Dipti Borkar is a giant information veteran who has been there and performed that. From stints at NoSQL database firms like Couchbase and MarkLogic to information platforms like Alluxio and Ahana, Borkar has accrued priceless expertise at a number of levels of the sport. Now at Microsoft with the title of Vice President and Basic Supervisor of Microsoft OneLake and Material ISVs, Borkar finds herself named certainly one of BigDATAwire‘s Individuals to Look ahead to 2025.
Borkar lately labored with BigDATAwire on a Q&A. Here’s what she needed to say:
BigDATAwire: First, congratulations in your choice as a 2025 BigDATAwire Individual to Watch! You will have had an incredible profession to date, with stops at Intuit, IBM, MarkLogic, Couchbase, Alluxio, and Ahana earlier than becoming a member of Microsoft in 2022. How did all these huge information experiences put together you to your present function at Microsoft?
Dipti Borkar: I’m grateful for this recognition. There are such a lot of movers and shakers on this area, and it’s an honor to be included on this checklist. Whereas I’ve had a spread of experiences previous to Microsoft from Fortune 100 firms to quick rising startups to even founding my very own, all of them centered round Information and platform firms. Information continues to be the muse for enterprises and much more so now with genAI. I consider depth in your area is admittedly necessary to make knowledgeable selections, constructing credibility particularly with clients and driving breakthrough innovation. Whereas I’ve been very profitable with startups, with an IPO and a strategic exit, I realized a key management trait from each expertise – adapting to alter. This has by no means been extra related as AI is remodeling our world. Microsoft is main that transformation for our clients and it’s wonderful to have the ability to play an element on this once-in-a-decade alternative.
BDW: Microsoft has an enormous number of choices throughout huge information, analytics, and AI. What’s the firm’s largest benefit in relation to successful enterprise in huge information, analytics, and AI?
DB: Microsoft has a spread of choices in information, analytics and AI. Microsoft’s largest benefit lies in its complete and absolutely built-in imaginative and prescient for an end-to-end AI stack, spanning from cloud infrastructure to information to AI-driven functions with safety and governance at each layer. Copilots are deeply embedded into each providing. On the information layer, Microsoft Material not solely offers a seamless SaaS unified information platform for analytics, together with real-time analytics, but in addition operational use instances with the state of artwork SQL database supplied as a workload in Material. This complete method permits our clients to spend much less time integrating a spread of providers and merchandise and extra time getting actual worth from their information and enabling AI efficiencies.
BDW: Microsoft has nice partnerships and likewise nice builders. When launching a brand new Azure Cloud providing, how do you determine when it is best to construct internally versus when it is best to accomplice with an present vendor?
DB: Nice query. This determination is one each product chief makes as they envision executing on their roadmap. Microsoft embraces our companions. A stronger ecosystem round Microsoft means higher experiences for our clients. The reply will depend on a number of key parameters that embody time to market, if the part is a core basis or a distinct segment use case, and if there open-source tasks which have addressed the same drawback. Microsoft Material has embraced open supply. We assist DeltaLake and Apache Iceberg desk codecs for Microsoft OneLake – the place information throughout the shopper’s information property is managed. However we went a step additional and opened the Microsoft Material platform – the identical platform that our analytics, information manufacturing facility and Energy BI workloads are constructed on – so companions and software program firms can convey their capabilities natively into it, giving our clients the good thing about a thriving ecosystem.
BDW: Information lakehouses are rising due to the standardization on the Apache Iceberg format. What’s Microsoft’s technique for supporting Iceberg with OneLake?
DB: With Microsoft Material, Microsoft moved from closed proprietary codecs to open supply desk codecs in order that no information is locked in. However as a cloud chief, now we have clients throughout each desk codecs – DeltaLake and Apache Iceberg. Whereas we began off with the DeltaLake format, we now assist Apache Iceberg as nicely. We consider that is actually necessary as a result of it meets our clients the place they’re and permits full interoperability throughout information platforms. Microsoft OneLake, also known as the “OneDrive for information,” offers a single unified multi-cloud, SaaS information lake for organizations. It helps a number of engines, permitting for varied sorts of compute on a single information lake layer.
BDW: What are you able to inform us about your self outdoors of the skilled sphere – distinctive hobbies, favourite locations, and so on.? Is there something about you that your colleagues may be stunned to study?
DB: Outdoors of labor, I attempt to maximize spending time with my household – husband and two children (11 and 9). We love touring the world collectively – now we have one final marvel of the world left to go to. Journey and music are two issues that basically maintain me going. Whereas there isn’t sufficient time for distinctive hobbies, I did educate myself to play the ukulele and luxuriate in strumming and singing with the youngsters. I really like all genres of music and maybe my favourite could shock my colleagues – Reggaeton 😊
You’ll be able to learn the remainder of the 2025 Individuals to Watch interviews right here.
