Happy SysAdmin Day 2014!

In just a few short days, it will be SysAdmin Appreciation Day. Are you ready?

Of course you are! But just in case…

System administrator from the I.T. Crowd on the phone — ***“Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?” (from The IT Crowd)***

Friday, July 25 is the 15^th annual day of giving the nod to our system administrators. Those are the people who keep your network alive, your servers backed up, your computers virus-free. The ones who repair your connection to the networked printer and clear the buffer after you’ve pressed the print button 480 times. The unsung heros of the IT world.

A brainchild of Ted Kekatos (@tedkekatos), who is himself a sysadmin . the first SysAdmin Day was celebrated at a company picnic on July 28, 2000. Kekatos was inspired by an HP advertisement showing a sysadmin sitting in his cubicle, while people queued up waiting to give him flowers and fruit baskets. Kekatos bought the domain name http://sysadminday.com/, set up a website, and the annual observance took off. SysAdmin Day is celebrated on the last Friday in July.

So how is SysAdmin Day observed? Appropriate gift giving is a good start. Learning your system administrator’s name is a better start. Nods are good; so are fist bumps. Hugs, maybe not so much. Kekatos favors ice cream and cake, but other gift suggestions include:

Pizza
Cards
Gifts
Words of gratitude
Custom t-shirts celebrating the epic greatness of your SysAdmin(s)
Balloons
Streamers
Confetti

System admin Moss from the I.T. Crowd — **“Hello, IT, have you tried forcing an unexpected reboot?” (from The IT Crowd)**

Commercial entities such as SpiceWorks, Sophos, and VPS.Net are gearing up for SysAdmin Day with competitions and give-aways. There’s even a SysAdmin Day song. Get into the spirit of things with this playlist of videos and music dedicated to system administrators and their daily trials and tribulations.

Competitions include:

New competitions, freebies and kudos are being announced by the minute on Twitter at @tedkekatos. Follow Ted, and keep an eye on #SysAdminDay. Need some graphics? Try Digium.

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day! Where would we be without you! Probably not reading this.

~Catherine Buck Morgan
Corporate Media Specialist, DPP

Images from the television series, The IT Crowd

Join Us in Honoring IT Heroes for SysAdmin Day, Win Free Tickets to LinuxCon & CloudOpen (linuxfoundation.org)
The 2014 SysAdmin Day E-card Contest! (community.spiceworks.com)
ManageEngine Kicks Off Contest to Honor IT Heroes on SysAdmin Day 2013 (virtual-strategy.com)
DellKACE Celebrates National SysAdmin Day with a contest! (community.spiceworks.com)

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