Oracle Hires AWS Veteran Mehul Shah for OCI Data and Storage Role

Oracle has hired Mehul Shah as group vice president of OCI Data and Storage Services, bringing a 14-year Amazon and AWS veteran into its cloud infrastructure organization.

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Shah previously led engineering and product organizations for Amazon RDS for SQL Server, Oracle, and Db2, as well as Oracle Database@AWS. That partnership allows customers to use Oracle database services within AWS data centers. Shah said on LinkedIn that he spent the past two years working closely with Oracle on the launch and expansion of Oracle Database@AWS.

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The Hire Follows Two Years of Direct Work With Oracle

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In announcing the move, Shah said OCI shared the same qualities that brought him to Amazon in 2012, including curiosity and a willingness to make bold decisions.

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Earlier in his AWS career, Shah held leadership roles across the company’s data portfolio. His experience included Amazon EMR and real-time streaming services such as Amazon Data Firehose and Kinesis Data Streams. He also led AWS Lake Formation and AWS Glue.

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How Oracle Database@AWS Works

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Oracle Database@AWS places Oracle-managed database infrastructure inside AWS data centers. Applications running on AWS can connect to those databases with low latency, allowing customers to use services from both providers within the same data center environment.

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For enterprises running Oracle databases on their own premises, the offering provides a migration path that preserves familiar database technology. Customers can bring those workloads into AWS and connect them with AWS applications and services. Purchasing runs through AWS Marketplace, including offers from qualified Oracle and AWS channel partners. The arrangement requires coordination across the providers’ infrastructure and support operations, giving context to the cross-company work Shah described in his announcement.

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What the Appointment Says About Cloud Leadership Hiring

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Shah’s experience is directly relevant to the OCI role. His responsibilities at AWS spanned database services and the infrastructure used to move and process enterprise data. His work on Oracle Database@AWS also gave him experience delivering a service that depended on cooperation between competing cloud providers.

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Strategic partnerships can give companies a sustained view of how executives work across organizational boundaries. For searches involving closely connected platforms, leaders at partner companies could be worth considering because their existing responsibilities bring them into contact with the technology and customer requirements they would encounter in the new role.

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