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Exactly.  Within the WINTEL world the ratio varies tremendously based
upon the type of function the server provides.  File/print servers -
minimal.  Application servers - more.  Even within the System i
community I think you will find large variations - company size, company
philosophy, nature of applications, number and types of regulatory
requirement - these all have a huge impact on this ratio.

The current environment of 'best practices' can have a huge impact.
Whether it's driven by SOX, ITIL implementations, or something similar I
think you will find a larger demand on you administration function.

The nature of the applications can also have an affect.  The demands on
our tradition RPG/COBOL programs is less than what we get from our
Domino or WAS applications. 

The attitude of your department can also have an affect.  Here a good
amount of our development generates good tight and contained application
systems - very little control is needed, things are automated, purge
functions defined and programmed up front, etc.  And then we have some
project leaders who don't think in those terms.  The systems require a
large amount of external control (integration, work flow, integrity,
etc.) and generate an inordinate amount of care and feeding for the type
of application it is.

Looking for that metric is not a bad thing.  But it's effectively
impossible to answer and you should look very hard as to why you are
asking that question.  Comparing your department to some other kind of
industry average is not a bad thing - it's a way to do a soft measure on
your effectiveness.  Beyond that I'm not sure how much it can help. 

Michael Crump
 
Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN  47302
 
765.741.7696
765.741.7012 f 
 


"Push to test."    <click>     "Release to detonate."
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lukas Beeler
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 4:17 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: iSeries Support Question

Hi,

It's impossible to give a direct answer to this question. There's a heck
a lot of factors to consider.

Here are my thoughts:

Who handles user support? Separate, or is this the sysadmins job too?
Who handles the client systems? Are they running a full OS (like Windows
or Desktop Linux), or are they thin Clients?
What other Systems are there? Lotus Notes? Exchange? Windows's Active
Directory? File Sharing? Printer Sharing?
How many users are there? What is the skill level of these users? Do
they read manuals, or do they need a babysitter?

What kind of software are you running? A professionally created and
supported ERP system? Or a 15 year old COBOL-Applications which no one
understands anymore?

What kind of equipment are you running? Decently new hardware, backed by
maintenance contracts? Or 10 year old 4224 connected with flaky cables?

Does your sysadmin have to change toner in printers (or similar tasks)?
Does your sysadmin have to support all kind of other electronical
devices? (Like, Faxes, Telefones, etc.)

Is your sysadmin his own boss? This means he will also need time to do
administrative stuff, like talking about new equipment with his
superiors, etc.

The conclusions:

The smaller the company is, the more stuff the sysadmin has to do. Also,
depending on his skill set, the existing infrastructure, the money
available to him, there are different levels of automation achievable. 

I work for a small System i ISV (we're 25 people), and we sell our own
ERP-Software to customers. Most of them don't have own personnel, and
these that do only seldom have someone knowledgable on the System i.
(Which usually leads to expired HW support contracts on the machine,
unsupported Releases, and CUME Levels from before the dinosaurs).
Internally, we have 5 System i. They don't require much work (beside the
quarterly reboot for CUME), but the same goes for our two windows
servers (Beside the monthly reboot for security fixes).

If you have a well designed infrastructure, running stable, supported
software, with intelligent users, one sysadmin is enough to support 500
people, and the corresponding systems backing them (multiple windows
servers, one system i). He will still have plenty of spare time.

However, if you have a years old, flaky infrastructure, and no one
willing to pay for renewals, with cranky users who don't even think
about reading the manual, you might need 5-10 people for 500 users.





-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Ashok.Dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 12:29 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: iSeries Support Question

Hello all,
does anyone know of any benchmarking or best practice regarding number
of 
system admin. staff required per system?
Eg. is the ratio 5 systems/sysadmin, or 9 systems per sysadmin, etc.

thanks
Ashok 


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