Elsner, Richard
VMware & Linux Senior Consultant
Personal Information
| LAST NAME | Elsner |
| FIRST NAME | Richard |
| NATIONALITY | German |
| CONTACT | via Xing or Linkedin |
| LANGUAGES | German (native speaker) English (near-native speaker) |
| QUALIFICATION | IT Specialist for System Integration (German Apprenticeship, IHK certified, graduated top of class at ZDF) 20 years of expeience in datacenter operations, consulting, and enterprise-scale virtualization projects. |
| Executive Summary | Richard Elsner is a VMware & Linux Senior Consultant with 20 years of datacenter experience, including 16 years dedicated to VMware technologies. He combines deep technical expertise in enterprise-scale virtualization with proven leadership capabilities, mentoring engineers and coordinating internationally distributed teams across multiple time zones. As a trusted advisor in high-impact projects — including Vodafone’s Telco Cloud, the largest VMware vCloud Director deployment in Europe — he bridges technical delivery and executive alignment, ensuring both platform stability, customer trust, and strategic value for organizations. |
| Role & Focus |
| In 2006, Richard completed his vocational training at the German public broadcaster ZDF, graduating as the top trainee in IT System Integration. During his apprenticeship, he also taught himself Linux administration, which became the foundation for his later specialization. His first hands-on experience with VMware dates back to 2005. From the very beginning of his career, Richard has worked in consulting and project-based environments, starting as an IBM AIX & p/Series and Storage Technician, moving on to Solaris administration, and since 2008 specializing primarily in VMware and Linux operations. Alongside his technical specialization, he developed proven leadership capabilities — mentoring junior engineers, coordinating cross-functional teams across globally distributed locations, and serving as a trusted advisor to stakeholders in critical projects. With 20 years of datacenter experience — including 16 years dedicated to VMware technologies — Richard has built deep expertise in enterprise-scale environments. His focus includes workflow optimization for integration, operations, development, and support, as well as root cause analysis and the design of large-scale computing infrastructures. Since 2014, Richard has been engaged through evoila GmbH — at that time a VMware Principal Partner — working exclusively for Vodafone Germany as a Senior Consultant within the VMware Professional Services Organization (PSO). In this role, he was instrumental in building, operating, and extending Vodafone’s vCloud NFV and later TCI platform — at the time the backbone of the company’s Telco Cloud IaaS infrastructure and the largest VMware vCloud Director deployment in Europe. Beyond architecture and operations, his role extended to project coordination, guiding multi-vendor and internationally distributed teams, and providing strategic recommendations to management for future-proofing the platform. He developed custom backup solutions for VMware appliances, implemented a Linux-based backup infrastructure framework for integration with Avamar, and established comprehensive monitoring and logging processes with VMware Aria Log Insight — enabling rapid troubleshooting and ensuring platform stability in mission-critical environments. In addition to technical delivery, he acted as the key interface between Vodafone’s engineering teams and executive stakeholders, ensuring alignment, transparent communication, and effective issue resolution during high-impact incidents. This included coordinating teams across multiple time zones to maintain seamless collaboration and uninterrupted operations. His work also included vendor onboarding (VNFs), platform-level troubleshooting, and escalation handling in situations with potential impact on millions of end customers |
| Products |
| VMware TCI 3.0 (Telco Cloud Infrastructure) VMware NFV 3.2.1 (Network Functions Virtualization) VMware vCloud Director 10 VMware vSphere VMware NSX VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) VMware Aria Operations for Logs VMware Aria Operations VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator VMware PowerCLI, Bash, Perl SLES Red Hat Debian |
Skill Matrix
| CATEGORY | PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY | LEVEL |
| VMware | VMware Overall Skill Level | Expert |
| VMware TCI | Expert | |
| VMware NFV | Advanced | |
| VMware vCloud Director | Advanced | |
| vCenter | Expert | |
| ESXi | Expert | |
| vRealize Operations | Advanced | |
| vRealize Log Insight | Expert | |
| VMware Site Recovery Manager | Advanced | |
| NSX-V | Advanced | |
| VMware PowerCLI | Intermediate | |
| Operating Systems | SLES | Advanced |
| Debian | Advanced | |
| Ubuntu | Advanced | |
| RedHat | Expert | |
| AIX | Intermediate | |
| SOLARIS | Intermediate | |
| Windows | Intermediate | |
| IaC | Project Management | Advanced |
| Change Management | Advanced | |
| Apache, httpd, Tomcat, nginx | Intermediate | |
| Monitoring | Log Insight, Munin, xymon/Hobbit, Nagios/Icinga | |
| Scripting | PowerShell, bash, vc-cli, vcd-cli, esx-cli | |
| Version Control | CCNA, LAN, WAN, TCP/IP, Router, Switching, DNS, NTP, IPv4, IPv6 | |
| Networking | SSL/TLS, SSH, Iptables, OpenVPN | |
Experience & Professional Career
| Evoila GmbH | |
| Employer | evoila GmbH |
| Project | Vodafone Telco Cloud, Germany |
| ROLE | VMware Senior Consultant |
VMware Project – Vodafone Telco Cloud Providing Consulting Services to Vodafone Germany, enabling them to operate their NFV Platform based on VMware vCloud Director. Operational Support Integration Extension Design Architecture Automation Monitoring Solution Development Customer Support Trouble Shooting Root Cause Analysis Key Achievements & Highlights Played a key role in building and operating the largest VMware vCloud Director instance in Europe for Vodafone Germany. Coordinated international teams across Europe, Asia and the US to ensure 24/7 service continuity. Mentored junior engineers and facilitated knowledge transfer across global teams. Contributed to the design, rollout, and operation of a Telco IaaS cloud infrastructure serving millions of end customers. Recognized for pioneering work and innovation in one of Europe’s flagship Telco Cloud projects. Provided critical troubleshooting and escalation management during high-impact incidents affecting millions of subscribers. Designed and implemented a custom Linux-based backup infrastructure, fully integrated with Avamar, securing the entire platform. Established a comprehensive monitoring framework with VMware Aria Log Insight, including dashboards for rapid issue detection and resolution. Supported vendor onboarding and VNF deployment, ensuring stability and seamless integration into a multi-tenant cloud environment. Authorized to perform administrative tasks on hardware platforms (EMC, HPE, Dell) in close cooperation with vendor specialists. SÜ2 security clearance: certified reliability and eligibility for security-sensitive assignments. Broad expertise in VMware and Linux environments: architecture, optimization, operations, automation, and root cause analysis. Strong customer and service orientation: trusted point of contact in highly critical situations. Proven ability to deliver in remote setups: extensive home office experience with full accountability and reliability. | |
| Maxviva | |
| Employer | Maxviva |
| LOCATION | Aschaffenburg, Germany |
| ROLE | Virtualization and Linux Sysadmin |
Operating the virtualization platform for the web services of travelviva.de, airline-direct.de, travel-overland.de before they where sold to Unister Webhosting & Application Delivery End-to-end operation of high-traffic platforms (travelviva.de, airline-direct.de, travel-overland.de) System Administration Debian 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS – installation, configuration, patching, and lifecycle management Virtualization Proxmox VE 3.2 VMware vSphere 5.0 KVM, and OpenVZ – provisioning and maintenance of virtualized environments. Configuration Management Puppet – automation of system deployment and configuration consistency Service Administration Apache2, Tomcat, Nginx – hosting and optimizing business-critical web applications Load Balancing Varnish, HA-Proxy – ensuring scalability, redundancy, and optimized response times Monitoring & Analytics Nagios, Icinga, ElasticSearch, Kibana, Splunk – proactive monitoring, log analysis, and performance optimization | |
| Top-ITservices AG | |
| Employer | Top-ITservices AG |
| LOCATION | Frankfurt, Germany |
| ROLE | VMware and Linux/UNIX Consultant |
| System administration of VMware Linux and UNIX based Systems for Multiple Customers like LH-Systems – ITZ Bund – IT-NRW Project – IT-NRW (Production Control Conceptual Support) Process analysis and optimization Technology analysis and evaluation Prove of Concepts Review of old Installations Upgrade Plans Identification of unsupported Setups Documentation of existing Installations Analysis of future Plans and Roadmaps Project – ITZ Bund (VMware and Linux Administration) VMware Infrastructure Management Administration of VMware ESX and vSphere in enterprise-scale environments. 2nd-Level-Support Packet- and Change Management Troubleshooting and Performance Analysis Root Cause Analysis System Administration VMware vSphere vSphere Migration from 3.5 to 4.1 vSphere Migration from 4.1 to 5.0 Upgrade & Migration Strategy Designed and executed the upgrade strategy for VMware platforms, including large-scale migrations from vSphere 3.5 to 4.1 and from 4.1 to 5.0. Ensured minimal downtime, compatibility with existing workloads, and compliance with operational standards. Linux Systems Administration: SLES (8–11) and Debian (5–6) – installation, configuration, patching, lifecycle management, and performance tuning. 2nd-Level-Support Packet- and Change Management Troubleshooting and Performance Analysis Root Cause Analysis Operations & Support: Provided 2nd-level support, including troubleshooting, performance analysis, and root cause identification. Change & Release Management: Oversaw package deployment and change processes to maintain service continuity and platform stability. Project – LH Systems (Solaris System Administration) Operational Support Solaris Storage Administration User Administration Patch and Update Management Coordination 3rd Level Support Technologies: Sun Solaris 8 – 10, Sun Fire: V100 – V890, Veritas Cluster | |
| K+P Computer | |
| Employer | K+P Computer |
| LOCATION | Wiesbaden, Germany |
| ROLE | AIX and Storage Service Technician |
| Pre-Configuration of Hard and Software, Onsite Hardware Support, Telephone Support Installation, configuration and Administration of IBM pSeries, RS6000 Installation, configuration and Administration of IBM Storage Solutions: Fast-T DS3000 – DS6000 ESS (Shark) Telephone Support of service engineers (reproducing errors in the lab) Hardware Upgrades AIX Infrastruktur Administration (AIX 5 AIX6 AIX 6L) IBM Technologies: RS6000 pSeries: p510, p520, p550, p560, p570, p575, p590, p595, IntelliStation, IBM Disk Systems DS3000 to DS6000 IBM Fast-T IBM ESS, Storage Manager xSeries Bladecenter | |
| Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) | |
| Employer | ZDF Mainz |
| LOCATION | Mainz, Germany |
| ROLE | Administrative assistant |
| Windows Migration/Upgrade Project OS Upgrade on 2000 Windows PC`s and Notebooks Hardware Upgrades Data Transfer Configuration Transfer User Support | |
| Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) | |
| Employer | ZDF Mainz |
| LOCATION | Mainz, Germany |
| ROLE | Apprentice as Certified IT Specialist for System Integration |
| Traineeship as Certified IT Specialist for System Integration Projects: Virtualization of multiple SUN Solaris Servers via Solaris Zones. Oracle/SAP Environment Migration to the new Hardware platform (Sun-Fire V240 -V890) SUN E10K Replacement with an HA Veritas Cluster. Setup of a VDR Online Research Platform for Editors und Reporters, based on SUSE LINUX 10.0. Operational Support (Unix, Linux, VMware, Microsoft) Project Smart Card (Installation configuration of Smartcard readers for future authentication methods) | |