[nycbug-talk] (forw) FW: SANS NewsBites Vol. 15 Num. 064 : NSA Plans to Eliminate System Administrators for Improved Security; DHS Deputy Secretary Lute Takes On Global Leadership in Cybersecurity

[Siobhan Lynch]

I don't post much anymore - but it seems like either out profession is moving towards smaller more boutique firms that need specialized work that can't be done in mass produced environments OR in larger companies like LinkedIn/Google/Yahoo that need Site Reliability Engineers and it's not just SysAdmins - it's the combination of Coder/Admin that many of us have become extremely proficient at through the years. I just retired from a job like that very comfortably I may add ... (Granted mostly because I am autistic - not because I am a coder/admin - I just wanted to cash out my stock and go back to school and move on to Biochemical Engineering - the next frontier....) 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 13, 2013, at 5:08 PM, George Rosamond <george at ceetonetechnology.com> wrote:

> Jim B.:
>> 
>> From SANs (which I have shamelessly copied) comes news of a new direction
>> for systems administrators - the unemployment line.
>> 
>> Also what, exactly, is an "automated cloud infrastructure"?
>> 
>> Thoughts?
>> Jim B.
>> 
>> **************************************************************************
>> SANS NewsBites                August 9, 2013             Vol. 15, Num. 063
>> **************************************************************************
>> TOP OF THE NEWS
>>  NSA Plans to Eliminate System Administrators
>> (August 9, 2013)
>> In an effort to reduce the risk of information leaks, the US National
>> Security Agency (NSA) plans to get rid of 90 percent of its contracted
>> system administrator positions. NSA Director General Keith Alexander
>> said that the agency plans to move to an automated cloud infrastructure.
>> Speaking on a panel along with FBI Director Robert Mueller at a security
>> conference in New York, Alexander referred to the recent revelations
> 
> Well, while this just refers to the NSA's imagined restructuring,
> despite the heavy privatization of government function like this, you
> are dead right.
> 
> 20 years ago: "I'm a webmaster"  Today: WTF is a "webmaster"
> 
> And in sysadmin land, it's also very true, and I've made a lot of
> references to it myself.
> 
> One situation I dealt with a year ago... a friend says a growing 300
> person firm needs a sysadmin, and could I help.  Of course I'm imagining
> some dynamic, scaling situation, when essentially they needed a recent
> grad who knew how to cloud services... or could be trained in 30 mins to
> do so.
> 
> Yes, we have the buzzword of 'devops', and some people think it means
> sysadmins have to have heavy coding skills (again), but it's really a
> cover for the larger deskilling process IMHO.  One devops = sysadmin + a dev
> 
> g
> 
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