Qumu is thanking system administrators and other IT workers on the day dedicated to them, System Administrator Appreciation Day, which is celebrated the last Friday of July.
To call attention to their jobs, which have been made more complex with the explosion of mobile video use in the enterprise, Qumu commissioned “Gears of War” video art director and filmmaker Jerry O'Flaherty to create a science-fiction short film placing the SysAdmin as the hero. The film, titled, “Qumu SysAdmin Hero saves 'The Enterprise,'” portrays “the enterprise” as a metaphorical spaceship whose very survival from imminent destruction depends on the quick-thinking of its SysAdmin. The 90-second piece can be viewed here: youtube.com
Qumu is planning a second, upcoming video celebrating the achievements and challenges of the SysAdmin and is recognizing System Administrator Appreciation Day by choosing a real-life SysAdmin to star in it. Qumu is inviting all interested System or Network Administrators to apply by completing a short form: http://info.qumu.com/SysAdminDay.html. The SysAdmin Qumu selects will win a trip to Hollywood for the video shoot. In addition to being treated like a star, the winner will enjoy such additional perks as: dining with the cast and crew, experiencing the behind-the-scenes world of filmmaking, going through makeup, costuming, and running lines with the actors, and a one-on-one chat with director, Jerry O’Flaherty. Accommodations include a room near the shoot and a limousine ride to the set.
“Not enough people know the challenges that IT professionals face or appreciate the work that we do,” said Ted Kekatos, who started System Administrator Appreciation Day on July 28, 2000. “SysAdmins not only worry about electronic threats, but also power outages, fires and floods. When the email server goes down at 2 a.m. on a Sunday, your sysadmin is paged, wakes up, and goes to work. Now we are faced with a new challenge – video on mobile devices. Qumu’s new video illustrates the challenge in a fun way while also giving us the respect we deserve and the recognition we crave.”
New research shows the use of video on mobile devices has made the job of today’s SysAdmin more complex. According to research Qumu conducted online by Harris Interactive among 2,510 U.S. adults age 18 and older, a majority (61 percent) of online Americans agree that companies should allow employees to use whatever mobile device they choose for work related tasks, like reading email and viewing company videos. However only 9 percent of online Americans believe employees are “very aware” of what kind of effects watching online videos on their mobile devices at work have may have on the speed and bandwidth of their company’s wireless Internet network. Half of online Americans (50 percent) think employees are at least somewhat aware of these effects of video in the workplace. That means SysAdmins are confronted with the daunting task of accommodating employee video demands and the multiple formats over which they are delivered.
“There is no one as important as today’s SysAdmin when it comes to keeping the Enterprise running,” said Qumu CEO RayHood. “We know today’s challenge for the SysAdmin is made exponentially more complex now that they are being asked to support video consumption on any device their coworkers chose to use at work. That’s why we created this special video dramatizing the challenges the SysAdmin faces so more people will be aware that the SysAdmin is crucial to keeping their companies running.”
