The invisible hand - but because of Cloud Stacks and As-A-Service learn Linux...

Back when Microsoft came out with Windows desktops and Active Directory they introduced a UI centric solution. That made basic administration easier, but that also created a lot of administrators who did not know how things worked past the UI consoles and tools. The status of things is starting to slip back into the playing field again. As we started to have an array of mobile and other computing devices and apps, there were more technical people working in IT, and the general person now knew more than the average office staff members back in the early days. Few people had a computer at who in the good old days.

However, now with the advent of Cloud stacks and As-A-Service solutions, the vendors supplying those options control and administer much of the computing deployments. Less and less servers and other hardware now runs in the business (or on perm as the lingo says). If you use Microsoft’sCloud email system your admin will no touch the email servers.

One of the negative effects of Cloud and As-A-Service usage is there are few people who know how the systems in the cloud work and less admin know how to trouble shoot problems. More and more an admin will get to the end of the UI tools and not have the knowledge or ability to trouble shoot problems.

One suggestion to keeping your self sharp is to use Linux for personal use. Engineers who know Linux and Unix tend to understand how things work. Much of Linux and its many distros require a solid understanding how things work and how to manually deploy and fix their Linux systems (same with network engineers). Much of what Cloud providers to is abstract the systems that run the circus. If something is not working you generally cannot go past the UI consoles. Knowing Linux and learning how to do all the things you will need to do to make most Linux systems work, that will teach you know why system thing failed.

It is not a perfect solution. Knowing how to use Linux and make apps run on it, will provide a deeper knowledge set when working with UI centric solutions. The UI centric solutions do not encourage increasing your depth of knowledge. The UI centric solutions tend to use the ease of use as a selling point (so you are okay with the cost of all those high end licenses). Though maybe not intentional, the UI centric solutions keep you in its realm. But using Linux for your personal systems will help build good knowledge.