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Kai Yu is a senior engineer and solution architect in Dell Oracle Solutions Engineering Lab .He is working with Oracle Technology as an Oracle DBA, Oracle Apps DBA since 1995. Kai specializes in Oracle RAC, Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle VM. He has published 15 technical whitepapers and given more than 30 technical presentations at major oracle technology conferences worldwide including Oracle OpenWorld, OTN Latin America Tour, etc. . Kai is an Oracle ACE Director and was selected for Oracle ACE spotlight in June 2011, and he also was featured in Oracle Magazine Sept/Oct 2010 issue. He has been the former president and the current board member of IOUG Oracle RAC SIG, and the RAC performance and HA Bootcamp manager at IOUG Collaborate conference 2010/2011 and the IOUG Virtualization Committee member. Kai was the winner of the 2011 OAUG Innovator of Year award and is active in sharing his Oracle knowledge on his Oracle blog http://kyuoracleblog.wordpress.com/.

1- Why did you choose to specialize in Oracle databases? 

My interest with database started with my Mater degree thesis research on relational database more than 20 years ago. My Oracle database career started in 1995 shortly after when I took a database engineer position in a software company working on OCI and C++, PL/SQL and DBA. On that job, I really enjoyed learning and working on Oracle database technology on both applications development side aas well as the database administration side. The technology really fascinated me and I decided to pursue my career in Oracle database.

2- What made you specialize in Oracle Real Application Clusters and Linux systems?

My first involvement with the Oracle cluster database was the Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) in 1997 when I worked for the factory automation system in Samsung Austin Semiconductor . In 2001-2002, I started working on Oracle databases running on Linux and around 2003-2004 I started deploying and managing Oracle RAC databases on Linux in Dell IT. We managed more 2000 production Oracle RAC databases on Linux systems, and 2-3 times of development and test RAC databases in our DBA team, including those for Oracle E-Business Suite applications and large data warehouses. In late 2006 I joined in Dell Oracle Solutions Engineering team and worked on engineering solutions for Oracle RAC on Linux and Dell systems. I have been working and living with Oracle Real Application Clusters and Linux systems in last 8 years. Most of my conferences papers and whitepapers were Oracle RAC related ranging RAC best practices, Oracle EBS on RAC, Oracle EM for RAC, to Oracle RAC on Oracle VM.

3- Do you still remember the first day in your first job?

My very first job was a teaching position in the Computer Science department of Huazhong University
of Science and Technology in China after I obtained my Master degree in Computer Science. On that job, I had an opportunity to attend an IFIP (The International Federation for Information Processing) conference in China. The experience from the conference was really an eye opening for me. After the conference I decided to come to US to pursue my major study as well as my career.

4- Is there anybody you have regarded as role model at the beginning of your career?

In 1995 I joined an Austin software startup company called Arrowsmith Technology Inc. My mentor was the chief database architect Chip Young who taught me how to build a high performance application on Oracle Database. In 1997 I learned the Oracle Parallel server (OPS) technology from an Oracle parallel server architect and started working with Oracle cluster database technology. Since 2006, Nadia Bendjedou and Steven Chan and Erik Peterson at Oracle really inspired me to take my Oracle Technology career to the next level by contributing my efforts to the Oracle community (user groups) and Oracle conferences. With their great inspiration, in April 2010 I reached a great highlight in my career when I was awarded the Oracle ACE Director rank by Oracle Corporation

5- What are the resources that you consult regularly to keep up-to-date with Oracle topics?

For troubleshooting and problem solving, I have used Oracle Metalink notes as my number one resource. For new technology, I also found it very helpful to read the conference presentations and Oracle whitepapers. In last few years, I also regularly checked Oracle related blogs and forums posted by other Oracle professionals. To contribute to this community, I also posted my experiences and findings on my Oracle blog.

6- 3 Books that you would recommend reading to every Oracle professional?

Today Oracle Technology has a large coverage ranging from server/storage, OS, virtualization
Database, Middleware to Applications. The Oracle professional’s skill set also varies. For those who work on the DBA role, especially for the production database DBA, the following
books can be really helpful, but there many other great books too.
1. Oracle Database 11g Release 2 High Availability: Maximize Your Availability with Grid Infrastructure, RAC and Data Guard by Scott Jesse, Bill Burton, Bryan Vongray
2. Oracle RMAN 11g Backup and Recovery by Robert Freeman, Matthew Hart
3. Oracle Wait Interface: A Practical Guide to Performance Diagnostics & Tuning by Richmond Shee, Kirtikumar Deshpande and K. Gopalakrishnan
4. For Oracle Applications DBA, Oracle Applications DBA Field Guild by Elke Phelps, Paul Jackson

7- What was the biggest technical challenge in your career so far?

It has been a really challenge to keep up with the Oracle technology in 3 dimensions: the scope ranging from System, Database, Middleware to Applications; the depth and the advanced level; and the fast advancement of the technology. These 3 dimensions bring the excitement as much as challenges, which attract me to continue to invest my career on it.

8- How do you disconnect from work in your spare time?

Being a DBA, it was almost impossible to disconnect from work after leaving office. But since I moved to the Dell Oracle engineering lab, I have had some flexible schedule to study Oracle technology more and participate the Oracle community activities. When I am not working on Oracle technology, I usually try to do some physical exercises such as swimming and spend time with my daughter helping her on math and science. I also like to travel whenever the time permits.

9- What advise would you give to somebody who just started studying computer science?

Learn the solid foundation of the major; Have a strong passion for the computer science & technology; be ready for the life time learning.

Find Kai Yu on: Linkedin | Blog | ACE Program