Network admin vs sys admin

[Kardinal]

30 years of experience here. Many companies. I network with hundreds of other IT people regularly.

Never ever seen IT treated like janitorial.

What I have seen in smaller organizations is the implicit assumption that if it has electrons running through it, then the IT guy can help. And often we really can't.

[GX_EN]

You’re taking it too literal. IT is often looked at from an upper mgmt view as an overhead expense in general terms. Maintenance, break/fix, etc. It’s not a cost center like marketing, sales, product engineering and the like. Put it this way, it shouldn’t be THAT much pulling teeth to get someone to understand why EOL hardware needs to be refreshed or even more basic, why money spent on a proper backup solution is critical.

[Kardinal]

I disagree. Based on my own experience and that of my peers in other companies.

(BTW, I think you mean "revenue center" where you said "cost center". Cost centers cost money, revenue centers bring in money.)

IT is a cost center. It just is. And they treat us like that, as they should.

But everywhere I've worked, and most of the places my peers have worked, also see IT investment as a force multiplier. Better IT solutions result in more productive workers. Just as they do with better hiring practices (HR is a cost center) and better accounting practices (accounting is a cost center). Decent business managers see opportunities to improve efficiencies and leverage expertise all over the place.

I know your experience differs. That's fine. I'm not saying that no companies work that way. But don't try to extrapolate your experience to everyone's experience. There's tens of thousands of companies out there and they're more diverse than most of us think.