4 ms·

admins are going to be replaced by programs that software engineers write (consider devops, heroku, aws, etc).

by munin 14y ago

spydum 14y ago
All of those services are run by sysadmins using software, not by software themselves. They just moved up a level of abstraction (take a look at the SRE listings, places are crowded with trying to hire proper devops/SRE). They have become the utility, which is where my plumbing/eletrician analogy comes in. You might argue this is just suggesting there is a greater demand for software engineers, and that may be true, but I would be very skeptical of someone saying sysadmins would be replaced. Why haven't we replaced plumbers/electricians? Clearly we have utilities/plumbing/wiring that has been deployed for decades with little to no maintenance? Yet the profession still exists. The reality is, it still takes these tradesmen to build new environments, and support the frequent changes that technology throws us.
- BobWarfield 14y ago
  Nooooo. They are being managed by software. Facebook has 1 admin per 1000 MySQL instances. You can't do that except with software. If the DevOps guy is spending much time touching servers, you got the wrong guy. I've been through this multiple times. In each case, I hired a good Devops guy and told him to work his way out of a job ASAP. Typically, he was down to spending 1/3 of his time on ops of any kind, including DevOps, within 6 months. At that stage I had him helping Prof Svcs, QA, and the Developers by directly writing product code.
gems 14y ago
The sys admins I've known have generally been some of the most technical people I've met. They talk to vendors, know a lot about hardware, and have a great understanding about unix/ linux. They're not just administering your infrastructure, but also troubleshooting really low level things. How exactly is 'troubleshooting' going to be replaced by programs?
philwelch 14y ago
Any sysadmin worth his salt today is a devops. Go to Heroku or AWS and you'll find lots of job listings for system engineers. It's true that we'll be able to get more done with fewer sysadmins, but that doesn't mean we'll have fewer sysadmins. The Jevons paradox suggests we might even have more sysadmins.
georgemcbay 14y ago
software engineers are going to be replaced by programs that software engineers write, it is just going to take longer.

admins are going to be replaced by programs that software engineers write (consider devops, heroku, aws, etc).

by munin 14y ago

admins are going to be replaced by programs that software engineers write (consider devops, heroku, aws, etc).

All of those services are run by sysadmins using software, not by software themselves. They just moved up a level of abstraction (take a look at the SRE listings, places are crowded with trying to hire proper devops/SRE). They have become the utility, which is where my plumbing/eletrician analogy comes in. You might argue this is just suggesting there is a greater demand for software engineers, and that may be true, but I would be very skeptical of someone saying sysadmins would be replaced. Why haven't we replaced plumbers/electricians? Clearly we have utilities/plumbing/wiring that has been deployed for decades with little to no maintenance? Yet the profession still exists. The reality is, it still takes these tradesmen to build new environments, and support the frequent changes that technology throws us.

BobWarfield 14y ago
Nooooo. They are being managed by software. Facebook has 1 admin per 1000 MySQL instances. You can't do that except with software. If the DevOps guy is spending much time touching servers, you got the wrong guy. I've been through this multiple times. In each case, I hired a good Devops guy and told him to work his way out of a job ASAP. Typically, he was down to spending 1/3 of his time on ops of any kind, including DevOps, within 6 months. At that stage I had him helping Prof Svcs, QA, and the Developers by directly writing product code.

gems 14y ago

The sys admins I've known have generally been some of the most technical people I've met. They talk to vendors, know a lot about hardware, and have a great understanding about unix/ linux. They're not just administering your infrastructure, but also troubleshooting really low level things. How exactly is 'troubleshooting' going to be replaced by programs?

philwelch 14y ago

Any sysadmin worth his salt today is a devops. Go to Heroku or AWS and you'll find lots of job listings for system engineers. It's true that we'll be able to get more done with fewer sysadmins, but that doesn't mean we'll have fewer sysadmins. The Jevons paradox suggests we might even have more sysadmins.

georgemcbay 14y ago

software engineers are going to be replaced by programs that software engineers write, it is just going to take longer.