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Rise of the Hybrid Engineer

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1 minute read time

Last week, we had a great conversation on finger-pointing, and some of you shared real-world advice on how to avoid it. Most of the comments described a work environment that was still tied to the stove-piped organizational structure from ten years ago, when network, server, and storage were discrete disciplines with effectively zero relation to one another. This approach, however, is no longer valid.


Virtualization, specifically the abstraction of physical resources, makes isolated engineering teams dysfunctional. It’s not enough to pursue skills that exist exclusively in the confines of network, server, and storage. For example, it’s not surprising to hear that someone has a few VMware certifications, and a CCNA. That makes sense, since you can’t do a whole lot with vSphere unless it’s connected to your network. But for those of us who have been doing IT work for a long time, you certainly remember a time when having a Microsoft cert AND a Cisco cert was unheard of.


So, a few questions for you:


  1. Are you part of a siloed team at work? If so, how do you support virtualization (or other technologies that consume resources from multiple teams)?
  2. Do any of you have multiple vendor certifications that extend beyond the network | server | storage silos? How have they helped your career?
  3. Do you think having some primitive coding skills can help engineers in any discipline?
  4. Is there a future for engineers who focus on a single skill-set?


And here's a hint: the answer to number 4 is no. Discuss.

  • I found this an informative posting.  I have always been called the glue that holds teams together.  emoticons_happy.png

  • 1. Where I work right now - federal govt - we are incredibly siloed. But I have experience going back decades - before Cisco and routers and switches and firewalls, and even Microsoft. I've also worked in smaller shops where "Network" meant "anything that's not the PC itself."

    2. Having multiple skills in a silo threatens some people's comfort zones. In the world of IT, people need the ability to say "No" to requests. This is what builds silos. "Not our job."

    About 3 decades ago, at Digital Equipment Corp, there was a big push for awhile at "Cross Functional Awareness". They made people from field service live in sales or the parts department or software support for awhile - and vice versa. The payback was really excellent. New relationships develop when you get more casual with people, and share baby pics. People all around are less itchy - back scratching happens.

    I have had more certs lapse than a lot of people even currently have. Plus, there was a time 20 years ago before certs.  I see really great value, even within a silo, at having skills outside my silo. I can communicate inside meetings and outside. I can scratch backs. I can lead committees, and form action plans for complex problems.

    But having too many certs can limit your options in some markets. You may seem overqualified. It all depends on how you market yourself.

    3. I would say coding skills are incredibly valuable at all levels. Writing broken code teaches you how stuff you bought could be broken. It potentially teaches more logic in troubleshooting. No network management solution provides everything the way you want, so some coding is often necessary top fill gaps, or add the final polish.

    4. There's always jobs for single skill people. Entry level.

    -=seymour=

  • From the network side of things I wouldn't say system engineers don't know what they are doing when it comes to networking - I would say they half know what they are doing. Which can cause more confusion. Usually, by the time I've been included in a VM discussion the VM architecture has been decided upon and it is really too late to offer anything productive.

    1. Are you part of a siloed team at work? If so, how do you support virtualization (or other technologies that consume resources from multiple teams)?
      1. Yes. Our Network has the transitional teams of Unix, WinTel, Middleware, Network, etc. Within our respective teams we're broken down again. Ops, Eng and Projects.
    2. Do any of you have multiple vendor certifications that extend beyond the network | server | storage silos? How have they helped your career?
      1. No I have my network as well as server certs. What has helped my career is that I'm versed in networking , security, servers, Windows, Unix and Operations / Engieering
    3. Do you think having some primitive coding skills can help engineers in any discipline?
      1. Not really. However, understanding the data flow of an application I think is key. Too many times I have to deal with middleware or SA's that do not know how their apps work and quickly blame the network.
    4. Is there a future for engineers who focus on a single skill-set?
      1. NO WAY.  I think you need to have a cert in networking, server, cloud and security and possible ITIL.

  • The SysAdmin group is always responsible for the outage - we only going the Networking team involved after all troubleshooting points to a network issue outside of VMware. (i.e. switches/routers)

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