Alf-andré Walla
Senior Software Engineer at Varnish Software
Oslo, Norway
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolAlf-andré Walla is a Senior Software Engineer based in Oslo with 12 years of deep systems-level experience, specializing in high-performance C and C++ for edge compute and caching platforms. He architects and implements low-level components—from kernels and drivers to network stacks and userspace unikernel features—bringing a rare combination of production-grade engineering and research-led design. At Varnish Software he drives R&D for edge compute products, modernized the Varnish build system, and instrumented fuzzing and security work for a widely used open-source caching project. Previously at IncludeOS he designed x86 platform support, live-update mechanisms, cryptographic streams and a suite of drivers and networking protocols, demonstrating expertise in bare-metal SMP and userspace OS design. An active contributor to the flagship varnish-cache repository, he has fixed subtle memory-safety issues and improved streaming/backend buffering for high-throughput scenarios. He is completing doctoral studies in IT, underscoring a blend of academic depth and hands-on systems craftsmanship.
12 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
University of OsloBachelor’s Degree, Computer Science, Bachelor’s Degree, Computer Science at Oslo and Akershus University College
English, Norwegian
Github Skills (9)
c1710
caching10
http10
c1110
reverse-proxy9
performance-optimization9
software-design7
system-design7
sys7
Programming languages (17)
Github contributions (5)
varnishcache/varnish-cache
Aug 2019 - Dec 2021
Varnish Cache source code repository
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:7 reviews, 8 commits, 10 PRs in 2 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Alf-andré primarily focused on improving the Varnish Cache source code, particularly related to HTTP header parsing, and caching functionality. They addressed potential out-of-bounds read vulnerabilities in the codebase by implementing bounds-checking mechanisms within existing macros and converting them to inline functions. The user also introduced a new parameter and variable to control backend buffering, improving control over streaming uncacheable responses. Further improvements included renaming variables for clarity and refactoring and extending code for more efficient data processing.
cachingreverse-proxycode-repositorycachevarnish-cache
fwsGonzo/varnish-cache
Jul 2019 - Oct 2023
Varnish Cache source code repository
Contributions:56 pushes, 10 branches in 4 years 4 months
cachingcode-repositorycachevarnish-cachememcached
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