---
title: "Shashidhar Chikkamath - AI Solutions Architect in Greater Bengaluru Area | Tal"
description: "Meet Shashidhar Chikkamath, Storage & AI Solutions Architect | Agentic AI for Infrastructure | ONTAP · Python based in Greater Bengaluru Area. AI stack includes claude code, cursor, and github copilot."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/shashidhar-chikkamath/share-image"
---

# Shashidhar Chikkamath on Tal

## Headline

Storage & AI Solutions Architect \| Agentic AI for Infrastructure \| ONTAP · Python

## About

Storage and AI solutions architect with 16\+ years in the NetApp/ONTAP ecosystem\. I build systems that help teams see, operate, and automate large storage fleets — analytics, automation, and agentic AI, not slideware\. At NetApp I helped take a storage intelligence platform from concept to production in about four months\. It covers 44,000\+ resources across 83 clusters: fleet visibility, protection analytics, lifecycle tracking, and configuration drift\. I also ship MCP servers so AI assistants can query that fleet conversationally\. I designed an agentic incident\-investigation system \(coordinator\-agent\) that went from prototype to production in ServiceNow and into the company’s AI accelerator\. Self\-healing pipelines cut about 1,500 operations tickets a year\. I wrap these tools in CI/CD so other teams can adopt them without a specialist in the loop\. Recognized as a Force Multiplier at the III Infrastructure All Hands \(FY27 Q2\) for closing an AI skills gap through mentorship, PoCs, and deployable agentic workflows\. Also an IT HERO Award recipient\. I care about moving infrastructure work from reactive tickets to informed, automated decisions\. Open to conversations on storage platforms, agentic AI for ops, and how engineering teams actually adopt these tools\.

## Location

Greater Bengaluru Area

## AI stack

claude code

cursor

github copilot

langgraph

mcp

n8n

## Work experience

AI Solutions Architect at NetApp, Jun 2026 \- Present · 4 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · Hybrid, · Own the AI and automation layer for storage engineering: agentic workflows, MCP tool servers, and CI/CD overlays so other teams adopt and deploy without a specialist in the loop\. · Built and operate MCP servers exposing storage inventory, ONTAP, Linux, and Windows to AI agents under a five\-layer guardrail model \(allowlists, hard blocks, read\-only defaults\) — 1,013 ONTAP REST operations consolidated into 19 LLM\-safe tools, with 500\+ hard test cases behind the host\-access servers\. · Delivered a self\-service provisioning portal \(FastAPI, React, Prefect\) that replaced manual onboarding: eligibility check, AD group creation, credential vaulting, Git workspace, CI/CD pipeline, and project creation in a single orchestrated flow with compensating rollback\. · Built the observability layer for AI workloads — execution telemetry, LLM token and cost attribution, incident linkage, resolution\-gated accuracy scoring, and project\-scoped anomaly detection over 30,000\+ executions\. · Built automated ONTAP volume\-move tooling \(FlexVol/FlexGroup, SLO\-aware placement, dry\-run, job console, self\-installing monitoring\) plus a live dashboard and daily reporting for HA\-pair datacenter evacuation\. · Designed a governed agent platform for ticket fulfillment: bounded LLM reasoning for classification and planning, deterministic YAML blueprints for execution, and mandatory human approval before any write — targeting 35–45% of the recurring request queue\. · Recognized as Force Multiplier \(FY27 Q1\) for closing an AI skills gap through mentorship, proof\-of\-concept toolsets, and deployable agentic workflow patterns\.

Storage Engineer at NetApp, Dec 2024 \- Jun 2026 · 1 yr 7 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India · Hybrid, \- Built a full\-stack storage analytics platform \(Python/FastAPI, React, MongoDB, Kubernetes\) for 44,000\+ resources across 83 clusters — fleet visibility, protection analytics, lifecycle tracking, configuration drift\. Concept to production in \~4 months, 6 repositories\. \- Shipped MCP servers so AI assistants query fleet data conversationally; adopted by cross\-team tools including an infrastructure chatbot\. \- Designed a coordinator\-agent incident investigation system; accepted into the AI accelerator and taken to production in ServiceNow\. \- Built self\-healing pipelines for capacity and inode alerts, eliminating \~1,500 operations tickets per year\. \- Stood up n8n so the team could build automations without writing code; automated volume migrations for datacenter consolidation and DR cost work\. \- Built a storage resiliency dashboard used by DR/BCP for protection posture and RPO compliance\. \- Automated SnapMirror DR for 425\+ FSx volumes during a multi\-AZ to single\-AZ migration, and a protection auditor across the fleet with Excel reporting\. \- Spoke at a company\-wide AI event; mentored interns; wrote design docs and contribution guides\.

Senior Storage Engineer at Yahoo, Aug 2021 \- Dec 2024 · 3 yrs 5 mos, Bangalore Urban, Karnataka, India, Automate / enhance monitoring, alerting, ticketing for Storage and Data Protection platforms\. Exercise APIs/SDKs to build automation tools\. Implement auto\-heal solutions to automate fixing various issues\. Create real\-time dashboards/graphs to monitor infrastructure\. Work on automating workflows for Storage and Data Protection domains\. Migration of Netapp SDK based scripts to REST API based framework\. Worked on automation of opeartions like filer deployment, firmware/software upgrades etc\. Support, Implement and Manage the global Storage infrastructure\. Work closely with product vendors and customers to address incidents, issues, bugs etc\. On\-call support for the global Storage Infrastructure\. Participate in new vendor POC to evaluate new products\. New feature/release testing prior to deployment\. Prepare evaluations of software or hardware, and recommend improvements or upgrades\. Develop training materials and procedures, or train users in the proper use of tools and software\.

Storage Engineer at Yahoo, Sep 2019 \- Jul 2021 · 1 yr 11 mos, Greater Bengaluru Area, Support, Implement and Manage the global Storage infrastructure\. Work closely with product vendors and customers to address incidents, issues, bugs etc\. On\-call support for the global Storage Infrastructure\. Participate in new vendor POC to evaluate new products\. New feature/release testing prior to deployment\. Prepare evaluations of software or hardware, and recommend improvements or upgrades\. Develop training materials and procedures, or train users in the proper use of tools and software\. Automate / enhance monitoring, alerting, ticketing and also implement auto\-heal solutions\. Create real\-time dashboards/graphs to monitor infrastructure\. Work on automating workflows for Storage and Data Protection domains

Professional Services Engineer III at NetApp, Apr 2018 \- Sep 2019 · 1 yr 6 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, PSE at Yahoo\! Automation Create automation scripts to monitor the storage devices located globally\. NetApp NMSDK API based scripts\. Automated, real\-time NetApp At\-Risk system assessment via monitoring scripts\. Auto\-heal module in scripts to fix issues that do not need manual intervention\. Automated DQP/Disk/Shelf Firmware validation and upgrade\. Storage Operations Provide L2/L3 operational support for storage infrastructure globally\. Handle and resolve incidents in stipulated SLA\. Design and Implement new install requests\. Plan and Execute changes for hardware, software, and upgrades\. Perform timely firmware/software upgrades to address bugs\. Storage risk assessment and workaround execution\. Provide On\-Call incident support for storage operations\. Skills: NetApp FAS, AFF, Ontap 7 mode, Clustered Ontap 8, 9, NFS, iSCSCI, FCP, Unix/Linux, Perl, Python, NMSDK\. Achievements: Thank You Award for contribution to Yahoo’s Storage Automation Projects\.

Professional Services Engineer II at NetApp, Jul 2016 \- Apr 2018 · 1 yr 10 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, PSE at Yahoo\! Storage Operations Provide L2/L3 operational support for storage infrastructure globally\. Handle and resolve incidents in stipulated SLA\. Design and Implement new install requests\. Plan and Execute changes for hardware, software, and upgrades\. Perform timely firmware/software upgrades to address bugs\. Storage risk assessment and workaround execution\. Provide On\-Call incident support for storage operations\. Automation Create automation scripts to monitor the storage devices located globally\. NetApp NMSDK API based scripts\. Automated, real\-time NetApp At\-Risk system assessment via monitoring scripts\. Auto\-heal module in scripts to fix issues that do not need manual intervention\. Automated DQP/Disk/Shelf Firmware validation and upgrade\. Skills: NetApp FAS, AFF, Ontap 7 mode, Clustered Ontap 8, 9, NFS, iSCSCI, FCP, Unix/Linux, Perl, Python, NMSDK\.

Technical Specialist at Wipro Limited, Dec 2015 \- Jul 2016 · 8 mos, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Design and implementation of enterprise platform, storage and virtualization products\. Asses customer environments and suggest infrastructure changes\. Manage project team\.

Senior Project Engineer at Wipro Limited, Dec 2014 \- Dec 2015 · 1 yr 1 mo, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Design and implementation of IT infrastructure projects on Netapp, Cisco UCS, Vmware, Cloud, Software defined storage, Simplivity, Nexenta etc\.

Customer Service Engineer at Wipro Limited, Dec 2009 \- Dec 2014 · 5 yrs 1 mo, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Platform & Storage Support Supported a diverse infrastructure environment covering compute, storage, virtualization, and converged platforms\. Technologies supported: SUN Hardware, Solaris, NetApp, Cisco UCS, Brocade SAN, VMware, FlexPod, HP Blade Systems Key responsibilities: • Provided break\-fix support and day\-to\-day operational assistance for enterprise customers • Handled hardware replacements, system installations, and lifecycle upgrades • Coordinated with OEM vendors to resolve complex support issues NetApp Experience • Supported Level 3 field dispatch activities, handling advanced hardware and system issues • Performed hardware replacements across NetApp FAS and V\-Series systems • Managed aggregates, volumes, shares, and LUNs in production environments • Carried out disk shelf installations and data migrations • Used AutoSupport and diagnostics to identify issues and apply recommended fixes or workarounds • Facilitated migration of standalone systems to HA \(active\-active\) configurations • Implemented and troubleshot SnapMirror for data replication • Planned and executed Data ONTAP upgrades with minimal disruption • Investigated performance issues using tools like PerfStat and LatX, and applied optimizations • Supported escalations from field engineers and remote teams • Delivered internal training sessions on ONTAP administration and troubleshooting \(L1/L2 levels\)

## Education

Master's Degree, Systems Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Bachelor of Science \(BS\), Information Systems, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/shashidhar-chikkamath)

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