SRE seems to mean something else at every company. As a current SRE, I agree that this is what _I_ do most of the time. But while saying that, I also don’t see

SRE seems to mean something else at every company. As a current SRE, I agree that this is what _I_ do most of the time. But while saying that, I also don’t see myself as “true SRE”, not the way Google defined it. SRE should become the code owner once it becomes stable. This alone adds heavy emphasis on having a background in software development. Most of the time, I see two kinds of SRE around me. 1. The “rebranded sysadmin” SRE. Typically heavy on Ops skills and deep OS level knowledge but no formal education or experience in Software development. 2. The “SDE in Cloud” SRE. Person coming from software development side, having very little Ops experience, relying on benefits of quick and disposable computational power from your favorite Cloud provider. I don’t mean to “shame” either of those cases, I am just pointing out that person with years (or decades) of experience on one side cannot suddenly become well balanced SRE the way Google defined it.