Author of these Oracle Books:

John Watson

Oracle Certified Master

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Senior Oracle Server Technologies Administrator

Database and Application Server

Internationally known Oracle Certified Master consultant, lecturer, and author with twenty years experience of the Oracle technology stack including 11g Grid Infrastructure and RAC. An accomplished development and production Oracle DBA, with a proven record of delivering major projects on time and within budget.

Extensive experience on a variety of platforms (recently Linux, Windows, AIX and Solaris) for many industries (including telephony, financial, scientific, and manufacturing) with particular skills in E-Business Suite administration.

An expert at evaluating clients' needs against the capabilities of the Oracle product set, with the objective of minimizing cost and maximizing function through making innovative use of advanced capabilities. Many years of experience working with user communities, development and support staff, and senior management.

Professional Development

  • Oracle Exadata 11g Certified Implementation Specialist
  • Oracle Certified Master (11g and 10g)
  • Oracle Certified Professional, Database Administrator (releases 11g, 10g, 9i, 8i, 8.0)
  • Oracle Certified Expert: Performance Tuning; Real Application Clusters; Managing Oracle on Linux
  • BSc Information Technology

Areas of Expertise

Database administration:

Has managed large scale (multi-terabyte, thousands of users) installations where performance and high availability were critical. These environments necessitated extensive use of RAC, partitioning, ASM, and all the performance tuning and enhancing facilities available in the Enterprise Edition options.

  • Skilled at exploiting all database capabilities and options, to optimize the user's investment.
  • Proven abilities with RAC, ASM, Data Guard, RMAN, Streams and Replication, Partitioning, Parallel Processing, Security Options, and Performance Tuning.
  • Member of Oracle Corporation's beta program for new releases.
  • SQL statement tuning
  • Familiar with both Grid Control and command line techniques for all administration work
E-Business Suite Administration
  • Releases 10.7, 11, and 12 on Windows and Unix variants
  • Multi-node middle-tier and RAC database tier environments
  • Installations and upgrades, all versions of EBS and of the database
  • Supported large-scale implementations of the core financials, also HR, CRM, iProcurement, and the self-service modules.
  • Managed development and integration projects based on TCA and customizations.
Application Server administration:

For E-Business Suite, Collaboration Suite, and third party applications.

  • Internet Directory and Single Sign-On
  • Forms, Reports, and Discoverer servers
  • PL/SQL gateway
  • OC4J
  • Integration products (Interconnect and Process Connect).
Team leading:

Has managed development projects using Forms, PL/SQL, and Java. Capable of managing the entire application development life cycle. Able to mentor and motivate development staff, and liaise with user communities. Has run support teams, conforming to demanding service level agreements.

Teaching:

Accredited lecturer for Oracle University and SkillBuilders throughout Europe and Africa and U.S., covering the entire server technologies curriculum. Particular emphasis on the advanced and new features courses.

Writer

Author of market leading books on Oracle technology:

  • OCP 10g All-In-One Examination Guide (Oracle Press)
  • OCA 11g SQL Examination Guide (Oracle Press)
  • OCA 11g Database Administration Examination Guide (Oracle Press)
  • OCP 11g All-In-One Examination Guide (Oracle Press)
  • Pro-Oracle Collaboration Suite (Apress)

Recent Professional Experience

Technical Director, SkillBuilders (2010 - present)
  • Oracle DBA
  • EBS Apps DBA (development and production)
  • Teaching public and internal courses for SkillBuilders and Oracle Corporation
  • Systems analysis and design
  • Short term contracts:
    • Database upgrades
    • EBS upgrades
    • Database performance tuning exercises
    • SQL tuning exercises
    • RAC and Data Guard implementations
    • Migrations to ASM
    • Establishing backup and restore procedures
    • Implementations of partitioning, resource management, and virtual private database
  • Industry areas worked in:
    • Financial
    • Manufacturing
    • Telecoms
    • Utilities
Senior lecturer, Oracle Corporation (2003 - 2005, Europe and Africa)
  • Teaching server technologies courses, locally and internationally
Internal technical support consultant, Oracle Corporation (1998 - 2003, South Africa) Support for,
  • Database
  • Application Server
  • E-Business Suite

Early Career Summary

  • IT Manager, Sports Merchandising Corporation (1997 - 1998, South Africa and UK)
  • Support team leader, European Space Agency (1994 - 1997, Germany)
  • Computer manager, National Hospitals Special Health Authority (1988 - 1994, UK)
  • Systems analyst, Barclays Bank (1986 - 1988, UK)
  • IT Support Technician, Oxfordshire Health Authority (1985 - 1986, UK)
  • Programmer, Bell Martin Services (1983 - 1985, UK)