Raghunandan Subramanya embarked on his career at Huawei immediately after completing college. Over the past nine years, his specialization has been in big data, and he has become an ardent supporter of the open source movement. One of his notable contributions has been leading Huawei’s first open source initiative, known as CarbonData. Raghunandan explains, “We developed the project at Huawei and subsequently submitted it to the Apache Foundation. In 2016, CarbonData received top recognition at the Black Duck Rookies of the Year awards.” The Apache Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting open source software projects, while Black Duck is an open source software company.
CarbonData serves as a comprehensive data storage and archiving system, allowing seamless accessibility to different types of complex data. It incorporates essential features such as multiple indexes for swift data retrieval, intelligent scanning capabilities, and, most importantly, easy scalability. Raghunandan emphasizes the significance of separating the storage and compute functions within most data warehouses to ensure independent working and scaling. Furthermore, safeguarding data in case of system failures is a vital aspect of CarbonData’s design philosophy.
The development of the CarbonData project spanned a duration of seven months before it entered the incubation phase at Apache, where it was assigned a mentor. It took an additional year for the project to mature, after which it achieved the status of a top-level Apache project and consequently became mainstream.
Raghunandan reflects on the contrast between his college days and the present, stating, “During my student years, software technologies were predominantly kept private by companies. However, the availability of open source code has revolutionized the landscape, making it accessible to everyone at no cost.” He urges students and enthusiasts to contribute to open source projects as a means of enhancing their skills. Raghunandan suggests that one way to get started is by contributing to the documentation of existing projects. By engaging in tasks aligned with personal interests, individuals can initiate their journey into the open source community.
