What's your leadership's fixation this year?
Posted by paper_jam_on_toast@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 64 comments
I'm on a team of 5 at a \~400 person company. My leadership is pushing for consolidating the amount of tools everyone uses to save money, but also get AI on everything. There's just a ton of pressure top down for us to figure it out. Anyone else feeling this?
lpbale0@reddit
Getting rid of AD entirely and using some third party platform that talks to Entra for us. Leadership thinks they have had some sort of revelation to solve all the ills of the world.
It's a fucking meta directory in the cloud, with some new terminology in place to make it seem like a new thing, or to munge up a term from Raymond Chen, "the new old thing".
Reverent@reddit
Entra ID is not a replacement for AD, unless you're 100% bought into SaaS and Intune and don't run a single goddamn windows server.
lpbale0@reddit
They have a hardon for SaaS as that allows them to turn all cap-ex into op-ex and then blame other people for IT issues when we don't get the money each year to keep the lights on instead of having to prioritize stuff like other business units.
lpbale0@reddit
Yep, that's the end goal....
ccsrpsw@reddit
Yep - thats what I was questioning too. Every time you access a file share, you'd get the explorer popup box? And goodness knows how many other AD prompts you hit a day?
ronin_cse@reddit
Wait what? Not that I want to implement it but what’s it called?
lpbale0@reddit
Sent DM
Suaveman01@reddit
I’d genuinely start looking for another job if management at my org pushed for this type of shit.
lpbale0@reddit
No AD means no SCCM, but I've not really been provided ample access to Intune to enable me to do for the business the same level of stuff as I have been doing.
Even during my last engagement with Microsoft over MDM stuff the took a look at the SCCM setup and said something along the lines of "yep, can't do a lot of this stuff in InTune".
But whatever....
CharcoalGreyWolf@reddit
Obligatory:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2pgcagyRk
ccsrpsw@reddit
I have so many questions about how that will work.
I mean, it probably won’t, but given how hard it is, with AD in place, to go from Hybrid join to Entra joined, and if you want to do eg X.509 type authentication … seems like a mess.
I mean if you are starting from scratch maybe, but the number of things you’d have to migrate given you are already and AD shop seems crazy - plus the cost if you are staying with Entra seems very extra!
You’ll need to update us all, from your next company, in 6 months or so :)
meatballwrangler@reddit
sounds like a nightmare 🫡
Buddhas_Warrior@reddit
Pretty much the same exact thing. AI for everyone! But reduce spend and tools (unless it's AI).
2clipchris@reddit
AI, utilization and layoffs
ksm2315@reddit
Sums up the job market in general right now. Some people are implementing AI not realizing they're working themselves out of their jobs
wabi-sabi411@reddit
Low key AI is the grand excuse to be able to eliminate corporate jobs and not have it be the company’s fault.
racegeek93@reddit
We are moving away from mainframe to finally update our 20+ year old systems. Up until recently, we were going to be sold off but then there was a partnership with another company that pushed a bunch of cash into us to payoff a large debt and allowing us move forward. I’m not sure what is going to happen but people are overall happy so far.
Sharp_Animal_2708@reddit
consolidate tools AND add AI to everything is a fun contradiction. consolidation means fewer vendors, tighter integration, less spend. AI adoption right now means more tools, more experiments, more spend.
we got the same pressure last year. what actually worked was picking 3 workflows where AI could replace an existing tool, not add on top. that way leadership gets their AI win and you get consolidation credit. trying to do both independently just doubles your workload. which tools are they pushing you to consolidate first?
DavWanna@reddit
"SaaS is dead, we'll vibe-code our own tools"
ranger_dood@reddit
AI, duh.
chron67@reddit
Cutting costs while also spending unnecessary money on cosmetic shit for themselves.
EditorAccomplished88@reddit
My CEO is pushing AI heavy, and while not opposed to it, nobody here seems to grasp the concept of bad data in equals bad data out. Everything we have is so messy and disjointed that the AI initiative is never going to get off the floor.
SOMDH0ckey87@reddit
VCF9
Express_Salamander_9@reddit
Limit hardware during win11 refresh in favor of AI and Amazon
Horrigan49@reddit
"AI first" from previous "Cloud first"
Aust1mh@reddit
Money for end of life switches…? No “AI” YEESSS!!!!
GremlinNZ@reddit
Big push on AI obviously... Still wondering how that works when only IT has moved to SharePoint...
Powerful-Notice4397@reddit
Start of the year we were told cut the budget by 7%, now the Head of IT wants to go to E5s for copilot……. So AI, AI is the fixation and they think you can just flip a switch and have it all work, I foresee lawsuits in the coming years.
smarzzz@reddit
Migrating apps to Kubernetes (for portability this sovereignty purposes), increasing security measures, moving to the turnkey secure by design pipelines.
It’s a focus I heavily support.
glisteningoxygen@reddit
AI, its AI all the way up and down.
If you're doing something it better be AI powered or AI enabled or its not getting funded.
WHY HAVEN'T YOU USED YOUR CO-PILOT LICENCE IN THE LAST 13 MINUETS ARRON?!
progenyofeniac@reddit
AIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAI AIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAI AIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAI
Confident_Guide_3866@reddit
I’m in Management for a 5 person team at a 350 user org, we aren’t pushing AI on our IT staff or end users. Upper management hasn’t pushed for AI integrations either
Ztoffels@reddit
Yall niggas hiring?
Confident_Guide_3866@reddit
Not currently, we are at a pretty good size right now.
BeyondRAM@reddit
Listing tools and add AI everywhere, seems like you gonna spend a lot of money lmao
Ill-Barracuda9031@reddit
Migrating egnyte to SharePoint because it's "just a file migration"
DasaniFresh@reddit
I feel bad for you. Egnyte is light years better than SharePoint.
DasaniFresh@reddit
Automation of manual processes. Whether that be using APIs or AI, just depends on the task. We’re not trying to force feed AI, but rather find spots where it actually makes sense. I have a damn good leadership team that understands AI isn’t the answer to everything but can help with certain areas.
MonsterTruckCarpool@reddit
Ai, efficiency aka layoffs, flatter organization, outsourcing everything possible.
frosty3140@reddit
I'm recommending butchers paper and crayons for the next management meeting.
Mindestiny@reddit
Good luck, soldier.
For every overlapping tool you suggest is consolidating, enjoy the pushback of "no but we NEED this, we can't possibly work with THAT!" preventing you from ever hitting a meaningful level of progress towards that OKR.
Also we need to buy this this and that because AI.
skippy2k@reddit
It’s crazy how many tools are at my company. Welcome to tech I guess. An engineer wants it? You got it. Too lazy to type? Buy wispr.
AI? We pay for Gemini, ChatGPT, cursor, Claude, and more. Half the time our users don’t even interface with the UI of said tools because they want their agents to do it. I won’t lie, AI has increased my productivity a ton, but it definitely doesn’t replace thought process and common sense.
But one of my help desk guys literally just copy pastes Gemini responses to tickets and 75% time it works lmao.
mustmax347@reddit
AI and Cost Savings by switching software platforms.
RestinRIP1990@reddit
I wish it was realizing that kpis are retarded
CookedNoods@reddit
AI everything. We're expected to be developing agents to automate everything as quickly as possible. Some of it is completely unrealistic but a lot of it isn't.
LuckyWriter1292@reddit
AI, Streamlining and saving money - I have bee hired to help an org transition to AI safely and without firing a bunch of people.
Our policy is people centred ai and keeping our data safe.
cantstandmyownfeed@reddit
AI, obviously.
Organizational certifications.
Expecting to implement these things, and maintain the existing, while fighting, delaying, or chopping up, every budget request and prioritization.
So, the usual.
I have half-assed every KPI/OKR/review they've tried for years. I am so tired of goals I don't set, delayed by teams I'm not on, and dependent on budgets I have no control over.
cantbtakenserious@reddit
The shiny object has been AI for the last few months, and they want us to CMMC compliant in the midst of this AI Slop.
spermcell@reddit
AI obviously
EverOnGuard@reddit
Best advice I have is this: Stop trying to figure out how to fundamentally change the business with AI. Instead, look at how regular people are using it. What are kids and teenagers doing? Not only are they the bleeding edge, they’re our competition in ten years.
Try using your favorite LLM in lieu of google. Use it to help troubleshoot, or just converse with it. Have it write out policies and procedures, or compare different products. Ask it for ways to improve your own efficiency. The more you use it, the more you’ll begin to recognize its strengths and weaknesses.
Hollow3ddd@reddit
I get what you are tying to say. The “teen” drop doesn’t translate well for most analogies.
It gets “rediscovered” over and over again upon usage. So the constant reminders most likely fall to absent ears of those who don’t tinker daily. I find myself to give feedback on prompts and advise them to modify the input to “keep it simple” and use the work copilot tab to help it discover potential prior convos and docs that already exist. Centralization of our source non-AI generated documents to use for further/better generation
An agent should at no point look at AI generated documents as sources. If it does, you are doing it wrong.
Daphoid@reddit
AI, Automation, and Strong governance of both from a policy and security tooling perspective. Also if you're not using AI you should try it, and if you're not working with it and checking its work back and forth a few times (aka just taking it as gospel) you're doing it wrong and our training will tell you so.
Watsonwes@reddit
Are you me ?
SchemaAndShell@reddit
Ai ai ai, and I’m loving it. Lots of pressure, but lots of freedom and leeway.
Hollow3ddd@reddit
Wait, first off, you missed a very important topic, let me tell you About AI
SchemaAndShell@reddit
Tell me more. I’m knee deep in zero intelligence artificial trust
Hollow3ddd@reddit
I posted direct to OP post. That is all I have left to give this week
kennedye2112@reddit
That's a very intelligent question!
havocspartan@reddit
Artificial Insemination?
^-Farmboy
Hollow3ddd@reddit
In all fairness. F them. AI is helpful, gives me an extra 10-20% time savings in a made up percentage that seems to fit and I do appreciate it.
But this “I” want proper automations, reliable time saving processes. Transparency of issues and struggles. Political clarity and training to accommodate in the corp environment. God-like documentation.
AI implementation needs a rough measure of ROI. For the AI nuts, that means that dollars spent “here” means less dollars spent “overall”z
So please, next 200k solution, ask for the damn metrics of measuring ROI.
Top-Perspective-4069@reddit
Risk management is playing real nice with the big push to shove AI into everything.
We're also doing a full system inventory and cost analysis for all the shit everyone "needs". Going great so far.
lurkeroutthere@reddit
AI and moving to the cloud. I feel like I'm in a time warp. Some of this is in response to the VMWare cluster fornicate but it's still so badly handled.
joshghz@reddit
Have KPIs to integrate some AI program into my ticket dashboard.
AgsAreUs@reddit
AI everything. Then explaining to the rest of the group how great AI is.