Cloud Database Systems: Challenges and Opportunities in the era of AI

Title of the Talk: Cloud Database Systems: Challenges and Opportunities in the era of AI
Speakers: Dr. Tanmoy Das
Host Faculty: Dr.Sandipan
Date: Feb 10, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM
Venue: LHC-8, Lecture Hall Complex

Abstract: Database Systems is a relatively mature area of computer science research, which has resulted in sophisticated products that are robust, efficient, and widely used. However, the emergence and popularity of the cloud has caused immense disruption in this area, rendering traditional database designs to be incapable of addressing modern applications. More recently, the advent of AI is further disrupting databases systems significantly, touching almost every layer of the databases stack. These phenomena have resulted in a fundamental rethinking and redesigning of database systems, questioning some of the basic assumptions and design principles that were used in database systems. This talk will take the audience through this ongoing transformational journey of cloud database systems, and thereby highlight some of the exciting challenges and research opportunities in designing cloud database systems in the age of AI.

Bio: Karthik Ramachandra is a Director of Engineering at Microsoft. He currently heads the Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database R&D India Organization. Prior to this he was a researcher at Microsoft Research India and Microsoft Gray Systems Lab, Madison WI, USA. He holds a Ph.D from IIT Bombay, where his doctoral thesis won an honorable mention for the 2015 ACM SIGMOD Jim Gray Doctoral Dissertation Award and the IIT Bombay Excellence in Ph.D Research Award 2015. His doctoral work was supported by the MSR India PhD Fellowship 2011 and the Yahoo! Key scientific challenges award 2011.