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Cedric.com

Building systems
that actually work.

// DevOps · Monitoring · Automation · Fullstack · Hamburg, DE

MonitoringAutomationAzureFullstackPythonReact & TypeScriptInfrastructure

01 // About

Curious about
how things work.

I've always been drawn to complex systems – how they work, why they fail, what holds them together. As a kid I was listening to audio series where Einstein narrated the history of inventions – how the hot air balloon came to be, how the car was developed – while others listened to fairy tales. Later it was black holes, quantum field theory, particle accelerators. Not because I had to – because I needed to understand how things actually work.

When I finished school I wasn't sure which direction to take. Game development, fullstack, systems engineering, science – all of it felt relevant. I ended up training as a laboratory technician, thinking physics, chemistry, and biology would scratch that itch. It did, for a while. But lab work is repetitive by nature, and I quickly realized what I actually wanted was to design systems, not run the same protocol every day.

So I pivoted to IT. Not randomly – I'd already been experimenting with Java, HTML, CSS, JavaScript on the side. And IT turned out to be exactly what I was looking for: the same bug can have ten different root causes, new technologies appear constantly, and you never really stop learning. I love building and understanding concepts – the more complex the mechanism, the more interesting. Astrophysics and quantum mechanics became a hobby again, which is honestly when I started enjoying them more.

Now I'm finishing my apprenticeship in Hamburg, spending most of my time in monitoring and automation. I like problems that require you to understand the whole system before you can fix one part. Troubleshooting feels like solving a puzzle – and I mean that as a compliment. I'm autistic, which probably explains the depth, the directness, and the need to actually understand things rather than just make them appear to work.

Currently
Finishing IT apprenticeship
DevOps & Monitoring focus
Background
Lab technician → IT
Two full apprenticeships
Side project
Accessly
Accessibility platform for people with disabilities
Outside of work
Astrophysics · Quantum mechanics
Wildlife photography · Horses
Language & Location
German (native) · English (fluent)
Hamburg, Germany

02 // Tech Stack

Tools I work with.

A focused set of technologies I actually use – no buzzword-bingo, no padding.

Frontend
ReactTypeScriptViteNiceGUICSS ModulesHTML / CSS
Backend
PythonREST APIsToken SessionsAuth & RBAC
Databases
PostgreSQLMongoDBRedisCMDB
Monitoring
IcingaAzure MonitorSNMPAD / SQL / ADFS
Storage & Network
NetApp ONTAPMetroClusterStorageGRIDFirewall & Routing
Security
Auth flowsRBAC / PBACHTTPS / TLS

03 // Projects

Things I've built.

Real problems, real solutions. No toy apps.

Current · Thesis Project
Hybrid-Cloud Monitoring System

A custom monitoring system for hybrid cloud environments. A self-developed orchestrator collects metrics, states, and events from distributed environments via a satellite-agent mix, normalizes them, and makes them analyzable. First prototype running on Azure.

AzureOrchestratorSatellite AgentsHybrid CloudPython
in progress
Accessly

Accessibility platform helping people with disabilities find out if a location works for them – in under 10 seconds. Community-verified data, individual filters per disability type. Built accessibility-first from day one.

ReactTypeScriptPythonPostgreSQL
ongoing
NetApp MetroCluster Migration

Supported the replacement of a legacy NetApp MetroCluster – hardware installation, commissioning, then coordinated hardware change at both datacenter sites simultaneously. Real stakes, real time pressure.

NetApp ONTAPMetroClusterDatacenter
completed
Animal Feeder & Behavior Analysis

Controllable automated feeder with IoT-based behavior recording and analysis. Time patterns as inference for animal wellbeing and potential health risks.

PythonIoTHardwareData Analysis
completed

04 // Experience

How I got here.

Two apprenticeships, several environments, one consistent thread: going deep.

Jan 2026 – present
Monitoring & Automation – Home Team
IT Apprenticeship · Hamburg, DE
Back in the core monitoring team after rotations. Responsible for AD, SQL, and ADFS monitoring. Primary focus: Azure cloud monitoring. Co-built a new monitoring cluster with the network team – planned automation concepts, CMDB integration, and wrote custom prototypes for SNMP auto-detection using self-built test frameworks. Building the hybrid-cloud monitoring system as thesis project.
Azure MonitoringIcingaSNMP Auto-DetectionCMDBPythonAD / SQL / ADFS
Sep – Dec 2025
Storage Engineering – NetApp
Rotation · Hamburg, DE
NetApp Cluster and MetroCluster, ONTAP, StorageGRID (S3). Supported hardware changes in datacenter environments with real dependencies, real risks, and real time pressure.
NetApp ONTAPMetroClusterStorageGRIDDatacenter
Apr – Jun 2025
Datacenter Network & Security
Rotation · Hamburg, DE
Network infrastructure and firewall management. New deployments and ongoing management across layers 2 and 3. Worked alongside the team on network monitoring integration.
NetworkingFirewallL2 / L3Infrastructure
Mar – May 2024
Onsite IT Support
Rotation · Hamburg, DE
Internal IT support – application errors, installation problems, setting up and configuring laptops for new employees, hardware repairs.
IT SupportHardwareWindows
2023 – present
IT Specialist – Application Development
Apprenticeship (ongoing) · Hamburg, DE
Main focus: DevOps Engineering – monitoring, automation, infrastructure. Rotating through different teams as part of the program, with monitoring as the home team throughout.
DevOpsFullstackReact & TypeScriptPython
2020 – 2023
Laboratory Technician – Food Safety
Apprenticeship · Hamburg, DE
Trained as dairy lab technician, worked across the full spectrum of food safety analysis. Microbiology: Salmonella, Anthrax via PCR, mould, aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, culture media preparation. Chemistry: Aflatoxin M2, fat, protein, moisture and ash, ICP-MS and ICP-OES elemental analysis, contaminant detection. Protein and dietary fibre via Kjeldahl and LECO combustion analyzer (Dumas method). Nitrogen analysis in slurry samples. MALDI-TOF identification.
PCRICP-MS / ICP-OESMALDI-TOFMicrobiologyKjeldahlLECO / DumasFood Safety

05 // Contact

Let's talk.

Open to interesting conversations, collaborations, and opportunities. If you met me somewhere and want to stay in touch – this is the right place.

I'm finishing my apprenticeship and working on Accessly in parallel. If you have an interesting project, want to collaborate, or just want to talk tech – reach out.

Response time: usually within 1–2 days.
Language: German or English, both fine.

Personal website (DE) cedrickiesel.de
Podcast ichinmeinerwelt.de (DE only)
Location Hamburg, Germany