The „WE“ is ondeso: Stefan Reifenstein

He is a true ondeso original and all-round talent: IT admin Stefan Reifenstein. Since January 2011 Stefan has been supporting us as one of our first employees, which means he’s celebrating his 15^th anniversary in 2026. During his time at ondeso he has already carried out many functions from consultant at Professional Services to administrator of ondeso IT. Whether hardware defects, recovering accidentally deleted data, or preparing the demonstration environment for trade fairs – Stefan always has a solution. With his expertise, humor and skills no problem is too difficult for him. Sometimes his presence is enough to get the IT up and running again, but even when it comes to more challenging tasks you can always rely on Stefan.

Stefan, we thank you for your commitment and look forward to the interview with you. Let’s get started:

Let’s start with a quick Q&A session:

Do you prefer cooking by yourself or ordering food?
Clearly, ordering food. Sometimes you have to prepare your own food, but only if there is no other way. If this is the case I like to do it together, because it’s faster and you have fun doing it. In this way, everyone can contribute their own skills and the result is much better.

What’s your motto in life?
Nothing is impossible. Sometimes you can’t come up with a solution right away, but after a break and a coffee the problems are almost solved. If that’s not enough, we’re back to cooking dinner. Common knowledge also brings common solutions.

What are you known for at ondeso?
I think they know me for my crafts. Ordinary things and off-the-shelf computers are boring and often not optimal. Whether office equipment, PCs or servers. Everything breaks down or has to be extended or improved. You have to think and act in a logical and structured way.

Cosy house by the lake or modern city penthouse?
There is something special in both and I have lived in both. But for me as a ” village child ” the countryside always comes first. It is a nice compensation to the fast time we live in. Besides, you can always easily renovate everything in a house if you like it. And in the evening, you can cast out a fishing rod on the shore – that is certainly something priceless for me.

What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
Probably that I started working at ondeso. Far away from home I built a new life with my partner, friends and colleagues. It took me some effort at the beginning, but I have never regretted it until today. Sometimes you have to do something exciting or a whole change of scenery to get new impressions and experiences. Sometimes you have to row backwards, but you definitely learn something new. And that is what makes life interesting and worth living.

Now things are about to get serious:

What exactly is your job at ondeso and what does a typical working day look like for you?

Over a cup of coffee, I check every morning whether all backups and synchronizations were made during the night and whether all systems are running smoothly. But I have to drink the coffee quickly, because with ondeso SR that goes pretty fast. Afterwards I start to install new systems and VMs, because this can take the whole day. Little by little colleagues come by with problems, tests and projects that need to be discussed and solved.  Since you can never rely on backups, I always pick one out and test a restore. Meanwhile I go for lunch. If there are any problems, they are solved right away. Usually after the lunch break meetings are scheduled and I test networks and firewalls for function, speed and errors. Afterwards PE systems, AD, ISOs, Unattended-Scripts etc. are checked and adjusted. In the afternoon I schedule software updates and patches for servers and clients, which are then rolled out automatically via ondeso SR in the evening and at night. On my way home in the train I do mail traffic, write documentation and check if the cloud services are running properly.

How would your colleagues describe you?

I think as a good colleague. Solving problems in order to relieve my colleagues is something I enjoy doing. Above all, you learn a lot in other departments and then you notice their problems, for which you may have a solution ready. I also like to do something with my colleagues outside of work, because that promotes cooperation and teamwork very much.

What did you want to become as a child and what led you to ondeso?

Well, for me, like a lot of people, that’s the fireman. I was originally going to follow in my father’s footsteps. However, at the age of 12 I developed an affinity for computers, which has remained with me until today. I upgraded and repaired them. At that time, it was even more difficult as there was no internet and information and catalogues for hardware were available in limited quantities. After my studies I got my Microsoft certificates and trained myself further in the field of servers. One day I got a mail from one of the managing directors of ondeso (Martin Stemplinger) asking me to come by. I thought about it for a while, because it was quite a distance from my hometown. In retrospect it was not worth thinking about. In the beginning I also did software packaging and, although I didn’t know anything about it until then, I was trained very quickly and learned a lot.  You learn with your tasks and even today I can bring in a lot from the beginning again and again. I have never regretted this journey until today.

And to mark Stefan’s 15th anniversary, we asked him a few special questions:

What were your personal highlights from your time at ondeso?
There have been a lot of highlights in my 15 years at ondeso. For one thing, we moved twice. That meant rebuilding all kinds of networks with firewalls, switches, and VLANs. All the planning involved a lot of paperwork at first, but I loved the implementation. In addition, there were branch offices that had to be connected via special routings. Otherwise, I’m always happy when new hardware (not off-the-shelf) has to be assembled and configured. But customer visits were always a highlight, too. It allowed me to see the most complex production facilities and gigantic machines for product processing. When I smell hot metal (e.g., welding), I always think back to that and have to laugh a little.

If your job were a movie title, what would it be called and why?
The movie would probably be called “Mission Impossible.” Many ideas in the company are very complex and have to be planned first. In doing so, you constantly encounter problems that need to be solved. So far, I’ve always managed to do that very well. It’s also always good to know that there are others in the company with enormous expertise. Sometimes, however, it’s more like “Miss Marple.” With many problems, you have to rely on your detective instincts. Small clues and then finding the head of the snake.

What did you used to think about the job that is completely wrong today?
During my training, I thought it was a nice craft profession and that you would spend the whole day with your head in the computer, building and adjusting configurations. But I had no idea about all the planning and documentation involved. But that’s just part of the job and has to be done. However, these “annoying” things are worth their weight in gold when you have to fix problems or adapt systems after years of use.

The bottom line is that I have the best job in the world, I enjoy coming to work every day, and I look forward to most problems and tasks.

Thanks for your time Stefan!

If you want to learn more about Stefan Reifenstein and his work at ondeso, follow him on LinkedIn.