With comprehensive expertise in Kubernetes Engineering, platform operations, security, observability, documentation processes, and project management, tim&koko contributes to building the platform sustainably, preparing for productive operations, and establishing viable structures for the future operational organization.
About Nexplore AG
Nexplore AG is a leading Swiss IT company based in Thun and Bern. The company supports clients in public administration and business in their digital transformation, with a focus on custom software development, system integration, as well as cloud and platform solutions.
Challenge
As part of a project, a new container-based platform is being built that meets the highest requirements for availability, security, and operational transparency. The central challenges lay particularly in:
- Establishing the deployment architecture based on GitOps and Argo CD,
- and elaborating fundamental architectural decisions (e.g., operating model, security, logging strategies)
- Integrating a complete observability stack with end-to-end tracing, metrics, logs, container scanning, and alerting
- The step-by-step establishment of operational processes, roles, and responsibilities
- Building a resilient monitoring and alerting foundation incl. role-based dashboards, KPIs, and SLOs
Approach
tim&koko acted as a technical and methodological partner working closely within the platform team. Implementation takes place in close exchange, along clearly defined deliverables:
Engineering and Consulting
- Support in building and configuring the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) platform
- Consulting on security hardening (e.g., Network Policies, Microsoft Defender)
- Participation in integrating automated security checks into CI/CD
Observability and Monitoring
- Consulting on defining and implementing an observability strategy
- Support in the technical setup of the platform for logs, metrics, tracing, alerting, and dashboards, based on Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Azure Monitor
- Definition and implementation of correlations between logs, traces, and metrics
Operational Organization and Processes
- Consulting on building central operational processes (e.g., update cycles, incident response, backup)
- Participation in documentation structures and operational documents
- Support in designing role models, responsibilities, and governance
Current Status and Results
The platform is under active further development. The go-live of central business applications is planned for Q4 2026. Until then:
- the platform will be continuously technically expanded,
- operational processes finalized,
- the operational organization established,
- and monitoring and alerting further refined at all levels.
tim&koko contributes to the successful implementation with engineering expertise, consulting, and project management, and accompanies the development of a resilient and future-proof operational structure.
Client Statement
“I experience the collaboration with Sarah as Project Lead and Thömu as Kubernetes Specialist as extremely pleasant and solution-oriented. Both quickly developed a sound understanding of our cloud-native architecture – including AKS and other platform services – and support the project with high professional competence and reliability. I particularly appreciate their clear coordination, proactive attitude, and the partnership-based collaboration, which is both efficient and personally enjoyable.”
Philipp Rüegsegger, Platform Architect, Nexplore AG
Conclusion & Lessons Learned
The project illustrates how strongly engineering, process thinking, and partnership-based collaboration must intertwine to successfully build modern cloud platforms.
The accompanying role of tim&koko has not only addressed operational challenges but also supported internal competence development, a key success factor for long-term platform operations.
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