BayLISA -> BayISSA

Thu Jun 17 07:35:43 PDT 2004

Another thing to think about is the exclusivity implies by the acronum 
'LISA'.

Who defines what's 'Large'? The arrays of 500 MB hard drives I managed 
in 1986 - each one over a hundred pounds in weight, and requiring two 
strong men to lift, and a third to align with sliding rack supports - 
why, their data could fit into a laptop now. The same laptop contains 
more computing power than an entire room full of servers, 'way back when.

But no one would seriously suggest that managing a small stack of 
laptops is equivalent to managing a half a dozen server rooms. No, 
although the complexity within the server is an important metric of the 
capacity of the administrator, it is the potential interconnections with 
other islands of complexity which elicit another level of complexity; 
and it is that complexity which we administer. Not the servers, but 
their relationships, across networks.

(I could fill fifteen minutes, easily, with a small talk on objectively 
measuring the entropy of a given network, using procedures which 
generate numbers which will garner respect in the board room; but I 
digress.)

And yet, within the acronym LISA, I see no room for network 
administrators, or network service administrators ... or database 
administrators, for that matter. Obviously these groups have their own 
SIGs; and yet, administration of servers and their services is closely 
linked to authentication mechanisms, which are increasingly distributed 
and must be seen in their proper context - which is that they are simply 
another service, and that database administrators are, fundamentally, 
providers of a service that is server-based nd network-delivered, and 
for that reason, they can best be regarded as network service 
administrators, like the rest of us.

(Indeed, the market itself is saying as much. How many ads do you see 
for someone to administer their Linux servers, Windows clients, Mac 
clients, database, do a little SQL, administer their firewall, maintain 
their router, and maybe tap-dance, too? The boundaries that exist in the 
IT marketplace are largely a result of organizational, and consequently, 
budgetary, boundaries, which the current economic slump has erased - 
they do not reflect the actual problems [which span from the desktops, 
across the networks, to the servers] or the capacities of the 
individuals whose job it is to troubleshoot them.)

The acronym 'LISA' is dated for another reason; it alludes to a period 
when big iron was predominant. This is no longer the case. Distributed 
computing is increasingly a player in scientific communities - and by 
that term I include hackers, of course. Wireless connectivity isn't just 
over the horizon, it's here, and the speed is increasing every year. 
Using a volt-ohm-meter remains an important skill - but so does 
orienting an antenna for maximum gain. Sure, you'll still find pockets 
of concentrated computing capacity, but nowadays, with a gHz laptop in 
almost every house, the mean mHz of computing power per square acre of 
urban landscape has taken a big step upwards.

I'd like to propose disbanding BayLISA, and creating BayISSA - 'ISSA' as 
referring to 'Information Systems & Services Administrators', which 
comprises network administrators, network services administrators, and 
server administrators, without drawing any boundaries which exclude.

Regards,

-- richard

-- 

Richard Childers / Senior Engineer
Daemonized Networking Services
945 Taraval Street, #105
San Francisco, CA 94116 USA
[011.]1.415.759.5571
http://www.daemonized.com

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