About me
Hi, I am Yurii. System administrator — fifteen years of making sure nothing happens.
I have been looking after servers, networks and the security around them since 2009. The work is deliberately invisible: done well, nobody notices the infrastructure at all. This is the longer version — how the fifteen years were spent, what I have learned to care about, and what I do once the laptop closes.
01
Career
Where the fifteen years went
Four strands of the same job. They started within months of each other in 2009, and in any given week I am still doing all four.
Sep 2009 — Now
System Administrator
Small company
Day-to-day ownership of the server and network estate — builds, patching, capacity, and the migration path off ageing on-site hardware onto cloud that scales with demand rather than with the invoice.
- AWS
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud
- High availability
- Capacity planning
Sep 2009 — Now
Technical Assistance
Small company
First line for the people, not only the machines. Device fleet management, onboarding, and the everyday breakages that quietly cost a team hours before anyone thinks to report them.
- Jamf
- macOS fleet
- Jira
- Confluence
- Device onboarding
Nov 2009 — Now
Backup & Recovery
Small company
Backup cycles and verification that run continuously, so a restore is something already tested rather than something hoped for on the worst possible morning.
- Backup scheduling
- Restore testing
- Disaster recovery
Nov 2017 — Now
Cybersecurity Protection
Freelancer
Closing the gaps before somebody else finds them — firewall and threat protection, patch discipline, risk review, and an incident response plan that exists in writing before it is needed.
- Firewall & threat protection
- Patch discipline
- Incident response
- Risk review
02
Education
Where it started
The security half of the work has a formal spine behind it.
Bachelor’s degree
Computer & Information Systems Security
State University of Information and Communication Technologies
Information assurance and systems security — the theory underneath the practical side of the job, and the reason the cybersecurity work later became a specialism rather than a sideline.
- Information assurance
- Systems security
- Networks
03
Principles
Four things I do not compromise on
A well-maintained estate is the backbone of the business sitting on top of it. These are the rules I hold to whoever is paying.
01
Stability & reliability
Uptime is a design decision, not luck. Single points of failure get found and removed before they find you.
02
Security first
Close the gaps before somebody else does. Patch discipline, least privilege, and a written plan for the day something still gets through.
03
Efficiency & optimisation
Capacity sized to real usage, not to the invoice. Most estates are quietly paying for headroom nobody ever measured.
04
Innovation & automation
If a task happens twice, it gets scripted. Systems should report to me, not the other way round.
04
Off the clock
When the laptop closes
Most of my travelling leads to the same place — the mountains. Hiking the trails and chasing the views is how I switch off and reset. Closer to home I keep the same energy on a football pitch or a tennis court, playing both about once a week.
Available for work
That is me. Now tell me what keeps breaking.
Send a short description of your setup and the problem. I reply with an honest read on whether I am the right person for it — and if I am not, who is.