Dennis Khvostionov

Chief Technology Officer · San Francisco Bay Area

Dennis Khvostionov

Twenty-four years as a chief technology officer, from founding architecture through acquisition and enterprise integration. I build distributed systems that unify disparate data into structured, adaptable real-time models, and the engineering organizations that operate them.

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Portrait of Dennis Khvostionov
01

About

An architecture proves itself when the system, and the company around it, continue to operate without the architect.

I have spent twenty-four years as a chief technology officer. My field is distributed systems and large-scale data processing: unifying disparate devices, services and records into structured and adaptable real-time data models, and building the engineering organizations that operate those systems at scale.

I began in building automation, where master systems integration meant unifying the protocols, controllers and equipment of commercial facilities years before the industry settled on the phrase “Internet of Things” to describe the work. At Cisco I led rich-internet-application design and development across multiple business groups and established the company’s Visualization Center of Excellence. At DGLogik, which I co-founded, I created DSA, an open-source Distributed Services Architecture that enables functionality to be distributed across discrete computing resources from the edge to the datacenter to the cloud. Acuity Brands acquired the company in 2016, and I remained through the integration as Vice President of Software Platforms and Architecture while the platform grew to a million sensors across more than a billion square feet of connected buildings.

The years since have followed a consistent pattern as founding CTO across a portfolio of data companies: geospatial intelligence now licensed by realtor.com, industrial digital twins deployed with Schneider Electric, HPE and Micron, and applied AI delivered to Fortune 500 clients. In each case my assignment was to architect the platform, recruit the engineering team, and ramp the company to revenue. Day-to-day leadership now rests with each company’s operating team, which was the intent from the beginning.

02

Principles

The same principles apply at every layer of the work: the system, the data, and the organization.

  1. 01

    Intelligence belongs at every layer.

    DSA, the open-source Distributed Services Architecture, was designed on this premise. A network topology of purpose-built services running on edge devices, connected through a tiered hierarchy of brokers, allows the system as a whole to be scalable, resilient to failure, and able to take advantage of every computing resource available to it, from the edge to the datacenter to the cloud and everything in between. The architect’s job is deciding where each computation belongs: data is refined close to where it is produced, and only what remains is streamed upstream.

  2. 02

    Data is a systems problem.

    Forty-seven trillion records and a million live sensors have no value as stored volume. The work is normalizing disparate sources into a single structured and adaptable model, building aggregation pipelines that resolve from national scale down to an individual parcel, and delivering the result quickly enough that people can reason with it in real time. The value of such a platform sits in its structure, not in the volume it stores.

  3. 03

    Organizations are architectures.

    The discipline that structures a system applies equally to the team that builds it: clear interfaces, distributed ownership, and no single point of failure, including the founder. Every engineering organization I have built, from Cisco through Acuity Brands to the current portfolio, was designed so that daily operation does not depend on any one person. The companies I ramped as founding CTO now run under their own operating leadership, which is the outcome the design calls for.

  4. 04

    Pick technologies early, and pick ones that last.

    I have adopted platforms ahead of the market for my whole career: connected devices before the industry settled on a name for them, a pre-release programming language that went on to power millions of applications, OpenUSD for industrial 3D, large language models in production within months of their release. Early adoption only pays when the judgment is right, and the technologies I picked early are still in service. Technology selection is a leadership decision, and the larger the organization, the further each decision carries.

  5. 05

    Build only what differentiates.

    Make versus buy is a decision I treat with respect. My preference is to buy or adopt a proven component, and to build only where ownership carries a clear strategic or business advantage. Engineering capacity is the scarcest resource in any company, and spending it on solved problems is how timelines slip. The discipline is how I have shipped platforms in months rather than years, and it compounds with scale: every team that builds on a proven component instead of a homegrown one is capacity returned to the roadmap.

  6. 06

    Platforms outlive products.

    Every system is built as a platform whose capabilities outlast their first application. The architecture underneath the 2016 acquisition still ships inside the acquirer’s product line a decade later, and a data engine built for one company’s product now runs the map experience of realtor.com under license. A product demonstrates the platform; the value accrues to the platform itself.

03

Experience

  1. 2002 — 2011

    Integrated Building Solutions

    Chief Technology Officer

    Master systems integration for commercial facilities: unifying the disparate protocols, controllers and equipment of smart buildings into a single operational platform. Lead architect and head of R&D; technical lead on engagements with Adobe, HP, Roche and eBay. This was IoT before the industry had a name for it.

  2. 2007 — 2011

    Cisco Systems

    Senior Manager, User-Centered Design

    Owned UI/UX strategy and standards across multiple business groups and led the rich-internet-application design and development organization. Established the company’s Visualization Center of Excellence.

    Adobe MAX Awards finalist · Visualization Center of Excellence

  3. 2007 — 2016

    DGLogik

    Co-Founder & CTO

    Created DSA, an open-source Distributed Services Architecture: purpose-built service links running from edge devices to the cloud, connected through a tiered hierarchy of brokers, unifying disparate devices, services and applications into one structured, adaptable real-time data model. On top of it, architected DGLux, a drag-and-drop environment for building IoT applications without code, which reached more than 1,000 deployments worldwide and powered Cisco Live’s real-time visualizations.

    Acquired by Acuity Brands, June 2016 · Multi-year ControlTrends Award winner · Google developer summit speaker, 2015

  4. 2016 — 2018

    Acuity Brands

    Vice President, Software Platforms & Architecture

    Joined through the acquisition as Vice President of IoE and later led software platform strategy and architecture. The DSA-based platform became Atrius Solution Builder, the development environment of a system spanning a million sensors and more than a billion square feet of connected buildings.

  5. 2018 — Present

    TopHap

    Co-Founder & Founding CTO

    Architected the data platform: 47 trillion records fused across 150 million US parcels, H3-indexed aggregation pipelines resolving from ZIP level to a single parcel, and a machine-learning valuation engine on top. The technology is licensed by realtor.com, where it powers Dynamic Map Layers and the FlyAround 3D experience built with Google Maps Platform. Ramped the platform and the engineering organization; day-to-day operation now sits with the operating team.

    Licensed by realtor.com · Built with Google Maps Platform · Mapbox showcase

  6. 2019 — Present

    Premier Eighty One portfolio

    Founding CTO & Managing Partner

    The same pattern applied across a portfolio of data companies: industrial digital twins on NVIDIA Omniverse and OpenUSD deployed with Schneider Electric, HPE and Micron; enterprise AI delivered to Fortune 500 clients as an NVIDIA Elite partner; geospatial travel search; analytics infrastructure. Each company was ramped from first architecture to revenue and then handed to its own operating leadership.

04

Companies

My role repeats across the portfolio: architect the platform, recruit the engineering team, ramp the company to revenue, and hand daily operations to a dedicated leadership team.

TopHap

Co-Founder · Founding CTO

Geospatial intelligence: 47 trillion records fused across 150 million US parcels, H3-indexed, with a machine-learning valuation engine. Licensed by realtor.com.

Smart Spatial

Co-Founder · Founding CTO

Industrial digital twins on NVIDIA Omniverse and OpenUSD: one spatial foundation serving simulation, operations and training. Deployed with Schneider Electric, HPE and Micron.

Data Monsters

CTO

Enterprise AI engineering as an NVIDIA Elite and AMD partner: 150-plus production systems for clients including Fortune 500 companies, delivered by an 80-person team of engineers and PhDs.

Malobo

Co-Founder · Founding CTO

Travel search built on the same geospatial core: isochrone and heatmap search over live inventory from 200-plus booking sources, resolved on one map.

vTilt

Co-Founder · Founding CTO

Analytics infrastructure that closes the loop from measurement to action: identity resolution, session intelligence and AI follow-up in a single event pipeline.

Premier Eighty One

Managing Partner

The investment firm behind the portfolio. The philosophy is stated plainly: combine technology with traditional industries, prioritize fundamentals, and hold a global perspective.

DGLogik

Co-Founder & CTO · Exited — acquired by Acuity Brands, 2016

IoT data visualization and the open-source DSA platform. The technology still ships a decade later, as Atrius Solution Builder inside the acquirer’s product line.

05

Recognition

The record is carried by the organizations that published it: Google, Epic Games, Mapbox, Acuity Brands, realtor.com and the trade press.

“Without Dart’s productivity benefits and tooling, we’d need a team twice our size.”
Dennis Khvostionov, CTO of DGLogik · Google’s official Dart blog, 2015
“When it comes to user experience, nothing else compares to Mapbox. I don’t think there is any other choice today.”
Dennis Khvostionov, CTO of TopHap · Mapbox customer showcase
“We can bring 3D to life in ways that were simply not possible just a few years ago.”
Dennis Khvostionov, CTO of Smart Spatial · ASCE Infrastructure Report Card, 2025
“We believe DGLogik’s expertise in the development of technologies focused on advanced data aggregation, association, and visualization creates an exciting opportunity to accelerate the expansion of Acuity Brands’ portfolio of holistic IoT solutions.”
Vernon J. Nagel, Chairman & CEO, Acuity Brands · Acquisition announcement, July 2016

Selected coverage and talks

06

Expertise

Technology

Distributed systems and data: one architecture discipline, from embedded controllers to cloud platforms.

Distributed systems
Edge-to-cloud service architecture over a tiered broker hierarchy: scalable, resilient to failure and protocol-agnostic. Codified in the open-source DSA platform.
Large-scale data processing
Fusion of 47 trillion records into one structured, queryable model; H3-indexed aggregation pipelines resolving from national scale to a single parcel.
Real-time systems
A million live sensors streaming into one platform; real-time telemetry rendered live on the Cisco Live conference floor.
Machine learning & applied AI
Valuation and market models trained on fused public and proprietary data; LLM systems in production within months of the technology’s appearance.
Visualization at scale
The last mile of a data system: rendering engines and no-code tooling that make live infrastructure legible to non-specialists.
Platform & API architecture
Licensing-grade platforms: the same engine serving its own product and third-party integrations under contract.

Domains

The same craft, applied where the data is hardest: the physical world.

IoT & smart buildings
Two decades in the domain, from master systems integration to a connected platform spanning a billion square feet.
Geospatial & real estate data
Parcel-level intelligence across the United States, licensed into one of the country’s largest property portals.
Digital twins & 3D simulation
Operational twins of industrial infrastructure, built on NVIDIA Omniverse and OpenUSD, deployed with global enterprises.

Executive leadership

The organization is designed together with the architecture, never after it.

The full arc
Founding architecture, scale, acquisition and enterprise integration: the complete company-building cycle, run more than once.
M&A and integration
Led a company from founding through acquisition, then served as a vice president of the acquirer, integrating platform and team into the public company.
Enterprise partnerships
Licensing, co-development and deployment at enterprise scale with realtor.com, Google, NVIDIA, Schneider Electric, HPE and Micron.
Organization design
Teams built to run without their founder: distributed ownership, engineers owning systems end to end, operating leadership in place across the portfolio.
Early adoption as discipline
Connected devices before the industry named them, OpenUSD for industrial 3D, LLMs in production by mid-2023. The technologies I pick early have stayed in service.
Make versus buy
I buy or adopt proven components and build only where ownership carries a strategic or business advantage. The discipline is what keeps timelines short.