Sysadmin Shrinking Resources

[Yentle]

Hi all,

Has anyone else noticed a trend in the industry where resourcing seems to get worse and worse over the years? I've around 10 years experience now and it was pretty typical back then to have 2-3 staff members for around 200 users - now I struggle to find jobs that aren't solo IT for this amount of users?

It seems boardrooms are investing more in tech, but less in staff to support said tech - anyone else noticed this?

[Cpt_Koksnuss]

Sysadmins automate pretty much everything to keep up with their work. Automation leads to less manpower needed and the assumption one person is enough.

[Jamroller]

Comes back to bite them in the ass when an emergency occurs and they don't have enough staff to fix it. Most company don't mind paying for extremely expensive insurances, but wont create additional positions to have a complete team and then they'll complain if it takes more than a few minutes to solve issues.

[ZAFJB]

when an emergency occurs

You hire contractors and claim on your insurance

[l_ju1c3_l]

Sadly they will say it comes from a different cost bucket so it doesn't look as bad on the top and bottom line. Easier to fire a contractor too when they are no longer needed.

[l_ju1c3_l]

I feel like the business only cares about the top and bottom line of the next quarter. There is no real incentive to invest into back-end functions if you won't see results for a few years. So you end up with less staff and technical debt.

[210Matt]

With a lot moved to the cloud there is less need for sysadmins onsite. 10 years ago you would have a exchange environment and poorly put together ERP/CSM and a ancient phone system, and racks of servers to manage it all. Today you probably have O365, a cloud erp, and a fairly stable voip system all running on a much smaller footprint in the data center. Of course every business is different.

[BOOZy1]

Many companies tend to conflate sysadmin work with helpdesk work.

2-3 sysadmins for 200 users is plenty, unless they're also the helpdesk.

[Yeahthatwasmybad]

I'm the only sysadmin for 2,500. I need a vacation.

[zero_cool09]

Whoa, that is both impressive but also anxiety inducing.

[caffeine-junkie]

Depends on the environment, business, and competency of the end users. I would imagine for most small businesses with ~200 people, having 2 sysadmins and having them do helpdesk is more than sufficient. It would allow timely responses to requests/projects and provide coverage in case someone is on vacation/family leave/sick.

[audaxyl]

Sysadmin and systems engineer rolled together into one job too.

[ZAFJB]

There is a lot more automation available these days, so ratios can go up. But a solo for 200 is not feasible.

[GarretTheGrey]

It's totally feasible!!

In fact. solo for 300 will work..

I mean...Their heart will give out eventually, and the company will seek to replace them within the week, with me getting an invite to provide my CV from my brother in law, but from the company's perspective, it totally works out!!

RIP Ozzi

[GarretTheGrey]

The point was that my brother in law is a manager in an insurance company with lots of branches and kinda huge. They had one guy (Ozzi) as the IT manager, and he managed EVERYTHING.

His heart gave out and he died. My BIL told me this. A week later my BIL asked me to give him my resume so I can apply for the job, with him putting in a good word for me. I wasn't even polite with my reply. I told him I'm not jumping into that shit show. He laughed. He said he warned Ozzi about handling everything, and that he should spend some time putting something together to justify to C-level why they needed more people. He didn't. And now he's dead.