Winner. Scientist of the Year 2025

Naga Surya Teja Thallam

Academic title, degree: Master’s in Computer Science
Fields of science: Computer Science
Research interest: Information Technology
Career Development: Senior
Organization: Salesforce
Position: Lead Member of Technical Staff
City: Antioch, California
Country: USA

Naga Surya Teja Thallam is an accomplished cloud and AI infrastructure leader whose work bridges computer science and information technology to advance large-scale digital transformation. As Lead Member of Technical Staff at Salesforce, he plays a pivotal role in building intelligent, resilient, and globally distributed infrastructure systems that power enterprise applications serving millions of users.

Before joining Salesforce, Surya held senior engineering roles at Cisco Systems and Seagate Technology, where he developed deep expertise in cloud architecture, big-data platforms, and infrastructure automation. His technical foundation spans multi-cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba Cloud), data-intensive frameworks such as Hadoop and Spark, and the orchestration of large-scale, mission-critical computing environments.

In his current role, Surya Thallam leads initiatives that integrate artificial intelligence and automation into Salesforce’s operational backbone, optimizing performance, scalability, and reliability across hybrid environments that combine physical data centers with hyperscale cloud infrastructure. He also contributes to applied research in cloud governance and AI-driven infrastructure, emphasizing secure automation and sustainability in digital systems.

A published researcher and recognized thought leader in his field, Surya Thallam advocates for responsible, energy-efficient AI infrastructure. His professional philosophy centers on designing technology as an adaptive ecosystem, one that drives innovation while maintaining operational integrity and environmental awareness.

Surya Thallam’s professional record reflects a consistent focus on innovation, efficiency, and measurable impact in the field of engineering and technology.

• At Cisco, he re-engineered AWS infrastructure for more than 2,000 enterprise customers, developing cost-optimized automation frameworks that generated over US $3 million in annual savings while strengthening compliance and security standards.

• At Seagate, he led enterprise big-data infrastructure programs, including a 160-node Hadoop production environment supporting advanced analytics and cloud migration projects that enabled scalable, high-performance data processing.

• At Salesforce, he architected and deployed AgentForce, an AI-driven automation platform that enhances operational intelligence and efficiency across 10 + global regions. His leadership in capacity planning and monitoring set new benchmarks for reliability, cost control, and scalability across multi-cloud ecosystems.

• His research publication, “Centralized Management in Multi-Account AWS Environments: A Security and Compliance Perspective”, introduced a governance model that measurably improved security posture and compliance alignment in enterprise cloud environments.

• Over the course of his career, he has received 28 awards for technical excellence and leadership, as well as international recognition for his contributions to cloud computing, data strategy, and AI infrastructure.

Surya Thallam continues to shape the evolution of modern digital infrastructure — building systems that are not only intelligent and efficient but also secure, sustainable, and future-ready. His continuous pursuit of efficiency, automation, and innovation has positioned him among the leaders redefining modern cloud and AI infrastructure, earning him well-deserved recognition.