Describe the Fields of IT

I was browsing around and found this thread here. I found it quite interesting because I honestly don't know what most of these tracks are, let alone the certs. Big Data? Cloud Administration? DevOps? The only ones I really know are Networking (Cisco), and System Administration (Linux/Microsoft).

So, could someone describe what all these tracks are, what they do, the day-to-day activities of someone involved, etc.
The reason I am so curious is because I have heard from many people that specialization is key in IT; find your niche and master it. I just need to know what "niches" are out there and what having a job in them would be like.

I will be taking the CCNA soon, and after I pass that I will never touch Cisco again. Talk about boring. And I took a SQL course in college recently, that's also not for me....

So....

Big Data
Cloud Administration/Infrastructure Management
DevOps
Information Security
- Penetration Testing
- Forensics
- Compliance
- Etc etc...
IT Governance
Networking
Project Management
System Administration
Storage
Virtualization
Anything else you can think of...

Thanks all.

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Comments

Lexluethar

Honestly your question is too broad. Every track / description will vary from job to job, company to company. A storage admin may also be a virtualization admin, or the networking guy might also be responsible for devops. It really depends on the company.

Realize most mid to small companies are going away from silo's and looking more for people that have multiple skillsets. I do see a few larger companies (HP, Dell, Microsoft) having silos but most companies are doing away with that mentality. So in the real world you will see more of a blend of roles.

You would be best served to simply follow what you are passionate about and enjoy doing.

NetworkNewb

Lexluethar wrote: »

Honestly your question is too broad.

Too broad? He just wants to know about every area IT, every position, and their day-to-day activities... What's too broad about that?? Sounds simple enough here

edit: lol someone gave me a bad rep with the comment "So why didn't you answer the question?" on this post... I hope he was being as sarcastic as I was

cyberguypr

HAHA! Honestly, you would be better served by googling all this stuff in order to understand at a high level what each area does. After doing that you should get a better idea of what interests you.

Simrid

ProFamous wrote: »

I will be taking the CCNA soon, and after I pass that I will never touch Cisco again. Talk about boring. And I took

Each to there own, I disagree with this comment but everyone has different pathways they want to take.

I can only really speak on behalf of a network engineer duties. If you're going in for an entry level position, you should expect to be working on a NOC.

On the NOC you will be most likely responding to alerts which go off on your monitoring, update tickets and basic troubleshooting etc. As you move up and start to take on projects it becomes a lot more interesting, everyday is quite different but just like a lot of technology jobs, you never stop learning. Ever.

BuzzSaw

I've been asked similar questions by people who view all "people that work on computers" the same: A geek squad employee. When then asked I describe it to be similar to the health care industry as a whole.

You have Dr's, and then within a group of Dr's you have about 100 different types
Then you have nurses, and within nurses you have about 50 different types
Then you have techs
And billing people
Even R&D people working on medical devices
Hospital administration
Insurance companies . . . and all of their roles
etc . . .etc . . .etc

I mean, the map would be HUGE if you were to actually map it out, and I think "IT" as a whole is very similar.

This comparison usually seems to get people to understand better.

NetworkNewb

ProFamous wrote: »

I will be taking the CCNA soon, and after I pass that I will never touch Cisco again. Talk about boring. And I took a SQL course in college recently, that's also not for me....

I'm also curious on what you do or plan on doing, that you will never touch Cisco equipment (assuming networking in general since its so boring) or use SQL ever again in your career.

Who wants to work boring old networks and databases anyways, not like they are that important in IT.

BuzzSaw

NetworkNewb wrote: »

I'm also curious on what you do or plan on doing, that you will never touch Cisco equipment (assuming networking in general since its so boring) or use SQL ever again in your career.

Who wants to work boring old networks and databases anyways, not like they are that important in IT.

Did you know? Keyboards are boring too!