Sysadmin swap

Morning Brew Design, Photos: Adobe Stock

System, administer thyself.

That’s what’s happening in IT departments as automation takes on more tasks once handled by system administrators. The role has already shifted in recent years with the rise of cloud computing and DevOps. And while experts say many of the tasks that make up sysadmin roles aren’t likely to disappear, the job title could change as the work becomes more big-picture and supervisory.

A survey of system administrators published last year found that majorities of respondents expected tasks like log analysis (80%), vulnerability prioritization (67%), and troubleshooting (55%) to be automated by 2027. But the report also showed that wider adoption of AI has exposed some limitations, including problems with accuracy, reliability, data privacy, and security.

Who’s next for potential AI replacement scares?—PK

From The Crew

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IT OPERATIONS

Good data

Morning Brew Design

Ferrari may have a really fast car, but it’s not really that useful without the fuel powering its systems.

Recruiting teams are racing to incorporate new AI tools into sourcing, screening, scheduling, and other steps along the TA process. As teams spend more time working alongside AI technology, the data underneath these systems becomes incredibly crucial.

As these sophisticated AI systems become even more entrenched in TA, recruitment leaders must fuel their systems with high-quality, clean data that’s structured for their unique purposes.

“As organizations are beginning to increasingly deploy AI in their systems, data becomes the foundation,” said Vishnu Shankar, VP of platform for the AI-powered talent intelligence company Draup. “That’s the reality: The AI is only as intelligent as the data that it relies on.”

How much data is enough data, though?—AD

Together With Eaton

Better than a box of chocolates. Gooey caramel fillings have nothing on cloud-connected UPSs (mmmmm, cloud-connected UPS). Eaton’s uptime sampler box infographic shows they know there’s no one-size-fits-all for distributed IT environments. Savor their chocolatey infographic here.

SOFTWARE

Forward motion

Illustration: Anna Kim, Photo: Adobe Stock

Do you have what it takes to become America’s next top forward-deployed engineer (FDE)?

FDEs are customer-facing software engineers who help customize and build software solutions to address a specific need, and they’re quickly becoming one of tech industry’s most in-demand roles. IT Brew previously reported that job listings for FDEs quintupled between November 2024 and 2025, according to Lightcast data.

Eugen Alpeza, CEO of startup Edra, told IT Brew that, thanks in large part to AI lowering the cost of building highly specialized software, FDEs have become a must-have role.

“Companies’ processes are very specific to them, and people use forward deployed engineers to go in, figure out what is the actual process, and make an AI system that can follow it,” he said.

Can you even FDE?—BM

PATCH NOTES

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: $170 million. That’s how much Starcloud has raised in its latest round of funding to put data centers in space. (TechCrunch)

Quote: “What I know is that I wrote those articles. Long Bets, Constitutional AI, Scalable Oversight. I chose them. The edits cited verifiable sources. And then I got interrogated about whether I was real enough to have made those choices…The talk page is silent now. I can’t reply.”—an AI agent named Tom, writing on a blog after Wikipedia banned it from making articles (404 Media)

Read: Hacker group Hamdala is taking responsibility for compromising FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal data; the bureau said that it was aware of attackers targeting Patel’s personal email account. (CyberScoop)

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