The difference between programmers and system administrators

What is the difference between programmers and system administrators? Most users are unlikely to respond to this question — they both have something to do with computers. But if you ask, it turns out that there is difference between these professionals and it is considerable. Let’s try to understand what it is.

So, to begin with, let us explain who programmers are, what they do and why do we need them. Programmers are guys who are constantly writing various texts in an incomprehensible for the average user languages. These texts are then converted into a variety of useful programs, modules (optional extras) or tools that facilitate the solution of different tasks.

Thus, programmer is someone engaged in the design, development and production of software. All of the software the users utilize on a daily basis was created by programmers specifically.

Writing a new program is a complicated and responsible matter, it is necessary to take into account many nuances at the design stage: calculate the interaction of one element with others and whether adding a new element will lead to errors (or so called bugs) in the program. Sometimes, one extra (or missed) point or a bracket can spoil everything.

Therefore, the programmer as a rule is a person who achieved a special university education and has spent several years on the development in their profession. There are, however, examples of successful programmers who did not attend university, they just had the tenacity and perseverance in self-study, but these people are the exception proving the rule.

After the graduation the programmer must have profound knowledge of at least one programming language. In addition they are constantly driven to follow the latest trends in computer technology and to gain practical experience or risk losing their qualification over time.

Let us now turn to the system administrators. Most of the office staff knows that the system administrator is a useful person you want to call for help if the computer is not powering up, a program hangs or network connection is lost. However, besides this “emergency” aid to users, the company system administrator has a lot of other important tasks.

System administrators provide the performance of the network, software and servers, administer automatic telephone exchanges (PBX), control information security and are responsible for maintaining the normal operation of enterprise’s computer equipment park.

In most cases, to carry out such responsibilities having a higher education is not compulsory, sometimes special training courses are enough, but this does not mean the lack of computer knowledge with serious system administrators. On the contrary, as a rule, the system administrator must be able to deeply understand both the computer hardware and software. Also, like the programmer, it is important for the sysadmin to constantly monitor the emergence of various new computer products.

In most cases, it takes several months for a newly appointed system administrator to fully understand all the nuances of a particular company’s computer network, so these professionals are usually appreciated and replaced very reluctantly.

Let us summarize: though both programmer’s and sysadmin’s work is linked to computers, their responsibilities are quite different from each other and the knowledge that these professionals must have is different. It would be useful for the system administrator to know, for example, advanced mathematics, but on the other hand, they can do without it in contrast to the programmers. And the programmer does not need to have a thorough knowledge of the hardware of the computer which they use to create programs, as software’s installation and optimization at the specific system is the system administrator’s task. Therefore, we cannot say that the work of one professional is more important or more difficult compared to another. Put simply, without the programmers there would be no high quality software, and without system administrators, the correct and well-coordinated work of different programs is impossible. And as we all know, formulating problems correctly is the key to addressing them effectively.