About the founder

Fortibus Consulting B.V. is the independent consultancy and product studio of Ryan Rounkles — an engineer based in the Netherlands with over 25 years in ICT, building systems where reliability isn't a feature but the whole point.

A career built on systems that can’t fail

My work has centred on software where downtime has real consequences: emergency dispatch systems, software for life support equipment, loan management platforms, as well as multiple mobile apps. That background shaped a lasting focus on highly available, resilient architecture — designing systems that keep working when networks partition, hardware fails, and load spikes at the worst possible moment.

Along the way I’ve spent as much time growing teams as building systems. I’ve taught Domain-Driven Design and Test-Driven Development to multiple teams, and at Costco led mainframe-focused teams through their move into the cloud — proof that modernisation is as much about people as it is about technology.

What I’m building now

Today my focus is an EU sovereign cloud stack: infrastructure that lets startups be compliant from day one — GDPR, data residency, European jurisdiction — so they can stay focused on building their product instead of wrestling with compliance. You can follow that work on the products page.

Toolbox

Expert-level C# / .NET, with deep working experience across Java / Spring, Kotlin, Python, TypeScript, and PHP, and extensive use of Azure and AWS cloud services. Opinionated about architecture, pragmatic about tools.

Why “Fortibus”?

From the Latin fortis — strength. Fortibus is the plural: strength for many, not just for one. It’s a small reminder of what good infrastructure and good software should do.

Principles

Privacy is an engineering decision, not a policy document. If the data isn’t collected, it can’t leak, be subpoenaed, or be sold.
Boring technology, deliberately chosen. Reliability compounds; novelty usually doesn’t.
Radical candor, delivered with care. You won’t get sugar-coating or what you want to hear — you’ll get the honest conversation when it matters, because that’s what respect actually looks like.
Say what you’ll do, then do it. In consulting and in products alike.

Get in touch

The best way to reach me is email: ryan@fortibus-consulting.com. I’m always happy to talk about sovereignty, resilient architecture, or an engineering problem you’re stuck on.