What a system administrator should do in an organization. Who is a "system administrator

Not a single large company that has an impressive number of computers can do without a sysadmin. Many still do not know what the essence of the profession is. System Administrator... The operability of the local network, software, equipment and antivirus software provided by the system administrator. People who are far from the computer do not see any difference between a programmer and a sysadmin. For them, any work at the computer is associated with bespectacled people who are not interested in anything except the release of a new program.

That is why the salary of a system administrator depends on the size and profile of the company. If the firm is small, one specialist most often performs the entire computer work while earning not very much. In large companies, responsibilities are distributed among several administrators with a narrow range of tasks: working with databases, Internet resources, ensuring network security.

What a system administrator does

Today the specialty of a system administrator does not exist in universities. They are specialists in related IT professions: computer engineers, programmers, etc.

Mandatory qualities include: composure in unforeseen situations, excellent knowledge computer technology... For example, a web service administrator needs to navigate Unix systems, TCP protocols and IP, etc. If your work is related to databases, you need completely different knowledge: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Oracle. And although many consider the work of a system administrator to be endlessly boring, the demand for competent specialists in the labor market is quite high.

The salary depends on the assigned functions and the personnel policy of the company.

Pros and cons of being a system administrator

Advantages:

• decent wages are one of the main factors that young specialists pay attention to;
• the system administrator can use the acquired knowledge for his own purposes;
• high demand for specialists. If the company has more than 5 computers, they need a sysadmin.

Flaws:

• many employees do not fully understand what the responsibilities of a system administrator are. As a result, unnecessary work is done;
• high requirements for the skills and knowledge of a specialist;
• irregular working hours. No equipment is insured against breakdown, and at the beginning of the working day, no one cares about the cause of the malfunction and required time to eliminate it;
• even if all systems work in normal operation, the sysadmin needs to do something. Otherwise, company employees will gossip that he is "sleeping" in the workplace;
• in organizations where one position of the system administrator is open, it is difficult to ask for a vacation;
• almost all useful literature written in English.

The professional feature of the sysadmin profession is the lack of career growth as such. These people consider their work to be done perfectly if no one notices the result. Of course, with each year of work, the specialist acquires more and more knowledge, but they are completely related to the profile activity, and not to the organization of the labor process or the management of people.

As for the prospects of the profession, here it occupies one of the leading positions. Every year the need for personnel with advanced computer skills is increasing, and the situation will only change upward.

", and today programmer, system administrator Sergey Egortsev shares his experience with us

How is a sysadmin's working day organized?

As a rule, the system administrator constantly has some tasks. The day begins by setting priorities and gradually addressing these challenges. As they are solved, new tasks appear, including urgent and urgent ones. Usually 90% of tasks are solved right at the desktop, i.e. you have to sit at the computer almost all day.

What are his responsibilities? What about a technical support specialist?

The main responsibilities of a system administrator are to ensure the continuity of the employer's business processes. I think it is important to understand what an employer needs to work. There are several categories of tasks:

1. Telephony. It can be a call-center, it can be a regular office telephony. The following tasks are solved here: setting up a PBX, setting telephones... ATS can be digital or analog. Now, of course, digital is being used more. It may also be necessary to configure IP telephony.
2. Computer network. It is necessary to ensure the interaction of computers in the network, configure access, connection. Configure network equipment.
3. Internet. It is necessary to configure access to the Internet, possibly limited (restrict access to social networks, prohibit some protocols, etc.).
4. Customization peripheral equipment and access to it - various printers, plotters and more.
5. Installation and configuration of corporate software packages for accounting, internal document management systems, EDM systems ( electronic systems workflow). EDF is usually used to send documents to tax authorities and to work with banks.

These tasks are solved using different combinations hardware / software. Basically, it all depends on the budget, requirements and needs of the employer. As a rule, most companies already have a system that solves the above tasks. If you do not need to do everything from scratch, then the main task of the system administrator is to maintain the existing system in working order, as well as its updating / modernization as required. Perhaps the system will need to be expanded and supplemented to meet the new tasks of the employer.

In the duties of a specialist technical support also includes ensuring the continuity of the employer's business processes, but not at the system level, but at the level of end nodes and specific devices... The main tasks of a technical support specialist:

1. Setting up the user's computer - connecting to corporate network, setting up mail, installing a software package.
2. Configuring printers.
3. Replacement Supplies v peripherals(printers, faxes, etc.).
4. Setting up telephones ( regular phones, IP phones).
5. Repair and restoration of out-of-order equipment. Replacement of PC components, printers, telephones.

As a rule, a technical support specialist starts his work on requests from users. Almost every day, various incidents happen: the Internet does not work, mail is not sent, the phone does not ring, the accounting program does not work, and so on. The main responsibility is prompt elimination malfunction. The sooner the malfunction is eliminated, the less financial losses from the employer, because usually, a malfunction leads to the inability of the user to perform his work duties, for which he is paid a salary.

What operating systems should he know today?

Operating systems are selected for each company separately, depending on financial capabilities and tasks to be solved. Server operating systems from Microsoft are suitable for solving most of the tasks of interacting computers in a network: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012. You can still find Windows Server 2003, but this system is already outdated. To ensure communication of a computer network with external networks(the Internet, remote office, remote branch) are used Unix-like systems, the most demanded of them is FreeBSD, also on Unix-systems it is possible to organize telephony, mail, web-servers. You can also find in work the use of OS Linux, which can be used as a server or stand on users' computers. For example - in Moscow polyclinics in doctors' offices there are computers under Linux management, this system completely suitable for working with UMIAS in a browser. To ensure interaction computer networks special devices are used - various network routers and routers. Large firms Cisco routers are used to ensure the operation of the network - they can solve almost any problem related to network data transmission. Cisco routers are so complex in their design that they use their own operating system - Cisco Internetwork Operating System or Cisco IOS for short. Knowledge and ability to work with this system are necessary to build any relatively large network... There are also routers from Juniper Networks with their own operating system - Junos OS. Juniper Networks routers are not commonly used in conventional businesses, but are typically used by large corporations, ISPs, and banks.

Does he have to deal with people and for what reason.

If we talk about technical support specialists, they have to deal with people every day and every time someone breaks / doesn't work. In large corporations and banks, as a rule, you need to observe the dress code and look neat. It should be taken into account that a technical support specialist communicates with any person who uses equipment - from a warehouse manager to a corporation president. Therefore, the ability to communicate and find mutual understanding with people is essential. Often, vacancies indicate that a technical support specialist must be stress-resistant. This is due to the fact that equipment usually fails at the most inopportune moment. For example, a development director urgently needs to send a letter to partners, but his mail does not work - in given situation the director is nervous, afraid that everything may disappear, the deal will not take place, etc. V in this case you need to be prepared for the fact that as soon as you enter the office, you will be yelled at, accused of incompetence, etc., depending on the significance of the letter and the mood of the director, as well as his mental state. You have to be ready for this. There are almost always 10% of constantly dissatisfied users with whom you will have to build relationships in one way or another.

A system administrator, unlike a technical support specialist, may not communicate with users at all. Or do it on rare occasions. His main communication takes place with the chief / IT director at professional themes- operation of servers, systems, mail, implementation of corporate software, peculiarities of interaction of system nodes, etc.

This is relevant for large companies, if you work in a company consisting of 30-60 employees, then you will not be able to get away from communicating with users and not get to people dissatisfied with your work, you will have to somehow “join the team”.

Does he have to improve his skills every day?

It is necessary to improve qualifications in parallel with the development of the industry. For operating systems this is not so relevant, since they come out every 5-6 years. Updated more often software products- 1C, EDM systems, bank clients. Difficulties in professional development should not arise if you have your finger on the pulse and follow the IT news. Basic functions and the principle of operation of the systems was laid down for a very long time and rarely change. For example, PCs were assembled 20 years ago and are being assembled to this day. In the IT industry, the characteristics and capabilities of computers and software are changing, the range of tasks being solved is changing, but basic principles remain.

In this profession, you can qualitatively improve your skill level by making a certain qualification leap. A technical support professional can become a system administrator if he / she improves his / her skills in the field of server operating systems or in the field of network technologies. This will be a transition to another level and will provide an opportunity for career growth.

What is their salary fork? What does it depend on?

Salary most often depends on the tasks to be solved and the employer. For example, in a large corporation / bank, the salary of a technical support specialist is from 40 to 80 thousand rubles. In small companies this amount is less, usually from 25 to 50. Usually 80 tr. - this is a salary in foreign representative offices of companies, to receive such a salary you need to know a foreign spoken language, as well as be able to write correctly.

The salary of the system administrator is higher and the spread is greater. This is from 35 to 180 tr. It all depends on the scale of the company and the range of tasks to be solved, again for 180 tr. knowledge of a foreign language may be required.

Who do they report to?

If the company is small with 30-100 people, then subordination either directly to the director or to the person appointed in charge of IT-technologies - positions can be different. If we talk about the corporate segment, then something like this is built up here:

IT director - heads of departments (communications, telephony, networks, etc.) - chief system administrator - leading system administrator - senior system administrator - system administrator - technical support specialist. As you can see, in a small company there is practically no career prospects, one can only hope for indexation wages and bonuses / bonuses. In the corporate segment, you can improve your qualifications and career growth over the course of 10-20 years with a corresponding increase in wages.

Who can they grow into in the company and what does it depend on?

Growth is possible primarily in large companies. It all depends on the skills and knowledge of systems, as well as practical experience... We need theory and practice. Knowledge backed by certifications from system manufacturers is often welcome. The surest way to grow is by studying server Microsoft systems and passing an exam on them. The exam consists of a large number questions, is carried out in the form of a test. These exams cost money, i.e. to try to pass the exam, you need to pay about 60 euros per attempt, regardless of whether you passed or not. Therefore, you need to prepare carefully. In some companies, possession of these certificates confirming your knowledge is not just welcomed, but is a requirement for a candidate for a vacancy. For the most part, on the way to a salary of 180 tr. these certificates are essential. You can also carry out career growth in network technologies based on knowledge networking and possession of skills to work with Cisco routers... Again, to work with Cisco, the Cisco Technology Proficiency Certificates are welcome, which are awarded after an exam, which also costs money.

Where exactly is this taught and is it possible to come to courses like this from the street and become sysadmin? They write in vacancies: "Education is not lower than specialized secondary." Is it possible to be able to do all this after college? And then what does the institute give?

System administrators are taught in refresher courses, as well as on paid courses conducted by software and hardware manufacturers. In technical universities and colleges there are various departments for various IT technologies. After graduating from an educational institution or courses, you can try to get a job with a small salary of 25-35 tr. In the first couples, experience decides everything. You can become a sysadmin by getting your hands on the solution of various tasks set by the company's management. I think that in 1 year of work, you can gain enough experience to understand in which direction to move and what to do. There is an option to learn the minimum skills for working as a technical support specialist and work in this position for many years. But it is worth remembering that a technical support specialist is the first step in a career and means the age of up to 35 years. I know that technical support specialists with an age of over 35 are faced with problems in finding a job, so if you are a young specialist, then it is advisable to somehow move up the career ladder up to 35.

As for studying at a university and a college, I can't say for sure, but I see a difference like this: at the university they teach the technological basics and basic theoretical knowledge to build computer systems, which may be useful to future system administrators. Colleges have less theory, more practice, which leads to more quick start in practical skills, without delving into the basics.

Is being a sysadmin boring or fun? What is the joy?

As for boredom or fun, I can't say. The word interesting is more likely to be used here. Being a system administrator is interesting because every day we have to solve new and new problems, sometimes, however, old ones too. In my opinion, all administrators experience a feeling of joy and emotional uplift after solving a problem. The more difficult and interesting the task, the more pleasure from its solution. But this is for professionals, and for those who do not like to solve problems or do not want to solve them - there is no pleasure from work, work for them turns into boredom and everyday torment, and each new task elicits a reaction like this - “Well, what else? well, again? well, how much can you? ”. Sometimes it is true that there are funny or funny cases related to users. For example, once an employee of the personnel department accidentally poured into network filter with coffee sockets. Because of short circuit the machine was triggered and the electricity in the office was turned off. The women turned to the system administrator with a complaint - computers stopped working and they needed to be repaired. How much fun it is - everyone can appreciate it in their own way. If this is fun for you, then yes - being a sysadmin is fun.

Which people do it better - working as a sysadmin or as a technical support specialist? Are they necessarily introverts? Techies in the shower?

Introverts are unlikely, but techies at heart, perhaps yes. If you have the ability and interest to know the device of a computer, how wi-fi works, how the Internet works, then it is quite possible that the profession of a system administrator will satisfy this interest, and the abilities will help you enjoy your work. During my work, I was familiar with large quantity system administrators and technical support specialists were all completely different people. The only thing they had in common was their interest in technology. True, there were people without interest in this area, but they worked poorly and the work was a burden for them.

Is it possible to open your own small company and earn money by doing this? Is it real to practiceoutsourcing in this area to one?

Regarding opening a company, you can open it. But in order to earn money, you need to have managerial skills to organize work and have experience in selling services. system administration... From this I can conclude that opening a company is not the job of a system administrator, but rather an entrepreneur. But if there is a rare combination of these skills, then you can open a company and start making money. To open a company, in my opinion, you need to look and study the market. There are a lot of proposals for such services, it is quite difficult to become competitive in this area. Due to the number of offers, prices for services are at the level where the work will bring the minimum income. I am not an economist or a manager, so tell me how to build this business I can’t make it successful.

If you work yourself - there is an option to contact small firms consisting of 5-10 people. As a rule, they do not turn to outsourcing companies, but try to solve their problems by a one-time call of specialists or on their own. There is a chance that you can conclude a personal service agreement with them - say 3000 - 5000 per month for the opportunity to call you to solve some problems or to repair equipment. There are many such firms in business centers, where they rent small offices. Theoretically, it is possible to recruit about 10 clients from one business center and receive about 40-60 thousand rubles a month. I don’t know how with this now, but I had several acquaintances who worked this way.

What is a sysadmin dreaming of?

As I said above - the system administrator is the same person as everyone else, and everyone dreams of their own. And about the wishes at work - the sysadmins have remade one not quite literary toast and often pronounce it at corporate events and parties, it sounds like this: "so that the server is standing and there are pings!" and was accessible over the network. "

Sergey, thank you very much for such a good interview!

Questions were asked by Elmira Davydova

IT specialists appointed to the position of a system administrator must have the appropriate specialized education, experience in the repair and maintenance of computer systems and office equipment, experience in installing and debugging software, know network protocols and be able to build and debug local networks.

Specialization

Depending on the type of activity and the size of the enterprise, the responsibilities of the system administrator and the knowledge he needs can vary greatly. On the small firms this is one person who has to deal with all the problems that arise. In large enterprises, there are entire departments, where each specialist works to solve specific problems.

Until 2000 did not exist educational institutions teaching the profession of a system administrator.

Network Administrator - Development and Maintenance local area networks... Knowledge required network protocols and network devices;

Database administrator - you need to know the languages ​​of the operating systems on which the databases work, the protocols and the database device;

Server administrator - in a hosting company, he installs software and maintains the hardware of the server economy. Knowledge of relevant programs and protocols is required.

Duties

The main responsibilities of a system administrator are as follows:

Installing and debugging software - programs are installed and modified under specific tasks... It is also necessary to monitor the availability of updates and install them in time, monitor the system's performance after their installation;

Timely repair and modernization of computers and office equipment - the system must correspond to the tasks being performed, fast and troubleshooting should contribute to this;

Solving network security problems - installing anti-virus and other protective programs and keep track of their updates. Prevent unauthorized access and hacker attacks;

Restoring network performance after failures and misconduct- must be done backup, in order to quickly restore the system performance in case of fatal failures;

The most common breakdown is liquid spilling onto the computer keyboard.

Setting up a local network and ensuring its regular operation - normal work modern enterprise depends on reliable work local network and all its components. Therefore, the timely elimination of failures and disruptions in the network becomes a top priority;

Consulting, assistance and training of employees to work with software and a local network - for the normal course of the work process, it is necessary to quickly solve emerging difficulties and problems of users, who are often unable to independently solve even elementary issues.

Over the decades, the concept of system administration (SA) has changed in sync with changes in computer systems. As a specialty, CA emerged spontaneously, out of the need to somehow cope with the complexities of the first mainframe operating systems.

Then, in addition to system engineers, the maintenance personnel included engineers who supported the performance of not very reliable computers. They tapped boards with rubber mallets, repaired peripherals much like cars, and spent a fair amount of alcohol rubbing the contacts.

In the eighties with massive distribution PCs, local area networks and Windows required universal specialists who combined hardware and software maintenance in their activities. At first, these were very young people, gaining experience empirically, often the children of users. Moreover, this kind of pattern was observed in all countries.

Over time, professionals grew from amateurs, experience began to accumulate in the form of books and online resources, and CA has become an activity that requires constant and very serious self-education. Various kinds of courses and specialties have appeared at universities.

At the end of the 20th century, professionals grew from amateur sysadmins

Against this, frankly, gloomy background, it is not easy to write about global trends and upcoming changes in specialties related to the administration of corporate IT.

The vision of a sysadmin in 2017

Usually, the system administrator is seen as a person responsible for maintaining personal, but more often multiuser computers - servers in working order. Its task is to update resources, ensure the required levels of performance and security within the allocated budget. Sysadmins together with service engineers install and update software and Hardware, maintain safety regulations, educate users and technicians.

According to the field of activity, those employed in the CA can be divided into several categories:

• Database administrators - maintain the DBMS, are responsible for the integrity and performance of the databases.
• Network Administrators - Support network infrastructures(routers, switches) and connecting computers to them.
• Security administrators are specialists in the field of information security that provide work protective screens and other devices.
• Web Administrators - Supports web servers (Apache or Internet Information Services) that provide access to internal and external sites, including configuration, security, and updates.
• Server administrators - provide hardware support on physical level(replacement of failed devices, replacement of tapes, etc.).
• Storage System Administrators - Maintain storage systems, applications, backups, and new device installations.

What does the future hold for the system administrator?

From the days of mainframes until almost the beginning of the 21st century, the idea of ​​IT has suffered from one-sidedness. In IT and the people who support them, they saw only means capable of performing certain functions, nothing more.

Let's compare with traditional industries. There are people there who provide the production process (conveyors, robots, etc.), there are specialists who use technologies to manufacture the required product, and there are those who use the created product. In IT, the former are system administrators, and who is responsible for the results remains uncertain.

But the situation is changing, and gradually, in IT, about the same three-tier system is taking shape, which exists everywhere. Data is recognized as the main product of IT. At the third level, analysts use the data, the so-called, everything is more or less clear with them. What happens to the first and second links? Nobody removes the traditional tasks listed above from system administrators, but new ones appear, and they are associated with new directions - Data governance and DevOps.

Data governance

Data governance is best translated as “data governance”. Not management, but leadership. Data governance is understood as a set of measures aimed at preserving and maintaining the quality of data as an important asset of an enterprise.

The role of data governance in the company's corporate strategy is noted by system integrators:

With the advent of an IT architecture centered on business data streams, a new business challenge has arisen that never existed before. This is the provision of the organizational process of corporate data management (Data Governance). The solution to this problem involves the creation of a special organizational unit that deals with the management of data as an asset of the organization. This is a big difficult question: how to methodologically manage life cycle data how to maintain corporate model data. Without such a model, without understanding what data is in the organization, how to manage it, and how it can be used by the business, the data is of no value. In most companies, this issue has not yet been resolved in any way, although in Western companies there are examples of treating data as a most important corporate asset

In this regard, new specialties will appear in the CA staff:

• Data admin The data resource manager monitors corporate data, manages it as an asset, and manages the data lifecycle in accordance with the goals and objectives of the enterprise. This kind of management is based on logical models data and their streams. The data administrator differs from the database administrator in that the former works with data on logical level and the second on the physical.
• The Data custodian plays a central role in the data management team, is responsible for aggregating and using the data, and is functionally closer to the DBA given that the data with which he is dealing is more diverse.
• Data steward plans work with data, analyzes sources, links data items to metadata.

DevOps and System Administration

DevOps should be seen as a general trend towards the inevitable automation of information systems management, but there are several obstacles to its implementation. One of them is that the automation process was inspired by programmers who formulate understanding of the problem in their own language, which led to the absence of a clear division into an automation object with its properties and a system that automates this object.

In all technical applications such a division is mandatory, and, accordingly, there is a division into specialists in the object and into automators, that is it comes about two completely different areas of activity.

Thinking about DevOps arose from the realization that modern information systems are extremely low level automation, prompting to use the labor of a huge number of administrators - if the demand remains, sooner or later the entire population of the planet will be forced to take up administration. In large companies, information systems are managed by web server administrators, database administrators, network administrators, system engineers, network security administrators, and mail server administrators.

Administrators are highly qualified specialists with sufficient educational qualifications and work experience, but they are often busy routine work, do not create anything new and remain appendages of existing information systems.

Alan Turing wrote about the future division of labor between programmers and administrators as early as 1947:

Turing's prophecy was largely justified, since then the history of developers (Dev) and operators (Ops) has managed to complete several rounds of development. At first, even before mainframes appeared, there was no separation between developers and operators - then there were programmers and engineers who kept extremely unreliable systems working.

Mainframes with their batch mode separated programmers and operators - the former gave decks of punched cards with their programs, and operators launched them into the account and returned listings.

The return to the starting position (the unification of the programmer and operator in one person) happened in the seventies with the advent of mini-computers and the interactive mode - intermediary operators were not required here, and the barrier between the developer and the computer disappeared.

But with the advent personal computers and local networks, client-server architectures and databases, the infrastructure has become noticeably more complex and the division into Dev and Ops has reappeared. Subsequently, large data centers and independent IT departments, consisting entirely of Ops, appeared - again a barrier arose between the two parties.

In the 21st century, there is a strict division of labor between Dev and Ops. The tasks of the first were reduced to the creation of new software and its periodic updates, and the second - to providing users with reliable and quick access To system resources... But despite the fact that both Dev and Ops are doing a common cause, their interests coincide only partially. Naturally, programmers do not want to make software with errors, and IT people do not want to crash it during operation, in this they are united, and while the requirements for the speed of new software releases were relatively small, there were no serious contradictions between them.

If user needs were limited only to off-the-shelf, commercial, replicable software, then the separation predicted by Turing would have persisted for a long time, but two new phenomena emerged: Continuous Delivery (CD) and Continuous Integration (CI).

The need for them is due to the fact that in modern systems user requests change literally on a daily basis and there is a gap with the system's capabilities. On one side of the scale there are the costs of delivering code with new functionality, and on the other - the lost profit due to delays in the appearance of the function that the user needs, late feedback, the need to support unverified decisions and other factors.

Continuous integration as a software engineering technique is used in projects involving a large number developers, which allows you to reduce the complexity of integration and make it more predictable due to the earliest detection and elimination of errors and inconsistencies.

The advent of DevOps in 2009 heralds the next moment that Turing predicted - through automation, it is possible to opt out of services and transfer control into the hands of developers. However, the automation of information systems is a long and complex process, therefore DevOps is called a movement, and a methodology, and a process, and very rarely - a technology, and all this has a right to exist.

Does it follow from the above that automation will lead to the disappearance of system administration? Definitely not. Most likely, those tasks that are caused by the imperfection of computer systems will disappear, the need for routine operations, which do not require deep knowledge, and against this background qualification requirements will increase.

Personally, I am a little depressed by the current situation with the name of the specialty. It is similar to how, at the dawn of the development of computer technology, everyone who somehow knew how to work with computers was rigidly divided into two groups "user" and "programmer". You only know how to turn on and poke with one finger - the user. you understand what's going on inside - a programmer. So now everyone who is "not a programmer" began to be called sysadmins.

So, I would like to clarify a little about what a system administrator is.

I would formulate this specialty in the only way - the maximum position in the management of all information systems of the enterprise.

A system administrator is a person whose job is to:
First of all - in building a policy and planning the organization of all information systems and networks in the company.
In everyday life - the implementation of this plan, recreating it in hardware, configuring devices, setting up software, tuning, monitoring the state of networks, suppressing random violations, attacks and other threats.
In the future - planning for development and modernization, exploring new opportunities and trends.

This position is only half "technical" and the other half "political". The system administrator is the top IT manager who determines how and where all IT in the company will move, and ultimately how easy and convenient it will be for everyone to use the “IT benefits” specific user... Below the level are individual "narrow" administrators, such as database administrators, user support services, possibly programmers who write some local modules. Only the “non-technical leadership” remains above the level - the top management and the heads of the company. For example, the management, due to the lack of the necessary technical knowledge, is simply not able to know what equipment is needed to build a network, where are narrow places and how much each of them affects or can affect business processes. Superiors, as a rule, only need to have information “how much it will cost us money and time” and “how much it will simplify the work / increase reliability”. And how and what technologies will be used, how and what users will receive, what they can do and what not - these are the decisions of the system administrator.

The fact that many (and even in their article are guilty of this :) call an administrator - often it is an "enikey" (system engineer, shift engineer, technical support engineer), his task is really to deal with buggy Windows, printers and other small junk of the user. I understand that in a company with a couple of hundred jobs, there is practically no point in hiring a separate system administrator (as a rule, such tasks do not arise there), which is why it turns out that an enikeyschik is sitting, and to the best of his free time and experience, he performs and server and hardware configuration tasks. There is nothing terrible in this, in the end, almost all system administrators began to work as enikeys, only they are not real system administrators.

I have worked several times as a system administrator in companies where more than a thousand jobs are distributed over a large area. For example, in one of them for two years of work, I have never seen end user, and only spoke to them on the phone a couple of times. But for that, responsibility for the correctness of the chosen policy of building a network, planning procurement for further development, the operability of all information systems, software, servers, data safety - it is on the administrator. No one will ask an enikeyshchik for the loss of data, or a break in the line - but for the sysadmin it will immediately be disqualified if they were not provided for in the structure of backup paths that ensure uninterrupted operation in the event of failure of individual nodes and quick options restoration of serviceability of any structure. And the decisions made by the system administrator usually affect all employees who work with computers in one way or another. It is the system administrator who sets the tasks for the programmers to write the necessary modules, and introduces the rules for working with software for the entire company.

I would like to draw an analogy with city sewers - the system administrator is the chief engineer of the city, who plans how and where to lead pipes, where to build and how to connect substations. But the bearded one in a sweater is most likely a local plumber who changes the pipes in the house, and makes the wiring around the apartment. Without belittling the necessity of all professions, but these are very different things in terms of knowledge, education and tasks to be solved.

I also disagree with the division into “specialized” and “non-core” employers. Here it is more likely to talk about whether there is a demand for serious IT for each specific business. For example, if you look at trade in general, they essentially do not need computers, they put the cash register and make money. But nevertheless, I observed one of the most interesting and developed IT infrastructures in a large trading network... And they didn’t skimp on development, because they understood that this was the “blood” of the business and when the network went down, there would be no sales, and these are huge losses, both direct due to standing equipment, and indirect from loss of trust.

P.S. And another interesting thing that has been noticed over the years, which is the fad of all those I have seen excellent sysadmins have an almost manic passion for organizing everything under their control, from hardware configuration, documenting infrastructures, and laying patch cords in wiring closets, to perfect order on your own desktop. And by the way, there were no beards with a sweater among them, a good system administrator is more likely to really look like a manager.

P.P.S. I leave out of the scope of the article all "narrow" administrators, such as administrators of web servers, databases, mail, domain, storage systems, network and so on. Although even the average system administrator should have a clear understanding of the essence of these specialties and in his work regularly consult and take into account the opinions of specialists or dive into the field himself (if there is strength and opportunity).

UPD: Well formulated my thoughts