Michael Shearman
Senior Linux / Oracle Infrastructure & Technical Support
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About
Experienced IT infrastructure and technical support professional with a long career spanning enterprise operations, Linux, Oracle, storage, backup, monitoring and automation. Strong hands-on experience building, upgrading and supporting resilient Linux/Oracle environments, including Oracle RAC, RHEL upgrades, SAN storage, disaster recovery and security compliance. Known for improving processes, automating repeatable tasks and producing practical procedures that can be adopted by wider teams.
Experience
Senior AS/400 Technical Support / Linux & Oracle Infrastructure at Saga PLC (1999-08 – 2026-10)
- Maintained AS/400 infrastructure for critical business periods before moving into Linux and Oracle support in 2006.
- Supported Dell Intel servers, Dell/IBM SAN infrastructure and Fibre Channel environments across RHEL 4 through RHEL 9.
- Performed Linux and Oracle upgrades, patching, security updates and operational maintenance.
- Managed disaster recovery, backup and security procedures for Linux environments.
- Processed internal and external SSL certificates across Windows and Linux environments.
- Key achievements
- Built Linux environments including kickstart, servers, SAN, backup and supporting infrastructure.
- Delivered RHEL upgrades from RHEL 4 through RHEL 9 using both in-place and out-of-place approaches.
- Installed and upgraded Oracle environments from 10g through 19c, including RAC and regular PSUs.
- Built Nagios monitoring and developed custom monitors; also supported SolarWinds monitoring.
- Built VMware and OLVM hosts and virtual machines, including SAN configuration.
- Implemented Commvault backup and supported IBM ILMT.
- Implemented Linux CIS compliance for RHEL 7 and RHEL 9.
- Introduced Ansible automation for centrally applying CIS compliance and yum updates.
- Implemented and maintained Microsoft Defender/MDE on Linux.
- Provided operational Windows support including DNS, Active Directory and file shares.
AS/400 Technical Support / Senior Projects Analyst at CIGNA Services UK (1988-01 – 1999-06)
- Progressed from Computer Operator to Senior Computer Operator, AS/400 Operations Analyst and finally senior technical/projects support.
- Supported IBM 3081/MVS and multiple AS/400 platforms.
- Introduced automated backups and supported disaster recovery planning.
- Implemented and supported Robot scheduling.
- Worked on the centralisation of the UK AS/400 environment which involved travelling to sites in Europe, Asia and America
- Supported Year 2000 procedure changes and was assigned to Asia-Pacific to improve technical support.
- Key achievements
- Made a significant contribution to the centralisation of the AS/400 environment.
- Progressed through several roles through strong technical contribution and commitment to delivery.
Computer Operator at County NatWest (1987-11 – 1988-01)
- Supported online users, backups and batch processing across London offices
Computer Operator at Sphere Drake (1986-07 – 1987-11)
- Supported Wang VS300 and V65 systems, including backups, batch processing and security procedures.
- Key achievements
- Created procedures to automate batch processing using menu-driven processes.
Computer Operator / Trainee Sales at Bentalls PLC (1979-08 – 1986-07)
- Joined as a trainee in Sales with day-release college study before moving into Computer Operations in 1984.
- Operated IBM System/38 batch processing and printing.
- Key achievements
- Learned CL and some RPG and used these skills to operate overnight batch processing and printing.
Education
High school qualifications obtained.
