Contact information

  • Mikhail Gusarov
  • E-mail: cv@dt.mg
  • Phone: +356 99100291 (Timezone: UTC+1)

Professional Summary

I am an experienced software engineer, with background in

  • server automation (from development of ancient tools like CFEngine and Plesk up to integrating Kubernetes into a custom cloud),
  • and cloud infrastructure (I have been an architect of a specialized IaaS/PaaS cloud).

I am an experienced technical leader, with expertise in the following areas:

  • setting up full cycle development process: from requirements gathering to code review processes to continuous deployment,
  • providing architectural guidance for the development teams.

I’m open to both contract and full-time opportunities.

Professional Experience

Ridge (2018—2023)

Head of Engineering.

Ridge developed and operated a distributed IaaS/PaaS cloud:

  • Workloads run across hundreds of globally dispersed data centers,
  • A new data center can be added to the system within minutes to hours,
  • IaaS offers computing workloads, network isolation, IP management, load balancing and persistent storage.
  • PaaS offers managed Kubernetes, managed containers and managed object storage.

My roles comprised software architect, technical leader and software engineer.

I have

  • developed a software architecture to radically reduce the project’s complexity: total size of the system didn’t go over 300 kLoC
  • established design, development, testing and devops processes, from design documents, to testing guidelines, to code review workflow to deployment pipelines;
  • Oversaw the design and mentored the team (10 engineers, on average);
  • Implemented a significant portion of the system.

Technologies: Linux, GCP, Go, Kafka, Kubernetes, Docker.

Hola! / Luminati (2013—2018)

Staff software engineer.

Hola makes a browser-based geo-unblocker (VPN) and CDN for streaming video (Spark).

  • I have made the performance of client- and server-side of Hola visible by implementing the collector for application-level logs and metrics.
  • I have developed internal technical statistical dashboards for VPN, and client-facing statistical dashboards for Spark.
  • I have created a custom in-memory database to track the status of 1M+ peers of the Luminati network, reducing hardware costs by 8x compared to off-the-shelf databases.

Technologies: Linux, Javascript/Node.js, MySQL.

CFEngine (2011-2013)

Senior software engineer.

CFEngine is a company-backed open-source server automation tool.

I have introduced release management (regular releases, checklists) and regression testing to the project.

Technologies: C, Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, FreeBSD.

OpenInkpot (2007-2012)

Founder.

OpenInkpot is an open source Linux distribution for eBook readers.

I have started this project, set up and maintained its infrastructure (code hosting, CI, bug tracker, IRC etc), managed the releases, and developed a large amount of the code.

Technologies: C, Linux, X11/EFL.

Parallels (2004-2007)

Software engineer in Plesk for Unix project

Plesk for Unix is a Web-based Linux server management tool.

  • I have developed a tool transferring content from competing hosting panels to Plesk.
  • I have developed a backup system for Plesk for Unix.

Technologies: Perl, Linux, FreeBSD.

Software Architect in OpenFusion project

  • I have developed a Single Sign-On mechanism for Parallels web applications (Plesk, PEM, Site Builder)
  • I have developed a Web applications packaging format Web applications packaging format for server automation tools.

Open source contributions

I contribute to various open-source projects, including notable ones such as Linux, GNOME, VLC and QEMU.

Some of my code can be found on most Linux machines. If you are using a desktop Linux system, you might consider executing man 1 unshare and referring to the AUTHORS section.

Education and Achievements

  • Systems Engineering and Systems Management courses. Systems Management School, 2018-2020.
  • MSc in CS, with honors. Novosibirsk State University, 2000-2005.
  • World finals, International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), 2004.