Denis Dmitriev
International ITAM Expert
Moscow → Ljubljana → EU → Worldwide — 21+ years automating IT systems at enterprise scale.
// about
Slovenia → EU → Worldwide → Building IT Systems That Actually Work
Started my IT career at Rosbank (Société Générale Group, 20,000 employees) in Moscow — working as data engineer and system architect responsible for HP BSM, HP Service Manager, SAP BO reporting, ATM monitoring, and general IT services monitoring. Learned early that the best systems are the ones nobody notices because they just work.
Moved into international ITAM consulting at COMPAREX, then SoftwareOne, working across borders on Oracle Java licensing, Snow and Flexera deployments, and compliance automation. Every project reinforced the same lesson: good SAM is about data, automation, and understanding the business — not just counting licenses.
Now based in Slovenia, freelancing as a Senior SAM Technical Consultant — collaborating with L-IT GmbH on ToolsHub24 integrations and Flexera support, and with RixMind on Snow platform solutions. The thread that connects everything: taking complex IT asset data and turning it into systems that save time, reduce risk, and actually work at scale.
In parallel, I've been deep into AI — fine-tuning LLMs on my HomeLab, learning workflow automation with n8n, and using Claude Code CLI as my primary development tool. This site you're reading? Built entirely with AI-assisted development. The future of ITAM isn't just spreadsheets and audits — it's intelligent automation.
// journey
My Tech Journey
2025–2026
L-IT GmbH
Remote from Slovenia
Ongoing collaboration and support. Building automated Flexera integrations via ToolsHub24 platform. Streamlining license management workflows and pushing the boundaries of AI-augmented ITAM.
2024–2026
Squalio → RixMind
Remote
Ongoing collaboration and support. Built Snow platform integrations, PowerBI dashboards, and inventory automation. Still supporting existing solutions and taking on new side-projects for RixMind customers.
2020–2024
SoftwareOne
Remote
Led Oracle Java licensing automation. Developed data gathering scripts, built analysis tools, and streamlined compliance processes across multi-vendor environments.
2017–2020
COMPAREX
Germany / Remote
Transitioned to international SAM consulting. Deployed Snow platforms, built compliance reports, and worked with enterprise clients across Europe.
2011–2013
Rosbank / Société Générale
BSM Architect / ITSM Solutions Architect
Moscow, Russia
HP BSM implementation for 30 critical business services, multi-vendor helpdesk architecture, infrastructure monitoring systems design.
// projects
Projects & Case Studies
Working alongside dedicated licensing specialists, I engineer the data pipelines, connectors, and automation that turn their vendor expertise into scalable, repeatable processes — from Flexera compliance workflows and Power BI dashboards to custom Snow connectors for hardware monitoring and usage tracking.
Whether it's Oracle Java advisory compliance, SPLA reporting, or RHEL subscription reconciliation — licensing specialists define the rules, I build the automation that applies them at scale. The result: audit-ready data, eliminated spreadsheet work, and raw inventory turned into actionable insight.
Real projects, anonymized for confidentiality.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) Licensing Automation
Nine SKUs, six vCPU pricing tiers, and multiple licensing models across 20+ enterprise customers and 1,000+ devices. Dual density thresholds — 4 SAP VMs per socket pair vs 5 standard SLES VMs — determine Stacking vs Unlimited licensing. SAP Unlimited coverage absorbs all VMs on a host (including standard SLES) at no extra cost when triggered. LTSS applies only to standard SLES versions older than 15.6. SUSE Manager must be licensed for every installation. This layered complexity required significant manual effort despite FlexeraOne's SAM foundation.
RHEL Licensing Automation — VM Thresholds to vCPU Tiers
Three infrastructure types — dedicated hosts, shared cloud, and physical servers — each with different licensing rules across 1,200+ RHEL instances and 20+ customers. The 4-VM threshold determines Virtual Datacenter vs Stacking on dedicated infrastructure. Shared cloud needs vCPU tier classification (Small, Medium, Large). Physical servers require socket-pair calculations. Orphaned VMs and unclassified servers with missing farm usage fall outside all models. Inventory older than 40 days must be excluded without losing visibility.
Windows Server SPLA — License Count Automation
Accurate license count calculation across 80+ clusters, 1,000+ VMs, and 100+ hosts. The 8-VM density threshold determines Standard vs Datacenter edition, each with a different formula. Standard licensing scales with VM count (TotalCores x VMCount / 2); Datacenter is a flat core-based count (TotalCores / 2). Manual cluster analysis at this scale was error-prone and had to be repeated every month for SPLA true-ups.
SQL Server SPLA — Cost Optimization Engine
Two competing licensing models for SQL Server SPLA: Per-VM licensing (each VM by its cores and edition at Standard €155.44 or Enterprise €585.24 per 2-core pack) vs Physical Host licensing (all cluster cores as Enterprise). The optimal choice varies per cluster depending on VM count, edition mix, and core density. Manual comparison across clusters with mixed Standard and Enterprise VMs was error-prone, leaving significant monthly savings on the table.
Java Discovery & Compliance Classification
Unmanaged Oracle Java installations across thousands of machines triggering Employee-metric licensing for the entire headcount. No visibility into which installations actually require commercial licensing — creating massive financial exposure and audit risk.
Java Rules Engine & Continuous Monitoring
Manual Java classification doesn't scale to large environments with thousands of employees. After initial remediation, compliance results decay as new Oracle Java installations appear undetected — requiring repeated manual analysis.
// publications
Publications
IT Support Processes: Perspectives on Using SAM Data
itSMF Russia Almanac · 2016
Explores practical use cases for integrating Software Asset Management inventory data into ITSM processes. Demonstrates how SAM data — often treated as a standalone compliance tool — can enhance incident response, release planning, and license optimization when connected to broader IT service management workflows.
- 1.Mass Incident Management — Using SAM data to instantly identify affected workstations during incidents (e.g., virus outbreaks)
- 2.Release Management — Leveraging SAM inventory to plan and validate software deployments across the estate
- 3.Authorized Software Control — Cross-referencing SAM catalogs with installed software to detect unauthorized installations
- 4.License Pool Automation — Automating license reclamation from unused installations to optimize spend
// skills
Skills & Technologies
Technologies proven across 15 enterprise projects
SAM Platform Engineering
Building and extending SAM platforms beyond out-of-the-box
- Snow SoftwareLicense Manager, Inventory, Atlas, custom fields, SQL layer
- FlexeraFlexeraOne, FNMS
- ToolsHub24L-IT integration platform
- SAM2GOCOMPAREX proprietary SAM service
- MissMarpleSAM inventory system
- HP UCMDBIT assets inventory
Data Pipeline & Integration
Connecting systems that weren't designed to talk to each other
- Pythonpandas, sqlalchemy, pyodbc, exchangelib
- SQL ServerT-SQL, stored procedures, BULK INSERT
- REST APIsQRadar, OpenAI, Fidelis
- PowerShellCollection scripts, automation
- CSV/XML ETL & SFTPData transformation pipelines
- Exchange Server 2016/2019exchangelib integration
Compliance Reporting & Analytics
Turning raw inventory into actionable compliance insight
- Power BI / DAXInteractive compliance dashboards
- Custom SQL Reports & ViewsCached reporting layers
- IBM QRadar SIEMEPS & log source compliance
- Fidelis Elevate / NetworkSecurity module metering
- OpenAI Compliance APIChatGPT usage tracking
- Compliance dashboardsSLES, RHEL, Windows Server SPLA, SQL Server SPLA, Oracle Java
Automation & Infrastructure
Making it run without you
- Windows Task SchedulerScheduled batch jobs
- SQL Server AgentDatabase-level scheduling
- n8nWorkflow automation platform
- Docker & LinuxContainerization, server admin
- ProxmoxVirtualization platform
- Nginx, DNS, OPNSenseNetworking & reverse proxy
- Git/GitHub, Claude Code CLIAI-assisted development
// recommendations
What Colleagues Say
Nico Rochow
Cloud FinOps • IT Asset Management • Cloud Cost Optimisation
Managed Denis directly · April 2024
“During my time with him, first as a colleague in the team and later as his supervisor, we were able to work together on many topics and exciting projects. Denis is always very willing to learn something new and to develop himself further. He pays attention to detail and gives great input, feedback and suggestions on current topics, projects, processes and the corresponding organisation. He has extensive experience in the IT asset management environment and has been able to prove himself in international projects and implement them successfully. He also has a broad technical background and is able to support customers, colleagues and partners effectively with his knowledge. To sum up: I can highly recommend Denis. Thanks for the great time together.”
Gregor Cvek
IT Consultant
Worked on the same team · February 2024
“Valuable, honest and hardworking. Always willing to help others, team player. Denis was always open to new ideas, supporting others with his tech and business knowledge. Really skilled and experienced colleague. It could be seen that he had only high values at his workplace and that's what he shared with others. It was one of the best experience sharing the team with him and working together.”
Andrei Agavriloaiei
Senior Consultant
Worked on the same team at SoftwareOne · March 2024
“I've been working with Denis since SoftwareOne acquired B-lay in 2020. I was impressed from the start by his knowledge of hardware platforms and SAM tools, but also his coding skills and ability to use advanced data analysis tools and technologies. There were multiple occasions in which Denis was providential in unblocking our project deliveries either by assisting customers with data gathering or by understanding and addressing their needs for advisory. Personality wise, Denis's curiosity, analytical prowess, and commitment to excellence made working with him a pleasure. He is a good team player with a very professional attitude.”
Frank Rolvink
Senior Consultant Software Publisher Advisory (Oracle)
Managed Denis directly · February 2024
“I had the pleasure of working closely with Denis on Oracle license management projects, where he excelled as a technical analyst and script developer. His invaluable contributions to hardware inventory, thorough data gathering, and insightful analysis of hardware and virtual environments significantly enhanced the success of our projects. Denis is not only a team player but also someone who is always ready to help, think creatively, and take on challenges. His passion for automation has made a lasting impact on our efficiency and accuracy of our delivered projects. I highly recommend Denis for his technical expertise, collaborative spirit, and dedication to excellence.”
Luigi Barella
Business Operations Specialist at SoftwareONE
Worked on the same team at COMPAREX → SoftwareONE · February 2024
“I have known Denis since the beginning of my tenure at COMPAREX, and over the past 3 years I worked with him directly: he is capable of managing complex tasks and delivering high-quality results while always keeping the customer's needs in mind. On top of that, he is one of the people who listen more than they speak, making him a great addition to every team. I would work with him at any time.”
// pricing
Rates & Availability
Remote-first, available worldwide. Rates in EUR.
// rate depends on
- ›Project complexity and technical depth
- ›Engagement duration (longer projects at lower end)
- ›Scope: advisory call vs. full implementation
// blog
Blog / Articles
Technical deep-dives into licensing automation and ITAM engineering.
Building an Exchange Server CAL Inventory Connector for Snow License Manager
How I built a multi-stage ETL pipeline to extract Exchange CAL compliance data from a four-server DAG cluster — and why it took four script versions to get the collection right.
Building a QRadar Compliance Connector for Snow License Manager
How I built an ETL pipeline to bring IBM QRadar's EPS-based licensing into Snow License Manager — and the first data pull immediately revealed the client was out of compliance.
Building a Custom Fields Bulk Updater for Snow License Manager
How a 'simple' bulk update tool for a software development company turned into a three-version rabbit hole of dual-team classification merging, wildcard matching edge cases, and SQL optimization.
// spare-time
My Spare Time
Side projects are where I stress-test ideas before they reach a client environment. The infrastructure patterns, data pipelines, and automation strategies I build at home — under no deadline except curiosity — have directly shaped how I architect ITAM solutions professionally. Same engineering discipline, different domain.
Home Lab Infrastructure
Enterprise-grade networking and compute — at home
A multi-node Proxmox cluster with OPNsense routing, Pi-hole DNS, Nginx Proxy Manager, and Docker-based services. Seven virtualization nodes running Linux/Windows VMs, GPU passthrough workloads, and containerized applications. The network is built around OPNsense as the central control plane — routing, NAT, firewall, DHCP, and future VLAN segmentation — with a dedicated Pi-hole instance for DNS authority and ad blocking.
Network segmentation, container orchestration, DNS design — concepts I apply daily in ITAM, learned hands-on here.
AI / ML Infrastructure
Local LLM inference and generative AI pipelines
GPU compute cluster running Ollama for LLM inference, ComfyUI for image generation workflows, and OpenWebUI as the interface layer. Five NVIDIA GPUs (2× RTX 3060, RTX 4060, 2× Tesla V100-SXM2-32GB) handle everything from model experimentation to production-grade AI workloads. Custom ComfyUI pipelines explore the intersection of technology and creative AI.
Pushing LLMs to their limits to understand what they can and can't do — hands-on.
Algorithmic Trading Platform
Real-time data pipelines and automated decision systems
A hybrid microservices platform running 24/7 on dedicated hardware. Python/FastAPI handles multi-timeframe data collection, analytics, and confluence scoring across configurable rule sets. Node.js/TypeScript handles real-time execution via WebSocket connections, order management, and risk controls. Isolated Docker networks enforce zero-trust topology between services. A React control panel provides full operational visibility without SSH.
Data pipelines, multi-source integration, and audit trails — the same patterns behind license compliance.
n8n Workflow Automation
If you do it twice, automate it
Self-hosted n8n instance on Contabo cloud infrastructure, ready to become the automation backbone for personal projects. The vision: connect monitoring, notifications, and data sync workflows — augmented with AI — into repeatable pipelines. The same philosophy applies to ITAM: manual processes are technical debt, and workflow automation is the fix.
n8n combined with AI — automatic data extraction and complex reporting from SAM systems.