From Oracle DBA to DevOps Leader: A 20‑Year Ops Journey and Lessons

Introduction

This ~5000‑word memoir takes about 15 minutes to read and recounts the author’s 20‑year journey in IT operations, from a university student in 1997 to a DevOps leader and entrepreneur.

Education and Early Years (1997‑2000)

In 1997 the author entered Beijing University of Science and Technology, studied metal pressure processing, and experienced the Hong Kong hand‑over and the 1997 high‑school exam environment.

During university he and roommates crowdfunded a 586 computer, developed a Visual Basic 5 learning tool, and earned a top‑5 academic ranking, leading to the MCSE certification.

First Jobs and DBA Experience (2004‑2008)

After graduation he joined Lenovo’s customer‑service group as an Oracle DBA, managing the call‑center production database.

He later compared Oracle (high‑risk, high‑performance) with SQL Server (slower but more stable) and concluded that technology should serve business, not dominate it.

In 2006 he led a three‑in‑one database consolidation project, handling Oracle RAC on IBM hardware, and solved a critical deployment issue by rebuilding the system from scratch in two days.

Shift to MySQL and Cloud (2008‑2015)

At Sohu Changyou he supervised a DBA team supporting the massively multiplayer game “Tian Long Ba Bu”, using more than 300 MySQL instances to handle the load.

He recognized the industry shift toward open‑source databases and cloud‑based operations, advocating for DevOps practices and automation.

Operations Management and Community Building (2010‑2015)

He served as Operations Director at Zhixing Mingtong, then at Century Internet, where he built a cloud‑operation platform for millions of servers and helped launch the company’s European IDC services.

He founded a high‑efficiency operations community, published articles on InfoQ, and organized the “724 Operations Day”, spreading best‑practice knowledge.

Entrepreneurship and Reflections (2016‑Present)

In 2016 he left his stable job to start a venture, sharing lessons from a year of startup life and emphasizing continuous learning, reading, and personal growth.

The author concludes with advice for fellow technologists: keep striving, embrace change, and let automation and DevOps shape the future of IT operations.