About

Tia Zanella

Since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by signals, especially phones. I still remember dismantling my grandma’s GPO 746. It shocked her, but for me it was pure curiosity: understanding how those things actually worked and how you could dial without using the rotary wheel. That led me to mess with the dial contacts and discover that it was possible to dial by tapping the hook switch multiple times (one tap per number). Later came my mother’s StarTAC, the first satellite decoder at my parents' house, and a beat-up CB radio found abandoned in the trash and restored, each expanding my obsession with how information travels. At 13, I mounted a satellite dish on my grandpa’s roof just to experiment with signals after watching my favorite movie of all time, *Alien*. I ended up with zero E.T. contacts from the 'ufology space center' built in my bedroom, but the spark was lit. Soon, the PlayStation helped refocus my interests, and I ended up connecting two Sony Trinitron KV-14V5Us to play with transmission signals, what we’d call streaming today. That ended poorly when I accidentally overwrote a rented Blockbuster VHS tape and had to explain why *To Live and Die in L.A.* was taped over *Mortal Kombat*. My excuse, delivered with a big smile, was: 'Uhm, label issues, you know?' Unfortunately, it wasn't believed. At 16, I received my first PC with a 56k modem, and my digital travels allowed me to land on SETI@home (and later, BOINC), introducing me to the world of distributed computing. That curiosity pulled me deep into open-source systems, eventually landing on Debian. Between 16 and 18, I ran my first web page from my home PC named cobra501 (yes, from the Stallone movie, and no, I still don't remember why 501). My life today still runs on that same curiosity: trying, failing, learning, sharing, and repeating. I’m an open-minded builder focused on open source, network engineering, software development, high-performance hybrid architectures, and automation. For me, learning is all about doing, questioning everything I don’t yet understand, and sharing, because I believe this is what enables people to evolve together.

Read the full Bio on LinkedIn

2025

Nestlé | Senior Solution Architect Data Center and Cloud Network

Joining Nestlé, I embarked on a new adventure that marked a fresh start in my life, an immense opportunity to learn and grow, and a true honor to contribute to one of the world's most iconic brands.
2022

Copan | Senior Systems Architect Manager

Managed a team of 20 people (13 at headquarters, the rest across AMER, LATAM, and APAC). Designed and managed the building of the headquarters (not-certified) Tier III Data Center from the ground up, advocating for certified refurbished hardware that slashed infrastructure costs. I contributed to infusing an open-source culture across the company, adopting Arista Networks, Proxmox, Ceph, RHEL/Ubuntu, GitLab, Zabbix, and Grafana. To top it off, I designed and managed the construction of our NOCC (Network Operation Command Center), complete with a 12-display NEC videowall and custom Zabbix/Grafana templates for end-to-end IT/OT network visibility.
2021

Copan | Senior Systems Administrator Manager

Modernized IT and OT network infrastructure across Italian campus, and global SD-WAN across Italy, Puerto Rico, California, and Shanghai. I designed a global Tier 1 network with LUMEN to replace the company's obsolete MPLS network infrastructure, and implemented a high-performance DWDM campus circuit with multiple 10 Gbps channels over custom dark fibers that involved 5 buildings in the Headquarters located in Italy. I also designed the Microsoft ExpressRoute uplinks for Azure. In the facility located in Puerto Rico, I was responsible for audit, re-design and manage the new IT and OT core network as well as the Datacenter, installing dual single-mode fiber circuits in EMT conduits across eight rooms in a mesh topology to guarantee the maximum resilience in case a hurricane should hit the island damaging parts of the building and cutting fiber cables or conduits. To ensure business continuity, I designed a second offsite disaster recovery site and a satellite backup. Finally, I introduced open-source tooling, designed and managed the contruction of the Puerto Rico NOC featuring a NEC videowall with custom Zabbix/Grafana, and integrated OT monitoring down to Schneider PowerTag Energy sensors and Zebra printing queues (writing custom ZPL monitoring that I build based on Zebra PPME platform).
2014

Storm Interactive | Director of Software Engineering

Led the design and development of frontend and backend applications, including Barclays software for Microsoft Surface and the Luxury brand Moncler iPad app used in boutiques worldwide.
2013

Suyara | Founder and Chief Technology Officer

In 2012, I developed SFS (a custom distributed chunk file system) to power our cloud storage platform launched in 2013. SFS managed large data volumes distributed across European datacenters. In October 2013, I presented the platform during a keynote at ESAD University in Portugal to 1,500 people. Within three months of launch, Suyara grew to 38,000 users and moved 2 PB of traffic. In 2015, I developed the encrypted Suyara Supergate webserver, leading to a published Oracle case study.
2011

Storm Interactive | Technical Director

Served as Technical Director and Team Leader on multi-national projects. Notable works include developing SKY's automated playout platform (generating TGA templates for sports channels to free operators from Photoshop workflows) and automating customer registration and SAP data imports for METRO AG.
2008

Storm Interactive | User Experience Manager

Began my journey at Storm Interactive's User Interface Design Team, designing UI/UX for diverse desktop and mobile portals. I designed the interfaces for the Vimar By-me and Vimar Fai il Punto iOS home automation apps, both of which won prestigious FWA awards for best user experience and mobile design.