Running infrastructure

From the server room to the cloud

I have run IT infrastructure for more than twenty years. From 2007 to 2016 I set up servers, switches, firewalls and backup systems in data centers in Germany and the United States. I installed the hardware in the racks, did the cabling and put the systems into operation. For a web community I set up 40 load-balanced servers myself.

Since 2018 most of my infrastructure work has been in the cloud, on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform. I know what a rented cloud machine does because I have installed such machines myself. I am experienced in installing, configuring and running servers across any IT infrastructure.

On the server side I work mostly with Debian and Ubuntu until today. I use AI agents across my whole stack and in infrastructure management. This has made me a great deal faster and more effective.

Blockchain node operations

From 2022 to 2023 I ran blockchain nodes at the Frankfurt-based company Blocksize Capital. The company is a node operator in an oracle network that supplies smart contracts with market data. Some of the nodes ran in the cloud, others on bare-metal servers in data centers. I set up this infrastructure as scripts and Docker containers. I built up the node operations team and ran the servers hands-on.

I still run blockchain nodes today. I started running my own nodes in 2015.

AWS: A cloud operating system

From 2018 to 2021 I ran the web portals of the Frankfurt insurance company Policen Direkt on AWS, in the regions Frankfurt and London. I worked with AWS almost every day. I am an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate. This section explains what AWS is and which of its services I used most.

Amazon Web Services (also called AWS Cloud) is a cloud services provider and therefore something like an operating system for Internet-enabled services. The AWS Cloud can be used to provide functions that were previously located in a separate data center or rack: file servers, web servers and database servers. What is special is that these resources are “scripted”, i.e. they can be created, stopped and deleted via interfaces. But AWS can do more than this:

Hundreds of other services have been added in recent years that work in a similar way, can be combined as desired, and have certain advantages over a conventional implementation. The main advantages of the AWS Cloud are that customers have full control over their services, and that the services can be scaled practically without limit on request and rolled out at many locations worldwide.

In addition to AWS, there are several other providers of cloud services, such as Azure (Microsoft) and the Google Cloud Platform.

Main AWS services

I worked with the basic AWS services EC2, S3 and Route 53 especially between 2018 and 2021. Before that, I installed, configured and provided hardware myself in the data center for more than 10 years. Cloud services free a DevOps engineer from “manual” work in the data center and shift the work to the software level.

I decided to take AWS certifications because I am very interested in the topic of cloud computing and want to get to know as many aspects of the AWS Cloud as possible. I am now certified as an AWS Solutions Architect Associate.

The most important building blocks in everyday AWS use are:

The cloud sector is still in its infancy and will continue to grow in the coming years as companies move more and more services there. Major innovations are also expected in the fields of big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning.