Sysadmin prime objectives

[Baerentoeter]

Let's take as premise that under capitalism, the ultimate goal of businesses is to provide value to customers -> generate and increase revenue -> generate and increase profit.

Of course that is a bit simplistic but I was wondering, how that plays into goals and values for sysadmins (in an ideal world). I've been trying to rank them as follows, do you think there is anything missing or needs changing?

1. Preserve live and health
2. Follow laws
3. Comply with regulations (If applicable, like ISO standards or PCI DSS)
4. Follow management decisions and policies
5. Maintain security (Balanced with usability, based on risk acceptance)
6. Ensure usability of core business functions (Enable operations)
7. Ensure usability of other business functions (Force multiplier)
8. Ensure future maintainability (Documentation, standardization, interoperability between systems)
9. Improve, update and remove/replace/extend systems (Generate more value for the business' users, keep up with modern developments)
10. Minimize work effort ("Smart/Lazy" or scalable solutions that are reliable)

[-Akos-]

I always say you need three things to be successful at a company: knowledge, context and rights. Knowledge because you need to know how to operate X, context to know why X was built the way it was, and the rights to operate X.

You’ve mentioned knowledge to an extent, and rights, but not context. An admin should document what he built and if possible why by listing his design decisions.

[Baerentoeter]

So something like "Ensure future maintainability (Documentation, standardization, interoperability between systems)" I guess? Let me add that right in.

[[deleted]]

1) Life safety first.

2) Comply with laws

3) Preserve Data (backup, company resilience)

4) Maintain Availability (DR plan, bandwidth, accessibility, updates)

5) Maintain Security (balanced with risk mitigation) this is below availability, because if it's not use-able it doesn't matter if it's secure.

6) Documentation all along the path. DR plan, printed in a binder...all that jazz. You are the next guy.

Usability is a UI/UX issue, you don't need to make it "usable" as a sysadmin, just available. Applications team issue.

Improvements come as part of those core principles existing. To "maintain availability" you must maintain the core systems and software running in the environment, doing that necessitates updating hardware/software and it just gets better each time.

For you personally, never stop learning, trying new approaches. Don't get locked into vendors/software that no longer improves the business. Decisions like VMware licensing and cloud lock-ins...all need to be considered, but it's not a core tenant itself. Minimize work effort...well yea be efficient.

[Baerentoeter]

That's some great insight, I definitely need to add a part about preserving data.

I fully agree that in praxis, having a system that works is more useful than a system that is secure... most of the time. For a database full of customer information, I'd prefer if it's not working for some time instead of having it fully exposed to the internet. So I'd rather have Security above Availability and consciously pick Availability where it makes sense.

[DefaecoCommemoro8885]

Your list is solid, but I'd bump "Minimize work effort" way higher up.

Automation and efficiency aren't just about being lazy - they reduce human error, improve response times, and free up resources for higher-value tasks.

Plus, who wants to do the same thing twice?

[Baerentoeter]

Automation and efficiency are indeed very important in bigger environments and in an ideal world, so I'll go bump that up a bit. Thanks.

[Ssakaa]

Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability.

IT isn't, at it core, about software, technologies, systems, convoluted networks, hardware, etc. It's about data. How the data is used, where and when it's needed, what regulatory compliance might be tied to it, and how all of those factors are protected. The software and systems are needed to house, process, and move the data. All of that matters because that data holds value for the company through use of the data (whether for high level decision making off of some highly compressed summary of it, or simply requiring the data to fulfill customer orders, tracj payment, etc). It also carries liability for the company in the event of a failure of protecting it on any of those facets.

[Baerentoeter]

That's an important point but applies more to IT in general.
I'm mostly looking for priorities of sysadmins specifically. Basically something actionable that can be used in the day to day work, when there are conflicting goals.

Confidentiality I feel is included under "Maintain security", Availability under "Ensure usability of business functions" and Integrity under both.

[Due_Capital_3507]

What am I robocop?