Alf Kern - Application Support

Q: Where is Alf based?

Alf is based in Munich, Germany .

Q: What languages does Alf speak?

Alf speaks the following languages: German (Advanced), English (Advanced), French (Elementary) .

Q: How many years of experience does Alf have?

Alf has at least 31 years of experience. During this time, Alf has worked in at least 18 different roles and for 20 different companies . The average length of individual experience is 1 year and 6 months . Note that Alf may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Q: What is Alf's latest experience?

Alf's most recent position is Application Support at Netto Online Supermarkets .

Q: What companies has Alf worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Alf has worked for Netto Online Supermarkets , FITS (Finanz Informatik Technology Service) , Deutsche Bahn / DB Systel , DAK/IKK Health Insurance Funds , and Consors Finanz Bank – BNP Paribas .

Q: Which industries is Alf most experienced in?

Alf is most experienced in industries like Banking and Finance , Information Technology (IT) , and Insurance . Alf also has some experience in Automotive , Transportation and Logistics , and Retail .

Q: Which business areas is Alf most experienced in?

Alf is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology (IT) , Operations , and Project Management . Alf also has some experience in Customer Service and Quality Assurance (QA) .

Q: Which industries has Alf worked in recently?

Alf has recently worked in industries like Retail , Banking and Finance , and Healthcare .

Q: Which business areas has Alf worked in recently?

Alf has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology (IT) , Operations , and Quality Assurance (QA) .

Recommended expert

Munich, Germany

Experience

Oct 2023 - Present

2 years 4 months

Application Support

Netto Online Supermarkets

Application support for the e-commerce presence of the Netto Online Supermarket chain [link]
Webshop runs with PIM, ERP and Diva software - Microsoft Dynamics Business Central
ITIL incident, change and problem management
Diva components include ERP, CRM, OMS, WMS and POS
Receiving, handling and, if needed, forwarding user requests
Error analysis and support with problem solving
Monitoring/orchestration of the individual systems
Day-to-day collaboration with external service providers and development team
User management and second-level support activities
System logging/maintenance of external interfaces
Application administration with Jira and Confluence in QA and production environments
Technology: Windows Server 2008, Linux servers, MS SQL Server

Mar 2023 - Aug 2023

6 months

Application Support and Operations

FITS (Finanz Informatik Technology Service)

Support for client LBBW (Landesbank Baden-Württemberg)
Ensuring smooth operation of Front Arena, Calypso and Kondor Plus under SLAs and regulatory requirements
Operation and management of applications in the financial markets domain
Knowledge of deployment tools like Ansible and Git
Running server systems, Red Hat Linux 7/8 and Windows Server 2016
Test operations and support for release testing
Customizing applications to client requirements within concepts and standards
Installing, configuring and continuously monitoring applications on systems, including documentation
2nd level support and troubleshooting operational issues
Control, coordination, support and maintenance of complex applications
Coordination with development, database, network and storage teams
Implementing complex application changes during release cycles with direct client and infrastructure coordination

May 2022 - Mar 2023

11 months

IT Operations Application Manager

Deutsche Bahn / DB Systel

Day-to-day operation of HR processes with PeopleSoft
Operation on AWS cloud via PAN client
Ensuring operation of test, acceptance and production environments
Monitoring and testing of B2R requirement fulfillment
Ongoing updates of application documentation (wiki procedures)
Incident and problem management for applications and infrastructure
Adjusting thresholds, monitoring concepts and procedures
Coordinating error analysis, documenting results and communicating with clients
Installing applications and components
Implementing monitoring concepts and running technical acceptance tests
Introducing applications and releases (major, minor, maintenance, hotfixes)
Regular deployments and deliveries
Security management and handling vulnerabilities
Red Hat Linux in a complex and critical enterprise architecture
Main applications: PeopleSoft (AMS, HCM, PTR), WebLogic and JBoss

Apr 2021 - Aug 2022

1 year 5 months

IT Operations Application Manager

DAK/IKK Health Insurance Funds

Implementing and managing test and production environments for three projects:
Zip code logging of read accesses via high-availability web application connected to live systems (audit and admin clients)
Archive Orange: migrating a mainframe archive system to Red Hat Linux with a purge process and web-based firewall
BitArchive: building an audit-proof archive system moving from Windows Server DB2 to Unix-based Informix DB
Tools: Red Hat Linux 8, Ansible, DB2 11.5, JBoss, Apache, Windows Server 2016, Informix, Solaris
Daily operations with ITSM incidents, changes and problems in Kanban, Confluence, Citrix, DSM, DB Visualizer, MS Teams, Webex, Jabber, Jira
Planning and coordinating hardware changes for test and production
Regular task force meetings
Software configuration, deployments and testing
Moving to production and providing daily operations support
Resolving issues with developers and users during functional testing
Handling incidents and service requests
Creating documentation and training
Technical support during application build-up, go-live and production support

Aug 2019 - Jun 2021

1 year 11 months

IT Operations Application Manager

Consors Finanz Bank – BNP Paribas

Supporting complex server applications and underlying platforms
Supporting test and production systems of loan origination software and satellite applications
Maintenance of middleware applications
2nd-level IT operations in the incident management process
Classifying and analyzing root causes in problem management
Participating in configuration and asset management processes
Monitoring and ensuring service level agreement compliance
Deploying software and updates to application infrastructure with patches and security updates
Capacity and availability management of application infrastructure
Close collaboration with development and online banking support
Tools: Icinga2, Iris, Jira, Tomcat, JBoss, Red Hat 7, Red Hat Satellite 5, Jenkins

Apr 2019 - Aug 2019

5 months

Application and Middleware Management

IBM Germany (HypoVereinsbank/Unicredit)

ITIL tasks: incidents, changes, problems, user requests
Europe-wide application support with developer and customer contact
Operations in test, integration and production environments: monitoring, patching, migration, health checks
Staging and deployments with security compliance, high availability and disaster recovery
Definition of product lifecycles and migration strategies
Installation, administration, architecture design, test, pre-production and production environments
Evaluation of new products and features for technology refresh
2nd and 3rd level support
Project consulting for application development and application architecture
Performance analysis and tuning at application and system level
Capacity and availability management
Tools: Apache Web Server, Oracle WebLogic, Red Hat JBoss, Apache Tomcat, Splunk, Jira, Git, SQL Developer, Red Hat Linux

Jan 2019 - Mar 2019

3 months

Application and Change Management

Federal Employment Agency Nuremberg

Responsibility and execution of ITIL-compliant operations for Eakte and e-justice procedures
Participation in implementation of new IT procedures in operations
Coordination and execution of changes in existing procedures
Overall responsibility for IT procedures on system platforms
IT service-related operational responsibility within IT operations processes
2nd level support for disruptions of IT procedures
Coordination and implementation of change requests
Technical problem management for sustainable problem resolution
Ensuring required service levels and providing reporting data
Crisis management for operational incidents
Change coordination for patch days and releases
Participation in onboarding procedures into operations
Consulting and support for projects
Capacity planning for IT procedures
Definition and maintenance of operational documentation guidelines
Risk management for the operation of IT procedures
Creation and maintenance of unified operational documentation
Deployment/rollout activities with line teams
Product and conceptual responsibility for product Elise
Coordination of 3rd level support
Tools: ARS, Red Hat Linux, WebLogic, Jira, Jenkins, MS Project, Visio, Excel

May 2016 - Dec 2018

2 years 8 months

Application Support and Service Management

Occupational Insurance Associations BGBAU, BGN, RCI Munich

Application and service management of web applications
Support of over 100 virtual Red Hat Release 6.9 environments
Introduction, configuration and operation of complex client-server applications
Gathering, analysis and implementation of business department requirements
Project management, e.g. introduction of a new archiving system
Responsibility for incident, change and problem management
Responsible for the archiving system
DevOps activities: GIT, Ansible, Python, Jenkins, Docker, Bash
Optimization of environments regarding application and system errors as well as performance and availability
Cross-platform error analysis
Monitoring compliance with SLAs
Support for infrastructure changes and provision of software fixes
Planning and execution of rollouts, software fixes and complex release changes
Review, development and support of automations
Creation of operational documentation and test definitions for automated operational tests
Interface for business and technical change requests
Development of operational procedures for changes
Consulting on architecture-specific topics
Tools: JBoss, WebSphere, HP Service Manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, IBM Notes, Automic One, IBM Rational Change, Tivoli Enterprise Portal, Citrix Receiver, Maven, Jenkins, Apache

Apr 2015 - Apr 2016

1 year 1 month

Project/Release/Infrastructure/Deployment Management

BMW AG Munich

Setup and maintenance of a second integration environment for iPDM and OTD@RollsRoyce
Planning and coordination of new environments with specialist departments
Integration of new systems in coordination with application managers
Operation of over 70 applications (SAP NetWeaver, IBM Host, decentralized UNIX systems)
Service requests, incident, change and configuration management with ITSM Remedy
Collaboration with the development team in India
Coordination of 1st, 2nd and 3rd level support
Change management coordination with IT and specialist departments
SAP user and configuration management
Support of Apache Web Servers, WebLogic and GlassFish
Bug/defect management in ALM with developers
Release and deployment management including system loads
Creation of documentation and user management instructions
Coordination of tests and interface checks (DB, Connect Direct, MQ Series, SFTP)
Support of the Rolls-Royce applications in the UK
Tools: ITSM, BMC Remedy, ALM, Jira, SharePoint, CMDB, Apache, WebLogic, GlassFish, Oracle, MQSeries

May 2013 - Mar 2015

1 year 11 months

Application Support / Release Management / Project Management

PAYBACK (Mexico, Italy, USA)

Setting up and rolling out test and production environments in Mexico, Italy and the USA
Participation in concept phase, release management, deployment, architecture review
Quality assurance, automation, documentation and training
Software rollout, troubleshooting, error analysis in collaboration with the development team in India
International support for customers and partners with weekly deployments
DevOps: Scrum/Sprint review meetings with development
Building and organizing application support (from 1 to 7 staff)
ITIL-compliant setup of incident, problem and user request management with ServiceNow
Automated rollouts/releases/hotfixes with Jenkins, Ansible, Git, Python
Creation of SQL extracts and reports
Support of all web and application servers including certificate management
Release management validations, smoke, sanity, UAT and end-to-end tests
CTI meetings and bug/defect management in Jira
Tools: Red Hat Linux, Apache, WebLogic, Tomcat, Graphite, Grafana, Icinga, Nagios, Oracle DB, Java, SOAPUI, PL/SQL Developer, Citrix, Dynatrace, SVN, Jenkins, MicroStrategy, Python

Jan 2010 - Apr 2013

3 years 4 months

Unix Engineer, Release/Project Management

Deutsche Bahn AG, Frankfurt

Operation of Deutsche Bahn's web and application servers for portal, information and booking in test, acceptance and production environments
Project-related tasks: planning, resource management, error analysis, release and change management, deployment, incident management, scripting, documentation
Focus on test and production operations, release management, automation and monitoring
Support for Apache, Tomcat and Oracle WebLogic application servers
PL/SQL and SOAPUI analysis for user support
Coordination of releases with business units and QA
Management of central delivery processes and definition of release policies
Post-release activities: smoke, sanity, transition tests and Selenium automation
Establishment and integration of deployment tools
Tools: Apache, Oracle, Tomcat, Java, Oracle Tuxedo, WebLogic, HP Service Manager, Tivoli, Nagios

Apr 2008 - Dec 2009

1 year 9 months

Unix Administration, Project Management

T-Systems (BMW AG, Daimler AG, Shell AG)

Infrastructure projects and customer support for BMW, Schufa, Shell and Daimler across Europe, Africa, Asia and the USA
Management of SUSE Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and VMware environments, as well as Solaris at Daimler
Planning, coordination and implementation of HW/SW customer requirements
Installation and migration of servers and application support
Development and execution of test scenarios
Second and third level support and troubleshooting
Resource planning and SAP OS/DBA/Middleware support
Monitoring coordination (Tivoli, Nagios), performance tuning, SAN/NAS administration
ITIL service management: incident, change and problem management
NetBackup client support and documentation
Cluster and volume manager administration (Veritas, Sun)
Tools: Apache, Oracle, Tomcat, JBoss, Java, Remedy, Tivoli, VMware

Jul 2007 - Mar 2008

9 months

Web Administration/Unix Administration

Allianz AG, Munich

Operation of the intranet and internet with over 1,000 web and application server instances
Test, integration and production operations of Apache web servers
Error log analysis, troubleshooting and release deployment
Tuning of web and application servers and applications
Security concepts and performance analysis
Second and third level support and project work
Volume management and cluster administration
Backup management (DBA)
Tools: Apache, WebSphere, JBoss, Tomcat, Oracle, Remedy, Nagios

Mar 2006 - Jul 2007

1 year 5 months

System Engineer, Application Support

BMW AG, Munich

Support of Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, RedHat and SUSE Linux systems in global data centers
Automation and efficiency improvement
Application support for Oracle, WebLogic, JBoss and Tomcat
Tool development with Shell and Perl
Performance analysis and monitoring with Nagios
Proof of concepts and go-live coordination
SAN/NAS storage connection and network/firewall coordination
Second and third level support and on-call duty
Tools: Remedy, VMware, Jumpstart, ESX

Apr 2005 - Mar 2006

1 year

Consultant UNIX Operations & System Engineer

European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main

Operation of Solaris and Linux systems with SAN connections in three data centers
Migration of operating systems and applications
Second and third level support and performance tuning
Disaster recovery setup
Monitoring and internal tool development
Tuning, problem management and quality management
Project management and documentation
Tools: Solaris, Linux, SAN, clustering

Dec 2004 - Mar 2005

4 months

System Consultant

LUCENT Technologies (SUN assignment), Nuremberg

Transition project: insourcing of a Solaris and Red Hat environment with NAS
Handover of the production operation within 4 weeks
Documentation, training, and setup of a development and test environment
ITSM-based operations, problem resolution, and monitoring
Application support in an R&D environment
Tools: Solaris, NetApp, Cisco, Oracle

Oct 2002 - Nov 2004

2 years 2 months

Web Infrastructure Engineer-Admin / Technical Support / UNIX System Administration

BMW headquarters Munich

Operation of a global intranet and internet presence for BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce
Administration of Apache and Oracle WebLogic on Suse Linux and Solaris clusters
Build management with Ant and Maven
Third level support, coordination with development
Monitoring with Sitescope, Nagios, and Tivoli
DB administration: installation, upgrades, tuning, and backup
Tools: Apache, WebLogic, Oracle, VMware

Nov 2001 - Sep 2002

11 months

Web Infrastructure Engineer - Web Administration

HypoVereinsbank/Unicredit, Munich

Migration of the internet presence from Windows to Solaris and Linux with Veritas clustering
Administration of Apache, BEA WebLogic, SuSE Linux, and Solaris
System tuning, performance monitoring, and backup with Veritas NetBackup
Security measures and content maintenance
Monitoring with Tivoli and internal tools

Jan 2001 - Oct 2001

10 months

Unix Administration / Application Support

SUN Microsystems, Germany headquarters

Solaris system administration in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
Second/third level support for 1000 users
Intranet web support and infrastructure tasks
Veritas Volume Manager and cluster support
Backup support with Legato Networker

Sep 1994 - Jan 2001

6 years 5 months

Unix Administration, Application Support

Commerzbank, Investment Banking headquarters Frankfurt

Build and operation of the investment banking IT from 3 to 200 servers and 400 clients
UNIX (Solaris, RedHat, SuSE) administration and network planning
Application support for Summit, Murex, XETRA, Reuters, and Bloomberg
Incident, change, and problem management following ITIL
Team leadership and helpdesk setup

Skills

Key Areas:

Project Experience > 10 Years In
Service Transition (Release, Change, Problem, Configuration Management), Deployment
Service Operations (Event, Incident, Request Management, Access, Problem Management, Automation)
Itil V2 And Itil 2011 Update
Project Management Prince2 Practitioner Level
Application Operation And End-user Support
Web Admin/middleware (Web Server, App Server, Clustering)
Testing (Smoke, Sanity, Transition, Uat, End-to-end)
Administration (Unix/linux, Networks, Firewalls, Databases, Load Balancing, Sql, Security)
Infrastructure Management In Test, Integration And Production Environments

Positions:

Itil Service Management
Unix Administrator (Linux, Solaris, Aix)
Web Administrator (Apache, Bea Weblogic, Websphere)
Application Support, Including Oracle Db
Project Participation/rollouts
Devops Support
Deployments And Testing
System Analysis

Operating Systems:

Linux
Sun Os
Solaris
Windows

Languages:

C
Emacs
Java
Javascript
Perl
Shell

Databases:

Oracle
Sql
Sybase

Data Communication:

Ethernet
Internet
Intranet
Lan
Lan Manager
Lat
Router
Smtp
Snmp
Tcp/ip
Tip
Uucp

Tools:

Remedy
Netcool
Tivoli
Nagios
Cacti
Cisco Ios
Firewall-1
Siteminder
Hp Psc
Squirrel
Hp Sm 9
Apache
Jboss
Jenkins

Hardware:

Intel
Sparc
Ibm
Hp

Others:

Web-related Knowledge
Application And System Administration

Experience:

Focus On Unix (Solaris, Linux)
Hardware Sun Servers/intel Processors
Early Programming (C, Fortran) And Db Support (Sybase)
Networking Experience (Cisco Ios, Tcp/ip)
Industry-specific Application Support
Concepts And Analysis (As-is/to-be, Implementation)
Project Management, Automation, Resource Planning
Coordination Of Development, Test, Production
User Support And Service

Languages

German

Advanced

English

Advanced

French

Elementary

Education

Oct 1990 - Jun 1995

Degree in Computer Science · Computer Science

Certifications & licenses

ITIL v2

ITIL 2011 Update

PRINCE2 Practitioner Level

Profile

Created

April 2024

Last Update

April 2025

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Frequently asked questions

Do you have questions? Here you can find further information.

Where is Alf based?

Alf is based in Munich, Germany.

What languages does Alf speak?

Alf speaks the following languages: German (Advanced), English (Advanced), French (Elementary).

How many years of experience does Alf have?

Alf has at least 31 years of experience. During this time, Alf has worked in at least 18 different roles and for 20 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 1 year and 6 months. Note that Alf may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

What roles would Alf be best suited for?

Based on recent experience, Alf would be well-suited for roles such as: Application Support, Application Support and Operations, IT Operations Application Manager.

What is Alf's latest experience?

Alf's most recent position is Application Support at Netto Online Supermarkets.

What companies has Alf worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Alf has worked for Netto Online Supermarkets, FITS (Finanz Informatik Technology Service), Deutsche Bahn / DB Systel, DAK/IKK Health Insurance Funds, and Consors Finanz Bank – BNP Paribas.

Which industries is Alf most experienced in?

Alf is most experienced in industries like Banking and Finance, Information Technology (IT), and Insurance. Alf also has some experience in Automotive, Transportation and Logistics, and Retail.

Which business areas is Alf most experienced in?

Alf is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology (IT), Operations, and Project Management. Alf also has some experience in Customer Service and Quality Assurance (QA).