Divya Gulati
Associate Director, Consulting - Deloitte India
We are the Women in Cloud. We solve problems, see possibilities and create impact. We are making a difference, from the first day of school to the corner office, and from the farmer’s field to the factory floor. This could be you.
She feels empowered in cloud
Technology has interested Divya—as a child, she inquisitively opened her parent’s electronics just to understand how they worked. Fortunately, her parents were supportive of not only her childhood exploits but also her interests in a career in technology. Later while pursuing her computer science engineering degree, she developed an interest in “data” after realising how even a small dataset may play an important role in shaping business decisions and strategies.
Divya started her professional career within the actuarial department of a product firm, where she built her experience in data visualisation, business intelligence and data modernisation skills. She started exploring other avenues through a combination of opportunity and curiosity about other industries -- paving the way for a career in consulting.
Divya joined Deloitte India five years ago and has since been guiding and enabling Deloitte customers to use data and analytics in the cloud. “I help them build innovative data modernisation solutions using data lakes and cloud with a vision to increase the adoption of such applications by users. I work closely with my clients in shaping up their cloud strategy, providing intelligent dashboards to visualize data and take business decisions. I feel empowered in this role, to apply my skills in cloud, which is in return helping my clients to realise their dreams of moving to cloud.”
This feeling of empowerment, she reflects, has fostered a deep-rooted sense of trust, belief and ownership in her role – three things that set her apart from others. She loves the fact that her role allows “authority to take decisions, be responsible for the delivery of the projects and the endless opportunities to innovate and collaborate within my workplace.”
Divya strongly believes that cloud presents enormous opportunities in uplifting and modernising clients’ legacy applications. She believes that for organisations to grow a rapid pace, they need to leverage the power of the cloud—limitless scalability that allows setting up and running applications at scale and worry-free maintenance options that enables organisations to focus on creating value for their customers. “I see huge application of cloud in solving age-old organisational challenges, which includes data storage, processing, modelling, DevOps, infrastructure, maintenance and data consumption related problems.”
In the recent project that she led and managed, she conceptualised, designed and demonstrated a data lake modernisation solution for one of Deloitte’s largest consumer goods clients. Working closely with the client for nearly two months, she not only gave them the confidence to move to cloud, but also helped them to see the value of Deloitte’s homegrown Accelerators and Assets that clearly differentiate Deloitte's strengths and experience in cloud. She takes pride in the fact that defining a clear roadmap of value realisation has helped Deloitte client save millions of dollars of operational overhead and strengthened her relationship with them.
In addition to her technical skills, Divya has embraced her own personal experience of being a women leader in cloud at Deloitte to break some of the biases they face. “I believe that during the last two years when pandemic struck us, it became even more necessary to build a comfortable atmosphere in the team and make the team members feel heard and appreciated and valued.”
Divya recalls the time when there were not many women in leadership positions in technology; though, the growing urgency of having more diversity to bring different ideas to the table has greatly changed this dynamic. She advises women and technologists looking for a career opportunity in cloud “to be open, to learn and to experience new things.” According to her, cloud is the backbone of important technologies that define our lives, now and in the future, so “if you want to be at the centre of growth in the next five to ten years, then cloud is definitely the place to be.”
Join Divya at digulati@deloitte.com to be part of the cloud conversation.
