Written by Anne Schulze
“Resilience is born from the challenges we face and the strength we discover within. This statement applies to all walks of life, and site reliability engineering is no different,” says Swapnil Shevate, a leading site reliability engineer. His insights resonate in an era where technological advancements and digital transformation drive global business strategies.
Transitioning to Informatics
Shevate’s professional trajectory defies convention. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in biotechnology, his exposure to informatics was initially limited. He enrolled in a master’s degree program at the School of Informatics & Computing, IUPUI, and moved to the United States in the fall of 2011.
Eventually, during his graduate studies at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Shevate received a research assistantship at the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. During this period, he discovered informatics’ important applications and profound impact.
Shevate’s academic journey allowed him to bridge the gap in his informatics education. He tackled the challenge directly by working on several critical projects that demanded smarter solutions. He developed hands-on skills while working on research projects involving large bioinformatics data sets and solving complex biological problems. These experiences ultimately drove his interest in informatics further. The skills he acquired during this research laid the groundwork for his transition into the tech industry.
With a dream to solve real-world problems and a passion for impacting millions of lives, Shevate faced the challenge of breaking into the tech industry. His motivation stemmed from the understanding that real people use apps, and site reliability engineers (SREs) are responsible for their flawless function. Starting as a research assistant, Shevate has progressed to architecting complex systems and successfully leading numerous high-impact IT infrastructure initiatives at several tech companies.
Knowledge Sharing, Education & Research: Building the Next Generation of Engineers
Shevate’s educational background shaped his career, providing a solid foundation and guiding his professional development. He actively engages in professional development activities in the IT community, continuously enhancing his skills and staying updated with the latest industry advancements.
As an official book reviewer for O’Reilly Media, he offers critical insights into publications and course designs related to cloud computing, site reliability engineering (SRE), and DevOps, ensuring the content meets industry standards of accuracy and relevance.
He launched his online course, “Breaking into Site Reliability Engineering,” which covers SRE’s core principles and practices and aims to equip aspiring SRE engineers with the necessary skills to excel in the field.
“My goal is to foster a culture of reliability, where every member of the SRE community is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of performance and availability,” says Shevate.
With over a decade of experience, he was appointed as an SRE expert by O’Reilly Media. In this role, he curates the Site Reliability Engineering expert playlist, which spans various infrastructure domains and reflects the latest industry trends and practices. This comprehensive playlist includes several courses covering distributed systems, DevOps and automation tooling, cloud architecture, and system monitoring and observability techniques.
Previously, his work as a research assistant in data analysis on breast cancer gained recognition, as highlighted in an article published in the American Association for Cancer Research Journals (AACR).
During his internship at Ohio State University, he developed bioinformatics pipelines for analysing large microbiome datasets. This work led to the publication of several research papers in prestigious journals, which continue to be cited by researchers.
The Emergence and Necessity of Site Reliability Engineering
As the number of apps and websites continues to surge, the digital footprint expands at an outstanding rate, increasing the demand for SREs to manage and ensure the reliability of these services. Customers expect a seamless experience whenever they interact with an app or website, which relies on the expertise of SREs. Industry statistics predict that the SRE market will grow by 18% annually, driven by the increasing complexity of managing and scaling digital infrastructures.
Over a decade ago, Shevate embarked on his journey in this domain, combining his expertise in informatics with practical experience to tackle the most challenging aspects of IT infrastructure management. “In the SRE industry, vigilance is constant,” Shevate explains. “Every decision you make impacts system uptime and user experience.”
Throughout his career, he has focused on building, deploying, supporting, and monitoring application infrastructure, emphasising improving service uptime and adhering to service level agreements (SLAs).
Cloud Computing: The Backbone of Modern Infrastructure
Cloud computing has changed dramatically. Modern IT strategies rely on infrastructure as code and elastic scaling as essential components. The global cloud computing market, valued at $603 billion in 2023, will likely reach $832 billion by 2025. This growth highlights its exponential increase.
The advent of cloud computing has enabled Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and this combination has been instrumental in building resilient online platforms. These platforms host thousands of apps, serving billions of people and significantly impacting their daily lives. They manage varying loads during seasonal peak times and significant events. Dynamically scaling infrastructure as business needs grow is a cornerstone of effective cloud management.
“Cloud computing allows us to build resilient systems that can adapt in real-time, taking us one step closer to self-healing systems,” Shevate notes. “It’s not just about having resources available but optimising their use to maintain efficiency, reliability & cost-effectiveness.” His approach to cloud architecture and capacity planning shows the importance of anticipating future demands and challenges.
The Future of IT Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities:
With 2030 on the horizon, the IT industry is set for tremendous growth. New technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and quantum computing will redefine the boundaries of what is possible. Integrating these technologies into existing infrastructure will be crucial for maintaining a competitive advantage.
However, innovation also brings the challenge of increased cybersecurity threats. The growing number of cyberattacks necessitates advanced security measures and proactive defence strategies. Shevate knows the importance of staying ahead of these threats. He advocates planning for the worst, designing systems with disaster recovery in mind, implementing continuous monitoring, and adopting adaptive data security protocols.
When discussing his career in IT infrastructure, Swapnil Shevate remains optimistic yet grounded. “The journey of an SRE is one of constant learning and adaptation,” he says.
“As we embrace new technologies and methodologies, our focus must always be on creating efficient, resilient, and self-healing yet secure systems.”