System administrators are the IT heroes many of us depend on to keep things running smoothly in our organizations. Over the last three years, Tricerat has been publishing the results of our State of System Administration (SOSA) survey to show what the daily lives of these administrators are like. The 2021 SOSA report will be released in the next few weeks but before then, let's take a sneak preview at some of the results.
In our 2020 State of System Administration report, we discovered that flexibility was a key success factor for many system admins. Being willing to work a flexible schedule is a great trait for sys admins as they must balance many responsibilities. This was further confirmed in our 2021 SOSA survey results with 86% of respondents stating that a shortened workweek would lead to the same or more efficiency for system administrators. These dependable tech workers generally know the best way to balance their many responsibilities while ensuring all mission critical deliverables are completed.
The job requirements for system administrators changes from organization to organization. We found in our 2021 SOSA survey that 34% of respondents had a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of education. This was a 2% increase from the previous year's SOSA report. In addition to a college degree, many system administrators have job related certificates. The top three certifications reported in the SOSA 2021 survey were Azure/Microsoft (28%), CompTIA (25%), and VMware (25%). Despite having degrees and many certifications, 12% of sys admin respondents said that more training would be the most helpful thing to make their job easier.
System administrators are oftentimes relied on to solve tech issues hindering an organization. The biggest challenge that sys admins were faced with in 2021 was supporting remote work after the shift caused by the worldwide pandemic. 37% of respondents to our SOSA survey reported keeping remote work running smoothly was their biggest challenge over the last year. Remote work appears to be here to stay so employers should begin looking into the best ways to support their admins to enable efficient remote work scenarios. Other challenges that admins reported included endpoint security, staff shortages, and PrintNightmare.
System administrators work hard to keep organizations running but they do not always get the credit they deserve. Tricerat has published our 2021 State of System Administration and you can download it today!
