Black Circles under your eyes? Surely you are a Network administrator

The importance of network security and the effects of a compromised network need no special mention. It is not surprising that Network Administrators are having more than just their hands full ensuring their Networks are not compromised.

According to an annual survey conducted by a firm called Amplitude Research, a third of the respondents admitted they lost no sleep at all. Nearly thirty eight percent of the respondents were worried of their recovery plan following a virus or a worm attack or about the security breach itself. This segment noticed an increase in the level of concern from that in 2005.

When it comes to Network or System administrators, the numbers of those who were concerned about a security breach showed an increase compared to last year. With most companies not having sufficient funds to train the requisite amount of people, tackling IT challenges for these administrators is no easy task. Consequently with such a huge responsibility on their shoulders, many administrators are stressed out to the point of losing their sleep pondering about the next attack.

In any big organization the network administrators job is perhaps the most difficult. In addition to working proactively towards ensuring that the security of his firms network does not get compromised, he needs to be tactful in handling his peers lest he falls out with a few of them. When things go wrong, the entire company has only one person to turn to for solutions and advice and that is the Network administrator. So he has to be a Mr Know-It-All who has the answers to all their problems. Perhaps the worst nightmare for any administrator is to find out that his company network security has been compromised. In addition to the bad reputation it can bring the company - not to mention the financial losses- he will be faced with the Herculean task of rebuilding several systems from Ground up.

It is not surprising then that Network administrators are in huge demand the world over and its equally not surprising that it is not just every penny’s worth the employers squeeze out of them but also their valuable sleep.