'There is no pre-written rule to balance personal and professional life'

Bhuvaneswari Subramani hails from a farming family in a small town, and was the first one in her family to graduate. Today, she is the director of engineering operations at Infor, a global software company that builds SMB and Enterprise ERP software cloud products. She leads DevOps including cloud development, build & release automation, ALM tools administration, and performance testing at Infor.

Her journey led her to Bengaluru, where she proved herself confidently in a male-dominated IT industry, discovered AWS cloud and achieved great heights as a developer and an AWS DevTools Hero. Talking about how AWS was the logical progress for her career and for technology, she says, “I realized the future for DevOps is not bright if I don’t get into cloud. From the beginning of my career, I have always been hands-on tech, which helped me learn about AWS services faster. I got to know AWS User Group in Bengaluru through internet search and registered for it immediately.”

Bhuvaneswari completed AWS Certified Solution Architect – Associate level certification in 2017, followed by AWS Certified Solution Architect - Professional level in 2019 and advanced to AWS Security Specialty in 2020. However, it was her connection to the AWS User Group that gave her the global platform to grow and shine. “Before joining AWS User Group Bengaluru, I used to be actively giving presentations in office or selected engineering colleges across Tamil Nadu. In 2017, I started attending every meetup organized by the AWS UG Bengaluru. Many times, I was the only woman who used to attend the meetups regularly. As a mother of two children, it was challenging to balance my personal and professional life, especially when my husband is on work related travel. The Bengaluru UG community was very supportive, they let me bring my kid to the meetups; he was a regular member with me. And I used to leave older child at tuition while attending sessions.”

At the first Community Day organized in India, Bhuvaneswari was the only woman speaker at the event. “It is rightly said that if you want really something enough, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it,” she says. Opportunity unfolded for her when she received news from the AWS team that she was one of 5 women selected for the diversity scholarship to attend Amazon’s AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas in 2018. Meeting the AWS Team expanded her horizons and she now is a regular speaker at the re:Invent conferences, as well as regional Community Days, as well as an avid writer on AWS services. She also delivers guest lectures on Cloud Computing, DevOps for staff & students at engineering colleges across India and helps in designing syllabus for Cloud Computing Labs. Bhuvaneswari was the first women AWS Hero from India in June 2019, followed by AWS DevTools Hero in Nov 2020.

She is proud to be an inspiration and a role model. “During one of my presentations, a girl told me that one day she would also present on stage like me. This was the biggest motivation I have received, that I could inspire other women to take this path.” Her words of advice to women developers are sound, “Never give up. Problems will come, but you need to find a solution and keep going. I am proud that as a working woman, I have not compromised in shaping my children’s future at the cost of my career. There is no pre-written rule to balance personal and professional life.”