ICT network administrator

ICT network administrators maintain operation of a reliable, secure, and efficient data communications network, including LAN, WAN, intranet, and internet. They perform network address assignment, management and implementation of routing protocols such as ISIS, OSPF, BGP, routing table configurations and certain implementations of authentication. They perform maintenance and administration of servers (file servers, VPN gateways, intrusion detection systems), desktop computers, printers, routers, switches, firewalls, phones, IP communications, personal digital assistants, smartphones, software deployment, security updates and patches as well as a vast array of additional technologies inclusive of both hardware and software.

Includes people performing managerial activities.

The following job titles also refer to ICT network administrator:

network administrators
network manager
network specialist
network support
networks administrator

Bachelor’s degree is generally required to work as ICT network administrator. However, this requirement may differ in some countries.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

ICT network administrator is a Skill level 4 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to ICT network administrator.

telecommunications engineer
ICT network engineer
numerical tool and process control programmer
chief ICT security officer
mobile application developer

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of ICT network administrator. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of ICT network administrator with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of ICT network administrator.

Network management system tools: The software or hardware tools which enable monitoring, analysis and supervision of individual network components or network parts within a larger network system.
Ict network routing: The processes and techniques for choosing the best paths within an ICT network through which a packet can travel.
Solution deployment: The technologies and standards to be used during the installation, deployment and maintenance of software characteristics.
Computer programming: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms (e.g. object oriented programming, functional programming) and of programming languages.
Ict network security risks: The security risk factors, such as hardware and software components, devices, interfaces and policies in ICT networks, risk assessment techniques that can be applied to assess the severity and the consequences of security threats and contingency plans for each security risk factor.
Procurement of ict network equipment: The products available from network equipment providers and methods for selecting and procuring the equipment.
Internet governance: The principles, regulations, norms and programs that shape the evolution and use of internet, such as internet domain names management, registries and registrars, according to ICANN/IANA regulations and recommendations, IP addresses and names, name servers, DNS, TLDs and aspects of IDNs and DNSSEC.
Ict security legislation: The set of legislative rules that safeguards information technology, ICT networks and computer systems and legal consequences which result from their misuse. Regulated measures include firewalls, intrusion detection, anti-virus software and encryption.
Ict system programming: The methods and tools required to develop system software, specifications of system architectures and interfacing techniques between network and system modules and components.
Cloud technologies: The technologies which enable access to hardware, software, data and services through remote servers and software networks irrespective of their location and architecture.
Quality assurance methodologies: Quality assurance principles, standard requirements, and the set of processes and activities used for measuring, controlling and ensuring the quality of products and processes.
Ict performance analysis methods: The methods used to analyse software, ICT system and network performance which provide guidance to root causes of issues within information systems. The methods can analyse resource bottlenecks, application times, wait latencies and benchmarking results.

These skills are necessary for the role of ICT network administrator.

Provide technical documentation: Prepare documentation for existing and upcoming products or services, describing their functionality and composition in such a way that it is understandable for a wide audience without technical background and compliant with defined requirements and standards. Keep documentation up to date.
Define firewall rules: Specify rules to govern a set of components aiming to limit access between groups of networks or a particular network and the internet.
Design computer network: Develop and plan ICT networks, such as wide area network and local area network, that connect computers using cable or wireless connections and allow them to exchange data and assess their capacity requirements.
Interpret technical texts: Read and understand technical texts that provide information on how to perform a task, usually explained in steps.
Install electronic communication equipment: Set up and deploy digital and analogue electronic communications. Understand electronic diagrams and equipment specifications.
Forecast future ict network needs: Identify current data traffic and estimate how growth will affect the ICT network.
Apply ict system usage policies: Follow written and ethical laws and policies regarding proper ICT system usage and administration.
Manage ict virtualisation machines: Oversee tools, such as VMware, kvm and Xen, used to enable a virtual machine environment which runs on top of other software environments.
Adjust ict system capacity: Change the scope of an ICT system by adding or reallocating additional ICT system components, such as network components, servers or storage to meet capacity or volume demands.
Maintain internet protocol configuration: Apply Internet Protocol Configuration (ipconfig) to gather data on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) configuration values in order to identify devices and their IP addresses.
Implement ict network diagnostic tools: Use software tools or components that monitor ICT network parameters, such as performance and throughput, provide data and statistics, diagnose errors, failures or bottlenecks and support decision making.
Perform backups: Implement backup procedures to backup data and systems to ensure permanent and reliable system operation. Execute data backups in order to secure information by copying and archiving to ensure integrity during system integration and after data loss occurrence.
Analyse network bandwidth requirements: Study the requirements on the transmission capacity of an ICT network or other telecommunication system.
Integrate system components: Select and use integration techniques and tools to plan and implement integration of hardware and software modules and components in a system. Apply specific testing techniques to ensure integrity during system integration.
Manage email hosting service: Oversee the day-to-day running of a private email platform by maintaining and refining provided services, such as spam and virus protection, blocking advertisement, website redesigns and search engine optimisation.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT network administrator. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

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Erlang: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Erlang.
Sas language: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in SAS language.
Ruby (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Ruby.
Common lisp: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Common Lisp.
Lisp: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Lisp.
Visual studio .net: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Visual Basic.
Java (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Java.
Prolog (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Prolog.
Openedge advanced business language: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in OpenEdge Advanced Business Language.
Organisational policies: The policies to achieve set of goals and targets regarding the development and maintenance of an organisation.
Javascript: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in JavaScript.
Perl: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Perl.
Smalltalk (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Smalltalk.
Php: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in PHP.
Assembly (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Assembly.
C#: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in C#.
R: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in R.
Groovy: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Groovy.
Proxy servers: The proxy tools which act as an intermediary for requests from users searching for resources e.g. files and web pages from other servers such as Burp, WebScarab, Charles or Fiddler.
Asp.net: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in ASP.NET.
Apl: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in APL.
Cisco: The products available from the network equipment provider Cisco and methods for selecting and procuring the equipment.
Microsoft visual c++: The computer program Visual C++ is a suite of software development tools for writing programs, such as compiler, debugger, code editor, code highlights, packaged in a unified user interface. It is developed by the software company Microsoft.
Typescript: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in TypeScript.
Windows phone: The system software Windows Phone consists of features, restrictions, architectures and other characteristics of operating systems designed to run on mobile devices.
Mobile operating systems: The features, restrictions, architectures and other characteristics of operating systems designed to run on mobile devices, such as Android or iOS.
Coffeescript: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in CoffeeScript.
Objective-c: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Objective-C.
Ml (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in ML.
Ajax: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in AJAX.
C++: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in C++.
Blackberry: The system software BlackBerry consists of features, restrictions, architectures and other characteristics of operating systems designed to run on mobile devices.
Sap r3: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in SAP R3.
Swift (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Swift.
Matlab: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in MATLAB.
Ict system user requirements: The process intended to match user and organisation’s needs with system components and services, by taking into consideration the available technologies and the techniques required to elicit and specify requirements, interrogating users to establish symptoms of problem and analysing symptoms.
Python (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Python.
Ios: The system software iOS consists of features, restrictions, architectures and other characteristics of operating systems designed to run on mobile devices.
Scratch (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Scratch.
Android (mobile operating systems): The system software Android consists of features, restrictions, architectures and other characteristics of operating systems designed to run on mobile devices.
Vbscript: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in VBScript.
Cobol: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in COBOL.
Pascal (computer programming): The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Pascal.
Abap: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in ABAP.
Scala: The techniques and principles of software development, such as analysis, algorithms, coding, testing and compiling of programming paradigms in Scala.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of ICT network administrator. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Apply system organisational policies: Implement internal policies related to the development, internal and external usage of technological systems, such as software systems, network systems and telecommunications systems, in order to achieve a set of goals and targets regarding the efficient operations and growth of an organisation.
Prepare licence agreements: Make the legal contract ready, granting permission to use equipment, services, components, applications and intellectual property.
Utilise computer-aided software engineering tools: Use software tools (CASE) to support the development lifecycle, design and implementation of software and applications of high-quality that can be easily maintained.
Optimise choice of ict solution: Select the appropriate solutions in the field of ICT while taking into account potential risks, benefits and overall impact.
Provide ict system training: Plan and conduct training of staff on system and network issues. Utilise training material, evaluate and report on the learning progress of trainees.
Execute ict audits: Organise and execute audits in order to evaluate ICT systems, compliance of components of systems, information processing systems and information security. Identify and collect potential critical issues and recommend solutions based on required standards and solutions.
Acquire system component: Obtain hardware, software or network components which match other system components in order to expand it and perform necessary tasks.
Provide technical training: Explain and demonstrate the use of training equipment and system functions.
Install signal repeaters: Set up and configure devices which enhance strength of signal of a communication channel to enable proper reception and reproduction in further places.
Maintain ict server: Diagnose and eliminate hardware faults via repair or replacement. Take preventive measures, review performance, update software, review accessibility.

2522 – Systems administrators

 

 

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References

1. ICT network administrator – ESCO