Drilling Deeper Into Data Solutions to Find New Value with Rashmi Agrawal of Oldcastle
Hashmap on Tap Ep. 106
“The tools and technology available today in the cloud, give you that flexibility to build incrementally, to decouple, and to use microservices as well.”
— Rashmi Agrawal, Director of Data & Analytics at Oldcastle
Do you drill into the brick or the mortar of a house?
On a recent episode of Hashmap on Tap, Kelly Kohlleffel candidly recounts how he found out the answer to this home improvement question with guest, Rashmi Agrawal. While this is her first time as a guest on Hashmap on Tap, you may recognize her as a guest speaker from Hashmap’s session at MDSCon. Rashmi is the Director of Data & Analytics at Oldcastle, a global, industry-leading manufacturer of concrete building and hardscape projects.
Even if you may not be looking to make any home improvements soon, it’s still important to consider the underlying question — Do you choose solution A or solution B for a problem?
This is certainly a question (with more than just A or B solutions) that companies are considering when debating a migration to the cloud. Last year, with Hashmap’s help, Oldcastle began their journey into the cloud. Rashmi offers a fantastic, firsthand perspective into Oldcastle’s success with its cloud migration experience, including what they’re able to do using the Snowflake Data Cloud and Matillion as their primary ETL/ELT tool.
On tap for this episode: chai tea lattes. This drink is a favorite for both Rashmi and Kelly. Rashmi recalls that she started drinking them as a teenager, and she typically drinks at least two per day. What she likes most about chai is that it’s the perfect drink for any time of day — whether you’re just getting started or relaxing.
Rashmi’s chai tea latte features additional spices (cardamom and fresh ginger) and 2% milk, while Kelly has added Chai-Spiced Honey and Ripple’s plant-based, half-and-half to his cup of chai. With recipes like that, who wouldn’t want to drink two a day?
Check out Rashmi’s thoughts on:
- How her start in electronics engineering had “little to do” with where she is now
- Why she’s excited to “put her fingerprint” on what Oldcastle is building from scratch
- How Oldcastle’s vision inspired her to join their team, plus her connection to the building materials industry
- Trends in the industrial/manufacturing industries and data quality — as a result of a lack of data governance — as her biggest challenge
- Taking a proactive mindset for data governance solutions to improve today’s processes and future products
- Oldcastle’s experience as a Hashmap client for their cloud migration project kickoff and why they “haven’t looked back”
- Self-service as the most important of Hashmap’s 7S design principles
- The field of work she would want to do (if she wasn’t in tech) — hint: step aside, Property Brothers!
- Panda Express as her (kid-approved!) choice of takeout and the show on Netflix that she’s hooked on
Listen to the Episode:
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