Technical Council

Manjeet Kumar - Mindteck

Manjeet comes with 11+ years of Enterprise Data storage expertise acquired through hands-on experience with leading platforms from HE, Nutanix, Cisco, and NetApp. He brings deep knowledge of infrastructure, scalability, SAN environment, and performance optimization integrated with Al-driven insights to optimize performance and reliability. His experience reflects strong problem-solving, innovation, and leadership in delivering enterprise-grade data management strategies that drive business success.
Throughout his journey, Manjeet has demonstrated exceptional problem-solving skills and a commitment to innovation. His ability to align technical solutions with business objectives highlights his leadership in driving enterprise-grade data management strategies that foster growth and success. With a proven track record of optimizing infrastructure and enabling digital transformation,Manjeet continues to shape reliable, scalable, and future-ready solutions

Sunil Kumar - Dell Technologies

Sunil Kumar Distinguished Engineer & Lead Architect, Dell Technologies

Sunil Kumar is a Distinguished Engineer and Chief Architect at Dell Technologies with approximately 20 years of deep technical expertise in modern data protection, backup and recovery, and integrated storage architecture. He currently serves as the Lead Architect for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager (PPDM), where he spearheads the design of next-generation data protection software platforms.

Technical Expertise & Domain Leadership

Backed by nearly two decades of experience, Sunil is a trusted expert within Dell ISG, focusing on scalable data protection software and Copy Data Management solutions. His architectural focus includes:

• Backup & Recovery Ecosystems: Designing resilient frameworks for enterprise-grade recovery and long-term retention.
• Scalable Data Movers: Architecting high-performance data transport layers for block, file and object based primary storage systems.
• Application-Aware Protection: Developing deep integrations for mission-critical enterprise applications, including large-scale databases, mail servers, and distributed data stores.

Modern Infrastructure: Specialized knowledge in cloud mobility, containerization (Kubernetes), and virtualized environments (VMware/vSphere).

Innovation & Contributions

A prolific innovator in the storage industry, Sunil holds 33 patents covering critical advancements in:

• Automated Copy Management and data reuseCloud Data Mobility and hybrid-cloud protection strategies.
• Containerized Data Protection for cloud-native workloads.
• Storage Efficiency and integrated management frameworks

Aadish Kuvelker – Marvell

Aadish Kuvelker is a Principal Engineer with Marvell based in Pune, India, with deep experience in designing and delivering scalable, high‑performance storage and data infrastructure systems. His work focuses on modern storage architectures, with strong emphasis on performance, resiliency, security, and operability at scale.

He has been a contributor to Fibre Channel standards, including FC‑SP (Fibre Channel Security Protocols) and NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMeoFC), bringing practical implementation experience and real‑world deployment insights into the standards development process. His technical interests include secure and interoperable storage protocols, data fabrics, and next‑generation data center architectures. Through participation in SNIA technical committees, Aadish aims to collaborate with industry peers, contribute to the evolution of storage standards, and help drive the adoption of robust, secure, and interoperable storage solutions across the ecosystem.

Rahul Nema - IBM

Rahul Nema is a distinguished technology leader with 19 years of experience in architecting and delivering enterprise-scale IT solutions, with deep expertise in compute and storage technologies for hosting mission-critical workloads. As an STSM (Senior Technical Staff Member) at IBM, he serves as the Lead Architect for the IBM Fusion mission—a state-of-the-art, container-native data services platform built to seamlessly integrate with orchestration frameworks like OpenShift.

He also spearheads the development of Fusion HCI, an advanced appliance delivering end-to-end compute and storage capabilities optimized for enterprise applications such as WatsonX, OpenShift AI, and InstructLab.

Renowned for his mastery of hybrid cloud infrastructure, cloud-native architecture, and intelligent workload platforms, Rahul pairs technical depth with visionary leadership. His passion for artificial intelligence and innovation continues to drive transformative advancements across IBM's enterprise software stack.

Mohan Parthasarthy - HPE

Mohan Parthasarathy is a Senior Distinguished Technologist in the Server Firmware R&D Team in HPE
Compute Engineering, and is based in Bangalore, India. His primary focus currently is on
platform architecture, including hardware, firmware, and software for the Servers portfolio of
HPE. He has over 25 years of industry experience, and has worked on multiple areas of
operating systems, virtualization, and platform firmware. Mohan did his Masters in Electrical
Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and is a co-inventor of 14 US
patents.

Dnyaneshwar Pawar - Nutanix

Dnyaneshwar Pawar, Senior Staff Engineer at Nutanix, DR team, specialising in the storage domain and distributed systems. Previously at NetApp, I architected and designed core storage efficiency features for NetApp's All Flash Arrays—integrating inline/background compression, deduplication, compaction, and pattern detection into WAFL. These innovations significantly reduced flash storage $/GB cost and improved $/IOPS efficiency via hardware offload acceleration. These innovations resulted in 15+ patents across file systems, flash storage, and cloud infrastructure areas. I am interested in performance optimisation, data path engineering, distributed systems, and system-level innovation. I started my journey with Veritas, Pune, after graduating from IISc Bangalore.

Sriram Popuri - NetApp

Sriram Popuri is an accomplished technical leader at NetApp India, with a proven track record of
delivering complex data storage projects from concept to product launch. He specializes in
distributed, scale-out and disaggregated storage systems, low-latency and high-throughput data
planes, and highly available storage clusters, excelling in data management, protection, disaster
recovery, and mobility. Sriram is proficient in storage protocols, including NVMe-oF, Fibre
Channel FCP, iSCSI, and SCSI, and brings deep expertise in NetApp Clustered DataONTAP, Linux,
and Solaris. With prior roles at Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard, he has driven innovation,
including patented advancements in distributed storage systems.
Sriram holds master’s degree in computer science and systems engineering from IIT Guwahati,
Sriram advances NetApp’s cutting-edge data infrastructure solutions, powering intelligent data
storage for next-generation workloads.

Vinoth Velayutham – Hitachi Systems

A Lead Enterprise Architect with over a decade of experience specializing in the design and implementation of mission-critical datacenter infrastructures. Currently leading systems engineering initiatives at Hitachi Systems India, my work focuses on the intersection of high-availability storage architectures and business-centric data management, particularly within the highly regulated Banking and Financial Services sectors.
For the past 8 years, I have been dedicated to articulating and executing advanced enterprise storage and data protection visions. My technical focus areas include: Data Resiliency & Availability.
Expert in designing infrastructures, focusing on data mobility, hybrid-cloud tiering, and protocol interoperability (Fibre Channel, NVMe/FC, and NAS). and implementing robust data protection frameworks based on the 3-2-1-1-0 rule, with a specific emphasis on Cyber Resiliency and immutable storage architectures to combat evolving ransomware threats.
As a TOGAF Enterprise Architecture-certified professional, I bridge the gap between low-level technical specifications and high-level enterprise frameworks. I am a strong advocate for discovery-led consulting—ensuring that infrastructure standards are not just technically sound but are fundamentally aligned with long-term data sovereignty and governance goals. I am committed to the evolution of storage networking standards and fostering a culture of technical excellence within engineering sales teams to meet the demands of the next generation of data-centric enterprises.