Mr. Vinay Soni

Vector Databases: The New Backbone of Intelligent Backend Systems

Abstract:

In the age of AI-powered applications, traditional databases are no longer sufficient to manage and retrieve unstructured, high-dimensional data such as text, images, and embeddings. This keynote introduces software engineers to vector databases—specialized systems built for similarity search over vectorized data—and their growing importance in modern backend architecture.
We’ll explore how vector search works, including fundamental concepts like embedding generation, distance metrics (cosine, Euclidean, dot product), and indexing strategies (IVF, HNSW, PQ). Through practical examples and live code demos, attendees will learn how to integrate vector search into real-world systems using tools like PostgreSQL + pgvector.
The session also dives into best practices for vector storage, approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) search and scaling strategies. By the end of the session, engineers will be equipped with the foundational knowledge and hands-on tools needed to build intelligent, performant, and scalable applications powered by vector search.
 

Profile: 

Vinay Soni is a seasoned software engineer with extensive experience in machine learning platforms, cloud computing (Azure and AWS), and large-scale distributed systems. He currently serves as a Staff Engineer at LinkedIn, where he leads the backend engineering efforts for LinkedIn’s Feed recommendation system, powering content delivery for hundreds of millions of users.
Prior to LinkedIn, Vinay held key engineering roles at Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, where he led the development of scalable platforms for data transformation, ML infrastructure, and backend systems.
He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, and his technical interests are AI engineering, cloud computing, distributed systems and data engineering.
Vinay is passionate about designing resilient, high-impact backend systems that bridge infrastructure and intelligent applications. He actively mentors engineers and contributes to advancing industry best practices in backend architecture and AI engineering.