Sysadmin jobs going away?

InfoTech92

Is this true? Could Sysadmin jobs be going away? I'm recently out of school and have been focusing on a Windows Sysadmin to be my future. Are these jobs going away?

gespenstern

It depends where are you at. If you are in the U.S. then yeah. A few reasons:

1. Outsourcing (so if you are in India, you job is coming instead of going away)
2. Automation
3. Cloud (means more unified systems are managed by less higher skilled people in a cloud datacenter)

cyberguypr

I swear we did this exact same thread a few weeks ago. Someone go search for it.

HailHogwash

^^haha I was thinking the same too!!

beads

Just think of IT as being a series of very small careers over the course of a life-long career. Cloud and outsourcing do come to mind though someone still needs to be around to create and strike accounts, etc. SDN will wend its way through networking, security will be automated and improved with predictive analysis. We'll probably need fewer coders in the future as well but that's been promised for 30 years starting with the book: Death of the American Programmer. Always be preparing for the next IT career path or find yourself unemployable. -b/eads

eSenpai

I agree with everything stated above.

To add to this discussion and hopefully your future, it is absolutely vital that you learn Powershell. The days of the GUI being the goto interface are numbered. There are already tasks which can ONLY be accomplished from Powershell in Windows Server 2012 and Server 2016 (or whatever it will ultimately be called) will only take this to the next level. Plus, Microsoft has told us that they want to do away with the GUI as much as possible. See MS quotes in the following article: Inside the guts of Nano Server, Microsoft's tiny new Cloud OS

networker050184

This is the way I look at it from a networking perspective. My job is to know how things communicate. How to get data from point A to point B. My job isn't to run a Cisco network with Ethernet and IPv4. That just happens to be the tool I use at this time. The tools will change, but in the end I need to stay on top of how things are getting from A to B these days and in the coming years. Data will never stop flowing in way way or another so jobs will be there. Might not be the same exact job as we know it now, but there will be a place for smart, dedicated people I can guarantee you that.

On the systems side same thing. Your job is to provide services, not to operate Windows servers. Ensure you stay on top of whatever method is being used to serve them. In house, cloud, whatever. You'll find yourself staying employed by staying on top of current and future technologies.

ImThe0ne

networker050184 wrote: »

This is the way I look at it from a networking perspective. My job is to know how things communicate. How to get data from point A to point B. My job isn't to run a Cisco network with Ethernet and IPv4. That just happens to be the tool I use at this time. The tools will change, but in the end I need to stay on top of how things are getting from A to B these days and in the coming years. Data will never stop flowing in way way or another so jobs will be there. Might not be the same exact job as we know it now, but there will be a place for smart, dedicated people I can guarantee you that.

On the systems side same thing. Your job is to provide services, not to operate Windows servers. Ensure you stay on top of whatever method is being used to serve them. In house, cloud, whatever. You'll find yourself staying employed by staying on top of current and future technologies.

Excellent way of looking at it!

Muhammed H

Is it gonna be same for Linux admins?

alias454

SysAdmins will not being going away anytime soon. The SysAdmin role will morph into more specialized categories keeping in line with the current trends (DevOPS, SecOPS, VOPS, NetOPS etc.). In smaller companies you will see a blend of each discipline and in larger enterprise networks you will see higher degrees of specialization per each individual.

As far as MS moving away from the GUI, I don't think that will have a major impact. At least not in our environment or environments like it. If anything, it will increase the security of the platform by keeping dipshits from browsing the internet using the main DC. My guess is MS will offer better/more GUI based management utilities like RSAT and a more robust centralized management infrastructure utilizing SCCM. To be honest, once a server is deployed and the app is setup, everything else is managed through Group Policy.

I think the same can be said for Linux admins. As deployment numbers increase, automation technologies are where it's gonna be at. Puppet and the likes will become essential skills to keep up to date. I have personally seen our Linux environment grow from 8 NIX servers to over 50 in the last 3-4 years.

With that said, eventually the organization of tomorrow will have 1-2 IT staff on-hand. Someone has to be available to physically touch things every now and then otherwise they would be unnecessary too.

Regards,

dustervoice

Time to purchase my copy of Plumbing for Dummies

alias454

One thing plumbing and IT have in common...**** rolls downhill

TheFORCE

LOL at both the top 2 posts, i laughed when i read that and then saw the post and laughed harder --- SesOps :P

Danielm7

I'll give you an example of where I work. I know a few Sr level sysadmins/engineers. A few of them have zero interest in learning powershell well, screw the cloud, etc. One new guy just got promoted into the sysadmin team. He's very interested in that stuff, he's scripting everything, they handed him all the Azure/AWS/cloud stuff, he's eating it up. I look at the group and feel like in 5 years he'll be the one in the powerful position.

Jobs change, adapt, learn the new tools and keep doing your job. No is is, or no one should be, a current windows NT 3.51 engineer.

yzT

oohhh this thread again xD

Yes, everything systems' side is going away.

kohr-ah

Doom and Gloom! Doom and Gloom! DOOM AND GLOOM!

The world changes and things change in time also. Some thing comes and it is the hot item at the item others come to make lives easier. IT is only a facet of this. Will they be going away? Probably not. Will it require less people to do it. Yarp. As others said you need to adapt and overcome.

It is like people I worked with in the past. They are the mindset "This is my job, what it says on this paper, and that is it" instead of "This is my base job duties plus whatever I can assist with that is given to me". They are still there. They haven't moved up or on. Those who I have met who try to learn new things, be it home labbing, research, whatever, are doing better and will be fine in their career.

Heck look at what Uber just said. "Uber CEO To Tesla: Sell Me Half A Million Autonomous Electric Cars In 2020" Guess what everyone in the delivery and Taxi industry is thinking right now.

InfoTech92

yzT wrote: »

oohhh this thread again xD

Yes, everything systems' side is going away.

Judging by everyone's response, I disagree. Kind of sounds like a lot of virtual based stuff. There will still be Sysadmins to be maintaining/building those servers in of the virtual environment.


I think I pretty much got it. I just need to be able to adapt to the cloud and virtualization. I already manage servers on ESX, so it's a start. I'm only a few months out of school and need to stop stressing myself out so much.

FYI, I like how people say something about posting this thread "again". I'm not on here 24/7 so how would I know? I apologize if it's annoying or whatever. I was just trying to get some help.

chmod

networker050184 wrote: »

This is the way I look at it from a networking perspective. My job is to know how things communicate. How to get data from point A to point B. My job isn't to run a Cisco network with Ethernet and IPv4. That just happens to be the tool I use at this time. The tools will change, but in the end I need to stay on top of how things are getting from A to B these days and in the coming years. Data will never stop flowing in way way or another so jobs will be there. Might not be the same exact job as we know it now, but there will be a place for smart, dedicated people I can guarantee you that.

On the systems side same thing. Your job is to provide services, not to operate Windows servers. Ensure you stay on top of whatever method is being used to serve them. In house, cloud, whatever. You'll find yourself staying employed by staying on top of current and future technologies.

I would add to this:

Also learn how to help the company improve their business(help them make or save money, make people life easier by the usage of technology, etc). Knowing the technology you are working with is key but also learning how to interact with the business and sharedholders, how to improve/understand the business, manage the budget(opex/capex/invenotry), project delivery times, customer satisfaction(even if it is for internal users).

Sys admin or IT in general is not knowing commands, what to click, protocols or appliances. You can become a key part of the business if you know how to make IT be part of the business, how to align business and IT, make decisions that improves the business.

Those skills can also keep you employed(in addition to be on top of whatever technology is dominating at the moment).

Shdwmage

I agree with CHMOD above. I force my way into all sorts of stuff that isn't a part of my job role just because I know how to do it. I happen to be really good with data and manipulating it to be easier to use. I write all sorts of small programs to filter things or excel spreadsheets to apply filters and the sort.

Be the best employee you can be and the rewards will follow. You reap what you sow. Just saying.