filion.dev

Zdeněk Filipec

From the network to the application:
I deploy, troubleshoot and explain complex systems, on-site and remotely.

I've spent my career where networks, software and people meet. I've surveyed Wi-Fi in tire factories from Europe to India, kept three mountain mine sites in northern British Columbia online, and built a voting platform that has run strata meetings since 2021. Whatever the system, I like learning how it works and getting it running for the people who depend on it.

Featured Projects

Property Flute: Meeting Management and Voting Platform


A strata meeting is more complicated than it looks. Some owners vote for neighbours by proxy, some own several units, votes don't all carry the same weight, and nothing counts until quorum is confirmed. Video tools like Zoom handled none of that, so I built a platform that does. The manager runs the meeting from one screen, opens or changes a resolution on the fly, and everyone sees it at once.

Most of my time went into building it: I wrote the application on my own PHP framework, and designed, secured and ran the cloud servers underneath it. I also set up meetings for clients and ran some of them myself, the largest with 700 units.
  • Built alone from Jan 2020; co-founded Property Flute Ltd., incorporated Nov 2021.
  • PHP (custom MVC framework), MariaDB, JavaScript and live updates over SSE, on Debian servers with a load balancer, firewalls and server hardening, first on DigitalOcean, later on AWS.
  • In production since 2021 with no failed meeting and no unplanned downtime.

B.C. Strata Tech Conference


Conference website for those who believe in innovative B.C. solutions and information in the strata sector.
  • Personal project, published Feb 2023, built solo.
  • Registration, a management module, Q&A and live-stream integration (PHP, MariaDB, SSE, StreamYard).
  • Used actively for 2 years. Conference videos and podcasts are still online.

Previous Projects

2021

Static web presentation of a small farm [professional volunteering] Farma Duběnka in Czech

2015

PHP tool that reads status from and configures Cisco network devices over SSH [employee work, IBM]. Tested with 3,000 devices, it cut a 3-day manual job to 3 hours.

2012

Configuration and alert interface for a perimeter security system [employee work, 7 Marsyas Development, now Ronyo Technologies] more at Varya Perimeter Software

2008

Application to execute predefined functions on a deployed PC, similar to remote control of a Windows machine [personal project]

2007

Order management system for a construction company: orders, invoices and offers generated as PDF [contract work]

About Filion

Hi! I'm Zdeněk, an engineer based near Ostrava, Czech Republic. Since university I've worked on the edge between computer networks and programming, and I keep using one to solve problems in the other. At IBM I wrote software to configure thousands of Cisco devices. For my own platform, I set up the servers, firewalls and load balancer myself.

I like knowing how things work, all the way down. Give me a new system and I'll learn it, set it up for the people who need it, explain it in plain words, and find out why it breaks when it does.

Achievements

2020

present


Took the leap from writing a product to building a company around it. I wrote a voting platform for strata corporations on my own, from the first line of code to the cloud infrastructure, tested it at a friend's strata meeting, and in 2021 co-founded Property Flute Ltd. to bring it to market. More in Featured Projects.

2019

Filion on tech trip.

Traced a network loop causing a broadcast storm that had taken down three remote mine sites in northern British Columbia. Flew by helicopter to a mountain-top site to replace the faulty switch and built the recovery plan with senior management, often with no internet to look anything up.

2013

2015

Filion at the factory.

Surveyed Wi-Fi on site at an international tire manufacturer's factories in Europe and India: measured signal, built heat maps, chose the equipment, then configured it and brought it live.

2009

2016


Stepped out from behind the screen and in front of an audience: students at the university in Ostrava, then at Canadian College in Vancouver. Explaining technology to people who don't live in it has been part of my work ever since.

Work Experience

2020

present


Co-founder & Lead Developer at Property Flute Ltd., Vancouver (remote)

2022

2023


Software Engineer at IUGO Mobile Entertainment, Vancouver

2018

2020


Senior Network Engineer at Rent‑A‑Nerd, Vancouver

2015

2016


Application Support Specialist at Bit Stew Systems, Burnaby;
Cisco Instructor at Canadian College, Vancouver

2012

2015


Tier 2, then Tier 3 Network Engineer at IBM, Brno

2010

2012


Programmer Analyst at 7 Marsyas Development (now Ronyo Technologies), Ostrava

2009

2012


Lecturer in Computer Networks and the Theory of Data Processing (SQL) at VSB – Technical University of Ostrava;
CCNA Instructor at the university's Cisco Networking Academy (2009–2011)

Education / Certification

2019

CISCO CCNA Wireless; expired Mar 2022

2014

CISCO CCNP Routing & Switching; expired Apr 2021

2012

CISCO CCNA Routing & Switching; expired Mar 2022

2007

2009

Master's degree in Computer Science and Technology, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Diploma thesis: Automated evaluation of computer network configurations in a distributed virtual laboratory environment

2008

Erasmus exchange (winter semester), JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä, Finland

2003

2007

Bachelor of Information Technology, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Bachelor thesis: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Technologies

Application Development

Backend
  • PHP, TypeScript (Node.js), JS
  • REST API, websocket, SSE
  • Relational databases: E-R modeling, transactions; MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MS SQL
Frontend
  • HTML5, CSS3, JS
Approach
  • Traditional coding and AI-assisted development; Git

Computer Networks/Servers

  • Cisco switching, routing, wireless and FirePOWER firewalls: setup, troubleshooting, security
  • Wi-Fi site surveys with Ekahau
  • Monitoring with SolarWinds and Cisco Prime
  • Linux (Debian): Apache, TLS, DNS, backups, Bash
  • Cloud: AWS and DigitalOcean (server and network setup, security); Microsoft Azure (troubleshooting)
Languages
  • Czech (native), English (full professional), Spanish (beginner)