbucket, and Terraform within the BMW Azure Cloud environment.
• Utilized Fortify SSC and Contrast AST for robust application security testing.
• Directed DevOps engineering initiatives on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), focusing on streamlining development and deployment processes.
• Service Now governance, risk und compliance (GRC&IRM).

• Project support for VMware/Active Directory
• Operational support for administration, process execution
• Creation and review of documentation
• Active Directory, Powershell, VMware VSphere 7, Confluence, Jira
• Windows Server 2016/2019/2022/2025 GUI/Core
• Concept and rollout of Windows Update Services (approx. 500 client/server systems) and takeover of a central WSUS gateway company-wide
• Takeover and redesign KMS/RDS systems company-wide

• Analysis and optimization of the VMware environment for operation in a critical infrastructure environment
• Planning and execution of updates for the VMware and hardware environment in a critical infrastructure environment
• Deployment of Skyline Health Diagnostics
• Review of existing documentation
• Training and onboarding of new internal staff
• Support for migration and upgrade projects
• Preparation for moving scripts in the virtualization environment to GitLab
• Ticket handling with ServiceNow

• About 800 different server VMs, operation and lifecycle/asset management of about 40 ESXi hosts (Lenovo)
• Upgrade of all clusters to ESXi/VCSA 7.0U3 and 8. Planning patch management for all hosts
• Cleaning up the AD – many different domains that all needed to be migrated into the main environment. Planning/execution
• Veeam – check the configuration and migrate to a newer, partly virtual infrastructure to make the setup leaner and faster
• VMware – upgrades/updates, general maintenance
• Proxmox POC – evaluate if an alternative to VMware
• Documentation for Veeam/VMware/storage
• Implementation of the uniflow cloud solution
• NetApp migration to new storage, CIFS maintenance and administration of SVMs

• IT infrastructure services
• IT services, networks, Exchange, Office 365 & 2016
• IT documentation
• Collaboration with external partner & managed provider
• Stakeholder management