DevOps Meetup Zürich

Two exciting topics, two very experienced speakers and much networking opportunity. We are very much looking forward to the next DevOps Meetup Zurich.

Here's what's planned for the evening:
17:30 - 18:00 - Arrival and first drinks
18:00 - 18:45 - Production AI at Google by Ramón Medrano Llamas
18:45 - 19:30 - Automation in Operations. 15 things you should automate in the cloud by Michal Kolodziej
19:30 - 20:30 - Networking, Open Space & More drinks

Production AI at Google
Gemini is becoming the backbone of many new features and services across the Google portfolio, and SRE / DevOps is no different.

On this talk we introduce the latest advancements in what we call Production AI: AI for SRE. This includes our latest work in autonomous agents for operations, troubleshooting and production management; how we see models evolving for this area and whether we need bespoke, specialist models on top LLMs; what techniques we have used (either successfully or not) for each use case; metrics around the impact and size of the opportunity and finally, a demonstration of an "SRE Agent" built on top of GCP's offerings.

Ramón Medrano Llamas
Ramón is a Senior Staff Site Reliability Engineer at Google where he works on the Identity team. He started back in 2011 as an intern and has since then become team Technical Lead (TL), Engineering Manager and recently moved into a üTL role for the Privacy, Safety and Security teams. Their role is to store, manage and safeguard user accounts, from account creation down to credential management passing by account security like hijacking and phishing protection. The team employs hundreds of microservices across the stack, that offers a variety of protocols and APIs to customers. They run in thousands of machines in tens of data centres across the globe and must be as reliable as possible as not only other Google products depend on them, but also people and enterprises worldwide that use Google, Workspace and the Google Cloud Platform.
Prior to Google, Ramón worked at CERN, being part of the Physics Department and the ATLAS Collaboration, where he developed the ROOT framework for data analysis and then the functional testing framework to validate and ensure the reliability of the distributed computing facilities that allowed for the Higgs Boson discovery in 2012.
He holds a Computer Engineering MSc and Ph.D. For the last decade has been researching part time on autonomic computing and the management of computer fleets in data centres and enterprises to optimise and reduce the power usage of them

Automation in Operations. 15 things you should automate in the cloud
Having infrastructure that is easy to reproduce, less prone to errors, efficient, well-documented, and quick to set up is crucial for modern IT approaches. However, it's not just the infrastructure that needs automation. There are various tasks related to ensuring the availability and security of IT systems that can also benefit from automation. During this session, I'll share with you 15 proven ideas on what daily operations tasks and incident response procedures you can automate especially in the cloud, and how to go about it. Additionally, I'll show you how to incorporate artificial intelligence capabilities to make your operations life even easier.
By the end of this talk, you'll have a better understanding of how automation can streamline your IT operations, reduce manual effort, and enhance overall efficiency.

Michal Kolodziej
Software and Solutions Architect with over 15 years of experience designing and implementing complex enterprise IT systems. Specializes in modern architectural approaches, including event-driven systems and microservices, with a focus on maintaining simplicity in enterprise environments. Cloud technology enthusiast with a proven track record of leading digital transformation initiatives, particularly in the public sector. Lecturer at a university of applied sciences on cybersecurity and machine learning topics.

Many thanks to our sponsor:

• Location & Apéro Sponsor: Cognizant https://www.cognizant.com/ch/de

Two exciting topics, three very experienced speakers and much networking opportunity. We are very much looking forward to the next DevOps Meetup Zurich. Here's what's planned for the evening:
17:30 - 18:00 - Arrival and first drinks
18:00 - 18:45 - DevOps in Switzerland 2025: Unveiling the Trends and Insights from the Yearly Survey by Patrick & Romano
18:45 - 19:30 - Simplicity - the key to survival for a 3-person DevOps Team by Urs Enzler
19:30 - 20:30 - Networking, Open Space & More drinks

DevOps in Switzerland 2025: Unveiling the Trends and Insights from the Yearly Survey
The "DevOps in Switzerland 2025" presentation provides a detailed analysis of the current DevOps landscape in Switzerland. Based on our annual survey, we highlight key trends, challenges, and innovations, including automation adoption, cloud strategies, and the integration of security into DevOps workflows. Attendees will gain actionable insights into how Swiss organizations leverage DevOps to enhance efficiency, collaboration, and competitiveness in 2025. This presentation is designed to equip decision-makers and practitioners with the knowledge to refine their DevOps strategies for the year ahead.

Patrick Mathers
Patrick Mathers is co-founder and chairman of the board at VSHN - The DevOps Company. With an economics and business background, he works in marketing and finance at VSHN.

Romano Roth
Romano Roth is a pioneering thought leader in DevOps and platform engineering, with over two decades of experience in the technology sector. As the Global Chief of DevOps at Zühlke, Romano is responsible for shaping the global strategy and service portfolio for DevOps, platform engineering, and cloud solutions.

Simplicity - the key to survival for a 3-person DevOps Team
For almost ten years, our team of three developers and two business experts has been developing and operating an application for attendance time tracking. Three people or three brains need to know and tame all necessary things, like architecture, design, libraries, and development and operations tools. That’s only possible because we radically simplify all aspects, processes, communication, testing, monitoring, and how we use tools.
In this session, we'll discuss how we achieved simplicity in various areas (code, architecture, deployment, and operations).

Urs Enzler
Urs Enzler is a software architect and developer specializing in the .NET platform and Azure. Passionate about building products with a rapid and continuous feedback cycle, he embraces agile principles and continuous delivery. In addition to working on the TimeRocket time tracking product, he is a consultant on software architecture and technical aspects of continuous delivery teamwork such as evolvable design, test-driven development, and the like. Beyond his work, Urs co-organizes the .Net Usergroup Zentralschweiz and shares his insights on Planetgeek.

Many thanks to our sponsor:

• Location & Catering Sponsor: Zühlke https://www.zuehlke.com/

Two exciting topics, four very experienced speakers and much networking opportunity. We are very much looking forward to the next DevOps Meetup Zurich.
Here's what's planned for the evening:
17:30 - 18:00 - Arrival and first drinks
18:00 - 18:45 - A manifesto for Observability Engineering as a socio-technical DevOps practice by Tobias Sager & Makram Hanin
18:45 - 19:30 - Yet Another Shift Left: Decentralized Data with DevOps and Data Mesh by Fabien Dubosson & Sebastian Häni
19:30 - 20:30 - Networking, Open Space & More drinks

Observability Engineering as a socio-technical DevOps practice
Observability is often presented as another, newer monitoring method. This is confusing, creates a false impression of simplicity, and leads to limited success and adoption by DevOps teams. In our talk, we explain the magnitude of change induced by Observability, why it should be considered as engineering practice, and how, additionally, the people and culture dimension is key for a successful deployment as a DevOps practice.
The why, what, and how of this new socio-technical DevOps practice will be presented alongside a maturity model that can guide DevOps teams towards a common target for Observability Engineering. On the technological side, we present key capabilities of Observability Engineering like big data, OpenTelemetry-driven instrumentation, and knowledge graphs as foundation for query-based analytics and machine learning. Finally, we introduce the operating model to build, maintain, and operate Observability as DevOps practice and shared responsibility between software engineers, Site Reliability Engineers (SRE), and MLOps engineers.

Tobias Sager
As an expert in monitoring, observability and reliability engineering transformation, I have over 15 years of experience in the IT industry, particularly in the financial and software sectors, and have held various roles including engineer, architect, line manager, and project manager. With my background in complex hybrid applications, performance engineering, and DevOps, I have helped build Swiss Digital Network and Digital Architects Zurich as leading, specialised consulting cell for CI/CD, Observability, and Site Reliability Engineering, key capabilities that cumulated in our blueprint for the Digital Highway for Continuous Software Delivery.

Makram Hanin
Passionate about engineering solutions for complex challenges, I have dedicated my career to sustainability, creativity, and social impact through specialized consulting ventures. My extensive experience in service level management, performance engineering, and monitoring has laid the foundation for my recent contribution to developing and implementing a generic blueprint, known as the Digital Highway, to ensure the delivery of reliable digital solutions.
Throughout my career, I've been dedicated to adapting Performance Engineering methodologies to various environments such as SOA, Agile, DevOps, and Self-Learning Performance Management. This expertise has been instrumental in shaping my role at Swiss Digital Network to building reliability and resiliency capabilities into digital solutions.

Yet Another Shift Left: Decentralized Data with DevOps and Data Mesh
The shift-left movement has expanded beyond software testing and security, now reshaping data management. With Data Mesh, domain teams take ownership of data quality, governance, and observability from the outset, fostering a decentralized and resilient data architecture. This talk will explore how shift-left and DevOps principles enhance decentralized data, drawing insights from microservices to build scalable, federated data platforms that unify both operational and analytical needs.

Fabien Dubosson
Fabien Dubosson, Senior Data Engineer at FAIRTIQ, provides technical leadership on the Data Platform and leads the company’s transition to a Data Mesh, enabling better utilization of data across the organization.

Sebastian Häni
Sebastian Häni, Lead Architect at FAIRTIQ, is a driving force behind critical initiatives at his organization aimed at enhancing engineering processes. He focuses on optimizing data management and streamlining architecture decision-making.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

• Catering Sponsor: DevOpsDays Zürich https://www.devopsdays.ch/
• Location Sponsor: Digicomp https://www.digicomp.ch/