“Challenge the Status Quo”

Says Vidya Sagar B Zakkula, Software Integration Manager, who has been working in leading edge systems software for several years now. This is the only approach with which we can build products for the next generation that’s tech savvy, and hugely impatient with downtime

Meet Vidya Sagar B Zakkula, Software Integration Manager in AMD who manages research Labs at Hyderabad. He graduated from Venkateshwara University in Computer Science & Engineering in 1998. Since then he has been working in the area of systems software, mostly in cutting edge research to develop new products in computing and communications.

Zakkula started his career as an embedded developer working on C/C++ and assembly languages. He worked as a tools developer at VxTel, which was then acquired by Intel. In 2002 he started working on products focusing on infrastructure for servers and data center products. He worked on various areas of Embedded Systems including device drivers /BSPs, Software Tools like simulators, emulators, End to End VoIP solutions, Server Manageability products and so on.

After a stint at setting up the engineering division for a startup, he joined as Engineering Director at Pantera Networks and worked on hosted unified communication products in the Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) model. He was involved in developing the IPs, taking the products to the data center for hosting, and working with customer support to resolve critical engineering problems.

Then he joined AMD as Engineering Manager in Hyderabad. He leads his teams to validate next-generation audio and graphics systems’ software for AMD processors.

The term to describe Zakkula’s work is ‘cutting edge’. He anticipates what’s up ahead and creates products that will meet the needs that will come up. He is among the few people who really know what’s up ahead, in the world of personal devices as well as enterprise computing.

Gear Up for the New Customers

Zakkula is a person who is always focused on the future. We ask him to look back and tell us how things have changed.

“There are a wide variety of changes,” says Zakkula. “Today we have many gadgets, many of them heavy compute centric. And the number of devices has grown in an exponential way. And it’s only going to grow.”

The way one explores information has changed completely. One can operate from a handset. There is a whole lot of compute and communications power packed into a gadget, he says.

Earlier it was expensive to buy these assets. Today, because of mass products, costs are minimal. “For example, data center hosting space was very costly earlier. Now there are many companies, and there is a lot of server or storage space available, which is available 24x7, at minimal costs and no downtime,” says Zakkula.

Look at the kids of today, he continues. They are tech savvy, and have very low resistance levels to adopt new technologies. Their usage patterns are also different, from say the older generation. “They can extract information faster, the efficiencies are higher,” says Zakkula.

“And if they need something, they demand it, they cannot tolerate downtime. They have no patience. And it’s this set of customers that technology has to cater to,” he adds.

This is probably why Zakkula has a huge focus on efficiencies. “I look for tools which will give me data on what my usage patterns are, what the efficiencies are, etc. There is an ongoing operational challenge to weed out what does not give a proper ROI. So I look for new generation tools that will help me improve efficiencies and ROI,” he says.

Personalized Search Engines

We ask Zakkula to tell us about the future. “My bet is on the cloud. We are slowly forgetting the personal computing bit, at the individual level, not so much at the enterprise level yet. We prefer tablets and smartphones, with our storage on the cloud. The action will be around how to manage the traffic to that storage space, and apps securely that will make that content available in the format of their choice. Down the line, I think we will have personalized search engines,” he says.

Computing will also change. “From monolithic servers to separate layers managing various tasks, such as proxy, compute, storage and so on. A grid-like approach will become more common,” he adds.

Zakkula works in a space that probably throws up more questions than answers. What’s a typical work week like? He laughs and says, “Oh, it’s tough and fun! I believe you should get the right person for the right job. And with the right empowerment, you will get the right results. We can’t do everything by ourselves, we have to depend on our teams. With this approach, you can create magic.”

Take Time to Recharge

What would he like to tell our readers, we ask. “I would ask them to challenge the status quo. Go ahead and dream big, and execute tiny milestones which together become big. Be motivated by the success you achieve,” he answers.

So they should take failure in their stride, we ask. “Failures are not something to bring you down. You are just missing something. Usually it’s because we haven’t used the right tools, the right attitude or approach, or the time is not right. You must try out new things to go to the next level,” he says emphatically.

For that we need to spend time with ourselves. “I spend five days at work. One day of the weekend is devoted to my family and ensuring that they are comfortable. We go out, shopping and have fun. I keep the second day for myself. I relax mentally, physically. I use this time to assess the past week and introspect. I read a lot of books, print and ebooks. I also listen to audio books. I also do a lot of ‘paperwork’, which means I write down whatever ideas I have, anything that’s on my mind. I create a plan for working on it,” he ends.