ICT system administrators in Malta have come together to create a forum to share ideas, best practice and face the challenges of the very dynamic industry they work in. Named System Administrators Malta Peers (SAMP), the new forum held its first event a few days ago at a time when sysadmins, as they are most commonly called, are still regarded as the supervisors of costly but important assets of a company.
“The idea is simple. Systems administrators have lots of experience which is best shared in a free environment, where everybody is free to speak about the good and bad. Such user groups are very common abroad,” explained Philip Cortis, the promoter of the group, to i-Tech.
Mr Cortis, who has over 20 years experience in ICT administration and has been a consultant on various local projects mainly related to virtualisation and storage, insists the group will not have any commercial ties so everybody will be able to speak freely of their experience with any product and vendor. The first meeting was hosted at the Microsoft Innovation Centre at Skyparks but the group is in no way affiliated with this company.
Almost all new foreign companies setting up shop locally are looking for top-notch sysadmins
“ICT in Malta is quite strong. Local training costs half of what it costs in mainland Europe. Hundreds of students graduate in ICT from the University of Malta and MCAST each year. That is hundreds of ICT-trained people joining the small but dynamic Maltese workforce every year. Since ICT is an ever-changing world, we are trying to build a community where sysadmins share and learn from each other,” added Mr Cortis.
Sysadmins in Malta tend to have particular characteristics that distinguish them from those in other countries.
“Given the nature of the Maltese industry and economy, ICT teams in Malta tend to be very small, with just one or two persons responsible for the whole ICT set-up of a company. Therefore sysadmins will find it difficult to deep-dive and specialise. They really must have a grasp of lot of different products and perhaps in-depth knowledge in one or two areas, which is a great feat in itself. In fact, I do find that sysadmins in Malta have broader knowledge than sysadmins abroad who are more focused and specific. Almost all new foreign companies setting up shop locally are looking for top-notch sysadmins. These companies are offering great salary packages too,” noted Mr Cortis.
The constant changes in the ICT industry keep sysadmins constantly on the alert but the role of sysadmins goes beyond simply making sure that a company has the right equipment and it is in working order.
“The constant advances made in ICT presents in itself the greatest opportunity. Sysadmins that keep investing in their professional competences can become top sysadmins in a few years’ time. A great sysadmin thinks of how to use ICT to save money for the company.
“At that stage the sysadmin himself will become an asset for the company. Company directors need to start looking at ICT as an investment because ICT implemented the right way will increase productivity. Unfortunately most directors don’t have such vision and hence the importance for the sysadmin to come forward with such proposals.”
There is already a great line-up of foreign speakers with a vast range of topics like active directory, storage, and systems’ centre for the upcoming meetings.
“We will do lots of deep-dive sessions about what matters for the sysadmins. We have three Maltese speakers but I would like to see more Maltese people coming forward to make presentations as well,” he concluded.
Following the launch event in September that discussed Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 with the participation of a foreign speaker, SAMP is already working on the next two meetings later on this year. Topics are expected to include the cloud and the system centre.
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