Shawn StephensI am a self-motivated person with more than 24 years’ experience in the Information Technology industry. Even though I have been in management for six years, I would prefer the prospect of reverting to a pure technical (Production DBA) role as I do miss the full hands on experience. I have a structured, conservative, “back to basics” management approach to ensure smooth running production environments. I believe I am a logical thinker with an ability to problem solve. When faced with a problem, I take responsibility and persevere until it has been resolved. My passion is all things database and in particular the related backup and disaster recovery elements to ensure client Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) are met.

Areas of expertise/Strengths: Databases Backup Storage

Data Centres ITIL processes

and Procedures

Process reengineering

Automation

PERSONAL DETAILS

Name : Shawn Stephense-mail : shawn.stephens01@gmail.comSkype : shawn.stephens01@gmail.comContact Number : 07379369492Residence : United KingdomHome Language : English

CURRENT EMPLOYMENTBusiness Connexion (PTY) LtdFebruary 1992 – November 2016

Business Connexion employs over 5000 staff and is one of the largest IT service companies in South Africa, providing various IT services (including the biggest Data Centre presence) to many clients.

CAREER HISTORYPosition:November 2010 – November 2016

Manager - Database Management Services (DBMS)

Responsibilities : In charge of a regional data centre hosting database environment supporting upwards of

10 clients, 32 Oracle instances of 20Terabytes in size and 74 Microsoft SQL instances with over 1200 databases and 10Terabytes in size.

Management of a team of six people – 3 x Oracle Database Administrators (including Progress) and 3 x Microsoft SQL Database Administrators. Includes performance agreements, task management, leave management, training, disciplinaries.

Ensure standards and procedures are in place for general database administration tasks examples being backup management, space management, patch management, installation procedures and standards.

Project management for database implementations, strategy and new technologies within the teams.

Call management and change management within the teams in accordance with ITIL standards.

Assist Solutions Architects and Pre-sales teams with solutions and pricing.

Produce monthly reports showing KPIs measured against SLA. Creating Service Descriptions and SLA documents. Cost models to appropriately price DBA support to be market competitive but still

profitable. Roster based, after hours, on call support as a Duty Manager for the Data Centre (1

week in 3). This is to manage any Severity 1 calls (including after hours) at the DC for that week.

Notable achievements: Significantly reduced downtime in the MSSQL environment by implementing proactive

measures for monitoring backups and space management. Was part of the management team that helped BCX achieve a 4.25 ITIL rating. Successfully oversaw, and was heavily involved in an Oracle installation on a Sun

SuperCluster. This included installation and configuration of RAC and DataGuard using ASM on Exadata storage cells.

Position:March 2015 – July 2016

Manager – Data Management Services (DMS)

Responsibilities: Assumed the role of Manager DMS (Data Management Services). As well as the DBMS

responsibilities, backup and storage was also a part of my portfolio. This was a team of three people and the responsibility was for Enterprise Storage (multi-tiered SANs, brocade switches) and Enterprise backup (Veritas Netbackup). As of 1 July 2016, the management structure reverted back to what it was previously (prior to March 2015), so my role reverted back to DBMS manager.

Notable achievements: Build a business case for presentation to group executives to refresh the Enterprise SAN

environment (560TB) for the region. This was approved based on the business case. Build a business case for presentation to group executives to upgrade the backup

appliance (120TB) for the region. This was approved based on the business case. Identified and mitigated the risk of a single Veritas Netbackup backup server.

Position:1996 – November 2010

Principal, Senior and Oracle Database Administrator

Responsibilities: Capacity management – Monitor disk, CPU and memory usage, includes collecting

statistics that are used for trend analysis to predict future usage of resources. Availability management – Make use of database (and other, e.g. Operating System)

features to ensure maximum uptime of database. Performance management - Identify long running SQL, monitor wait events, use

database features / parameters, etc. to ensure that database performance is acceptable. Security management - Protect the data from unauthorized access. Release management - Manage the process of migrating changes from UAT through QA

to Production. Physical database design and implementation - Make use of database features and

structures to efficiently implement the logical design into the database.

Backup and Recovery - Ensure that the databases are successfully backed up, that the appropriate backup methodology is used, and that the backups are regularly tested (by restoring them) to ensure that they are valid in the case of an outage.

Disaster Recover Procedures - Define, implement and test strategies and procedures that will ensure recovery of data in the event of a disaster.

Database software management - Ensure that the databases all run on recent / current versions to ensure that they are supported by Oracle in case of a problem and that the latest features are available to use.

Database consulting - Provide database support and advice for any external clients.Notable achievements:

Single-handedly laid the foundation for the ETL process for a premier retail client Data warehouse (5 TB) that is still in place to this day.

Automation/simplification of regular tasks performed against the production databases. Was integral to a Proof of Concept for a large online gambling client who considered

moving from their Microsoft platform to Oracle. This included showing off many Oracle features including RAC, TAF, Enterprise Manager and Resource Manager. This also included a scalability test of the application at the then Sun Microsystems plant in Linlithgow in Scotland.

Two production Oracle RAC installations at an external media client.

Position:1994 – 1996

‘C’ Developer / DBA – Point of Sale System

Responsibilities: Back-office customisation, implementation and support of a Point Of Sale application

which included Unix (SCO) installation and support, 3rd party application support and ‘C’ programming to modify the application to match client requirements.

Notable achievements: One of two people tasked to customise (“South Africanise”) and implement a new Point

Of Sale system to extend the life of legacy till hardware. This included travelling to California USA for 2 months training.

Position:1992 – 1994

Mainframe Database Administrator / Systems Engineer

Responsibilities: MVS System Administration and ADABAS DBA functions on a mainframe.

SKILLS – EXTENSIVE EXPOSUREManagement - Setting and tracking performance contracts for staff.

- Ensuring employees are kept busy with relevant, challenging tasks.- Working with Human Resources department to conduct interviews and

hire new staff.- CSI (Continual Service Improvement) to add value to clients.- Automation and process improvements.- Communication at all levels within the organisation as well as clients.- Vendor interaction.

Databases - Oracle installations, database creation, database upgrades (versions 7 through 11g).

- Oracle utilities, examples : sqlldr, datapump, export/import, AWR, statspack (versions 7 through 11g).

- Oracle features, examples : partitioning, materialized views, external tables (versions 7 through 11g).

- Oracle database performance tuning.- Datawarehousing concepts (Ralph Kimball)- RMAN (Recovery Manager) – including interfacing with Veritas

Netbackup.- Oracle RAC : Installation and configuration of 2 production environments

on SPARC Solaris and installation and configuration of a production environment on Linux in an Oracle OVM environment.

- ASM (Automatic Storage Management).Operating systems - Unix (Solaris, HP-UX, Linux)Backups - Enterprise Backup – Veritas NetbackupStorage - Enterprise SAN – EMC VNX. Multi-tiering. EMC RecoverPoint.Programming: - Unix Shell scripting, Oracle PL/SQL.

SKILLS – REASONABLE EXPOSUREDatabases - Oracle 12c (including mutli-tenant concepts and other features).

- Oracle DataGuard (including Data Guard Broker).- Oracle Engineered Systems (limited hands on experience)- MSSQL Server – 2008 to 2012 (concepts, limited hands on experience)

Operating systems - WindowsBackups - Enterprise Backup – VEEAM backup and replicationStorage - Enterprise SAN – IBM 7000, SVC, Flash CopyProgramming: - ‘C’

EDUCATIONOCP 12C 2016 Passed Oracle 12C upgrade examITIL V3 Foundation 2010

Obtained ITIL V3 Foundation certification

OCP 11G 2009 Passed Oracle 11G upgrade exam

OCP 10G 2006 Passed Oracle 10G upgrade examOCP 9i 2004 Passed all Oracle 9i exams to be certified as an Oracle Certified ProfessionalB.Sc Information Systems Degree 1990

University of Natal (South Africa)

Passed all subjects

TRAININGCourse Institution YearMongoDB for DBAs : M102 MongoDB University 2016Oracle Database 12c : New Features for Administrators Oracle University 2014Maintaining a SQL Server 2008 Database Bytes 2012Implementing a SQL Server 2008 Database Bytes 2011ITIL V3 Foundations Pink Elephant 2010Oracle Database 11g : New Features for Administrators Oracle University 2008Oracle Database 10g : Real Application Clusters (RAC) Oracle University 2006Oracle Database 10g : New Features for Administrators Oracle University 2005Oracle Database 9i : Performance Tuning Oracle University 2003Oracle Database 9i : DBA Fundamentals II Oracle University 2001Oracle Database 8 : Performance Tuning Oracle University 1998Solaris 2.x Fundamentals Sun Microsystems 1998Oracle Enterprise Server : Backup and Recovery Oracle University 1997Oracle Database 7 : Establishing the Database Oracle University 1996Oracle Database 7 : SQL, SQL*Plus and PL/SQL Oracle University 1996ADABAS/C Database Administration SPL 1997Introduction to TCP/IP 1995Fundamentals of Unix System – Part 2 HP 1995Fundamentals of Unix System – Part 1 HP 1995Advanced ‘C’ Programming Charter 1994Assembler Language Programming Introduction IBM 1993MVS/ESA Installation and Implementation IBM 1992Natural 2 Fundamentals SPL 1992ADABAS Concepts and Facilities SPL 1992

HOBBIES AND INTERESTSSports Running – Half Marathon distance

CyclingMotor Interest in motorsport, modern and old cars and motorcycles

REFERENCESAvailable on request