One of many many recurring characters in tv sequence is the corporate ‘lifer’. A protracted-term worker who will get snug with the established order. They do their job on autopilot, embrace the routine and coast by till they retire. Hans Lambermont, our Senior Programs Architect, couldn’t be farther from that cliché — what has stored him at Shapeways for over 15 years isn’t routine, it’s evolution.
“For the assorted years I’ve labored right here, loads has modified over time, which is what mainly has stored me right here,” he says. “From startup to grow-up, transferring workplaces, constructing groups within the US, migrating infrastructure by six completely different information facilities, transferring to the cloud, then transferring out once more. I like that. I like change.”
The invisible hand
As Senior Programs Architect, Hans is chargeable for the infrastructure that retains every thing working. This may be one thing of a thankless activity, as a result of while you’re nearly as good as Hans is, no person notices your work. “Infrastructure is one thing that’s sometimes not seen in any respect. It’s solely seen as soon as it breaks. However when it does break, every thing that is dependent upon it simply stops. So you must plan like every thing that may break will break.”
It’s not nearly patching up issues however extra about constructing resilience. “If I’ve a number of servers that may do precisely the identical factor, and one in every of them breaks, the opposite one ought to have the ability to take the total load. That’s good. No one notices something even broke. That could be a win.”
Hans’ many years of expertise present themselves in refined methods. “We’ve had fiber cuts to the buildings a number of occasions. So now, once I see building occurring close to the place the fiber cables lie, I get anxious… I’ve seen it occur. However that’s why we’ve got failover plans, backup strains, routing protocols. It’s important to be prepared.”
Readiness and resilience
That long-term considering is significant now greater than ever. Hans performed an important function within the restart of Shapeways on the finish of 2024, balancing the complicated technical infrastructure with cost-efficiency and progress in thoughts. “We would have liked to reconfigure our cloud providing, transferring extra in-house however retaining the uptime and stability everybody expects. That was a profitable mission and that’s what we’re working on at this time.”
Complexity is usually inevitable, however the place doable Hans prefers the minimalist method. “Whenever you’re creating techniques that cater to a number of completely different necessities, you find yourself including layers upon layers of complexity in a short time,” he explains. “After which, if there’s an issue, it’s very tough to seek out the place it resides. So I ask, ‘is that layer actually wanted’? Reducing complexity makes it simpler to diagnose and repair issues — and to forestall them from occurring once more.”
And as Shapeways seems to be to scale, Hans’ function turns into much more central. “We’re at present harmonizing the infrastructure throughout the completely different components of the enterprise; scaling-up when wanted, scaling again once we don’t. That saves price however maintains resilience.”
Failing to arrange means making ready to fail
“You at all times have to plan for progress. Should you can deal with your present load, are you able to deal with double that? Ten occasions that? With each scaling step, you want completely different options and it could possibly get expensive shortly. It’s a problem to seek out the steadiness of resilience and value viability.”
Perfection is at all times simply over the horizon, however over time you may get fairly near it. Hans’ expertise in The Netherlands has given him an training in how you can do issues correctly. “Shapeways’ manufacturing facility in Eindhoven was the gold commonplace by way of operations. Within the early years, folks from the corporate’s different websites would come right here to find out how we do issues.”
That stability, backed by technical maturity, is what underpins the corporate’s future. “Technical reliability typically can’t be seen. It’s work that occurs behind the scenes. However the folks right here — the crew, the instruments, the practices — are stable.”
Curiosity and cosmology
Maybe unsurprisingly, Hans’ ardour for the massive image — actually— doesn’t cease when he goes dwelling. He’s written customized Linux drivers for his astrophotography pastime, constructed his personal climate station and automatic an observatory roof that opens and closes based mostly on cloud cowl. “It’s a enjoyable problem. I’ve been working it for some time now. Some objects are simply two small dots in a star area, but when you recognize what you’re taking a look at, like a gravitationally break up quasar, it’s fascinating.”
So what sort of individual is finest suited to the herculean activity of protecting techniques up and stopping issues earlier than they occur?
“Curious folks. People who find themselves decided to repair one thing as much as their very own requirements. Every part we run runs on Linux. We’ve used cutting-edge infrastructure: ZFS on Linux, EBGP routing, Kubernetes, Flux, Terraform… we’re not afraid to alter. Change is fixed. Count on it.”
And what makes an important day for Hans?“An excellent day is that if I discovered the reason for a problem and was capable of repair it, or if I noticed that some preventative measure truly prevented an even bigger drawback from occurring. That’s good.” You may observe together with the Shapeways Group Highlight sequence to seek out out extra concerning the crew behind the scenes.
