In a rapidly-evolving industry like technology, success isn’t just about being good at what you do. It’s also about raising the bar. Take it from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) India’s most experienced leader, Engineering Vice President Srikanth Ananthamurthy, who has spent nearly three decades on the cutting-edge of tech.
He sat down for an interview with Executive Leadership Recruiter Goutham Viswanath, who specializes in bringing top executives into OCI and driving growth across our Japan and Asia Pacific region. Read on for an exclusive look at Srikanth’s professional journey—and learn how OCI engineers are staying ahead of the curve.
Evolving with the trends
Srikanth entered the industry 28 years ago. Though storage technology has changed radically since he started his career, he’s embraced change at every turn. “I’ve been lucky to be part of all the waves of innovation and tech trends. Each gives so much opportunity,” he shares. “I started with very slow hard disks back in the ‘90s, and now we have a massive scale of cloud storage.”
It was this mindset that drew Srikanth to Oracle last year. At his previous company, he was an established leader with a long track record of success. After 15 years, however, the tech landscape had shifted to a new opportunity: the cloud. “I wanted to be in the thick of things, where you add features, build a service, deploy it, grow regions, and take care of customers,” he says. “At the same time, I wanted to continue in storage and contribute my skills and expertise.”
A new chapter
Right away, Srikanth was attracted to OCI’s many cloud solutions and varied customer base—which included both large enterprises and newer, niche players. “OCI has different facets of cloud solutions, which attracted me to it. You can sit in one place and get a flavor of everything.” He recognized that OCI India was in an exciting phase of growth, which offered great potential for learning and innovation. Stepping into a leadership role would give him the chance to build structure and make a direct impact on a hyper scaling business.
“I had a few friends working in OCI who had good references, so I knew the value of the culture that Oracle has,” Srikanth adds. He recalls that the hiring process was incredibly quick and gave him an early impression of what was to come in his new role. “It showed the urgency with which people were being hired in OCI,” he says. “Now that I’ve joined, I see that there’s so much we can do here.”
The forefront of tech
Srikanth heads OCI India’s block storage team—a role that allows him to thrive at the forefront of tech.
“A lot of new OCI features are driven and built completely out of India,” he shares. “Availability, scale, security—we have the DNA to know how to handle data. Building solutions that are out of the box to cater to customers has been amazing.” With OCI deployed in over 60 regions, including two in India, the impact of the organization is vast. Many prominent Indian companies host their data on OCI Mumbai or Hyderabad, which Srikanth finds rewarding. “It feels good to be part of the growth story for these Indian customers and India in general,” he tells us. “It’s hard to make that connect if you are deeply buried in a kernel or storage solution. With OCI’s business in India, it’s easy to make the connection of how my work is impacting somebody.”
In just six months here, he and his team have already achieved impressive feats.
“We recently had to build an entire DRC solution for a big client, and we got it up in three weeks. That’s almost unheard of in the enterprise world, but OCI was able to pull it off.” Many of OCI’s successes can be attributed to the team’s attitude of “working smarter”—finding ways to use and integrate existing knowledge and solutions to create an efficient, tailored experience for the customer.
Potential
While he takes pride in each completed project, it’s OCI India’s potential that excites Srikanth most. The organization is growing rapidly, and he’s laser-focused on reaching new heights. “There’s a lot of work around service, availability, and operations,” he says. “We need to spin up new regions, take care of existing regions, have round-the-clock support, and do a lot of automation to mitigate or prevent situations from happening.” When it comes to fulfilling these growth areas, it’s essential to have teams that are passionate about taking on new challenges. There are over 160 employees currently working on OCI’s three storage services in India, and their dedication to advancement is evident. A year ago, bringing up a new service might have taken days. Now, block storage can be spun up in two hours.
The roadmap
Srikanth anticipates even more success for OCI storage in the future—not only in terms of market revenue but also in terms of opportunity. “I see a lot of features getting in that will reduce the cost of our solutions, make our solutions even more unique, and grow our business impact. There are a lot of things lined up in the roadmap.” Customer relationships are a great asset moving forward in the cloud arena. Oracle’s reputation for handling large customers positions OCI as a natural partner for business giants looking to migrate to the cloud.
Investing in people
Investing in technology means investing in people. Oracle’s culture of support and learning was one of the main reasons Srikanth joined OCI. As a leader, he’s committed to fostering that culture within the community. “We collaborate so much. We don’t have many disruptions, but when we do, you see everyone from junior to senior levels on the call trying to fix it. Having people who are aligned, focused, and easy to work with is a big thing.” OCI India’s dynamic work environment makes it the perfect place for career progression. People experience hands-on learning on a day-to-day basis. Working with big customers, in particular, teaches employees how to design their software to scale for that size, take large backups, and more. Team members also take advantage of Oracle’s many opportunities for professional development, including mentoring, skill building, and more.
Maintaining the organization’s momentum also requires bringing new innovators into the fold. OCI India is looking for strong technical leads and senior engineering talent to come onboard and funnel energy into building great products. With so many available opportunities, it’s the perfect time to raise the bar. “It is our game to play. We need to hire well, grow well, and then just go do it.”
Do you want to raise the bar for cloud technology with leaders like Srikanth? Explore engineering roles at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and create the future with us.