What Is The Role Of A System Administrator?

What is a system administrator, and what do they do? The short answer is that the role of a system administrator revolves around maintaining systems or servers. Usually, a system administrator is part of a more extensive IT department. However, it’s become common for companies to hire freelancers to undertake this role.

A system admin will have lots of different tasks to undergo every single day. Their job can vary depending on various factors - mainly the organization they’re working for.

What are the different roles of a system administrator?

As mention, this line of work involves lots of different roles. There are plenty of system administrator duties that have to be taken care of:

Setting up and maintaining accounts: system admins are responsible for all the user administration that goes on within a network. They set up accounts and make sure they’re maintained.

System maintenance: 
Along with account maintenance, they also maintain the system itself to ensure everything operates smoothly.

Hardware repairs/failures: 
They need to look out for any hardware issues and arrange for repairs to be done as soon as possible.

Software installation: 
Any software that’s installed on the system has to be taken care of by a system administrator.

System performance monitoring: performance needs to be monitored to ensure peak output is always achieved, the system admin is responsible for this too!

Carry out updates: 
When new updates for operating systems are available, the system admin needs to find them and ensure they’re installed.

Backup & recovery: 
A critical role revolves around creating the backup & recovery policies for a system. This ensures that data doesn’t get lost is the system should go down.

Creating & implementation of policies: alongside backup/recovery policies, they also design and implement other policies for the wider computer network as well - including security policies.

Passwords: 
System admins also need to protect passwords and manage the identities on the system. This helps prevent instances where people try hacking in or creating fake identities.

Of course, there can be lots of other little roles as well - it varies from company to company. A lot of system administrators have cloud computing training as well. In turn, this means they can handle various cloud infrastructure tasks too.

Why is this skill in demand?

System administrator skills are always in high demand. Why? Well, they’re primarily in charge of solving lots of different problems all the time. When there’s an issue with the system, people go to the system administrator. Otherwise, you’d experience lots of downtimes as your company tries to deal with the various system issues. This could mean hours on end with no work getting done as nobody can get online.

Essentially, this skill helps organizations run more efficiently every day. Problems get solved, and a lot of stress is relieved. If an employee has a problem with their password, then the system administrator can help. If the system is running slowly, then the admin can help - and so on.

What are the advantages of freelancing in this role?

Freelancing in this role is very advantageous as there will always be companies looking for your skills. Everyone with a network system needs a system administrator. It’s a job that can also be done remotely a lot of the time, which further opens up your opportunities.

How can you hire and upskill quality system administrators?

A business looking to hire system admins can use Field Engineer to hire the most skilled freelancers around. When you post a job on our platform, you’ll be paired with system engineers that meet all of your specific requirements. They’ll have all the skills and experience you need, so you’re certain that they’re capable of meeting the highest standards.

Not only that, but Field Engineer is a global platform, so we can find the best talent from all four corners of the globe!

How do companies benefit from hiring system administrators?

As we said earlier, hiring a system administrator benefits companies as it brings more order to everything. With a system admin, you’ve got someone looking over your computer system and ensuring everything runs as it should. Downtime will be restricted, productivity will increase, and your business will be overall more efficient.

So, if you want to connect with the very best system administrators in your area, then take advantage of Field Engineer today. We have a pool of well over 40,000+ engineers in over 180+ countries. Once you sign up, it will only take a few minutes to publish your job. From here, our system does the rest as it finds the most relevant system admins for you. They’ll apply, and you can look through all the applications to choose the perfect freelancer for your needs!