A few days ago, I had the privilege of speaking at AWS Data Day, hosted at the Amazon HQ in Hyderabad.
This wasn’t just another event for me — it turned into one of the most defining moments of my career.
Being invited as a speaker, and in fact the only non-AWS speaker for the entire day, was both humbling and energizing.
I presented on a topic deeply connected to my work at Verisk:
“Our SQL Server to Snowflake Migration Journey using AWS DMS — Best Practices, Pitfalls, and Lessons Learned.”
🎤 The Preparation
I wanted this session to be more than a technical walkthrough.
So I focused on:
- Storytelling
- Real-world failures and mistakes
- Architecture decisions
- Lessons learned the hard way
- Practical patterns teams can apply immediately
I spent days refining the narrative, improving diagrams, and making sure the session was valuable and relatable for engineers and architects.
🏟️ The Event Day: A Surge of Energy
Walking into the AWS office and seeing a room full of cloud engineers, architects, and data practitioners was surreal.
Once I started speaking, something clicked.
It didn’t feel like presenting — it felt like teaching, something I naturally enjoy and have done years ago as a freelance trainer.
The audience engagement was incredible:
- People took notes
- Asked deep, technical questions
- Took photos of the slides
- Reacted to the stories
- Stayed fully connected throughout the talk
Several attendees later told me:
“Yours was one of the standout sessions today.”
“This answered exactly the challenges our teams are facing.”
“Wish this was a longer session.”
Those words meant a lot.
⭐ The Feedback: 4.9/5 Rating
At the end of the day, my session received a 4.9/5 rating from attendees.
This wasn’t just feedback — it was a reminder of what I truly enjoy:
- Simplifying complexity
- Explaining concepts clearly
- Public speaking
- Storytelling
- Teaching
This event brought that clarity back to the surface.
🔍 Key Takeaways I Shared
Here are some of the core points from my talk:
✔️ Common pitfalls in AWS DMS
✔️ Architecture choices that matter
✔️ Why “lift and shift” doesn’t work for real migrations
✔️ How to redesign for Snowflake instead of porting blindly
✔️ Handling performance gaps early
✔️ Lessons learned from production-scale workloads
✔️ Frameworks to make migrations predictable
These resonated strongly with the audience, especially the practical examples based on real-world challenges.
🙏 Thank You, AWS & the Community
I’m deeply grateful to:
- The AWS team for the invitation
- The audience for the engagement
- Everyone who messaged afterward with kind words
- My colleagues who supported the migration journey
- The larger Data & AI community that continues to inspire learning
🚀 What’s Next for Me?
This experience encouraged me to:
- Speak at more meetups
- Build and share more architecture content
- Conduct hands-on workshops
- Mentor engineers
- Strengthen my voice in the Data & AI community
If you’d like me to speak at your event or meetup, feel free to reach out!
🌟 Final Thoughts
AWS Data Day wasn’t just a speaking opportunity — it felt like a career turning point.
It reminded me of what I love doing, what I’m good at, and what I want to do more of.
If you attended the session, thank you for making it special.
If not, I hope to meet you at another event soon!
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