Thomas Tischner

Profile

More than 15 years in IT, over five of them as an architect in consulting. I come from the data center and know the stack from hardware to model deployment.

years in IT

15+

years as an architect in consulting

5+

Focus areas

Highly available multi-cluster platforms

Scalable and automated, from design to operations.

AI and data science platforms

So business teams can deliver their own use cases.

End-to-end automation

From provisioning to deployment, reproducible with GitOps.

“Pragmatic, sustainable and built with operations in mind from day one.”

Services

• Kubernetes platforms

  Multi-cluster platforms on OpenShift, Rancher or vSphere Tanzu, from planning to operations.

• AI and data platforms

  Model serving and LLM inference, feature store, GPU workloads and Kafka streaming for data science teams.

• GitOps and automation

  Infrastructure and deployments as code: ArgoCD, Crossplane, Tekton, Terraform, Ansible, Helm.

• Security and operations

  CKS-level hardening, Vault and PKI, service mesh, monitoring. Plus architecture reviews, workshops and hackathons, most recently on AI agents in platform operations.

Projects

1. 2024–2026 · Security-critical environment

   AI/data science platform

   clusters

   ~10

   nodes per cluster

   9

   sites

   2

   Multi-tenant platform in an isolated environment on vSphere Tanzu, GitOps with ArgoCD and Crossplane. Business teams run model serving, feature store, workflows and GPU jobs themselves.

   • KServe
   • vLLM
   • Feast
   • MLflow
   • Airflow
   • Trino
   • NVIDIA GPU Operator

2. 2023–2026 · Vehicle manufacturing

   Real-time streaming

   events per day

   1–9 M

   Confluent Kafka platform for safety-relevant production data, with separate Rancher clusters per stage and end-to-end monitoring. Deployments via Helm, Fleet and GitHub Actions.

   • Confluent Kafka
   • Rancher
   • Fleet
   • Helm
   • GitHub Actions

3. 2021–2024 · Public sector

   Streaming platform

   faster deployments

   ~60%

   departments

   7

   Multi-cluster OpenShift platform where departments deploy on their own via Git. CI/CD migrated from GitLab to Tekton, Istio introduced, secrets and PKI moved to Vault.

   • OpenShift
   • Tekton
   • Istio
   • HashiCorp Vault
   • Kafka

4. 2020–2021 · Public sector

   Kubernetes PaaS

   clusters

   ~40

   nodes

   ~720

   Organization-wide Kubernetes platform on bare metal and VMs with fully automated provisioning.

   • OpenShift
   • Ansible
   • VMware

I don’t name clients, only the industry.

Speaker

In talks, workshops and hackathons I show how platforms and AI work together in practice. Concrete, accessible and drawn from real projects.

Topics

AI agents in practice

From chat to autonomous assistant: agents, tools, workflows and their value in platform operations.

AI and data platforms on Kubernetes

Model serving, LLM inference and self-service for data science teams.

Platform engineering and GitOps

How teams ship faster and more safely with automated platforms.

Kubernetes security

Hardening and operations in regulated environments.

Career

1. since 2026

   Freelance Platform Architect

   Thomas Tischner IT Systems

2. in progress

   M.Sc. Applied Artificial Intelligence

   IU International University of Applied Sciences

   Part-time master’s programme.

3. 2020–2026

   Architect Big Data & AI Platforms

   SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH

   Data, AI and container platforms in client projects, as technical lead.

4. 2018–2020

   Senior System Engineer DevOps / Platform

   Thomann Bits & Beats GmbH

   The company’s first Kubernetes platform, hybrid on-prem and Google Cloud.

5. 2016–2017

   Senior System Engineer DevOps

   noris network AG

   Operations and automation of 700+ VMs and an early OpenShift platform for a bank.

6. 2011–2016

   Data Center, Support & Managed Services

   IP Exchange GmbH / QSC AG

   From data center operations through second-level support to managed services and platform projects.

7. 2008–2011

   Apprenticeship: IT Specialist for System Integration (IHK)

   Netdiscounter GmbH

   At an internet service provider, completed six months early.

Technologies

Certifications

Year = year obtained.

My product

Articles

Hands-on knowledge on Kubernetes platforms, GitOps, security and AI infrastructure. Articles are written in German.

• 6 October 2026 · 9 min read

  Argo CD Multi-Cluster-GitOps: Architektur für viele Cluster

  Argo CD für viele Cluster und Teams: Topologien, ApplicationSets, AppProjects, Promotion, Secrets, Sharding und Sicherheit, mit YAML für Argo CD 3.5.

  • Argo CD
  • GitOps
  • Multi-Cluster
  • Kubernetes
  • Platform Engineering

• 6 October 2026 · 10 min read

  Crossplane v2: Plattform-APIs für Self-Service-Infrastruktur

  Crossplane v2 in der Praxis: namespaced XRs, XRDs und Function-Pipelines als Plattform-API, dazu GitOps mit Argo CD, RBAC, Versionierung und Fallstricke.

  • Crossplane
  • Platform Engineering
  • Kubernetes
  • GitOps
  • Self-Service

• 6 October 2026 · 9 min read

  mTLS mit Istio: Zero Trust im Cluster Schritt für Schritt

  mTLS mit Istio 1.31 in der Praxis: SPIFFE-Identitäten, Sidecar vs. Ambient, Migration auf STRICT ohne Ausfall, Default-Deny und eigene PKI mit Vault.

  • Istio
  • mTLS
  • Zero Trust
  • Kubernetes Security
  • Service Mesh

All articles →