Although SysAdmin Day isn’t until July 30th, OpenDNS is getting a head start on appreciating the hard working System Administrators with their SysAdmin of the Year Awards which have a nomination deadline of June 29th.
OpenDNS is awarding SysAdmins in six different categories. Winners will receive $50 and recognition with a grand prize (TBD) going to the best of the winners. The categories are:
Best Disaster Response Award
A hurricane, a fire, an earthquake. A datacenter meltdown. Something that would have caused business operations to shut down completely, if it weren’t for this SysAdmin. Like a knight in shining armor, he or she managed to keep the network up and running. Your submission should include details about the disaster and how the SysAdmin handled it.
Neat Freak Award
SysAdmins take pride in documentation and organization of cabling, wiring and racks. Wow the judges in this category with photo evidence showing that your SysAdmin is the neatest and most organized of them all.
Shoestring Budget Award
This SysAdmin works wonders with a seriously tight budget. Tell us about the SysAdmin with the craziest buildout done on the cheap. We need details for this submission – tell the judges specs, total cost and what kind of awesomeness it powers.
Flying Solo Award
Even with a team of talented operators, SysAdmin’ing is not easy work. But when flying solo it can be downright heroic. Regale us with a (true) story of the heroic SysAdmin who saved the world (or did something awesome) to save the day (or company) all by his or herself.
Large-Scale Deployment Award
Some jobs are too challenging to comprehend, but not for the SysAdmin who wins our Large-Scale Deployment Award. Tell us the story of a SysAdmin who has managed a massive amount of infrastructure from their diety-like fingertips with finesse and elegance. Tell us how big the deployment was, when it was built and what some of the impressive metrics it offered were (pageviews, megahertz, memory, rendering, etc.).
DevOps Award
Often, the most successful SysAdmins are the ones who work well with others. Large websites like Flickr attribute much of their success to the close collaboration between engineering and operations. Share a success story of your own where the SysAdmin’s collaboration played a key role in a successful engineering project. Tell us when this happened, who was involved, and how you know it was successful.
K-12 Award
Achieving CIPA compliance, blocking unsafe and inappropriate Websites and protecting students are all in a day’s work for this SysAdmin. Tell us how this SysAdmin deftly balances the demands of school boards, educators and students without breaking a sweat. Draw inspiration from the other categories to show how this SysAdmin earned an A+.
I know somebody to nominate in the Neat Freak category. Working with the switches he maintains are a breeze. I’ll have to snap a photo and send it in. You should submit a SysAdmin you know that deserves one of these awards. Find more details at the OpenDNS blog and the update to include a K-12 award.