Ilia Alshanetsky

Toronto, Canada
github.com/iliaal

I’m a software engineer and technology executive with 25+ years building internet software, from low-level PHP internals to large-scale cloud platforms.

I’ve led engineering teams, scaled systems to 100M+ daily interactions while maintaining sub-100ms response times, and shipped production conversational AI well before the hype cycle.

On open source, I’ve been a PHP core contributor for over two decades, co-authored 30+ extensions, and coordinated 25+ official releases as PHP Release Master.

I focus on engineering rigor: performance, security, and practical systems that hold up under real production load.

By the numbers
25+
Years building production software
50+
International talks on security, performance, and PHP
30+
PHP extensions co-authored as a core contributor
Work history
2001–Present

Founder

Advanced Internet Designs Inc.
Technology consultancy focused on scalable web infrastructure and application security. Security audits and penetration testing across startups and enterprise teams.
2021–2023

CTO

Silofit Inc.
Led engineering modernization, improved delivery practices, and scaled team operations for product growth.
2016–2021

CTO

Gubagoo Inc.
Scaled platform and engineering organization, launched ML/AI capabilities, and maintained high-availability systems on AWS.
2006–2016

CIO / CTO

Centah Inc.
Architected and operated a large SaaS platform with long-term reliability and major enterprise integrations.
Open source & writing

Open Source

Core contributor to PHP with 30+ co-authored extensions, including php_excel. Served as PHP Release Master and coordinated 25+ official PHP releases.

Co-author of FUDForum and contributor to PHP documentation tooling used by developers worldwide.

Writing & speaking

Author of php|architect's Guide to PHP Security and published across technical outlets.

Speaker at 50+ conferences on security, performance, DevOps, and PHP internals.