On Tuesday, 01/10/2006 at 09:48 PST, "Schuh, Richard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I do not know of too many shops who do not handle the distinction by giving one > person two hats. What is a sysadmin? Answer - A system programmer who also > handles the bulk of the administration of the system. What is a system > programmer? Answer - A system administrator who handles the tasks of system > programming. I have never worked in a shop that separated the two functions. If > it was anything more that creating a new userid (using tools created by the > system programmer) or resetting a password, it was the prevue of the system > programmer/administrator.
I agree that in many (majority?) of today's systems there is the sysprog and then there's "everyone else". But it is my perception that larger companies seem to be trying to reestablish the once-common "middle class" of sysadmin. That is, the people who are charged with the day-to-day management of the system, but who will "contact their system support personnel" when things go wrong. I think this is likely a salary issue: Pay more for sysprogs, less for sysadmins. They want to grow, but not hire more sysprogs just to handle the routine tasks of system management. (I'm not particularly interested in drawing the line between the two; it's fuzzy at best, and it's a decision best left to you, the customer.) Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott
