Dipti Borkar is a giant information veteran who has been there and completed that. From stints at NoSQL database firms like Couchbase and MarkLogic to information platforms like Alluxio and Ahana, Borkar has collected priceless expertise at a number of levels of the sport. Now at Microsoft with the title of Vice President and Common Supervisor of Microsoft OneLake and Cloth ISVs, Borkar finds herself named certainly one of BigDATAwire‘s Folks to Look ahead to 2025.
Borkar not too long ago labored with BigDATAwire on a Q&A. Here’s what she needed to say:
BigDATAwire: First, congratulations in your choice as a 2025 BigDATAwire Particular person to Watch! You’ve had a tremendous 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 large information experiences put together you on 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 variety 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 inspiration for enterprises and much more so now with genAI. I consider depth in your area is basically necessary to make knowledgeable selections, constructing credibility particularly with prospects 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 vary. This has by no means been extra related as AI is remodeling our world. Microsoft is main that transformation for our prospects and it’s wonderful to have the ability to play a component on this once-in-a-decade alternative.
BDW: Microsoft has an enormous number of choices throughout large information, analytics, and AI. What’s the firm’s greatest benefit with regards to profitable enterprise in large information, analytics, and AI?
DB: Microsoft has a variety of choices in information, analytics and AI. Microsoft’s greatest benefit lies in its complete and totally 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 Cloth not solely supplies a seamless SaaS unified information platform for analytics, together with real-time analytics, but additionally operational use circumstances with the state of artwork SQL database supplied as a workload in Cloth. This complete strategy permits our prospects to spend much less time integrating a variety of companies and merchandise and extra time getting actual worth from their information and enabling AI efficiencies.
BDW: Microsoft has nice partnerships and in addition nice builders. When launching a brand new Azure Cloud providing, how do you resolve when it’s best to construct internally versus when it’s best to associate with an current 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 prospects. The reply will depend on a number of key parameters that embrace time to market, if the element is a core basis or a distinct segment use case, and if there open-source initiatives which have addressed the same downside. Microsoft Cloth has embraced open supply. We assist DeltaLake and Apache Iceberg desk codecs for Microsoft OneLake – the place information throughout the client’s information property is managed. However we went a step additional and opened the Microsoft Cloth platform – the identical platform that our analytics, information manufacturing facility and Energy BI workloads are constructed on – so companions and software program firms can carry their capabilities natively into it, giving our prospects the advantage of a thriving ecosystem.
BDW: Information lakehouses are rising because of the standardization on the Apache Iceberg format. What’s Microsoft’s technique for supporting Iceberg with OneLake?
DB: With Microsoft Cloth, 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 prospects throughout each desk codecs – DeltaLake and Apache Iceberg. Whereas we began off with the DeltaLake format, we now assist Apache Iceberg as effectively. We consider that is actually necessary as a result of it meets our prospects the place they’re and permits full interoperability throughout information platforms. Microsoft OneLake, sometimes called the “OneDrive for information,” supplies a single unified multi-cloud, SaaS information lake for organizations. It helps a number of engines, permitting for numerous 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 forth.? Is there something about you that your colleagues could be stunned to be taught?
DB: Exterior of labor, I attempt to maximize spending time with my household – husband and two youngsters (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 preserve me going. Whereas there isn’t sufficient time for distinctive hobbies, I did educate myself to play the ukulele and revel in strumming and singing with the youngsters. I like all genres of music and maybe my favourite might shock my colleagues – Reggaeton 😊
You may learn the remainder of the 2025 Folks to Watch interviews right here.