At a Glance ...
Word art courtesy Wordle
Areas of Interest
I am passionate about several areas like Systems (Operating, File/Storage and Distributed), Non-Linear Behavior and Decentralization, Immune system and Resiliency, Genetic Algorithms, etc. I also dabble in data/interface design, music and its relationship with cognition, emotion and neurology and understanding nature's basic principles to solve problems.
Citrix Systems, Inc. (January 2008 - February 2009)
Microsoft Corporation (November 2005 - January 2008)
As a program manager, I shifted roles from a developer to a broader, user focused, technology driven and managerial role. I own core operating system technologies like the process subsystem, user mode library loader, NT Threadpool, data execution prevention, WoW64 virtualization, synchronization primitives, elements of code layering and partitioning, etc. I have also contributed in smaller amounts towards the registry, heap, object manager, services, resource manager, ALPC, CSRSS, SMSS, etc.
In my role as a program manager in the Windows Kernel team, I have had the opportunity to understand the design of the Window's Kernel and learn about design, security, scalability, extensibility, performance, application compatibility, presentation style, leadership, decision making, problem solving, etc. from the veterans in the core OS team. I now have a broader understanding of core systems technology, engineering processes, quality metrics, etc.
Master of Science and Engineering, Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University (August 2004 - May 2005)
I then completed my Masters Degree in Computer science in the Systems (Operating, Storage, Distributed).
Calsoft Pvt. Ltd. (June 2003 - July 2004)
I worked as a Senior Software Engineer(Systems) in Calsoft Private Limited. Calsoft specializes in projects in areas like Storage technologies, Operating Systems, File Systems, Networking, System Software etc. I worked on projects dealing with technologies like Asynchronous Remote Replication, Network Attached Storage (NAS), CIFS and NFS, Multi-protocol Lock-Managers (MPLM), Stackable Block Device Drivers, Distributed Synchronized Network File System coherency testing, Object Based Secure Discs (OBSD) and Object File Systems.
Early Motivation
9/11 caused tremendous loss of life and property. From halfway around the planet, I felt the shock, the pain and the loss, and I wanted to help in any way possible. I am neither a doctor, nor a civil engineer. I was on the verge of feeling helpless when I realized that most of the enterprises destroyed in the Twin Towers Tragedy had suffered massive infrastructural and data losses. The losses not only affected economics, but also the lives of many more who depended on that critical data, like bank transactions, medical records, etc. Only a few enterprises which had taken adequate measures to protect one of their most valuable resource--data, could come out of the catastrophe with hope of surviving the disaster.
As a new Computer Engineer, I felt that I could contribute towards protecting the third most important resource (after life and property) -- data. This ability of enterprises to recover all their data after such a catastrophe would also serve to protect all those who depended on the data, and save a lot of pain and even lives! It was at that moment I knew that my calling was in the field of Resilient Systems.
Replication and Mirroring, proper precautions like a fallback power supply and virus protection, regular backups and consistency checks, adequate redundancy, etc are some of the ways to protect an enterprise's online data. . The more I read into the subject, the more I got hooked. I read various books dedicated to the subject like "Resilient Enterprise", "Blueprints for High Availability", "Shared Data Clusters", "Principles of Transaction Processing", etc. I was so interested in this subject, that I wished to pursue a career in this new field.
My final year engineering project was a tool for disaster recovery, off-host processing, distribution and consolidation, backups and high availability of data. It was an Asynchronous Remote Volume Replicator for Linux (see Projects) , Pratima. It was a culmination of my interest in data protection and disaster recovery. My article 'Asynchronous Replication' in Linux Journal explains the basics of Data Protection using Replication techniques.