From Baden-Baden to Cupertino
40 years with Apple. 30 years serving businesses.
1983
Baden-Baden, the spark
Baden-Baden, 1983. An Apple IIe, a Disk II drive, an amber Philips monitor. Listings copied from Micro-Systèmes magazine, 6502 assembly, first copy protections bypassed. A passion that would never fade.
1993–1996
ESIAL Nancy
École Supérieure d'Informatique et Applications de Lorraine — 3rd cohort, around fifty students — led by Monique Grandbastien, a pioneering figure in artificial intelligence in France. Trained in the fundamentals: algorithms, systems, networks. Languages: Eiffel, CAML, Smalltalk, C. Alongside, an industrial project with Alcatel on PABX A4400 testing tools, and a postgraduate research diploma (DEA) at LORIA on network management — "An SNMP agent for managing virtual parallel machines" — supervised by Olivier Festor.
1997–1999
Eli Lilly — Infrastructure at scale
After military service at the Eurocorps in Strasbourg, a first role as infrastructure analyst in a major international pharmaceutical group. Managing a fleet of 1,200 workstations and 300 printers, overseeing PC deployment outsourcing, contributing to 5-year "Global Desktop" strategic roadmaps. A first encounter with enterprise IT at scale.
1999–2009
Mars IS — Ten years at the heart of global IT
Nearly ten years at Mars Information Services — one of the world's largest food and confectionery groups — managing critical infrastructure on a global scale. Unix/SAN datacentres across Europe, USA and AsiaPac, disaster recovery, Linux introduction for SAP. Then the global supply chain: tier-2 support for all European factories on SAP R/3. Finally, corporate systems governance serving the board — financial consolidation, BI, patents, HR — with a team spread across 6 countries and offshore support in India. Ten years learning that IT is run like a business.
2009
Founding Astier Consulting
Philippe Astier founded Astier Consulting in Strasbourg. An independent practice, with no middlemen, designed to support companies in their IT strategy with the rigour of a senior expert and the responsiveness of a field consultant. In parallel, he continued serving as CIO for select clients — a posture that continuously enriches his strategic vision.
2009–today
Deepening expertise
Over the years, Astier Consulting has established itself as a reference in the enterprise Apple ecosystem — Jamf Professional Partner, Apple Technical Partner, Fortinet NSE and Ubiquiti certified. Accreditations earned over time, serving clients across sectors as diverse as finance, healthcare, media and manufacturing, in France and internationally.
August 2025
Apple Park, Cupertino
Philippe Astier is one of the few French consultants to have accepted Apple's invitation to attend the Apple Consultants Network technical summit at Apple Park. On the agenda: Platform SSO, phishing-resistant MFA, advanced fleet management and on-device artificial intelligence. A week at the heart of Apple innovation, alongside engineering teams and partners from around the world.
"IT should never be an obstacle. My role is to make it a lever — reliable, secure, and perfectly suited to your reality."
Astier Consulting means a single point of contact who knows your environment, anticipates your needs, and steps in directly — no sales layer, no subcontractors. An approach built on 30 years of experience, and on the conviction that technology must serve people, not the other way around.