Infrastructure Solution Engineer · 19 years at Director level · self-taught

25 Years of Architecture. Built from the Ground Up.

marc@plane:~$

No degree, no bootcamp. I learned by owning the systems: racking the servers, writing the automation, carrying the pager, and then running the teams, budgets and vendors behind them for nineteen years as a Director. Today that means two open-source control planes for backup and remote access, plus enterprise architecture work for mid-market through Fortune 500 clients.

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0years at Director level

0developers led

0+BBS downloads

99.9%fleet uptime

bbs-cli — fleet status live

$bbs fleet status --plane backup

→agents 4,182 · servers 1,041 · all outbound-only

→repos append-only ✓ · off-site replicated ✓

→last verify 97% (rolling)

$cortendesk sessions --active

→relay hbbs/hbbr bundled · policy enforced · audit on

→1 endpoint awaiting MFA re-enrol · everything else green

$uptime --since 2009

→99.9%+ across multi-site fleets · 500+ clients · 1,500+ sites

01 · the management planes

Two control planes. Both open source.

Backup and remote access are the two systems every infrastructure team depends on and nobody wants to own. I built the planes that make them operable.

All projects

plane 01 · backup marcpope/borgbackupserver

creator · project lead · open source · launched Feb 2026

Borg Backup Server

Backup Server Management Plane

A control plane over Borg: outbound-only agents, append-only repositories, fleet automation, browser restores, SSO and role-based access. Grew from an internal tool to 800K+ downloads protecting 4,000+ endpoints across 1,000+ servers.

PHPPythonBorgClickHouseReact NativeOIDC

Case study Code Docs

320stars

40forks

12open issues

activelast push

plane 02 · remote access marcpope/cortendesk

creator · maintainer · open source · first build in a 3-day weekend

CortenDesk

Remote Access Management Plane

Enterprise polish, security and fleet management for RustDesk: a TypeScript browser client, a console with device policy, enterprise identity and audit history, and bundled forked hbbs/hbbr servers for simple deployment.

LaravelPHP 8.4TypeScriptWebCodecsWebSocketsLivewire

Case study Code Docs

100stars

18forks

8open issues

activelast push

02 · how I lead

Nineteen years at Director level. The platform and the team are one system.

I have owned the budget, the vendors, the hiring and the pager for the same systems. Leading, for me, means answering for the whole outcome: product, platform, people, cost and uptime.

The full timeline

Set the direction

Turn ambiguous business goals into platform priorities, budgets, owners and a sequence the team can execute.

Build the system

Design for security, operability and scale from infrastructure through interface. The whole platform has to work.

Raise the team

Set clear standards, mentor engineers into owners, and keep decisions close to the people doing the work.

Ship and adapt

Shorten feedback loops, automate the repeatable work, measure the result, and change course when the facts change.

what that has looked like 2003 → 2026

13 years company builder

Partner and technology leader for a managed services and hosting company.

30 developers led

A global product team across three companies, with roadmap, pricing and go-to-market set alongside the CEO.

$1.2M saved in year one

An in-house card pre-authorization system that also cut dead order weight by 80%.

99.9%+ fleet uptime

Multi-site infrastructure for 500+ clients and 1,500+ sites, 13 years running.

Capex budgets and vendors

Capital planning, vendor negotiations and capacity across multiple facilities.

Board fiduciary oversight

Director of two K-8 charter schools since 2025, on the marketing and fundraising subcommittee.

03 · built from the ground up

Bare metal first. Cloud-scale later. Self-taught throughout.

The 25-year timeline

the journey

Curiosity got me into the rack. Outages taught me the rest.

I learned Linux, networking and code by building systems that had to work the next morning: an in-house data center with BGP transit and generator power, a hosting platform for 500+ companies, then the automation that provisioned VMs, bare metal and applications with no hands on keyboards. The cloud arrived and the same instincts scaled with it.

2003 → 2009Data centers, ERP, payments. Director at 100% uptime.

2009 → 2022Co-built Falcon Internet: 13 years, 1,500+ sites, 99.9%+.

2022 → nowEnterprise cloud, DR and private infrastructure architecture.

2026 →Two open-source management planes, built and run in public.

scope I have owned

TeamsHiring, mentoring engineers into leads, and running distributed product teams.

BudgetsCapital budgets, vendor negotiations and the cloud bill, owned end to end.

ProductRoadmap, UX, pricing and go-to-market decided in the room with the C-suite and investors.

OperationsMulti-site data center and hosting operations held above 99.9% for thirteen years.

04 · the log