A Serendipitous Journey!

Smarak (Marc) Bhuyan was destined to follow a career in tech having come from a long line of engineers tracing back to his great grandfather in Orissa (now Odisha).In this #NomadFuturist podcast, Bhuyan shares the serendipitous journey that has led him to his current position managing AI/ML hardware deployments for Google. Bhuyan initially studied computer science but after a brief stint as a software engineer, decided to focus on the business side of IT. He followed friends and family to Silicon Valley, becoming a business analyst before entering the world of critical infrastructure. Prior to Google, he worked in tech project management for Bank of America and business management of global data centers for eBay. Bhuyan sees data centers as the foundation of today’s digital world.“I realized early on that Data Centers were a convergence of mechanical and electrical engineering, real estate, IT, computer science and finance.”His advice to people who want to pursue a career in digital infrastructure:“You don’t need to be a software engineer, you can be in HR or finance or marketing.”Concerning AI, he feels that the potential for the greater good of humanity far outweighs the challenges of a possible dystopian outcome. He cites advances in medical diagnostics as an example of the benefits.Bhuyan compares the state of edge computing today with that of cloud in 2007. He views edge as a great enabler that will lead to the actualization of autonomous vehicles and IOT. He considers the current COVID crisis as a “Sputnik moment” that has forced rapid acceptance and deployment of digital resources and modalities in many sectors. He sees remote work or some hybrid of remote and location-based work as inevitable.His advice to the young:“Find your passion as early on in your career as possible and stick to it!”Smarak (Marc) Bhuyan has 15+ years of progressive and diverse experience in the digital infrastructure industry including launching data center efficiency strategies and programs, driving and managing strategic, diverse, complex, cross-functional, cross-geographical infrastructure initiatives. Bhuyan has a master’s degree in IT Management from UT Dallas and an MBA in Finance and Strategy from UC Berkeley.