You're right, remote hands is available, but in my experience (7+ years managing a DC in another country), it is expensive, inexperienced and slow to respond. I

You're right, remote hands is available, but in my experience (7+ years managing a DC in another country), it is expensive, inexperienced and slow to respond. If an issue occurs in a DC that's a drive away, I'll usually send a staff member because I know that the job will be done correctly and (usually) quicker. You're also right that the problems don't disappear, but they are certainly easier to resolve in a cloud environment. I have had boxes fail and get replaced in the time that it would normally take me to wake up and logon to work out what the issue is. I also agree that knowing hardware 'doesn't hurt' (it's where I started), but it also comes at a cost - the time required to learn and understand it. If you were starting out in IT today, would it make sense to spend time on that, or maybe learn about programming or architecture or something else. I don't know the answer, but it's certainly something to think about.