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Architectures that scale. Systems that hold.
I solve architectural problems in business-critical software systems and AWS environments: when technical debt slows growth down, systems hit their limits under load, or cloud cost gets out of hand. From the analysis through to production.
Who I work with
For CTOs and technical leaders in established companies whose business-critical AWS and backend systems need reliable development or a safe path forward out of what they already run.
Where I come in
Two kinds of problems.
01
Stabilize & scale systems
When systems get too fragile or too slow for further growth.
Modernizing business-critical backends, clearing technical debt and migrating platforms to AWS, without putting live operations at risk.
02
Optimize your AWS architecture
When AWS runs, but it has become too expensive, too unstable or too hard to change.
Three symptoms of the same cause: the bill climbs, a single fault takes the whole application down, and nobody dares to change anything. I work at the places where that gets decided, and I deliver Terraform and code rather than an assessment.
Further specialist areas
Agentic engineering & AI integration
A competence and a way of working rather than a third pillar: I build AI and automation in where they genuinely carry a process, with identity, cost, quality and a fallback path settled. It can also be commissioned on its own.
FinOps
AWS costs from €15,000 to €2,500
Two grown AWS accounts systematically cleaned up and optimized. The same applications, users and availability, but around €12,500 less cost per month.
€15,000 → €2,500 per month
–83% AWS costs
Greenfield
Attribution service for AdTech
Replaced a distributed, manual attribution process with a highly available Go service. Multi-region, under 10ms latency, 3M+ requests per day.
3M+ requests per day
<10ms latency
Scaling
Payment backend for 6M users
A payment API for millions of users that had stopped scaling. Legacy stabilized, new Go microservices built, both systems cleanly integrated.
6M+ users
–15% payment drop-offs
AWS migration
Revenue reporting for AdTech platform
Legacy code running revenue reporting at nine-figure turnover. Modernized and migrated to AWS in 12 months, without stopping the business.
–90% incidents
90%+ test coverage
Cloud & Software Architect
This is me.
I am Tim Rutte. More than 20 years in software development. Today I build business-critical systems on AWS.
What drives me: systems I touch should end up better than I found them. More stable. More maintainable. More scalable. Not for its own sake, but because bad systems carry a real cost, for teams, for budgets, and for decisions that keep getting postponed.
I work directly, with focus, and with an eye on what pays off. Technically right and commercially sensible are not opposites to me.
Remote, without overhead, since 2003.
Learn more about Tim Rutte
Working together
How it goes.
No onboarding weeks, no agency in between. Four steps, and you decide after each one whether there is a next.
STEP 01
A 30 minute conversation
You describe the system and the problem. I tell you whether I am the right person, and if I am not, I say so in that same call.
STEP 02
Taking stock
Before anything gets built I look at how the system actually works, not how it is documented. The result is a list: what needs doing, in which order, at what effort.
STEP 03
Delivery in steps
The first visible benefit arrives early, not at the end. Every step stands on its own and can be reversed, and the running business stays untouched.
STEP 04
Handover or operations
The goal is usually that your team can run the system without me, documented and with a rehearsed recovery. If you would rather leave operations with me, that works too.
Client and colleague voices
What it is like to work with me.
“When you give Tim a problem, you can be sure that he will identify and fix the real underlying issue instead of wasting time applying patches. Even when that means questioning the current architecture. If you need something complicated (re-)built quickly and profoundly, consider Tim.”
“A true professional, constantly delivering top-notch performance. We have collaborated on multiple initiatives and each time these have culminated in successful launches to live users. He keeps an open line of communication, making sure stakeholders are consistently updated.”
“Mr Rutte built a fully custom CRM for us, tailored exactly to our needs. Working together was straightforward. He implemented our requirements perfectly and the system runs absolutely stable.”
“A big thank you to Tim! The AWS migration was a really big chunk for us, but you handled it with complete confidence. Especially with the small issues that came up along the way, you were on it immediately and did not let go until everything ran.”
“Very results-oriented collaboration. Tasks were completed reliably and to a high standard of quality. An unreserved recommendation.”
All reviews are publicly verifiable: ProvenExpert (5.0 out of 5 · 10 reviews) · Trustpilot (TrustScore 4.1) · LinkedIn
Frequently asked
What clients want to know before they get in touch.
How does working together start?
With a 30 minute conversation. No pitch, no slides: you describe the system and the problem, I tell you whether I am the right person. If I am not, I say so in that same call.
Does the business have to stop while this happens?
No, and usually it must not. The modernization and AWS migration of an AdTech platform ran for twelve months while the business kept running, and a 20 year old publishing platform was moved to PHP 8 and Kubernetes without a single day of downtime. Both are in the case studies.
Do you take on systems nobody wants to touch any more?
That is the most common case: code with no tests, no documentation and none of the people who wrote it. The first step is then never a rebuild, but understanding what the system actually does today, including the quirks nobody planned.
Do you advise or do you build?
I build. A recommendation nobody implements has never made a system more stable. If an assessment is all you need, the free Legacy Risk Score is the faster route.
What is the Legacy Risk Score?
19 questions across four dimensions: release and delivery capability, safeguards and operational stability, knowledge and dependencies, technical debt and platform. The result is a PDF report with your score and recommended actions, prioritized by risk. Free, and about ten minutes to fill in.
What does working together cost?
A fixed price or billing by time spent, to suit the project and the model you prefer. Clearly bounded work can be scoped beforehand and gets a fixed price. If the work runs longer, or the order of tasks shifts along the way, billing by time spent is usually the more honest model. The analysis packages carry fixed prices, listed on the service pages.
Do you work remotely?
Yes, from Germany, in German and English.