Women of Infor: Engineering director honored for promoting diversity in tech
Bhuvaneswari Subramani is a self-made #WomanInTech. A farmer’s daughter from a small town in South India, she was the first in her family to earn a college degree.
18 years later, she’s now a technophile, IT blogger, director of engineering operations at Infor GT Nexus, co-leader of the Amazon Web Services User Group in Bengaluru (Bangalore), and 1 of just 5 recipients across the globe of an AWS re:Invent 2018 Community Leader Diversity Scholarship.
“It has been a long journey, and it is mesmerizing to look back and relish how far I’ve come, but also to ponder how far #WomenInTech still need to go,” Bhuvana says. “I’m grateful and excited to promote diversity and enable the tech industry to be more inclusive.”
A passion for technology and training
Bhuvana attended an all-girls secondary school, then earned a bachelor's of engineering in computer science and an MBA in systems.
“I started my career as a developer in GIS- and GPS-based applications, packaging installers for the home-grown desktop applications,” Bhuvana said.
She joined GT Nexus in 2012, and now is director of engineering operations, taking care of DevOps including in cloud migration, build & release automation, ALM tools administration, and performance testing. Bhuvana's sojourn through the cloud triggered a keen interest in Amazon Web Services, Infor’s cloud infrastructure partner. She got certified and conducts many AWS training programs for colleagues and for professors and students at a local engineering college.
“With the AWS User Group Bengaluru, I have participated in many community-led learning events. I presented “A Migration Story: Agile to FDD in light of AWS” at the AWS Community Day 2017 in Bengaluru, and I was co-organizer of the AWS Community Day 2018 Bengaluru, where I presented a paper on “CI/CD Using AWS Developer Tools.”
AWS re:Invent Diversity Scholar
Despite Bhuvana’s success, diversity of women in tech in Bengaluru is sorely lacking. Of the 500 attendees at a recent AWS User Group conference that Bhuvana helped coordinate, only 15% were women. But she is working on that. Last fall, Bhuvana was chosen as 1 of 5 female user group leaders across the globe to receive a Community Leader Diversity Scholarship to AWS re:Invent 2018.
“At re:Invent, I learned how to harness the power of community-led learning and how it can benefit a larger audience. I will continue to advocate for diversity through the AWS User Group Bengaluru. Our community is inclusive and whole-heartedly welcomes diverse cloud enthusiasts, from all walks of life, to be part of our journey.”
Creative blogging
Bhuvana’s third passion is creative writing. She combined all 3 passions when she started blogging in 2009 about the tools and technologies she has mastered: Blog on DevOps, Cloud Computing, SCM.
She also became the accidental blogger for the Chinmaya Balavihar Residential Summer Camp for 11- to 15-year-old children, where she volunteered last year. She was writing daily summaries of activities for the parents, and they were so popular, they were transformed into a blog on the website.
“Basically, I enjoy writing on anything and everything that Inspires, influences, and impacts me either in English or Tamil, my mother tongue,” Bhuvana explains.
Work/life balance
“I am a proud mother of two high-energy boys ages 12 and 8. Not wanting to be a bad mother, I try to balance our time together on the badminton court or swimming or their school projects rather than letting them fiddle with electronic gadgets. I try to blend my passion with the children’s interest, so we can have fun together.”
When she delivers guest lectures several times a year at her alma mater, “my boys are in the front row, witnessing patiently or reading their books.”
“While I am writing my blog, my kids are writing their experiences or inspirations on a notebook, which I help them later put into their own blogs: Sharvesh’s blog and Yoogesh’s blog.”
“My husband, Guna, also stands by me whenever and wherever he can, helping me flourish in my career.”
Biggest challenge
“I enjoy every bit of work I do, and I realized it’s relatively easy to balance work and family, but not beyond that. When I add on preparation for any technical presentations, which require lots of after-work reading or writing or coding, then it’s difficult to do everything fully. However, I can’t give up training and writing because that’s my passion — with a burning desire deep rooted in me.”
If she could go back and tell her 5-year-old 1 thing, she would say: “Practice makes perfect; so never give up!”
Being a woman of Infor
“When I joined the GT Nexus team, I found an amazing culture that was built up over years, and stood strong as the binding factor for the company. Early in my career, diversity wasn’t considered important. Now, I get to work with inspiring female leaders and reap the camaraderie of the Women’s Infor Network (WIN) community. I am honored when my peers see my success as theirs, and express their best wishes whole heartedly.
“What more could you want in a workplace than to take yet another bold step? And I am game for that!”
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