Miguel Jacq (he/him)

From open-source communities to mission-focused infrastructure

A lot of my earlier reputation came through open-source innovations for hosting and deployment of Drupal applications. That led naturally to a lot of sysadmin and consulting work for web agencies: keeping servers running, automating deployments, and solving the awkward infrastructure problems around the applications they built.

Over time I deliberately moved away from being the infrastructure person behind web agencies where any kind of website might exist. I became much more interested in working with organisations whose mission, data, or users make security and privacy meaningful concerns, particularly around civil society, human rights, open source, and public-interest technology.

The technology is broader now, but the part I still enjoy is much the same: understanding complicated systems quickly, finding the failure modes, and making the whole thing less dependent on luck or undocumented knowledge.

How I work

I'm known for lateral thinking and pattern recognition, especially when systems are under pressure or old infrastructure has to meet new requirements. I prefer small, reviewable improvements over dramatic rewrites when the latter aren't necessary.

Despite many years on the command line, I have a background in creative writing. Clear documentation and communication are part of the technical work for me, whether the audience is another sysadmin, a developer, management, or an auditor.

"The aim isn't just to fix the system. It's to leave it safer, and easier for the next person to understand."

Values

• Pragmatism: reduce real risk in useful increments instead of redesigning for its own sake.
• Transparency: changes should be reviewable, documented, and explainable.
• Privacy: minimise unnecessary exposure and question defaults that leak data or control.
• Open systems: prefer open standards and open-source tooling where they are the right fit.
• Transfer knowledge: don't turn the consultant into another single point of failure.