:O'Reilly Network: What is a Network Administrator Anyway?
O'Reilly Network: What is a Network Administrator Anyway? Jul 22, 2000, 21 :41 UTC (6 Talkback[s]) (6892 reads) (Other stories by Terry Dawson)
"We've seen the terms "system administration" and "network administration," in
the title of this column for example. There are some obvious system
administration tasks, such as installing or upgrading system software like the
kernel or libraries and managing user accounts and disks space, so you
probably have some idea of what a system administrator does. What does a
network administrator do, and how do you differentiate between system
administration and network administration? Bear with me while I think out loud
on the subject, and perhaps we'll have some idea by the end of this column."
"In a small environment, the difference is fairly moot -- the same person or team
will probably fill both roles anyway. In large IT environments, perhaps a large
web-hosting company or a large ASP, the question has relevance. There will
be enough work to have teams of systems administrators and teams of
network administrators, and at some time it will be necessary to work out who
is going to do what, to what, and when."
"I'm not going to attempt to define the role of the network administrator in this
column. Instead I'll share my thoughts on the subject and add a dash of the
larger context of telecommunications management in the hope that you might
make some sense of it."
