[Infrastructures] Career Path - Infrastructure Architect

[Mason Schmitt]

Hello all,

I am evaluating where I am at in my career and welcome feedback from the
members of this list as I aspire to become an infrastructure architect.
 Any feedback on or off list would be greatly appreciated.

Where I am now:
-----------------

I am the "Systems Administrator" at a small cable ISP in Salmon Arm, BC,
Canada.  I have been working as the sysadmin here for over 5 years now.
   My current responsibilities cover a lot of ground due to this being
such a small company.  Here is high-level overview of some of my
responsibilities:

- all system and network design (not software development though)
- network and systems security
- implementation of my designs
   - project management
   - building and configuring systems
- some mgmt tasks
   - employee supervision
   - budget planning
   - assist with hiring
   - contracts and supplier negotiation
- level 3 tech support
- managing / maintaining linux systems
- supervising management of windows systems

I also have begun to do some consulting on the side for SMBs - mostly
security / architecture related work.

I strive to keep a holistic view of my network and systems and I always
have an eye out for maintainability, availability, stability,
scalability and ease of succession for the eventuality of someone
replacing me.  I have been experimenting with configuration mgmt tools
and infrastructure techniques such as those laid out at
infrastructures.org as well as trying to find my own way.  Lately I have
also been working on a virtualization project.

This reads like a resume, but that's not my intention; I want to know
what I need to do to get to the next level.



Where I want to be:
---------------------

- Architecting larger infrastructures
- working with a larger team (I'm desperate for peers and a mentor...)
- doing work with technologies that interest me such as grids, various
types of clusters, large scale storage
- continuing to work with linux and/or other unices
- continuing to work with open source
- doing a bit of research on some of my concepts for architectures



Questions:
------------
- What skills do you consider critical as an infrastructure architect?
- What do you recommend for education?
   Note: I'm not crazy about going back to school for an extended length
of time - I like being in the industry and my family likes the pay
cheque.  However, if it's imperative that I go back to school, I am
willing to do so.
- What kind of job opportunities are out there?
- What professional affiliations are worthwhile?

--
Mason Schmitt