Back on January 20th, 2011, Ross Mason, MuleSoft Founder, posted an article on the company blog, From the Mule's Mouth, titled "Systems Admins. R.I.P.?", which became popular this week due to it being posted on many aggregation sites and is filled with some lively commentary by many sysadmins around the world.
As I sit here waiting for the Cloud to rapture me off to the Choir Invisible, I can't help but think of those that fell before us. Who can forget back in the mid-70's when Digital Equipment Corporation's proclaimed the death of the mainframe with the introduction of mini computers and the effect it had on mainframe systems engineers. There are none left. They are all gone. Remember when Microsoft introduced Windows NT Server? That's the day we lost all the UNIX administrators.
Perhaps they were the lucky ones because the hype around Cloud Computing is so great, this may be one of the greatest extinction events ever.
All kidding aside, I do feel sorry for the MuleSoft systems administrator alluded to in the article. When the founder of your company publicly wonders what you do, you have a very tough job.
