Balaji Sankaran heads the Azure HDInsight, Azures’ flagship managed Open-Source Big Data service. HDInsight helps customers who have built Data Estates on OSS (open-source software) technologies successfully migrate to cloud from on-prem, optimize cost of ownership by leveraging key product capabilities and improving security posture through ongoing updates. HDInsight service helps customers combine best of Open-Source technologies like Spark, Kafka, Flink and Trino with other Azure offerings like Azure Data Factory, Synapse to build end-to-end Analytics stack.

He has 25+ years of professional experience in Product leadership spanning Product Management, Product Engineering, P&L ownership, and Strategy consulting. He has experience in building large-scale Consumer and Enterprise platforms with a focus on Digital Customer Experience & Engagement, Digital Commerce. He has developed SaaS (software as a service) platforms adopted at scale by both Enterprises, Digital Native Startups and used by millions of consumers.