Srilakshmi
Bharadwaj
Sr Software Engineer at Linkedin
"Designing Systems That Scale: Real Lessons from Building Large Distributed Infrastructure"
"Designing Systems That Scale: Real Lessons from Building Large Distributed Infrastructure"
Wed May 13 - 1:30 PM EDT/New York (See in local time)
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05/13/2026 1:30 PM
05/13/2026 01:40 PM
America/New_York
#WTGC2026
"Designing Systems That Scale: Real Lessons from Building Large Distributed Infrastructure"
#WTGC2026
"Designing Systems That Scale: Real Lessons from Building Large Distributed Infrastructure"
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"Designing Systems That Scale: Real Lessons from Building Large Distributed Infrastructure"
"Designing Systems That Scale: Real Lessons from Building Large Distributed Infrastructure"
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Session: Designing Systems That Scale: Real Lessons from Building Large Distributed Infrastructure
Clean architectures look elegant in design documents. Real systems rarely behave that way.In this lightning talk, I will share practical lessons from building and operating large-scale distributed systems — from storage platforms to secure data infrastructure serving millions of users.
I’ll cover:
Why systems that perform well in controlled environments struggle in production
How operational complexity grows faster than technical complexity
The tradeoffs between speed, reliability, and compliance
What engineers should consider when designing platforms intended to last
This session is especially relevant for engineers transitioning from feature development to infrastructure ownership, and for women technologists aspiring to lead high-impact technical initiatives.
Rather than focusing on theory, I’ll share grounded insights: what worked, what failed, and how architectural decisions evolve over time.
Key Takeaways
- Why scalability is more about operational discipline than elegant code
- How production constraints reshape architectural decisions
- Common system design pitfalls that appear only at scale
- Practical ways to grow from feature engineer to infrastructure leader
Bio
Srilakshmi Bharadwaj is a Software Engineer with experience building large-scale distributed systems and infrastructure platforms. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.Her work spans distributed storage systems, secure data infrastructure, and scalable platform design. She has led initiatives that significantly improved operational efficiency and system reliability.
She is passionate about resilient system design, mentorship, and encouraging more women to pursue technically challenging roles in backend and infrastructure engineering.
