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

[Matt Juszczak]

> - Where are the lines between dev/admin/user?
>  - are the lines even relevant in classic UNIX culture?
> - Is invention today more about being an "assembler"?

Can you elaborate?  An assembler as in figuring out what technologies work 
with others?

>  - Who actually has control of the root of various technologies?

Seems to be the companies that are launching these new standards, no? like 
Amazon EC2, for instance.  People seem to think their AMI's are 
sufficient.  If a company comes out with "auto deploy puppet/ldap/central 
syslog/dns, etc.", will that automatically become the standard?  Will 
competition among products become less and less as people start using 
whatever a particular provider auto-deploys by default?

>  - How is their stewardship holding up?
> - Are shifts in control of computing applications/behaviors affecting our daily lives?

Can you elaborate?

> - Are these shifts even 'happening'?

Again, this is something that I feel isn't the case.  In fact, I think it 
may get worse.  As systems become more "automated", developers will focus 
more and more on coding and less on setup/infrastructure.  So things will 
get sloppier, in my opinion.  I think a shift away from the "robotic 
sysadmins" is definitely occuring, but people who are good at what they do 
should be around for a while (and especially those who learn).

> - When will the robots try to come kill us?

> With that, the opposing viewpoints presented were spot-on with this 
> thread, (though I can't say I fully agree with either, as I digest the 
> thoughts through the day [as I today fix fundamental deploy flaws in a 
> network full of brand-name componetnts, assembled by what seem to be 
> MCSE's]).

Agreed.  They were both valid.

> Over the years, this sort of abstract thread have positively informed my 
> thinking on various topics, even if no conclusion was reached...  I'm 
> more interested in exploration than the answer in these type of threads. 
> With that, my apologies for ambiguity in my initial response!

I agree.  I'd love to get more people's opinion on this issue.  Anyone?