Working mainly on Powershell scripting, but keeping my hand in supporting the SQLServer for 20-plus applications.Powershell work includes:* Just Enough Administration* Pester* Operation Validation Framework

Managing 30+ instances of Sqlserver supporting applications including Sun Finance, Retail, Sales, MIS, Helpdesk and Call Recording.On-call and other support for Oracle/Linux systems

I was DBA for Sony Professional. Sony Professional has also been known as ‘Sony Broadcast and Professional Europe’ and ‘Sony Professional Services Europe’. My achievements have included- Developing an Oracle patching procedure- Writing and agreeing a Database Security Policy- Consolidating 24 production databases down to 2 main databases- Managing the migration of a key database from Sybase to SQLserver- Implementing Oracle Text. This made a big difference to search times on the website- Creating the Environmental Compliance website in Sharepoint

After working entirely on recoverability for more than a year, I came back to more general DBA work. By this time, we were in the process of moving all the systems from London to the data centre in Plymouth. There were 6 other DBAs in the team. Our key achievements during this time were:- Successfully transferring all of our databases - A ‘strong handover’ for all of our systems to the Plymouth team- Maintaining and sometimes improving the existing levels of service.

Although my job title didn’t change from ‘Database Administrator’ my role changed to focus entirely on the recoverability of the ‘de-regulated market’ systems. The technical landscape was built around TSM, Oracle’s Enterprise Backup Utility, RMAN, AIX, Oracle Parallel Server (the precursor of RAC – Real Application Clusters) and both standalone RS-6000s and an ‘SP’ frame. The key achievements were:- Ensuring the recoverability of 100+ databases. I never failed to get a database back!- Proving recoverability at externally audited DR tests.

The company is now part of EDF Energy.I joined London Electricity at an interesting time. The company had been privatised in the early 1990s, and was in the process of preparing for the de-regulation of the electricity and gas markets. Shortly after that the company was purchased by EDF Energy, who moved much of the IT Operation to the SWEB datacentre in Plymouth.

One2one (now T-Mobile) was an interesting place to work. We were the first mass-market mobile network - during the time I was there we went from having no customers to having over a million. I supported many systems, but probably the most challenging was the ‘Front End System’, which supported the call centres. I specialized in the following:- Performance tuning – the call centre’s response time was featured on the BBC’s ‘Watchdog’ programme more than once, so the database performance was relatively high profile!- Monitoring – I was the DBA within the team responsible for configuring the BMC Patrol interface- Documentation – I created documentation templates for all of the systems

I joined Hoskyns, as it was then called, a year after finishing college. The work was project based – much of the time was spent out at clients’ offices. I was, and am, proud of the fact that I only spent 2 weeks not allocated to a project. Projects included:Jewsons (1989-1992) – MUMPS programming, system test, functional and technical specificationCrown Prosecution Service (1992-1993) – Oracle programming and system testT-Mobile (1993 on) – Oracle programming, team leading, main client contact