Architecting the future of data: Unified infrastructure, collaboration culture and governed AI scale
Interview: Ecem Bengü Atakul
Interviewee: Kushagara Kushagara
For this edition of the Coffee Break series, we invited Kushagara Kushagara, Data Platform Lead. Kushagara shares his career journey and explains how Solaris’ unified data platform powers near real-time fraud prevention while building the foundation for an AI-driven future.
You’re currently the Data Platform Lead at Solaris. What originally sparked your interest in the data world? Take us along your career journey.
Kushagara: My career began in B2C software engineering, where I focused on building search tools, analytics, and A/B testing frameworks. My first role made one thing clear: business outcomes and successful experiments depend entirely on high-quality data with reliable infrastructure.
Capturing and processing data all the time felt like a fascinating engineering puzzle. That exact moment sparked my curiosity about the data world.
This led to my shift from product development to infrastructure engineering. From there, I began to focus on architecting the core systems that make trustworthy data possible. Since raw data can arrive missing, duplicated, or out of sync, I build automated validation checks to fix these issues before they reach a dashboard.
At Solaris we are working on a unified data platform. What does it mean and why is it important for Solaris?
Kushagara: I like to describe it as the central nervous system of the bank. It brings all data together into one trusted place. Everyone speaks the same language and operates from a shared data foundation.
As Solaris matures, this work has become one of the most critical components because it connects everything. From Risk, Compliance, and Regulatory Reporting to Product, Operations, and Finance teams, it strengthens all.
By creating a single source of truth, teams work faster and more coherently across Solaris.
Moving to near real-time data is a game-changer. How will the unified data platform directly help teams with fraud prevention or new products?
Kushagara: Near real-time data means information becomes available within seconds or minutes. Every piece of data is not processed instantly, but the delay is small enough to support immediate action.
This is where the unified data platform becomes essential. It centralizes and streams live data from across the bank into one place. This gives every team instant access to the exact same up-to-date reality.
If a payment looks suspicious, near real-time data can detect that unusual pattern and review the transaction right away. It does not discover it days later. This reduces fraud and protects our customers.
Beyond fraud, it enables real-time analytics, improving anomaly detection, and ultimately turning the platform into a dynamic knowledge base.
What is one habit every Solarian should embrace when using data in their daily work?
Kushagara: Always question and verify what you see: “What is the source of this data, and how did it end up in this specific dashboard or table?”
Instead of guessing, make it a reflex to check the data catalogue and look at the data lineage. The data catalogue clearly shows how a metric is defined and when it was updated, while the lineage graph shows the exact journey that data took to reach the dashboard. Checking these tools regularly prevents many misunderstandings.
Double-checking these sources isn't just for the data team, but for everyone using data in their daily work. Practicing this is vital for maintaining data quality and trust across Solaris.
Looking at Solaris’ future, what project or milestone are you personally most excited about?
Kushagara: Personally, I’m most excited about turning the unified data platform into a friction-free engine for innovation. This would make data accessible to everyone through self-serve capabilities, while keeping it strictly governed. This balance is non-negotiable for us.
With the expansion of AI and machine learning use cases, transforming raw data into reliable knowledge becomes vital. Teams can move forward with total confidence, knowing that quality, compliance, and governance are fully handled behind the scenes.