June 1, 2024
Shesh Kumar Apple iOS Engineering with Executive Coach Mahesh M. Thakur
A Conversation between Shesh Kumar, Apple, and Mahesh M. Thakur, Fortune 100Podcast Episode Overview:
In this conversation, Niheer Patel, Director of Product Management at Real Time Innovations, discusses his role in overseeing a portfolio of real-time communication products. He emphasizes the importance of customer experience, explaining how metrics like net promoter score (NPS) and customer effort score (CES) help track engagement and satisfaction. He advocates for aligning organizations around customer insights and leveraging technology to personalize interactions. Patel also stresses listening and adapting to customer needs, drawing from his experience with the Academy of High Achievers program to emphasize personal and professional growth.
Mahesh M Thakur: Shesh, it is so great to have you here with us today. Thank you.
Shesh Kumar: Yeah, I’m glad to be here.
Mahesh M Thakur: Tell us about yourself.
Shesh Kumar: Definitely. My name is Shesh Kumar, and I’m an established engineering leader and manager at Apple. I work on next-gen operating systems and products like Vision Pro, Macs, and iPhones that everyone uses. My expertise lies in virtualization technology, particularly in the virtualization stack, and shipping it to millions of customers through products like Parallels, Docker, and Mac Stadium. I took on the challenge of making virtualization a scalable service for Apple engineers, deploying over 30,000 VMs in our data center, and evangelized this to our Apple partners so they could use these for development and testing. As part of this, we saved a lot of money for Apple by decreasing the hardware footprint and increasing engineering efficiency by more than 30%. I was also leading a team of 12+ engineers with diverse expertise in operating systems, infrastructure, and automation. I was responsible for mentoring and helping them grow professionally.
Mahesh M Thakur: Great, great. So if you were in a room with a CTO of a company, what two things would you want them to include in their roadmap?
Shesh Kumar: If I were in a room with a CTO, two things come to mind. First is scalable infrastructure. As a company grows, it’s important to evolve technologically. Bringing in more energy-efficient systems to improve engineering efficiency is critical. Moving to cloud infrastructure and incorporating AI is crucial. The second thing is integrating AI into their systems. AI is disrupting the world right now, similar to how the internet did 25 years ago. CTOs should consider how to integrate AI into business processes to improve productivity, like using AI to write code or enhance chatbots, allowing employees more time for creativity and innovation.
Mahesh M Thakur: Great! I’m sure many CTOs can relate to that, given everything going on with AI and technology. Tell me, what was it like for you to lead the virtualization program at an iconic company like Apple? Leading the program at Apple was an incredibly rewarding experience. Our management had the vision to make virtualization a scalable service, and I translated that vision into a tangible plan. My approach was to break it down into steps.
Shesh Kumar: First, I focused on the development and quality of the VMs, making them performant for large-scale deployment. We deployed over 30,000 VMs for development and testing. Then, we evangelized the VMs to Apple engineers, conducting roadshows and training sessions to drive adoption. This ultimately saved Apple a lot of money and improved efficiency. It was a truly rewarding experience for me and my team.
Mahesh M Thakur: That’s huge, especially at Apple’s scale. The impact would be substantial.
Shesh Kumar: Exactly! Which brings me to my next point—how virtualization can enhance AI. Virtualization is crucial for AI because it provides scalability, reliability, security, and isolation for AI models. It speeds up development cycles, enabling faster deployment of AI solutions. With containerization and automation, virtualization helps develop AI applications more efficiently and scale them to customers.
Mahesh M Thakur: For sure! Many of your customers at Apple were internal stakeholders, like those working on iPhones, Macs, or even future products like cars.
Shesh Kumar: Exactly, they were my main stakeholders, and supporting them was crucial in delivering products to the market.
Mahesh M Thakur: Given your experience, what do you think the next three years hold for infrastructure, given the high demand for compute, storage, and AI?
Shesh Kumar: I think infrastructure is evolving just as fast as AI. We need more computing and data processing power. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA are pushing the limits of technology by building more efficient systems, including AI chips. The future lies in creating smarter, AI-powered infrastructure, not just bigger systems. This will change the landscape in the next three years and beyond.
Mahesh M Thakur: What makes you unique, Shesh?
Shesh Kumar: I’d say I’m fortunate to have worked across all layers of technology over the past 10 years. I started at Qualcomm, working on Snapdragon SoCs for phones, then moved to Apple, where I worked on Intel chips and the M1 transition. I also led virtualization efforts and recently dove deep into AI and large language models (LLMs). This breadth of experience, along with my passion for mentoring, allows me to see what’s next and tackle new challenges.
Mahesh M Thakur: Absolutely. Your leadership, passion for mentoring, and hands-on experience with AI and virtualization truly set you apart. You’re a valuable asset to any organization looking to innovate with AI, virtualization, and infrastructure. Thank you, Shesh!
Shesh Kumar: Thank you.
Shesh Kumar: Yeah, I’m glad to be here.
Mahesh M Thakur: Tell us about yourself.
Shesh Kumar: Definitely. My name is Shesh Kumar, and I’m an established engineering leader and manager at Apple. I work on next-gen operating systems and products like Vision Pro, Macs, and iPhones that everyone uses. My expertise lies in virtualization technology, particularly in the virtualization stack, and shipping it to millions of customers through products like Parallels, Docker, and Mac Stadium. I took on the challenge of making virtualization a scalable service for Apple engineers, deploying over 30,000 VMs in our data center, and evangelized this to our Apple partners so they could use these for development and testing. As part of this, we saved a lot of money for Apple by decreasing the hardware footprint and increasing engineering efficiency by more than 30%. I was also leading a team of 12+ engineers with diverse expertise in operating systems, infrastructure, and automation. I was responsible for mentoring and helping them grow professionally.
Mahesh M Thakur: Great, great. So if you were in a room with a CTO of a company, what two things would you want them to include in their roadmap?
Shesh Kumar: If I were in a room with a CTO, two things come to mind. First is scalable infrastructure. As a company grows, it’s important to evolve technologically. Bringing in more energy-efficient systems to improve engineering efficiency is critical. Moving to cloud infrastructure and incorporating AI is crucial. The second thing is integrating AI into their systems. AI is disrupting the world right now, similar to how the internet did 25 years ago. CTOs should consider how to integrate AI into business processes to improve productivity, like using AI to write code or enhance chatbots, allowing employees more time for creativity and innovation.
Mahesh M Thakur: Great! I’m sure many CTOs can relate to that, given everything going on with AI and technology. Tell me, what was it like for you to lead the virtualization program at an iconic company like Apple? Leading the program at Apple was an incredibly rewarding experience. Our management had the vision to make virtualization a scalable service, and I translated that vision into a tangible plan. My approach was to break it down into steps.
Shesh Kumar: First, I focused on the development and quality of the VMs, making them performant for large-scale deployment. We deployed over 30,000 VMs for development and testing. Then, we evangelized the VMs to Apple engineers, conducting roadshows and training sessions to drive adoption. This ultimately saved Apple a lot of money and improved efficiency. It was a truly rewarding experience for me and my team.
Mahesh M Thakur: That’s huge, especially at Apple’s scale. The impact would be substantial.
Shesh Kumar: Exactly! Which brings me to my next point—how virtualization can enhance AI. Virtualization is crucial for AI because it provides scalability, reliability, security, and isolation for AI models. It speeds up development cycles, enabling faster deployment of AI solutions. With containerization and automation, virtualization helps develop AI applications more efficiently and scale them to customers.
Mahesh M Thakur: For sure! Many of your customers at Apple were internal stakeholders, like those working on iPhones, Macs, or even future products like cars.
Shesh Kumar: Exactly, they were my main stakeholders, and supporting them was crucial in delivering products to the market.
Mahesh M Thakur: Given your experience, what do you think the next three years hold for infrastructure, given the high demand for compute, storage, and AI?
Shesh Kumar: I think infrastructure is evolving just as fast as AI. We need more computing and data processing power. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA are pushing the limits of technology by building more efficient systems, including AI chips. The future lies in creating smarter, AI-powered infrastructure, not just bigger systems. This will change the landscape in the next three years and beyond.
Mahesh M Thakur: What makes you unique, Shesh?
Shesh Kumar: I’d say I’m fortunate to have worked across all layers of technology over the past 10 years. I started at Qualcomm, working on Snapdragon SoCs for phones, then moved to Apple, where I worked on Intel chips and the M1 transition. I also led virtualization efforts and recently dove deep into AI and large language models (LLMs). This breadth of experience, along with my passion for mentoring, allows me to see what’s next and tackle new challenges.
Mahesh M Thakur: Absolutely. Your leadership, passion for mentoring, and hands-on experience with AI and virtualization truly set you apart. You’re a valuable asset to any organization looking to innovate with AI, virtualization, and infrastructure. Thank you, Shesh!
Shesh Kumar: Thank you.
