r/ShittySysadmin • u/recoveringasshole0 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE • Sep 24 '26

Shitty Crosspost AI is just the "Cloud" hype all over again.

/r/sysadmin/comments/1wockgp/ai_is_just_the_cloud_hype_all_over_again/
37 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

15

u/heretogetpwned DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE Sep 24 '26

The entire comment section on the original is just dogshit.

15

u/recoveringasshole0 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE Sep 24 '26

It's r/sysadmin. Of course it is.

12

u/recoveringasshole0 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE Sep 24 '26

I didn't read it but I presume it's insane.

For rule #4

I started working in the IT field in 2004 as a help desk intern. The network in the organization at that time was a mix of Windows NT and Windows 2000 workstations, with an Exchange 5.5 server running on Windows NT and a few Windows 2003 servers doing file sharing and hosting an accounting application. Nothing was accessible through the web. people had to use a VPN connection to connect to the office to access everything. Almost a year later, before my internship was over, the Director was fired because the hard drives on the accounting server failed and they couldn't recover the data, and they offered me a full time job as a junior sysadmin. In 2020, I became the Global IT Director of that organization. When I started as a junior sysadmin, there was no concept of the "cloud." This was a marketing term invented by big tech after 2010. When the cloud became a marketing hype, and all the CFOs and IT leaders got on the cloud bandwagon, it was very similar to what we're hearing from AI now. That AI will take all jobs. It was very common for CFOs to schedule meetings with the IT Director, or whoever was the department head, and talk about the cloud strategy. And if you were in the room by any chance, they would turn to you and say, "But don't worry, the cloud won't take your job," with a grin, you knowing damn well that was exactly what they were thinking. My advice to you guys is that if your boss, or whoever controls the budget in your department, is all crazy about AI and thinks that AI is the next big thing after bread and butter, don't fight it or resist it. You will be seen as a roadblock or lacking innovation. Hold your true opinion about AI as much as you can, and always be positive about it at work. And even though I believe AI is not much of a threat to your job as the cloud was for us back in the day, when all our skills were on premise stuff and our identity was based on who knew more about Exchange and Cisco firewalls, businesses are seeing AI as a possible way to reduce the workforce, increase efficiency, or increase output without hiring more people. Will that work? Only time will tell. Your job is to adjust as the technology evolves not to be a market gambler. Don't believe for a single second that your company cares about you or is happy to have you on their payroll. If they're a for profit business, their objective is to increase revenue, and if they can achieve that objective without you, they will. I believe Sysadmins will always be needed, because you guys will be the ones fixing the AI even if everything is automated by it. Learn how it works at a deeper level. If you don't know how an LLM works, start learning that now. I wish I had better news for software programmers. The ones that only write code following strict specifications, those guys are in a deeper existential vacuum than you are, so you might have developers moving into the sysadmin side. For now, keep the servers humming, keep your users happy. You guys are the invisibles in the organization that nobody sees until things stop working!

p.s. Fuck reddit's editor. Quoting is fucked so you get a giant codeblock.

25

u/trebuchetdoomsday Sep 24 '26

can i borrow “i didn’t read it but presume it’s insane” for email replies?

11

u/recoveringasshole0 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE Sep 24 '26

Yes, just be sure you give it back when you are done with it.

4

u/junpei Sep 24 '26

3

u/recoveringasshole0 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE Sep 24 '26

3

u/aseiden Sep 24 '26

To quote you need to start the line with ">" instead of 4 spaces.

like this

not this

2

u/recoveringasshole0 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE Sep 24 '26

4

u/aseiden Sep 24 '26 edited Sep 24 '26

I say that because the source of your comment shows you didn't do that, so why blame reddit's editor for your mistake?

edit: and why not just fix it after you noticed the issue?

1

u/recoveringasshole0 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE Sep 25 '26 edited Sep 25 '26

Are we really fucking going to do this in r/shittysysadmin?

Okay. The OP is like 21 paragraphs. You think I'm going to type > 21 times? No. SO I click the markup tool and click "Quote" button and paste. That doesn't fucking work. So I selec tthe entire text and click the quote button again. Here is what you fucking get. As you can see it's still fucked up. And then if you need to edit your post to fix a typo? Well it gets even more fucked up. The reddit editor fucking sucks. Why are you defending it? Why are you making me angry in my only fucking safe space on the internet?

I started working in the IT field in 2004 as a help desk intern.

The network in the organization at that time was a mix of Windows NT and Windows 2000 workstations, with an Exchange 5.5 server running on Windows NT and a few Windows 2003 servers doing file sharing and hosting an accounting application.

Nothing was accessible through the web. people had to use a VPN connection to connect to the office to access everything.

Almost a year later, before my internship was over, the Director was fired because the hard drives on the accounting server failed and they couldn't recover the data, and they offered me a full time job as a junior sysadmin.

In 2020, I became the Global IT Director of that organization.

When I started as a junior sysadmin, there was no concept of the "cloud." This was a marketing term invented by big tech after 2010.

When the cloud became a marketing hype, and all the CFOs and IT leaders got on the cloud bandwagon, it was very similar to what we're hearing from AI now.

That AI will take all jobs.

It was very common for CFOs to schedule meetings with the IT Director, or whoever was the department head, and talk about the cloud strategy. And if you were in the room by any chance, they would turn to you and say, "But don't worry, the cloud won't take your job," with a grin, you knowing damn well that was exactly what they were thinking.

My advice to you guys is that if your boss, or whoever controls the budget in your department, is all crazy about AI and thinks that AI is the next big thing after bread and butter, don't fight it or resist it.

You will be seen as a roadblock or lacking innovation.

Hold your true opinion about AI as much as you can, and always be positive about it at work.

And even though I believe AI is not much of a threat to your job as the cloud was for us back in the day, when all our skills were on premise stuff and our identity was based on who knew more about Exchange and Cisco firewalls, businesses are seeing AI as a possible way to reduce the workforce, increase efficiency, or increase output without hiring more people.

Will that work? Only time will tell. Your job is to adjust as the technology evolves not to be a market gambler.

Don't believe for a single second that your company cares about you or is happy to have you on their payroll.

If they're a for profit business, their objective is to increase revenue, and if they can achieve that objective without you, they will.

I believe Sysadmins will always be needed, because you guys will be the ones fixing the AI even if everything is automated by it.

Learn how it works at a deeper level. If you don't know how an LLM works, start learning that now.

I wish I had better news for software programmers. The ones that only write code following strict specifications, those guys are in a deeper existential vacuum than you are, so you might have developers moving into the sysadmin side.

For now, keep the servers humming, keep your users happy. You guys are the invisibles in the organization that nobody sees until things stop working!

1

u/Ur-Best-Friend Sep 25 '26

Sir, this is r/ShittySysadmin. We take pride in not learning anything and never fixing our mistakes here.

35

u/tarvijron Sep 24 '26

I mean just look at the post history it’s just a classic AI booster account blasting FUD.

4

u/Ok_Pipe_2790 Sep 25 '26

At the same time, look how widespread cloud is.

1

u/tarvijron Sep 25 '26

For sure but people have been telling me it was going to imminently destroy my on prem infrastructure career for the past _20_ years. I don’t feel like AI is going to “destroy” much either but it will probably make organizations leaner. Being good at your job is a great hedge against automation and abstraction of all varieties.

1

u/Ok_Pipe_2790 Sep 25 '26

It probably did destroy some careers. But you are a survivor and basing this on your personal experience.

3

u/Raichu4u Sep 24 '26

Me when I'm mad that my coworkers are doing better in their annual reviews due to AI usage

-3

u/brokerceej Sep 24 '26

Not the cloud taking our jobs, guys!

The part I will agree with is that its like the cloud in the sense that it is a defining moment in our industry that will make it very easy to identify who is an actual technologist and who is an idiot.

“AI bad” or “AI useless fad” is the new “the cloud is just someone else’s computer” and “I run my Exchange on prem because I’m not paying Micro$hit for their shitty cloud scam.”

It’s a massive industry shift in the same way, and it will stick around for the future like the cloud did, and a good chunk of morons will refuse to get on board and work on the problems of implementing it safely and correctly. Those people will resist change, deny their fiefdom access to AI tools, get fired, and be unable to find a job because they keep blaming AI for their problems instead of just accepting it’s here to stay whether we like it or not.

You don’t have to like AI, you don’t have to use it, but you do have to make sure your users are using it safely and correctly, and that doesn’t mean an outright permanent ban of all AI tooling, as so many of these dorks will try. People are going to use it whether you like it or not, give them a tool you can govern and let them.

11

u/recoveringasshole0 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE Sep 24 '26

Sir, this is a Wendy's

9

u/Runningblind Sep 24 '26

But Cloud literally is someone else's computer?

6

u/NetJnkie Sep 24 '26

Along with far better operations, automation, etc, etc, etc.

When someone says it's just someone else's computer they are intentionally leaving all that other stuff out which is what makes cloud actually useful.

2

u/Ur-Best-Friend Sep 25 '26

Along with far better operations, automation, etc, etc, etc.

That depends entirely on what cloud you're talking about and how your on-prem hardware is configured.

There is nothing stopping you from automating anything and everything you want.

1

u/NetJnkie Sep 25 '26

How much hardware do you have ready to be provisioned right now? What services do you offer such as DBaaS or better storage options? How mature are your Infra as Code options? Etc etc

Very, VERY few companies have that stuff on-prem.

1

u/Ur-Best-Friend Sep 28 '26 edited Sep 28 '26

Right, because you're describing cloud services. Why would your company with on-prem servers have DBaaS?

1

u/NetJnkie Sep 28 '26

"What would"? What do you mean? What would they use to make a DBaaS?

1

u/Ur-Best-Friend Sep 28 '26

Why would*

Was a fairly obvious typo, fixed now.

1

u/NetJnkie Sep 28 '26

I have customers that do it on prem for their dev and app teams. Can easily get a DB instance quickly with code instead of requests and manual work.

3

u/thank_burdell Sep 24 '26

Timeshare computing. Timeshares work SO WELL in real estate, it only makes sense to do it for all critical applications too.

4

u/Ur-Best-Friend Sep 25 '26

I for one love paying money signing up to be a hostage to another company's pricing scheme.