As a nod to the hardest working members of any IT staff, this year's SysAdmin Day marks the 20th anniversary of celebrating the achievements, dedication and importance of the SysAdmin employees working behind the scenes to maintain the efficiency and support their IT teams.

As evidenced below, industry experts understand the vital role SysAdmins play in the tech sector and further explain the need to acknowledge and express gratitude to SysAdmins every day of the year.

Neil Barton, CTO, WhereScape

"System administrators (SysAdmins) have a variety of different responsibilities, but ensuring a businesses' IT data infrastructure is maintained and ready to deliver insights and faster time to value is one of the most important. The role of the SysAdmin is proving even more crucial as business needs drive ever increasingly more frequent changes to data infrastructure, particularly in the deployment process and for keeping systems online and operating. Because of this, as a business, you don't want your SysAdmin bogged down trying to prevent roadblocks. Automation solutions can help your SysAdmins by reducing the time, cost and risk of deploying changes to data infrastructure by eliminating manual tasks. SysAdmins can then ensure the data infrastructure is delivering results," said Neil Barton, CTO of WhereScape. 

Derrin Rummelt, director of Cloud Engineering, R&D, US Signal

"Keeping pace with constant technology changes and updates is hard enough, but IT staff, specifically System Administrators (SysAdmins), are increasingly expected to keep network strategies on track as well. From migrating your IT infrastructure to a new environment to implementing a comprehensive IT resilience strategy, SysAdmins are behind the scenes, ensuring that networks are secure, up-to-date and efficient. On SysAdmin Day, it's important to take a moment to thank SysAdmins for their hard work, dedication and commitment to keeping the infrastructure powering businesses running smoothly," said Derrin Rummelt, director of Cloud Engineering and R&D at US Signal.

Alan Conboy, office of the CTO, Scale Computing

"Consistent, reliable and responsive, system administrators (SysAdmins) are the backbone of our industry. Without them, we would be more susceptible to a number of issues, such as server failures, downtime and problems with upgrades and capacity. It's great to have a day recognizing all their hard work, and we should definitely carry out that praise the other 364 days of the year. Even in the midst of a crisis, SysAdmins maintain the team's momentum to overcome IT challenges, with a plan of attack for the next time. Today is a good reminder for organizations to provide their SysAdmins with the tools, resources and words of encouragement they deserve to continue supporting our IT infrastructures," said Alan Conboy, office of the CTO at Scale Computing.

Ahin Thomas, VP of Marketing, Backblaze

"System Administrators (SysAdmins) play a vital role in supporting and maintaining integral IT operations for today's businesses. SysAdmin teams work tirelessly behind the scenes and too often around the clock to ensure that the foundations of the business are functioning properly (and get things back in order when they fall out whack). Among the thankless responsibilities is keeping the organization's data backed up and protected. As business operations expand, their efforts enable the organization to grow and scale for the future. On System Administrator Appreciation Day, in addition to every day throughout the year, it's important to recognize the importance of SysAdmins and the critical role they play to keep business operations running," said Ahin Thomas, VP of Marketing at Backblaze.

Daniel Lizama, Team Manager System Administration, Leaseweb

"At Leaseweb our system administration team is known as the ‘Sysadmin Heroes'. These key and highly valued colleagues are behind every workstation, internal network, and office system at Leaseweb. It is normal for people to only think about sysadmins when there is an IT problem, but within our company they are recognized for their tireless work, day and night to ensure that our internal computer systems, workstations and laptops running smoothly.

Sysadmins are the Leaseweb engineers who maintain, upgrade, and troubleshoot office systems, internal networks, firewalls, and routers, to ensure quality; "always up" systems for our employees, so they can better serve our customers. To ensure round-the-clock coverage, for a two-week period each month, every sysadmin is available on 24-hour call. No matter the day or time, when an issue arises at Leaseweb, a skilled sysadmin is quickly available to deal with it.

Without our sysadmin team, Leaseweb would not be able to offer the high-quality smooth service we are known for; they are the backbone of our company, and that's why they are the sysadmin heroes," said Daniel Lizama, Team Manager of System Administration at Leaseweb.

Brett Cheloff, VP of ConnectWise Automate, ConnectWise

"SysAdmins spend a lot of time putting out fires. Whatever the issue, taking a reactive approach to problems is far less efficient than working proactively. Indeed, a proactive approach to solving internal or client-based infrastructure issues is far superior, allowing you to fix IT systems before they develop into serious problems.

From managing security and ticket flow to conducting routine maintenance and proactive network monitoring, SysAdmins require expert efficiency to stay at the top of their game. Yet common pitfalls create time traps and extra work, and even the most seasoned technicians struggle to stay on top of everything a modern IT infrastructure requires.

The right software can help make this process that much easier. This will give you valuable insight into workflow and efficiency. Second, search for software that facilitates system response monitoring. This will help improve overall response time, so you'll spend less time putting fires out. The right product and processes in place means you'll gain a firmer grip on proactive operations - and be more prepared to tackle reactive situations," said Brett Cheloff, VP of ConnectWise Automate at ConnectWise.