Server Administration in a Serverless World
About the Speaker
Enterprise Consultant at Scripps Networks
Andy Cowell has over twenty years of system administration experience in a variety of environments. Currently, he works for Scripps Networks as the manager of the Application Engineering and Automation group, which is responsible for a large number and wide variety of environments, from legacy Windows apps, to DevOps-style Linux web deployments, both on-prem and in the cloud. He has been responsible for some of the top destinations on the Internet, such as HGTV.com, Dilbert.com, and Metallica.com. In the past, he has worn many hats,from networking admin to full-time developer, and cut his teeth as a "wizard" with the UTK Computer Science department. When not wrangling systems, he solders microcontrollers, paints toy soldiers, drinks bourbon, smokes pipes, and rolls 20s.
Presentation Resources
What does it mean to have built your career around maintaining servers when they take your servers away?
The technology world is changing in interesting ways. The rise of the cloud has hyped new trends to the spotlight, and among them is "Serverless" computing. You can today build a substantial technology company without ever seeing a shell prompt. What does serverless computing mean to a career built around the care and feeding of...servers? Could another trend, NoOps-- automating away your operations staff (hint: that's us) become reality? Is your career path a dead end? Is our future doomed to be in front end javascript development?
We will examine the reality of Serverless computing, and what impact that has on the roles traditionally filled by server administrators.