[nycbug-talk] Hypothetical: the end of the sysadmin/systems engineer/DBA?

[Chris Snyder]

On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 12:00 AM, Matt Juszczak <matt at atopia.net> wrote:

> So I wonder: will there be a time when those who have an idea simply spin up
> some ready to go cloud servers, point and click the necessary security
> they'd like and setup they'd like, and run with it?  At that point, would
> the only positions remaining be developers/programmers?

You may be underestimating the experience and judgement required to
enact effective security and tuning policies, even if (especially if?)
the interface is point-and-click.

That kind of environment will make a good sysadmin even more valuable,
because you have to be able to "see through the cloud" to avoid the
gotchas that could take down or corrupt your systems. It's a different
set of skills, perhaps, but they are still skills.

On a related note, imagine the chaos that will ensue when one of the
big cloud providers discovers that a disgruntled sysadmin rooted
millions of systems on his way out the door. Or can't that happen?