Why IT Operations Matter

As a Analyst working his way up starting at the bottom you see a trend in the IT department where Server System Managers are treated higher and more important as the Desktop Managers.  Well I am writing this to debunk this myth.

Your IT Operations SMS Admins are very important.  Like in my past position I oversaw 7000 workstations in 8 different division, at home employees, resources in India, and mobile workers who only log onto the domain a couple times a month.  Unfortunately we didn't have the PKI infrastructure for Native support and we are running SCCM 2007 R3 SP2.  Needless to say the server managers have all there end points / resources typically in a data center and/or network closet and which are on 24x7.    So right there off the bat there systems stays contestant in location, and like in IT Operations there is a lot more turn over from a normal stand point.  Server hardware rarely gets migrated to a new OS before its end of life cycle has been reached.

Role based servers in which access is highly restricted do not get used to browse the web.  When servers are compromised it is mostly due brute attacks specifically targeted.  IT Operations deals with each system that it supports. General employees are the biggest risk with dealing with IT Operations Systems Management.

The environment is ever changing and business needs never stay the same.  If it is new software or the business thinking a specific group needs local administrative access to perform a job function.  Did I mention developers are part of IT Operations.  Supporting them is like teaching a infant how to talk.  It is very difficult and are always thinking there job is the most important.  Dealing with sensitive groups who expect yes on everything becomes difficult in trying to maintain a healthy IT Operations environment.

When IT Operations environment is fragmented and not centrally managed you cannot roam between boundaries, and dealing with the Active Directory group in a huge environment becomes ever more difficult.  Now when you do have a centralized system, you have to make sure firewall ports are open for roaming end points to communicate with the local Management Point.  Do you see where I am going with this.  Challenges are not rare in IT Operations, and getting all the Business Groups with so called VIPs in them on the same page just makes it more difficult.

One day organizations will realize how important and difficult it is to manage desktops, laptops, mobile devices in changing environment.

Remember change is the only constant in this algorithm.