I'm curious about the role of cloud engineering in the day-to-day tasks of system administrators. How much of your workload includes cloud-related tasks, especially with so many companies migrating to the cloud? Do you find yourself performing the duties of a cloud engineer regularly, or is it still mostly traditional sysadmin work?
4 Answers
In my previous jobs, the responsibilities were pretty split between traditional on-prem setups and cloud services. Currently, I’m focused entirely on on-prem infrastructure. Despite all the buzz about cloud, many companies are still doing a lot of work on site, and some are even bringing workloads back from the cloud! It's not all moving to the cloud as you might think.
In my experience, my last job was completely cloud-based, while my recent role has been a mix of both. With the trend towards cloud environments, it’s definitely something you should focus on. Nowadays, the only ones handling physical hardware are the data center technicians.
First, let's clarify what we mean by 'cloud'. Many services are now SaaS apps, which don’t necessarily make you a cloud engineer if you're just managing those. If you're talking about the absence of a physical data center, then yeah, that’s a big shift. I lean towards everything being cloud-based myself; it saves me from those late-night trips to reboot servers.
Totally agree! I'd rather have redundancy and avoid those midnight trips. And thankfully, there are tools like IP KVMs and BMCs that let you handle things remotely, which is a lifesaver.
MY SWORD IS TOO BIG
I get what you're saying! Networking really is a blend of both worlds. We still need hands-on people for managing physical switches and troubleshooting issues, especially with WiFi and cabling.