DevOps Meetup Zürich

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 - 18:15 - Welcoming Notes & Opening Insights by AWS
18:15 - 19:00 - Powering Innovation through Inclusion by Sunita Asnani & Moritz Müller
19:00 - 19:45 - Specification Driven Development by Michal Kolodziej & Marcel Neidinger
19:45 - 20:30 - Networking, Open Space & More drinks

Powering Innovation through Inclusion
Switzerland is facing a shortage of nearly 40,000 ICT professionals by 2030 and yet, many highly qualified individuals with refugee or migrant backgrounds remain excluded from the job market. Powercoders bridges this gap.
Join us for an inspiring session where we spotlight the transformative journey of a Powercoders alum, share our insight of our work of job integration, and offer an impulse presentation on how diversity in teams drives innovation, resilience, and performance.
Discover the impact we make, the stories we shape, and why tapping into underrepresented talent isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a strategic advantage.
What you will take away:
Real-World Insight into Inclusive Hiring: Learn how companies are successfully integrating refugees and migrants into their tech teams and the tangible benefits this brings in terms of skills, motivation, and loyalty.
The Business Case for Diversity: Gain a fresh perspective on how diverse teams contribute to innovation, productivity, and team culture, backed by real examples and data.
Actionable Inspiration: Walk away with concrete ideas and first steps your company can take to tap into untapped talent pools and be part of a growing movement towards more inclusive, future-ready workplaces.

Sunita Asnani
At Powercoders, Sunita leads efforts to foster an inclusive learning environment, with a focus on equity, belonging, and cross-cultural collaboration. Since the founding of Powercoders, she has been dedicated to empowering talent from diverse backgrounds to thrive in the tech industry.

Moritz Müller
Moritz is focused on establishing and nourishing relations with partner companies of Powercoders that offer internships to Powercoders Alumni. In his role as a Company Relations Manager he enables companies to enhance cultural diversity in their tech teams. Above all, he helps individuals with a refugee or migrant background to re-establish their professional career in the Swiss IT market.

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Specification Driven Development
Have you ever heard of SDD or Specification Driven Development? Are you interested in how we can develop software faster while maintaining quality in the era of agentic AI? Then this session is for you! We introduce the concept of SDD and showcase how this steers us away from hand-written code and ad-hoc, prompt-driven vibe coding chaos to a Software Development Lifecycle based on crisp specifications. The session contains hands-on demos, using Amazon Q and Kiro, demonstrating how these tools implement SDD and make programming more efficient, intelligent, and collaborative.

Michal Kolodziej
Software and Solutions Architect with over 15 years of experience designing and implementing 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.

Marcel Neidinger
Marcel is a developer turned solutions architect currently working as a Senior Solutions Architect for AWS in Zurich. He is passionate about (cloud) networking, automation, distributed systems, and the application of machine learning to build intelligent, efficient, and resilient networks.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

• Catering & Location Sponsor: Amazon Web Services https://aws.amazon.com/

## Details

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 - 18:50- Streamline Your Infrastructure by Ralf Weber
18:55 - 19:40 - Scaling Automation by Marcel Neidinger
19:40 - 20:30 - Networking & more drinks

Streamline Your Infrastructure: Kubernetes-Native Resource Management with Crossplane
While many are familiar with Terraform, Crossplane offers a seamless experience to manage your infrastructure as code that integrates directly into your Kubernetes workflow - eliminating context-switching and the need to learn a new language. In this talk, we'll explore how Crossplane enhances visibility into your cloud resources, tackles configuration drift, and enables opinionated developer self-service. Through a live demo, you'll learn how to manage both cloud and on-prem resources effectively with Crossplane, and how to build an abstraction layer between vendor-specific resources and developers - significantly improving Developer Experience (DX).

Ralf Weber
As a Platform Engineer at Cistec, I focus on streamlining the Developer Experience by building abstraction layers and improving visibility such that our developers can focus on what they do best: delivering features. Operating in the healthcare sector, we work primarily with on-premise client clusters and rely heavily on open source software to maintain flexibility and independence. With a background in a finance startup and a strong foundation in cloud-native tooling, I focus on making open source technologies like Crossplane and ArgoCD work for teams - not the other way around.

Scaling Automation - People, Process & Technology
As organisations implement automation, it often follows a typical pattern. After the initial low hanging fruits are covered, automation is often seen as cumbersome. In this talk we’ll explore the technical and process-related aspects of scaling automation while keeping the people pillar in mind.
Attendees will learn practical strategies for developing automation-first cultures, establishing standardized processes, and selecting appropriate technologies that enable the scaling of automation practices. We'll dive into specific challenges faced during scaling efforts, including team upskilling, process optimization, and technology integration.

Marcel Neidinger
Marcel is a developer turned solutions architect currently working as a Senior Solutions Architect for AWS in Zurich. He is passionate about (cloud) networking, automation, distributed systems, and the application of machine learning to build intelligent, efficient, and resilient networks.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

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

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 - Navigating the EU Cyber Resilience Act: A DevSecOps Approach by Marc Herren
18:45 - 19:30 - Running a Kubernetes cluster on Hetzner in production as a KMU - for almost nothing by Patrick Schratz
19:30 - 20:30 - Networking, Open Space & More drinks

Navigating the EU Cyber Resilience Act: A DevSecOps Approach
This session introduces the European Union's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) - a landmark regulation adopted in October 2024 that establishes common cybersecurity standards for products with digital elements in the EU.
The presentation begins with an overview of the CRA's purpose and scope. It examines how this regulation addresses growing cybersecurity concerns, from vulnerabilities in connected devices to supply chain security issues, and its relevance to engineering teams.

The second part outlines what organizations can expect as the CRA is implemented, including adaptation periods, reporting requirements, and compliance considerations that will affect product development cycles.

The main focus highlights a practical DevSecOps approach to address CRA requirements through automation. The concept of not only "shifting left" (integrating security earlier in development) but also "shifting down" (embedding security into the platform layer) demonstrates how open-source tools create a security foundation that reduces manual overhead.
This cultural and process transformation enables teams to embed security throughout the software lifecycle automatically. By treating security as a catalyst rather than a constraint, organizations can transform compliance requirements into an opportunity to build more resilient software while maintaining development velocity.

Marc Herren
Platform Engineer @ bespinian
Making complex DevSecOps challenges disappear through platform engineering magic!
I work as a platform engineer with Kubernetes, cloud-native technologies, and AI-enhanced automation. As such, I do a lot of development using infrastructure as code and CI/CD pipelines. I'm also the founder of remmen.io GmbH, where I focus on digital education and knowledge sharing.
With 25 years of experience in datacenters, networking, and automation, I've helped numerous teams master platform engineering challenges. My Linux journey started in 1995, and I'm passionate about emerging technologies, especially AI in automation.
Outside of work, you'll find me spending time with family, strategizing over board games, mixing tracks as a DJ, or diving into sci-fi literature.

Running a Kubernetes cluster on Hetzner in production as a KMU - for almost nothing
Operating a Kubernetes cluster is often seen as costly, mainly due to managed control planes, the need for multiple environments, and expensive storage solutions. These factors can make it challenging for small businesses to adopt Kubernetes. On alternative cloud providers, the process typically involves manually configuring each component, which demands significant expertise and time. But it doesn’t have to be this way! There are effective methods to easily set up and manage Kubernetes clusters on smaller cloud providers, such as Hetzner, via IaC, allowing you to reduce costs by 5-10 times. Let me show you how!

Patrick Schratz
I am a professional in the DevOps/System Administration space for ~ 10 years with a background in applied machine learning (PhD). I am a FOSS advocate and have been active as a Gitea/Forgejo maintainer and Codeberg (core) member since several years. Starting out with R initially, I mainly work with Go and IaC these days. On the business side, I am an independent consultant (at devxy.io) bridging the DevOps/Data Science fields.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

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