Ronny Roethof

Profile

Principal Infrastructure & Security Engineer with 25+ years of experience designing, building, securing, and modernizing complex IT infrastructures. Specialized in open source, high availability, infrastructure automation, security, platform architecture, and operational resilience. Experienced in architecture, engineering, security, consultancy, and leadership roles within business-critical and large-scale environments. Combines strategic technical vision with deep hands-on experience and focuses on reliable, secure, scalable, and vendor-independent infrastructure.

Experience

SPIE Data Solutions B.V.

Den Bosch, The Netherlands

Expert in Open Source, Security & High Availability

Sep 2025 – Present

Business Unit Security Officer within SPIE Data Solutions and the technical conscience of the business unit. Responsible for security governance and risk management at business-unit level, alongside broad technical responsibility for infrastructure, security, open source, high availability, and architecture.
  • Acts as Business Unit Security Officer, fulfilling the CISO responsibility at business-unit level.
  • Advises management and teams on security strategy, risks, and information security.
  • Acts as the technical conscience for complex infrastructure, security, and architecture challenges.
  • Advises on open-source, vendor-independent, and high-availability solutions.
  • Assesses technical designs and solutions for security, reliability, manageability, and long-term impact.
  • Connects security governance with hands-on infrastructure engineering and technical architecture.
Lead Platform Architect Business Unit Security Officer ISO27001 ISO27002 NIS2 Proxmox High Availability Open Source GDPR Fortigate

AnyLinQ B.V.

Den Bosch, The Netherlands

CISO / Security Officer / DevOps Engineer / Internal IT

Jun 2022 – Sep 2025

Ultimately responsible for information security, security governance, and internal IT infrastructure. Combined security leadership with hands-on engineering, infrastructure architecture, DevOps, and risk-based security.
  • Developed and implemented security policies, technical security measures, and governance.
  • Ensured compliance with ISO 27001 / 27002, NIS2, and privacy requirements in processes and technical infrastructure.
  • Designed and managed secure and reliable IT infrastructure, including virtualization, networking, and cloud.
  • Combined security governance with hands-on infrastructure engineering and automation.
  • Performed security assessments and pentests and translated findings into concrete technical improvements.
VMware Proxmox Debian CentOS FreeBSD Windows Server Azure Ansible Huawei Fortigate GDPR ISO27001 ISO27002 NIS2

Security Consultant / Pentester

Nov 2021 – Jun 2022

Performed pentests on websites, infrastructures, and applications, resulting in secure client environments.
  • Performed blackbox, graybox, and whitebox tests.
  • Improved security levels for clients.
  • Prepared advisory reports following security assessments.
Kali Linux Debian Ubuntu VMware Cisco Juniper Huawei Fortigate

RIVM / KNMI (Seconded via AnyLinQ B.V.)

Bilthoven, The Netherlands

Area Product Owner / Team Lead / Senior DevOps Engineer

Oct 2020 – Nov 2021

Led the Specific Hosting Team and was technically responsible for business-critical infrastructure for RIVM.nl and KNMI.nl. Also acted as lead developer for the infrastructure of the COVID-19 registration system and the National Vaccination Programme, with a focus on automation, scalability, and continuity.
  • Technically led a specialized hosting team and helped determine the technical direction.
  • Designed and implemented Infrastructure-as-Code and High Availability architectures using Puppet and Ansible.
  • Automated provisioning, testing, and deployments through CI/CD.
  • Designed and built the infrastructure for the COVID-19 registration system and National Vaccination Programme.
  • Developed automation that enabled infrastructure to be scaled quickly and reproducibly.
  • Ensured continuity and delivery speed under exceptional time and operational pressure.
VMware Red Hat Ansible Tower Puppet GitLab Satellite IPA MySQL PostgreSQL Oracle

Confidential Client (Seconded via AnyLinQ B.V.)

Confidential, The Netherlands

Developer / Senior System Engineer

Jul 2019 – Sep 2020

Worked in a highly secured environment with a focus on PKI, data encryption, and secure computing.
  • Developed a PHP framework for internal development.
  • Created custom dashboards and tools for internal use.
  • Implemented complex automation projects with Ansible Tower.
  • Managed more than 100 virtual servers on VMware/Red Hat platforms.
VMware Red Hat PHP Python Ansible Tower GitLab Satellite

Neostrada B.V.

Lelystad, The Netherlands

Senior System Engineer

May 2017 – Jun 2019

Part of a compact engineering team responsible for shared hosting, VPS infrastructure, and a 5 PB offsite backup platform. Focused on high availability, automation, resilience, recoverability, and 24/7 operational continuity.
  • Designed, built, and managed high-availability infrastructure with 99.995% uptime.
  • Designed and built the 5 PB FreeBSD/ZFS-based Autobackup platform.
  • Automated infrastructure and application deployments with Ansible.
  • Implemented 24/7 monitoring, alerting, and operational tooling.
  • Worked on scalable infrastructure with availability, recoverability, and manageability at its core.
CloudLinux CentOS Debian FreeBSD Apache Nginx Exim cPanel DirectAdmin NFS ZFS Ceph Ansible Git KVM Proxmox Docker Huawei Switches HP Switches Dell PowerEdge HP ProLiant SuperMicro

Liberty Global B.V. (Seconded via Ultimum B.V.)

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Senior DevOps Engineer

Jan 2017 – Mar 2017

Was part of a 9-person team responsible for the design and construction of the Operational Data Hub (ODH), part of the One Back Office (OBO) platform. This platform provided real-time performance analytics based on CPEs, BSS, and OSS. Designed, implemented, and documented Ansible roles and automated system installation.
  • Designed, implemented, and documented Ansible roles.
  • Automated system installation.
  • Realized a real-time analytics environment.
CentOS Red Hat Ansible Docker Zookeeper Kafka Flume HDFS Spark Logstash Elasticsearch Dell PowerEdge

Ultimum B.V.

Almere, The Netherlands

Security Consultant

Nov 2016 – Jan 2017

Performed security tests on websites, infrastructures, and applications using blackbox, graybox, and whitebox techniques. Conducted security workshops for colleagues and clients and resolved security incidents.
  • Designed, implemented, and documented workshop VMs.
  • Conducted security workshops.
  • Performed blackbox/graybox/whitebox pentests.
  • Resolved security incidents.
  • Performed migration and maintenance of all Ultimum websites.
Kali Linux Debian Ubuntu VMware vSphere Ansible

Meyn B.V. (Seconded via Ultimum B.V.)

Oostzaan, The Netherlands

DevOps Engineer / Automation Specialist

Sep 2016 – Nov 2016

Developed a central deployment platform for various virtualization technologies and in-house software products, based on Kickstart and Ansible. The platform enabled the entire virtualization platform to be deployed and managed at external locations.
  • Designed, implemented, and documented virtualization environments.
  • Set up and managed configuration management.
  • Developed and rolled out software deployments.
CentOS Ansible Citrix XenServer Git Icinga Ruby Perl Kickstart Dell PowerEdge

Ultimum Managed Services

Almere, The Netherlands

Linux Engineer

Jun 2016 – Sep 2016

Performed various Linux/Unix and Open Source tasks, including the management and migration of complex client platforms (Slackware 13, Keepalive, Zebra, OpenVPN, Amazon AWS). Had final responsibility for multiple migrations.
  • Provisioned and managed servers and VMs.
  • Provisioned Docker environments.
  • Automated systems and performed hardening with Ansible.
  • Migrated DNS and web servers to managed and hardened platforms.
  • Set up VPN connections between networks.
  • Migrated client infrastructures to AWS.
  • Virtualized databases.
  • Rolled out monitoring.
Red Hat CentOS Debian Slackware Ubuntu Amazon AWS VMware vSphere Ansible Nagios Docker PRTG Fortigate Cisco HP Procurve

SLTN (Seconded via Ultimum B.V.)

Hilversum, The Netherlands

System and Monitoring Architect

Mar 2016 – Jun 2016

Developed a 24/7 monitoring platform for a large telecom supplier with central management of multiple locations. Automated the rollout of monitoring nodes and new checks while taking security requirements into account.
  • Provided technical input for High Level and Detailed Level Design.
  • Designed and implemented Linux monitoring servers.
  • Automated the rollout of monitoring nodes and checks.
  • Documented and provided technical consultation.
CentOS 7 Nagios MySQL Ansible HP Blades HP 3PAR Storage HP Switches HP Routers

Merus N.V. (Seconded via Ultimum B.V.)

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Linux Engineer / Database Recovery Specialist

Dec 2015 – Mar 2016

Replaced a defective database platform and implemented a new PostgreSQL cluster on Hyper-V, critical to oncology research.
  • Implemented Linux systems.
  • Implemented and fine-tuned PostgreSQL.
  • Documented and provided technical consultation.
Ubuntu 14 PostgreSQL Hyper-V

FD Mediagroep B.V. (Seconded via Ultimum B.V.)

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Linux Engineer / Network Engineer

Feb 2015 – Nov 2015

Managed Linux/Solaris systems, network equipment, storage systems, and related hardware/software. Phased out Solaris in favor of Linux, replaced storage and backup environments, and automated monitoring.
  • Phased out the Solaris environment in favor of Linux.
  • Renewed storage and backup solutions.
  • Implemented a failover site.
  • Automated with Ansible.
CentOS 6/7 Debian 7/8 Ubuntu 12/14 Solaris 8/9 VMware vSphere 5/6 Ansible Nagios Cisco HP Procurve HP Lefthand

Tele2 Nederland B.V. (Seconded via Ultimum B.V.)

Diemen, The Netherlands

Senior System Engineer

Feb 2014 – Feb 2015

Managed Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, and SunOS systems with a focus on high availability and load balancing. Developed HA solutions for 9292.nl, LDAP, and central logging.
  • Set up HA load balancers with HAProxy, Keepalived, and Nginx.
  • Implemented an HA LDAP system.
  • Designed central logging with Logstash, Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Graphite.
  • Provided daily management of servers and monitoring tools.
Red Hat CentOS Debian Solaris VMware OpenLDAP Active Directory Dell Netvault F5 BigIP A10 Load Balancers

eBay Classifieds Group (Seconded via Ultimum B.V.)

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

NOC Engineer

Jan 2013 – Feb 2014

Managed monitoring and developed monitoring tools for eBay platforms and various marketplaces. Managed more than 2,000 virtual servers and performed daily troubleshooting.
  • Migrated and managed servers and virtualization.
  • Performed daily management of Debian and Ubuntu systems.
  • Set up monitoring with Nagios, Zabbix, Graphite, and Cacti.
  • Automated systems with Puppet and Passenger.
  • Coached team members and handled inquiries.
Debian Ubuntu SVN Mercurial Git Puppet Nagios Graphite Cacti

YourHosting B.V.

Zwolle, The Netherlands

Senior System Engineer

Jan 2012 – Dec 2012

Managed Linux hosting servers, provided technical input, and designed webmail and KVM clusters as well as Puppet configurations.
  • Designed and managed webmail clusters.
  • Designed and managed KVM virtualization clusters.
  • Designed and managed Puppet in combination with Passenger.
  • Maintained and troubleshot Linux/Unix servers.
  • Maintained mail and web hosting clusters.
  • Implemented and managed Nagios monitoring.
CentOS Ubuntu Apache MySQL Postfix SendMail Courier Git Puppet Nagios Graphite Cacti

News Service Europe B.V.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Linux System Administrator / Senior System Engineer

Apr 2011 – Dec 2011

Managed all Debian Linux systems and the Usenet platform based on them. News-Service Europe was among the global top three newsgroup providers. Provided 24/7 support and monitoring within a 7-person team. Co-responsible for system design, implementation, and maintenance of critical infrastructure.
  • Designed, implemented, and managed KVM clusters.
  • Designed, implemented, and managed Puppet configuration systems.
  • Maintained and troubleshot Linux/Unix servers.
  • Maintained custom Debian packages and mirrors.
  • Maintained Usenet clusters and storage platforms.
  • Maintained mail and web hosting clusters.
  • Implemented and managed Nagios monitoring.
500+ physical servers Dell PowerEdge Dell PowerVault SuperMicro Storage Debian 5 MySQL PostgreSQL KVM Apache 2 Postfix Spamassassin Nagios Diablo NNTP

ACN Europe B.V. (Seconded via InWork B.V.)

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Linux System Administrator / Network Engineer

Aug 2010 – Apr 2011

Responsible for all Linux OS systems and development of tooling based on open source software. Also acted as backup administrator for Windows environments, network administrator, and storage administrator.
  • Designed, implemented, and managed VMware clusters.
  • Designed, implemented, and managed Puppet configuration systems.
  • Designed, implemented, and managed Squid web filters.
  • Designed, implemented, converted, and migrated Exchange to Zimbra.
  • Implemented and managed Zabbix monitoring.
  • Backup network management (Juniper SRX240/EX4200, Cisco 9513/3650).
  • Backup Windows management (Windows 2003/2008, IIS 7, Exchange 2007).
  • Backup storage management (EMC CX3/4, EMC AX5).
100+ physical servers HP ProLiant HP BladeCenters VMware ESX 3/4 CentOS 5.5 Windows 2003/2008 Cisco IOS JunOS MySQL 5 Apache 2 Postfix Spamassassin Zabbix Zimbra Samba IIS 7 MS Exchange 2003/2010 Active Directory Cisco Switches/Routers Juniper Switches/Firewalls EMC SAN Storage

Leaseweb B.V.

Haarlem, The Netherlands

Senior System Engineer / Internal IT

Dec 2008 – Jun 2010

As the sole Linux Engineer, responsible for Linux and Unix infrastructure within one of Europe's largest hosting companies. Involved in the architecture, implementation, and management of internal and customer-facing platforms and business-critical services, with direct responsibility for continuity and technical decisions.
  • Designed and implemented virtualization, networking, DNS, mail, and web hosting platforms.
  • Designed and managed VMware, Cisco, and Juniper infrastructure.
  • Built and managed high-availability hosting and monitoring platforms.
  • Supported development teams with architecture and infrastructure challenges.
  • Was responsible for the continuity of business-critical internal services.
250+ physical/virtual servers 5000+ customer servers HP ProLiant HP BladeCenters Dell PowerEdge SuperMicro Storage VMware ESX 3/4 Red Hat CentOS Debian Ubuntu FreeBSD Windows Server 2003/2008 Cisco IOS JunOS MySQL Apache 2 Postfix SpamAssassin Zabbix Zimbra Samba IIS 6/7 MS Exchange 2003/2010 Active Directory Cisco Switches/Routers Juniper Switches/Firewalls EMC SAN Storage Asterisk

Education

MAVO D

Scholen Gemeenschap Lelystad

1993 – 1995

Certifications

Commvault Certified Professional

Commvault

Jan 2026


Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA 7)

Red Hat

Jun 2016


ITIL® Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

EXIN

Nov 2013


LPIC-1, Linux Professional Institute Certified Administrator

Linux Professional Institute

Jan 2013


References

Paul Germanus - Senior Technical Consultant at Databalance

"I have worked with Ronny for the past 3 years on KA ICT systems (Intune, MS365, Entra ID, Docker, monitoring automation, etc.). He consistently delivers working solutions, is proactive when dealing with acute issues, and has deep Linux and OSS knowledge. His curiosity about new technologies (AI, home automation, monitoring) allows him to quickly master new systems. Ronny is a reliable, hard-working engineer and an excellent team player."

Chris Dorsman - Experienced Python, Penguin & Whale Whisperer

"“What you see is what you get” is the expression that comes to mind when I think of Ronny. I had the pleasure of working with Ronny for a year at the SC-Campus/RIVM Linux team, where he was interim Area Product Owner/Senior Linux Engineer and I was Senior Linux Engineer. During this year, we dealt with some very challenging and tense projects within the COVID-19 programme, where we delivered projects that seemed almost impossible—and usually succeeded. Apart from his humor, Ronny is one of the hardest-working, most capable, and honest people I know. He would be a great asset to any technical or team-lead position."

Mark Maas - Kubernetes Engineer at the Dutch Ministry of Defence

"Ronny knows his tech! There is nothing Ronny couldn't learn or figure out. Ronny has strong opinions, but knows when to listen and incorporate those opinions into his own thinking. If you've read Ronny's manual, there is nothing you can't achieve with him."

Paul Commandeur - Linux/Unix System Engineer at Xifeo

"I got to know Ronny at Tele2. Ronny is a good Linux engineer with solid knowledge of the field. He is a reliable colleague who works with passion and dedication."

Sebastiaan Koot - IT Quality Lead @ the/experts

"I got to know Ronny as an administrator who works very quickly and effectively. He is always willing to think further and outside the beaten path. He is solution-oriented and professionally competent. Even when he encounters unfamiliar technology, he quickly gets to grips with it because of his broad technical foundation."

Harald Assenberg - Senior Business Operations Advisor - Directorate of Information Technology

"Ronny is a good, honest, hard-working professional. He is highly knowledgeable and not afraid to put in extra hours to achieve his goal. From experience, I can say that he is an asset to any company because of his strong commitment. He has a particular aversion to injustice and unreasonable behavior. A top guy!"

John Gerritse - Linux Engineer at Alliander NV

"Ronny is a capable colleague who strives for the best result. He was a team player and performed his work with the utmost professionalism. I would definitely recommend Ronny and hope to work with him again in the future."

Peter Ponsen - Senior Linux Engineer at BrightCubes

"Ronny is a valued colleague with an extensive technical background across many systems, allowing him to easily see the bigger picture. Thanks, Ron!"

Talip Karabas - Offensive Cyber Security Engineer | Penetration Tester | Ethical Hacker | DevSecOps Engineer

"Ronny is a highly skilled Senior System Engineer with a great deal of experience and is an excellent team player. It was a pleasure working with you, Ronny!"

Richard Pijnenburg - Founder of Eclectic Events, Eclectic DJ Collective and Eclectic Entertainment Group

"Ronny is a highly motivated and fun person to work with. He has enormous knowledge and is never afraid to learn from others."

Tom Carrion Chrisstoffels - Software Architect @ Thales

"Skilled sysadmin. A pleasure to work with!"

Reinier Haasjes - Senior DevOps & Infrastructure Engineer | Scalability & Automation

"Ronny is a great and sociable colleague to work with. He is dedicated, hard-working, and flexible. He has broad knowledge of Linux, Windows, and IT solutions and has no 9-to-5 mentality. I can recommend Ronny for any position he would apply for."

Arjan de Jong - Cybersecurity Architect at Capgemini

"Ronny is a highly skilled administrator. He knows the ins and outs of his products, keeps up with all new developments, and is open to other products and solutions that do not run on the Linux platform. He is a great person to work with, listens to other people's opinions, and has excellent social skills. If you are looking for a highly qualified Linux administrator, Ronny will definitely get the job done!"

Corné van der Vaart - Senior Project Manager at Proximus Group

"Ronny is a highly skilled Senior System Administrator with extensive knowledge of Unix/Linux and even Windows systems. Ronny does not mind working outside office hours or putting in overtime. Because of his flexible attitude and professional IT solutions, he is a stable factor within any organization."

Patrick Schreurs - Senior Privacy Consultant | LLM | BSc | CIPPE | CIPM | CIPT | FIP | DPO

"Ronny is a dedicated engineer with broad knowledge of system administration. I experienced Ronny as a pleasant, easy-going, and dedicated colleague. It was a pleasure working with Ronny."

Rachid Achellal - Security Engineer at Conclusion Enablement

"Ronny has knowledge of BSD, Linux, MySQL, VoIP, and much more. He has no 9-to-5 mentality and is always busy. He is helpful and you can ask him anything. It was a pleasure working with him."

Mark Kerssens - Linux Engineer

"I greatly enjoyed working with Ronny. His dedication and skills taught me much of what I know today. I have no doubt that Ronny has a bright future ahead of him. Besides being a good colleague, he is also a great person to work with."

Patrick Kievit - Integrates Automated Testing with Software Development...

"I have never seen anyone type commands so fast—truly amazing. No migration is too much for him, and he approaches every one with great dedication. His cooperative approach also contributed to the success of our projects. Ronny, thank you, and I wish you all the best for the future."

Thorsten Einig - Product, Domains and Business Development @ WHG

"I have always appreciated Ronny as a highly knowledgeable and helpful colleague. The enjoyment he gets from his work and his colleagues complements his hands-on approach. Ronny tackles problems as they arise and solves them quickly without losing sight of his enormous area of responsibility, and certainly without a 9-to-5 mentality."

Thomas Weaver - Information Security Architect at bet365

"It was a pleasure working with Ronny, both professionally and socially. As the sole Senior Unix Administrator at LeaseWeb, he always had a great deal of work to do, yet still managed to achieve his goals and help others whenever they needed it. I have never worked with a more knowledgeable, helpful, and genuinely nice person."

Paolo Iannelli - Mega Labs

"Ronny is not just a Unix System Administrator. He has broad and extensive knowledge of Unix and Linux distributions and the expertise to decide which one to choose based on specific project requirements. In most cases, he surprised me by discussing Trixbox, Asterisk at an advanced level, as well as Nagios performance tuning. Outside of work, he is a great guy, always around when there is fun to be had. I would trust him with my servers without hesitation."
photo of me

📄 Download NL CV (PDF)
📄 Download EN CV (PDF)



Skills

    • Architecture & Infrastructure Engineering
    • High Availability
    • Infrastructure Architecture
    • Infrastructure Automation
    • Infrastructure as Code
    • Disaster Recovery
    • Virtualization
    • Open Source Infrastructure
      Automation & Configuration Management
    • Ansible
    • Puppet
    • Kickstart
      Security
    • Infrastructure Security
    • PKI
    • Data Encryption
    • Firewalls
    • Pentesting
    • ISO 27001
    • ISO 27002
    • NIS2
      Operating Systems
    • Linux
    • Debian
    • FreeBSD
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    • Ubuntu
    • Arch
    • Unix
    • Windows Server
      Virtualization & Cloud
    • VMware
    • KVM
    • Proxmox
    • Xen
    • Hyper-V
    • Docker
    • Azure
    • Amazon AWS
      Programming Languages & Scripting
    • Bash
    • Python
    • PHP
      Networking
    • HAProxy
    • Keepalived
    • VPN (OpenVPN)
    • Cisco IOS
    • JunOS
    • F5 BigIP
    • A10 Load Balancers
    • Cisco Technologies
    • Huawei Switches/Routers
    • HP Switches/Routers
    • Dell Switches

Languages

  • Dutch
    Native language
  • English
    Fluent

Interests

  • Blogging
  • Cars
  • Cybersecurity
  • Open Source
  • Family
  • Fishing