Radovan - PHP Developer, DevOps enthusiast

Published / Updated: Sat, 14 Apr 2018 by Rad

My name is Radovan but English speaking people usually call me Rad. I was born in Slovakia and I am now in early 40s. I work and live with my family near Birmingham in UK.

In few words

Programming DevOps Software Architecture Agile Apps

I laugh often. I help when I notice somebody needs helping.

I have 13+ years of experience in web development and operations. Worked on systems built in the cloud to scale in a blink of one's eye. Systems for millions (25+ m) of users. I do not get scared by microservices, serverless, fire in data-center or screaming product manager. I do not shout.

I am full stack developer. Comfortable working in Agile team or as a solo developer. Keen to learn new things and adapt to new challenges. Willing to listen and get inspired by young developers or seasoned geeks alike. I have led small team once or twice.

Experience earned and valued

My daily job is with large software company - kainos.com/who-we-are, which provides digital technology solutions that allow organisations and people to work smarter, faster, better. They work in government, finance and health.

I have also worked for medium sized fundraising company - easyfundraising.org.uk, which is devoted to raising money for good causes such as schools, charities, sports clubs, religious groups, community groups and more. Company helped thousands of good causes and charities raise money for free. They engage with over 3,700 retailers and so far they've raised over £31 million for causes throughout the UK.

I mainly focused on serverless and performance improvements and code debugging, database optimization but also systems design and designed and developed few APIs.

In the past I used to work for small publishing company with big online following called 3dtotal.com, based in Worcester, lovely medieval city in the Midlands. Company is well known for supporting both aspiring and seasoned 3d artists, developers, enthusiasts and professionals devoted to 3d and 2d graphics. Company supplies high quality 3d materials, textures, tutorials, books, workshops and learning materials for computer graphics (CG) community. They host active forums and online galleries showcasing the best of 3d / 2d artists work.

As an enthusiast LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) developer I also helped various advertising companies and creative studios to deliver bespoke applications for their clients. I still manage Linux servers, relational and NoSQL DBs for selected clients and devote my time to DevOps.

I love OpenSource

I have been working with Linux for some time. I started probably around 2000 when room-mate brought home book about RedHat accompanied with installation CD. At that time I grasped the idea of web development and my first virtual or better to say shared hosting was set up on Linux server - which I didn't know anything about. Book was important first step for me, it helped me understand operating system my site was running on. I really liked Linux right from the first moment. I have had deep understanding of Windows operating systems at that time and been working with university Unix system, although in highly controlled environment.

On the plus side I could install Linux on my PC - it was scary to create first Linux partitions, install boot loader etc. Documentation was not that good. Since then I mastered RedHat and stayed loyal. I prefer to deploy Centos on servers. Linux server-side interested me immensely, probably knowing already I will use it for my professional development and growth.

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