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About Alexander Alten

novatechflow - Backend, Data & Distributed Systems

I'm Alex — a platform architect, co-founder & CTO of Scalytics, and the person behind Novatechflow. I work at the intersection of distributed systems, data platforms, streaming and AI/ML infrastructure, mostly when the systems are already in production, critical, and hard to change.

At Scalytics we build a federated data and AI platform that lets organisations run analytics and AI where the data already lives — across engines like Spark, Flink and SQL backends — instead of endlessly copying data into new silos. My work there focuses on cross-platform execution, federated learning, and infrastructure for decentralised AI.

Before Scalytics I spent more than two decades building and operating data and streaming platforms in regulated and large-scale environments: as Chief Digital Technology Architect at E.ON, in executive and architecture roles at Allianz, as Director of Data Center Operations at Evariant/Healthgrades, and as a field engineer and architect at Cloudera. I’ve also led large-scale web, data and virtualization projects at Scout24 and other enterprises.

I am a PMC member and committer of Apache Wayang, a cross-platform data processing project under the Apache Software Foundation. My contributions focus on execution behaviour, optimisation paths and interoperability across heterogeneous processing backends — essentially, making it possible to run one logical pipeline across multiple engines without losing control over performance or cost.

Press, Speaking Recognition

Over the years I’ve written and spoken publicly about applying these ideas in the real world, like:

  • Author of “Enabling IoT to Establish a Sustainable Value Chain” for CIO Applications Europe, written while serving as Chief Architect, Digital Development & Technology at E.ON.
  • Interviewed by FAZ at the Google Cloud Summit London during my work at E.ON, discussing large-scale IoT, data integration and the digital transformation of energy systems.
  • Speaker at Confluent Streaming Event Munich on “Decentral energy distribution in a digital world – Why streaming changes the world”.
  • Workshop facilitator at The Future of Energy innovation day on integrating digital technology with legacy infrastructure in the energy sector.
  • Speaker at DEVOPS 2018 – The Future of Software and IoTBuild USA on large-scale IoT, data streaming and platform architecture.
  • Interviewed by AI Pressroom on accelerating AI with Scalytics, federated data processing and eliminating ETL bottlenecks for real-world AI projects.
  • Long-time open-source contributor with patches and improvements across the Apache ecosystem, including HBase, Hive, Flume (former committer team), and Apache Wayang (PMC & committer).
  • Part of the team behind Infinite Devices GmbH, winner of the Hugo Junkers Innovation Award 2020, recognising applied innovation in IoT and distributed systems.

Outside of client work and Scalytics, I maintain several open-source projects, including:

My work today is split between hands-on platform architecture and project rescue through Novatechflow, and building federated data & AI infrastructure at Scalytics. If your distributed systems, data platforms or AI stack are fragile, slow or politically stuck, that’s usually when people call me.

If you need support in backend engineering, data systems, distributed architecture or AI tooling, you can reach me through the Contact page or on GitHub.

Professional Experience

CTO & Co-Founder — Scalytics
2022–present
Leading engineering, research, product development, hiring and technical strategy for distributed data infrastructure and AI-ready systems.

Committer & PMC — Apache Wayang (ASF)
2020–present
Contributions to cross-platform data processing, optimizations and multi-engine interoperability.

Advisory Board — DevNetwork Europe
2021–present
Advising the largest engineering and DevTech community across Europe.

Independent Consultant — McKinsey & Company
2020–2023
Consulting on renewable energy infrastructure and zero-emission fleet solutions.

Chief Technology Officer — Infinite Devices
2020–2023
Founded the company and led development of Infinimesh, a cloud IoT platform. Responsible for engineering, product and $1.7M fundraising.

Chief Digital Technology Architect — E.ON
2017–2020
Led enterprise digitalization initiatives, IIoT systems, analytics platforms and next-generation energy management technology.

Director, Data Center Operations — Evariant
2014–2016
Oversaw Hadoop engineering, data security, applied research and distributed systems operations.

Senior Field Engineer / Architect — Cloudera
2013–2014
Designed and delivered Hadoop data platforms for enterprise clients.

Customer Operations Engineer — Cloudera
2011–2013
Engineering support for Hadoop ecosystem components in production environments.

Senior Engineer & DevOps — AutoScout24
2007–2010
Big Data engineering, virtualization, security and distributed backend systems.

Senior Web Architect — Sixt
2005–2007
Architected large-scale web infrastructure and deployment pipelines.

Logistics & Operations — German Air Force
1992–2004
Twelve years in logistics, planning and team leadership roles.

If you need help with distributed systems, backend engineering, or data platforms, check my Services.

Most read articles

Why Is Customer Obsession Disappearing?

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Many companies trade real customer-obsession for automated, low-empathy support. Through examples from Coinbase, PayPal, GO Telecommunications and AT&T, this article shows how reliance on AI chatbots, outsourced call centers, and KPI-driven workflows erodes trust, NPS and customer retention. It argues that human-centric support—treating support as strategic investment instead of cost—is still a core growth engine in competitive markets. It's wild that even with all the cool tech we've got these days, like AI solving complex equations and doing business across time zones in a flash, so many companies are still struggling with the basics: taking care of their customers. The drama around Coinbase's customer support is a prime example of even tech giants messing up. And it's not just Coinbase — it's a big-picture issue for the whole industry. At some point, the idea of "customer obsession" got replaced with "customer automation," and no...
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How to scale MySQL perfectly

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When MySQL reaches its limits, scaling cannot rely on hardware alone. This article explains how strategic techniques such as caching, sharding and operational optimisation can drastically reduce load and improve application responsiveness. It outlines how in-memory systems like Redis or Memcached offload repeated reads, how horizontal sharding mechanisms distribute data for massive scale, and how tools such as Vitess, ProxySQL and HAProxy support routing, failover and cluster management. The summary also highlights essential practices including query tuning, indexing, replication and connection management. Together these approaches form a modern DevOps strategy that transforms MySQL from a single bottleneck into a resilient, scalable data layer able to grow with your application. When your MySQL database reaches its performance limits, vertical scaling through hardware upgrades provides a temporary solution. Long-term growth, though, requires a more comprehensive approach. This invo...
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What the Heck is Superposition and Entanglement?

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This post is about superposition and interference in simple, intuitive terms. It describes how quantum states combine, how probability amplitudes add, and why interference patterns appear in systems such as electrons, photons and waves. The goal is to give a clear, non mathematical understanding of how quantum behavior emerges from the rules of wave functions and measurement. If you’ve ever heard the words superposition or entanglement thrown around in conversations about quantum physics, you may have nodded politely while your brain quietly filed them away in the "too confusing to deal with" folder.  These aren't just theoretical quirks; they're the foundation of mind-bending tech like Google's latest quantum chip, the Willow with its 105 qubits. Superposition challenges our understanding of reality, suggesting that particles don't have definite states until observed. This principle is crucial in quantum technologies, enabling phenomena like quantum comp...
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