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Cisco Spotlights New IT Roles You May Have Never Heard of (networkworld.com) 79

Posted by msmash from the gazing-the-crystal-ball dept.
coondoggie writes: A glimpse into what that future means for IT networking professionals can be found in Cisco's 2020 Global Networking Trends Report. It was completed before COVID-19 changed the way company's do business, but the predicted impacts have been hastened by the pandemic's impact. From the networking study, Cisco put forward a number of new or developing roles it expects to see in the future, including:

Business translator: The business translator works to better turn the needs of business into service-level, security and compliance requirements that can be applied and monitored across the network. The translator also works to use network and network data for business value and innovation, and their knowledge of networking and application APIs will help them glue the business to the IT landscape.
Network guardian: A network guardian works to bridge network and security architectures. They build the distributed intelligence of the network into security architecture and the SecOps process. This is where networking and security meet, and the guardian is at the center of it all, pulling in and pushing out vast amounts of data, distilling it and then taking action to identify faults or adapt to shutdown attackers.
Network commander: Intent-based networking builds on controller-based automation and orchestration processes. The network commander takes charge of these processes and practices that ensure the health and continuous operation of the network controller and underlying network.
Network orchestrator: This position translates business needs into network policy. It focuses on policy translation and automation, and policy alignment across network and IT domains.
Network detective: A network detective uses and tunes network assurance tools that employadvanced analytics and AI to ensure that the network delivers on business intent. They work with IT service-management processes and SecOps teams to identify network anomalies and close potential security holes. Like the network guardian, they use data proactively to identify faults and attacks.
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Cisco Spotlights New IT Roles You May Have Never Heard of More

Cisco Spotlights New IT Roles You May Have Never Heard of

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  • WTF (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04, 2020 @05:54PM (#60022398)

    Did someone in marketing start chaffing and decide to apply his buzzword skill to the IT department?

    • Re:WTF (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Dracos ( 107777 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @06:49PM (#60022592)

      Makes me wonder if the Millennials have taken over Cisco. All this has the same stink as the baby-talk idioms that have taken over web development in recent years.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @08:12PM (#60022744)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • God almighty, I just want to fucking puke at the entire notion of it all.

          Exactly. Business-speak has clearly out of hand if they now need to employ a business translator so people can understand management.

      • I thought web developers took over all enterprise software development plus our databases, OS and the network architecture TBH.

        I don't know what else you call dockerizing a jar file, NoSQL "databases" that are basically Splunk but harder to use and with more important data, Ubuntu displacing RedHat on servers, and this total disregard of IPv6 in favor of overlay networks and MOAR NAT!

        It feels like a software version of The Thing has taken over, and somehow Microsoft is the last sane engineer driven software

      • Network Mastermind
        Network Henchman
        Network Paladin
        Network Conquistador
        Network Interrogator
        Network Overlord
        And the ever popular Network Jester
        • Network Jester: this is someone from SecOps who got a CCNA and thinks they understand layer 2-4 now, yes?

      • "Network Commander" does not sound like baby talk. It sounds like something from the Handmaids Tale.

        It also does not sound like anything I am going to write in my CV anytime soon.

      • No, this is not new. Typical buzzword bingo from people who do not really understand the technology they are talking about. The players change, but it is the same game we had 30 years ago.
      • To me at least all that sounds like is the painful advertising copywriter stuff that people have made fun of ever since, but particularly in the 1980s. Stuff like what Douglas Adams made fun off in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with the Cirrus Cybernetics Corporation's marketing department calling Marvin's series of robots "Your plastic pal who's fun to be with!" and a copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica misplaced in time telling of how they were "a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first ones to f
      • That would explain their embrace of Agile development methodologies for network hardware. Agile belongs NOWHERE NEAR network hardware.

        Firepower, Cat 9k, DNA, and other hardware + software is a complete dumpster fire at Cisco thanks to Agile.

        As an employee at a competitor in some segments, keep on trucking Cisco. Your failures are just driving our sales.

    • I kinda chuckled at those terms.

      At the same time, I recently discovered it can be very, very good to have expertise in two areas that overlap, such as security and networking. I happen to have a particular combination of skills that makes me perfect for certain jobs. I've been told that there are about 20-50 people in the country with this combination. Three in DFW. That's very handy for me when it comes to salary negotiations.

      Lately in a group I participate in a lot of people have asked me "how do I tran

      • I happen to have a particular combination of skills that makes me perfect for certain jobs. I've been told that there are about 20-50 people in the country with this combination. Three in DFW. That's very handy for me when it comes to salary negotiations.

        Assuming your employer values both roles being in the same person.

        • I've recently discovered there are jobs that require the same person to have both skillsets.

          There are OTHER cases where teams of people can work together. Just because I'm old and I'm a nerd, I've learned a few different skills. I recently did a project that needed about four different types of skills, four different job titles. On that project four different people could work together. It was just *convenient* that the four job titles were all positions I've jad before.

          In other cases, like teaching prog

      • How could you claim to be a computer security expert without being an expert in networking?

        • Well over 90% of the security work I've seen is application security and system security. It doesn't require any knowledge of IP routing, routing protocols, the effects of kitten and how to handle it, queue lengths, twisted pair vs fiber, etc etc. Yeah one should know what an IP address is - that hardly qualifies as a networking expert.

          • That should say jitter, not kitten.

            Though it's also true that most computer security work doesn't require knowledge about kittens.

            Jitter DOES matter to security sometimes - both for timing attacks and the A in "CIA". Most security work doesn't require knowing what jitter is, though.

    • Network Dominatrix. Uses a CAT5 o' 9 tails*

      * - a google image search for this comes up with a LOT of hits

  • I always wanted a Big Apple 2-Way wrist TV watch.

  • sounds like make up jobs to spend all day on conference calls taking a day to do 30 minutes of work

  • System Conflagration Manager (Score:4, Informative)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @06:12PM (#60022490)
    n/t

  • I wanna be a network commando! (Score:3)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @06:37PM (#60022562)

    I do all my zoom meetings bottomless!

  • I propose some, too: Network Overlord, Network Minion, WiFi enabler (or the guy that actually remembers the wifi password), Database Ace.

  • I know one developer who translates C++ and Python into a stream of obscenities when they don't do what he wants...

  • Replace my Cisco Equipment (Score:5, Funny)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @06:39PM (#60022578)
    poof! problem solved and look at all the payroll expenses I am saving.

    Just my 2 cents ;)

  • All of those titles effectively fit as specialities under Network Engineer/Systems Architecture.
    They're all valid roles, and are (in most places that require that level of divergent roles) being done. It'll be interesting to see if that gains traction as acknowledged specialisations.

    • Yeah those network roles that my employer should hire for, but they all go on my teams plate because they all are network. Perhaps bring them in for a short implementation of a product that needs weekly care and feeding before looking at the output daily.

      We have all the data in the world to work with and only a 12 hour workday to keep up. And then there is cloud governance in a futile effort to keep everyone on a documented path to temporary resources.

    • Not all of 'em are new either... A friend of mine had a "business translator" position 25 years ago.

      He had been the head CAT scan tech at a local hospital, but always interested in programming as a hobby. He got a job at a place that made software to help manage doctors offices and since he had a good foundation on the medical side, as well as a decent understanding of the programming side, his job was to act as go-between and translator between the doctors/clients and the programmers.

      And then the FBI raid

  • Level up! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Joe2020 ( 6760092 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @06:49PM (#60022594)

    If I had to guess I'd say the guy who came up with this is heavily into RPGs.

    • That's what I always thought about "scrum master", because it calls to mind "dungeon master". That, and "scum master".

    • If I had to guess I'd say the guy who came up with this is heavily into RPGs.

      They must have also watched ReBoot, a Canadian animation, that starred Bob as the mainframe Guardian....

  • I can't give you a raise but I can promote you to Network Detective, you might even get a badge.
    And if you don't bother me for a raise for six months, you'll get promoted to Network Guardian.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @07:04PM (#60022610)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • But you're forgetting all the new certifications that will be needed for each of these positions. Imagine the branding and training opportunities (for Cisco)

      (Frankly, this just reinforces what I observed for the last 20 years. Systems Engineering has failed. Most of these used to be part of classic systems engineering.)

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • The last four positions are optional because the tricky security stuff is handled in-house at NSA HQ.
      Your taxes at work!

    • So what you do is take the specifications from the customer and bring them down to the software engineers?

    • Reading those job descriptions, full of MBA business double-speak, makes my head hurt. All of them sound like they are trying to find ways for underqualified, non-technical people to do fundamentally technical jobs.

      Like the companies that hire fresh business grads, call them "project managers", and put them in charge of technical teams. If you haven't seen that happen, it works just as well as you might expect.

      So here, they can't afford a Requirements Engineer, so they are going to hire a "business translat

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Business translator: technical liason, project manager, or manager. This is a condescending role designed to remind technical teams they are incapable of fathoming business, and must be assigned a translator.

      Obviously someone who hasn't had experience in the field. Because the primary goal is to sit in day-long meetings, then summarizing the whole thing for the technical team.

      Sure you could do without, but how many engineers do you know will want to sit in a 8 hour weekly meeting? It's hard enough to get th

  • What about "Network Wizard"? (Score:3)

    by dwywit ( 1109409 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @07:12PM (#60022626)

    That person who, when they walk into the equipment room, they wave their arms, and broken things magically start working.

  • They forgot about CAT5 diviner. They use a diving rod to find where the heck in which wall those darn cables are! WHO DESIGNED THIS PLACE?! SERIOUSLY. What are they, wire tired to the electrical conduits? Who does that?!

    • What I really hate is when zip ties are used. Not when they're left open so the cable can be pulled through or new cables added, but when they're pulled tight so nothing moves. What moron thinks bolting down network cables inside a track is a good idea?

      Use long strips of hook and loops. Serves the same purpose but allows for freedom of movement.

  • Really? (Score:3)

    by kenh ( 9056 ) on Monday May 04, 2020 @07:54PM (#60022700) Homepage Journal

    I'm surprised no one has noticed that at least one of the job titles in this story was foretold by the ever-enlightening "Office Space".

    To wit:

    Business Translator: https://youtu.be/hNuu9CpdjIo [youtu.be]

  • "I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?" - Tom Smykowski, formerly Initech

    Seriously, it seems this is exactly the role of the 'Business Translator'. Taking the specifications from the customers and giving them to the engineers. Well, not physically: the secretaries do that.

    ;)

  • a new set of chraccters from a cheesy modern day comic book.

  • Ninja, superhero or missionary in them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      I did meet a guy whose business card said 'Technology Evangelist'. He was one of those few salescritters who actually knew how to use what he was selling.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MrKaos ( 858439 )

        I did meet a guy whose business card said 'Technology Evangelist'. He was one of those few salescritters who actually knew how to use what he was selling.

        That's rare. I notice a lot of sales guys don't get any training about the products they're trying to sell and the exec wonder why they can't sell and replace them with a whole bunch more they don't train and still they're scratching their heads.

  • Imagine needing 5 new human network roles filled so that you can simply replace a dumb switch with an overpriced Cisco equivalent. I'm surprised they omitted 'Network Driver - The guy that spends more than 24 hours on the phone to Cisco support, flicking registers one-by-one until they find the root cause in Ciscos terrible software preventing the device from switching network traffic, and applying a bunch of beta firmware patches until the original feature is fixed, but a new, different subset of features

  • You can call me Head Turd Polisher for all I care, as long as I get a raise.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @06:07AM (#60023774)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Network Archaeologist (Score:3)

    by Aero77 ( 1242364 ) on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @07:52AM (#60023972)
    Companies stubbornly refuse to replace equipment that is fully depreciated but isn't compatible with the new world order of software defined networking. The network archaeologist searches for obsolete equipment, validates its functionality & impact on services, and explains its value to the next generation raised on graphical dashboards.

    • Because they ignore the deprecation and consider any hardware purchases as an expense. They want to squeeze as much money out of each chunk of hardware to preserve their budget and therefore bonuses.

  • It is a law of existence that once an organization exceeds a certain size, self-serving bureaucracy takes over.

  • The last time I worked in a huge company, we would have project planning meetings and occasionally some random managmenty person would show up, make some inane comments but mostly say quiet..

    Later that person would show up at my desk and ask me a shit-ton of mostly obvious questions about what we are doing. But they would never actually contribute anything.

    I realized these people's job was simply to "understand what we are doing". But not do any of the work, or even contribute anything to the process. Maybe

  • I'll keep my current Unix admin title "vicount".

  • Fifteen years ago I discovered networking through CCNA. Quite soon after that I discovered OpenBSD and I landed a job as the only "network guy" on a simple 4-node WAN.
    FFWD to today, I'm still the only "network guy" in the same company which grew to 30-node WAN which now routes BGP and OSPF, has redundant CARP routers, automatic failovers to secondary ISPs in separate rdomains, tight firewall rules, fine-tuned traffic shaping and prioritization etc.
    I need help with all the stuff. I spent last few years try

  • nah (Score:2)

    by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

    No, they'll just make it so people officially do the extra roles in addition to their existing jobs... so it'll be a "pay raise" in the sense that you get the recognition for doing work you've already been doing.

    Just handing the systems folks more responsibility so more things get dropped, is all.

  • So why are these positions for professional people.
    Why aren't these tasks programmed into the fabric of networks and the internet.

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