Prasad Thota

About Prasad Thota

At OCI, I support engineering org building next generation virtual cloud networking platform. My teams build and operate the networking data plane stack that bridges virtual and physical networking planes.A fundamental transformation of cloud infrastructure based on principles of disaggregation and composability is underway. Innovation in DPUs/IPUs led by Silicon vendors and Cloud providers is at heart of this transformation. We at Oracle/OCI are helping reimagine this architecture. Super excited and humbled to be leading this journey from OCI Networking. Prior to OCI, I led Microsoft\'s Cloud Voice bootstrap journey and Microsoft\'s Hybrid Cloud story. Building these products taught me about technical excellence, trust, leadership and working across disciplines. I care about people and technology, in that order. What matters most to me is having outcomes that make people and customers successful, and leading by example. I love excellence, persistence, ownership and empathy. And I build teams and organizations that reflect those values.

Experience

1. Senior Director, Engineering

   Oracle

   Feb 2022 — Present · Seattle, WA, US

   As an engineering leader in OCI\'s Virtual Networking group, I support teams that are building the next generation Data Plane components of VCN layer in OCI. Data plane forms the core foundational layer of the virtual network abstraction. Every customer visible networking function - firewalls, load balancers, subnets, Virtual NICs - is built on top of primitives that the Data plane provides. A little more context about the OCI Networking group that I\'m part of. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a cloud provider experiencing exponential growth. A big reason for the growth is OCI’s ability to meet the customer where they are. Cloud, on-premises and everywhere in between. OCI is laser focused on building right, smart hybrid cloud that its customers want.A smart hybrid cloud needs a smart, highly performant, secure and programmable network. And that is what we provide as part OCI’s Networking group. Everything from the Edge of the network to the NIC on the host can be customized to meet the customer needs. We are responsible for every packet that flows into and out of OCI. If distributed computer networking is a passion of yours, and you’d like to build the next generation virtual networking software, we have opportunities for you. Given where OCI is in its journey, you’ll have the opportunity to build foundational software that will add to your repertoire and growth. There are opportunities across all functions at various levels – engineers, engineering leaders, Technical Program Managers, SRE. Please reach out to me if you are interested.

Education

• Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning

  Master's degree, Physics

• Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

  Master's degree, Computer Science