Mr. Surya Sunnam
Engineering Zero-Failure Data Platforms: How Financial Systems Achieve Trust, Resilience, and Regulatory Readiness at National Scale
Abstract:
Modern financial institutions operate under an uncompromising mandate: data systems must never fail. As digital banking, real-time analytics, and regulatory oversight expand simultaneously, enterprise data platforms are expected to deliver continuous availability, provable integrity, and instant recoverability—often across dozens of production clusters and multiple geographic regions.
This keynote examines how zero-failure data platforms are architected in highly regulated financial environments, drawing on real-world modernization programs involving petabyte-scale datasets, multi-region replication, and enterprise-wide platform migration. The session introduces a set of architectural principles that move beyond traditional high-availability models toward guaranteed data durability, point-in-time recovery, and policy-driven security embedded directly into platform design.
Attendees will gain insight into advanced strategies for database modernization, resilient backup architectures, secure encryption transitions, and cross-team execution models that allow large institutions to evolve legacy infrastructure without operational disruption. Particular focus is given to how technical leadership decisions influence regulatory compliance, systemic risk reduction, and long-term platform sustainability.
Designed for senior engineers, architects, and technology leaders, this talk highlights why the future of financial infrastructure depends not on isolated tools, but on holistic engineering frameworks capable of protecting national-scale systems that millions of individuals and businesses rely upon every day.
Profile:
Surya Sunnam is a Vice President and senior Data Engineering leader specializing in secure, reliable, and large-scale data platforms for mission-critical financial systems. At Bank of America, he drives modernization initiatives across distributed data ecosystems, focusing on database transformation, secure analytics, multi-region disaster recovery, and platform reliability at petabyte scale. Surya has led high-impact programs—including the enterprise migration from MySQL to PostgreSQL, the creation of an Ozone-based backup and recovery framework, and the development of the award-winning Ghost Edge Node model—each significantly strengthening operational resilience and compliance. With prior experience supporting large-scale data environments at Walt Disney, he continues to advance modern engineering practices that enhance the security and stability of critical financial infrastructure.