{"id":595645,"date":"2023-01-09T05:49:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T11:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/09\/executive-interview-rajesh-naidu-expedia\/"},"modified":"2023-01-09T05:49:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T11:49:23","slug":"executive-interview-rajesh-naidu-expedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/09\/executive-interview-rajesh-naidu-expedia\/","title":{"rendered":"Executive interview: Rajesh Naidu, Expedia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content-header\">\n<h2>We speak to Expedia\u2019s head of IT architecture about what a modern, scalable architecture for the cloud should look like<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"content-center\">\n<ul>\n<li><i data-icon=\"1\"><\/i><\/li>\n<li><i data-icon=\"2\"><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"contributors-block\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/Cliff-Saran-Sep-2022-140x180px.jpg\" alt=\"Cliff Saran\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/contributor\/Cliff-Saran\">Cliff Saran,<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Managing Editor<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n\tPublished: <span>05 Jan 2023 11:30<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"content-body\">\n<p>The career of Rajesh Naidu,\u00a0chief architect and head of data management and data governance at Expedia Group, mirrors the way the pendulum of IT architecture has swung from packaged applications to data centricity. Looking at the trends in enterprise architecture, he says: \u201cEnterprise architecture has definitely had its share of being in vogue and out of favour.\u201d But, as Naidu points out, when architecture becomes an ivory tower, it can become obsolete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen ERP [enterprise resource planning] and packaged applications were dominant, it was all about integration and standardisation,\u201d he says. \u201cBut with the advent of the cloud, DevOps and other new paradigms, IT architecture is all about getting the foundation and the design right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Naidu, events like the pandemic test an IT leader\u2019s ability to design and build systems that are resilient and available all the time. He believes IT architecture has changed to become more focused around identifying what is core to the organisation. The age-old \u2018build versus buy\u2019 debate is a major part of the conversation across the organisation as business leaders assess the core competency of the business. He says this debate in IT is about \u201cwhere do you want to build core differentiating applications versus where you can buy applications\u201d, and believes those off-the-shelf packages are there to supplement the core in-house system by adding context. Naidu spoke in a recent Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast about Expedia&#8217;s IT architecture.<\/p>\n<p>He joined Expedia towards the end of the pandemic, having previously worked at Starbucks for almost a decade. Beyond the virtual interview process, Naidu says: \u201cMaking the switch from an old company to a new company during the pandemic was daunting at times, because you are leaving a known culture and a known surrounding with individuals you worked with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The travel sector suffered significantly during the pandemic, and as Naidu notes, the industry needed to reinvent itself, ready for when the surge in post-pandemic travel would resume. \u201cI looked at it as a challenge to be at the forefront of travel, which is an industry which certainly looked like it was going to be the first to rebound after the pandemic,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>The IT architecture at Expedia has needed to evolve as the business has grown. \u201cExpedia is no longer the online travel agency that we built 25 years ago,\u201d says Naidu. \u201cWe are powering travel through our brands. We have over 168 million loyalty members and over 50,000 business-to-business partners.\u201d It now needs to manage bookings across more than three million properties and more than 500 airlines, car rentals and cruise lines. \u201cThis is a pretty big scale in terms of the partners,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Naidu says the platform needs to process 600 billion artificial intelligence (AI) predictions a year. \u201cWe have over 70 petabytes of data, and in some cases we are using AI and ML [machine learning] to evaluate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/searchdatamanagement\/news\/252509432\/GraphQL-use-grows-as-organizations-build-out-a-graph-layer\">360,000 permutations<\/a> on a single web page.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From an IT architecture perspective, Naidu says the challenge for Expedia is to provide an architecture that uses building blocks that scale easily and meet the need to remove complexity from its current platform, which has grown organically through company acquisitions. \u201cWe are migrating towards a common platform strategy that consolidates applications while driving efficiency, improving developer experience and reducing the platform costs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>This involves making use of public cloud services to provide scale, resiliency and the ability to scale up and down as needed. From an enterprise application perspective, he says Expedia is in the process of moving 9,000 applications. \u201cWe are focusing on a combination of people process and technology,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have the right training for our people, to make this transition to the cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Naidu says Expedia has also set up an Architecture Guild, which brings together all the IT architects in the business to help them understand the current technology footprint, what the future system should look like, and share problems and common architecture and design patterns.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike a centre of excellence, Naidu says the Architecture Guild is focused on bringing the practitioners of the architecture together, building best practices, along with doing the actual work of designing the system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just about putting policies and white papers out there and having teams go off and try to figure it out for themselves,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is actually about working closely with the teams designing systems. We certainly want to avoid being an ivory tower. We want to be pragmatic. There\u2019s going to be moments when we provide a centre of excellence for expertise, but in many other cases, we are actually doing the hands-on design work with the teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The common goal in Expedia\u2019s IT architecture, says Naidu, is to build what he describes as one of the \u201clargest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/searchitoperations\/definition\/Google-Kubernetes\">Kubernetes migrations<\/a> in history\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Where it makes sense, Expedia will be containerising its workloads and moving them to a Kubernetes cluster. It will also be using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/searchcloudcomputing\/feature\/A-preview-of-the-AWS-reInvent-agenda\">AWS EC2 instances<\/a>. Some application functionality will be provided as services hosted in the public cloud, while others may be available through software as a service, which requires integration with Expedia\u2019s enterprise architecture. By making use of public cloud paradigms and refactoring applications where necessary, Naidu says Expedia will be able to develop new software functionality much faster than before.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/podcast\/IT-architecture-A-Computer-Weekly-Downtime-Upload-podcast\">Rajesh Naidu >><\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"DigDeeperSplash\">\n<h4>\n\t\t\t<i data-icon=\"m\"><\/i>Read more on CW500 and IT leadership skills<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a id=\"DigDeeperItem-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/podcast\/IT-architecture-A-Computer-Weekly-Downtime-Upload-podcast\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/visuals\/ComputerWeekly\/Hero Images\/Data-architecture-hero-AdobeStock_526639457_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/visuals\/ComputerWeekly\/Hero%20Images\/Data-architecture-hero-AdobeStock_526639457_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg 960w,https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/visuals\/ComputerWeekly\/Hero%20Images\/Data-architecture-hero-AdobeStock_526639457.jpg 1280w\" alt ><\/p>\n<h5>IT architecture: A Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast<\/h5>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/computerweekly\/Cliff-Saran-Sep-2022-140x180px.jpg\" alt=\"CliffSaran\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By: <span>Cliff\u00a0Saran<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a id=\"DigDeeperItem-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/searchcio\/news\/252522634\/Enterprise-architect-role-reverts-to-tech-in-pandemic\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/folder-files13_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/folder-files13_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg 960w,https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/folder-files13.jpg 1280w\" alt ><\/p>\n<h5>Enterprise architect role reverts to tech in pandemic<\/h5>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/semilof_margie.jpg\" alt=\"MargieSemilof\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By: <span>Margie\u00a0Semilof<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a id=\"DigDeeperItem-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/blog\/Green-Tech\/How-corporate-travel-tech-firms-are-helping-businesses-achieve-their-net-zero-goals\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/visuals\/digdeeper\/3.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/visuals\/digdeeper\/3_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg 960w,https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/visuals\/digdeeper\/3.jpg 1280w\" alt ><\/p>\n<h5>How corporate travel tech firms are helping businesses achieve their net-zero goals<\/h5>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a id=\"DigDeeperItem-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/searchdatamanagement\/news\/252509432\/GraphQL-use-grows-as-organizations-build-out-a-graph-layer\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/code_g1289411982_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/code_g1289411982_searchsitetablet_520X173.jpg 960w,https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/onlineimages\/code_g1289411982.jpg 1280w\" alt ><\/p>\n<h5>GraphQL use grows as organizations build out a graph layer<\/h5>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ttgtmedia.com\/rms\/onlineImages\/kerner_sean.jpg\" alt=\"SeanKerner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><span>By: <span>Sean\u00a0Kerner<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.computerweekly.com\/news\/252528784\/Executive-Interview-Rajesh-Naidu-Expedia\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Stephania Buresh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We speak to Expedia\u2019s head of IT architecture about what a modern, scalable architecture for the cloud should look like By Cliff Saran, Managing Editor Published: 05 Jan 2023 11:30 The career of Rajesh Naidu,\u00a0chief architect and head of data management and data governance at Expedia Group, mirrors the way the pendulum of IT architecture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":595646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4738,22316,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-595645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-executive","8":"category-interview","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}