8 January 2024
Every organisation wants to keep their business partners happy and retain them for the long term, in this context, Microsoft’s Channel Incentive Program (CHIP) comes into play. It’s an incentive-providing, performance and earnings measurement platform for partners who sell Microsoft products.
Balakrishna Boddu, a senior database Administrator has changed Microsoft’s Channel Incentive Program (CHIP), through database administration and deployment strategies. His work has led to Microsoft’s strategic decision to relocate the entire project operations to India (TechMahindra), marking a significant change in global technology management.
As a Senior Database Administrator working through TechMahindra, Boddu single-handedly manages the deployment operations for CHIP, showcasing his capability in handling complex database environments. His expertise spans multiple database platforms, including MSSQLSERVER, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redshift, DynamoDB, and EMR clusters, making him an invaluable asset in today’s multi-cloud, data-driven ecosystem.
His innovative solutions have resulted in remarkable improvements across key performance metrics. Under his leadership, query response times have been reduced by 60%, from 5 seconds to 2 seconds, while database throughput has seen a 20% improvement. These optimizations have been achieved alongside a significant reduction in CPU utilization, from 80% to 60%, demonstrating the ability to balance performance with resource efficiency.
Speaking of resource utilization, his impact extends beyond technical metrics. Through strategic implementation of data compression and deduplication techniques, Boddu has achieved a 15% reduction in storage costs while simultaneously expanding storage capacity by 30% without additional hardware investments. This dual achievement of cost reduction and capacity expansion has delivered substantial value to both Microsoft and TechMahindra.
Security and compliance are always a concern when talking about tech and it also has been a cornerstone priority in Boddu’s approach. Under his supervision, security incidents have decreased by 25%, and the system maintains 100% compliance with industry regulations. His implementation of robust backup and recovery solutions has cut backup windows in half, from 4 hours to 2 hours, while reducing the recovery time objective from 2 hours to 30 minutes.
He also successfully migrated a 500 TB database to a new platform. And managed tominimize downtime during migration to less than 2 hours, plus configured and handled zero provided downtime for databases and provided 24/7 Application uptime.
Boddu’s expertise isn’t limited to Microsoft; his impressive portfolio includes work with major financial and media institutions such as Capital One Bank, NBC Universal, Bank of America, and BCBSM. His experience across multiple cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, and GCP, positions him as an expert in modern database administration.
Bringing in these results required him and his team to look at some of the considerations. To manage data migration challenges he broke down the data into smaller chunks, to improve data and queries he kept a check on their quality and implemented data cleansing and data governance policies, to ensure security he and his team implemented robust security measures, such as strong password policies, encryption, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and conducted regular security audits.
Further, to make the system foolproof, they also implemented a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, including regular backups, failover mechanisms, and a robust disaster recovery site. With most of the population being online these days, to meet the increased load and complexity, they implement scaling strategies, such as sharding, partitioning, and load balancing. They also optimized database configuration and hardware resources to meet performance requirements.
Currently, Boddu is expanding his influence in the field through academic contributions, with 17 papers pending publication and an upcoming book on “AWS Redshift Database Administration.” His work is also being considered for publication in Elsevier, one of the world’s leading scientific publishers.
When asked about the future, looking at the current trends, Boddu emphasizes the evolving role of database administrators in an increasingly complex technological landscape. “The role of a DBA is constantly evolving. Beyond traditional tasks like database design, implementation, and maintenance, modern DBAs are increasingly involved in data engineering, data science, and cloud technologies,” he notes.
His implementation of automation tools and CI/CD pipelines has demonstrated how modern DBAs can drive efficiency and reduce human error through technological innovation. In this automation landscape, the role of AI and machine learning will be increased. Further, according to him, security and the need for continuous learning will remain important in today’s tech world.
He also suggests that the industry is witnessing Serverless Databases, a decentralized approach to data and technology with low-code or no-code database tools and there is an increased importance on data observability and data privacy and security.
Through his comprehensive approach to database administration, combining technical expertise with strategic thinking, Boddu continues to shape the future of database management and deployment strategies. His work is a testament to how individual excellence can change and bring in successful implementations in enterprise-level operations and drive innovation in the field of database administration.