Re: ratios -- machines to personnel

[Mark Verber <verber@parc.xerox.com>]

> In the 'old days' there used to be information available that tried
> to identify the number of systems administrators required to 
> support a certain number of machines.  The varibles included
> the amount of machine storage, the application suite, and other
> descriptions of a machine primary function.  Has there been
> any recent work done in this area?  Where might I look for
> this type of information.

I don't recall even in the "good old days" of fifteen years ago seeing
believable admin to facilities equations.  There were
some basic rules of thumb, all of which are terribly dated, but
they were highly dependent on the site.  I wrote an article for
Unix Review a number of years ago which suggested that the appropriate
number of admins can only be determined by assessing what the site's
specific requirements were, and then make a best effort caculation of
how many man-hours would be required.  This process can often been
enlightening for the management.

The paper can be found as http://www.solutions.com/verber/how-many-admins.html

--Mark