Career Summary

Systems administrators often do data backup and recovery. Depending on how large a company is they are jacks-of-all-trades or focus on a specific area. They typically maintain operating systems, business applications, mid-range server hardware, local and wide area network hardware and software, security tools, Web servers, e-mail systems and executive computer stations. Systems administrators are the experts in the nuts and bolts of the company's IT engine.

A systems administrator oversees the maintenance of both computers and the network. They ensure level 1 support is able to complete tasks or offers assistance. When Tech support isn’t able to solve a problem, the problem than moves into the next level, which is the systems administrator area.

System administration is a broad term and usually has areas of specialization. A systems administrator can specialize in network security, data encryption or operating systems (or platforms) such as Sun or Linux. Systems administrators can also specialize in subsystems or web-server administration. Lastly, they are also responsible for ensuring the servers are backed up, and that the server data is secure from unauthorized access.

There are always maintenance schedules, upgrade issues, and compatibility issues. This field is all about problem-solving. You need to love tinkering with computers.

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