Difference Between Network Administration and System Administration - Essay Example

An organization needs to distinguish between both the disciplines in order to run their business effectively. However, both these jobs are considered as same by the majority of business organizations. Normally, a large size firm hires both the network and system administrators while small size business organizations hire only the system administrators and give them the additional charge to manage the tasks which come under the job of network administration (Burgess, Principles of Network and System Administration, 2nd Edition, 2004, p.

1; Morgan, 2012). Before differentiating both these terms it is necessary to understand the functions of both the jobs. Basically, a system administrator performs their tasks while keeping in mind the interest of users, with the intention that they can make use of the system in order to carry out their tasks. On the other hand, a system administrator should not just make provision for one or two self-interested needs, but as well assist the organization in attaining the organizational goals. At some point, it is expected that advancements in technology might cause to be system administration to some extent an easier job (one of totally resource administration) but, currently, system administration is not believed to be an administrative task; on the other hand it is a tremendously challenging engineer’s task.

In fact, this job involves dealing with software, hardware, diagnosis, user support, repair and prevention. Thus, system administrators must have knowledge of a bit of everything, no matter skills are administrative, technical and socio-psychological (Burgess, Principles of Network and System Administration, 2nd Edition, 2004, p. 1). As discussed above, both the terms system administration and network administration exist independently and are utilized both commonly and disconnectedly by business organizations and by researchers.

Basically, the system administration is the term used customarily by mainframe and Unix engineers to explain the management of computers no matter they are connected to a network or not. According to the viewpoint of this community, network administration refers to the administration of network infrastructure devices such as switches and routers. In addition, both the system and network administration are more and more demanding for the reason that the complexity of computer systems is increasing continually.

It can be better understood with an example, a single PC at present, running Windows NT, and connected to a network, reached the level of complexity that mainframe computers had ten years ago. Thus, organizations are at the present required to think about systems not just computers (Burgess, 2004, p. 1). Moreover, the system administration does not only involve installing operating systems but it involves planning and designing a well-organized and resourceful community of computers with the intention that actual users can be able to get their jobs done.

Some of the responsibilities of system administrator involve: (Burgess, 2004, p. 4) Planning for a network which is logical and well-organized Deploying large numbers of computers which can be with no trouble upgraded afterward Selecting what services will be required Planning and deploying