Hi, I'm Thijs
I'm a technical evangelist at Varnish Software, the company behind the immensely popular Varnish Cache open source technology. I'm not only an advocate for the open source technology, but I also evangelize the enterprise version of the software.
My mission is to bridge the gap between code and infrastructure.
The first 15 years of my career were spent at Combell, the leading Benelux webhosting company. I started out as a support engineer and web developer, and used these skill to eventually become an evangelist. Solving problems with code when I can, and with infrastucture when I need to. Basically, figuring out the ideal way to keep "the stack" as stable as possible.
Although I'm tremendously passionate about technology, my most powerful tool is communication.
I love languages, and I love using these languages in conversations. I speak Dutch, English, French, and a bit of German.
I convey my message through various media: I speak at conferences, I write blog posts, I record vlogs, I write books, and I love interacting with people.
MY EXPERIENCES
Technologist
- Programming: PHP, VCL, Javascript, Python, Go
- Containerzation: Docker, Kubernetes
- Automation: Ansible, Packer, Terraform, Vagrant, Heat, Puppet, Chef, CloudFormation
- Databases: MySQL, ElasticSearch, Redis
- Cloud platforms: AWS, OpenStack
- HTTP servers: Varnish, Nginx, HAProxy
Speaker
- Delivered 290 presentations
- Spoke in 21 countries
- I primarily speak at open source conferences
- I also like speaking at small meetups
- I occasionally speak at corporate events
- Audiences range from 10 to 1.000 attendees
- I can do in-depth technical talks, entertaining presentations of any kind, and inspiring keynotes
Event organizer
- Co-founder and board member of the PHPBenelux User Group From 2009 till 2018.
- Organizer of the PHPBenelux Conference from 2010 till 2018
- Meetup organizer for PHPBenelux, and Combell
- Organizer of DamnData
- I specialize in sponsoring, partnerships, branding, and audience experience
Author
I'm the author of "Getting Started with Varnish Cache", a technical book about Varnish. The book was published by O'Reilly, and officially endorsed by Varnish Software.
Blogger
I blog about technology, and my experiences on the road a speaker. Most of my technical blog posts are about the technology I use on a day-to-day basis: Varnish, PHP, ElasticSearch, MySQL, Ansible, Packer, Terraform, Vagrant, Docker, Kubernetes.
Vlogger
I use the power of video to add a visual element to my blog posts, but also to share my experiences as a technical evangelist.
My vlogs contain tech tutorials, trip reports, interviews, and day-to-day experiences. I also vlog about football at FCB Support, a Club Brugge fan channel.
Speaker bio
If I'm speaking at your event, you probably need my speaker bio and a picture of me. Below, you'll find a Gist containing my bio.
