@pcharles,

"I've learned that removing a responsibility does not vacate your accountability if something goes wrong"

That is true, but with cloud computing "responsibility" and "accountability" may not have the same meanings any more to IT.

@Ariella,

Setting a poll might be and interesting idea. We might also ask people to tell why they prefer an option over others. But I don't think people are always eager to write about their choice.

I've learned that removing a responsibility does not vacate your accountability if something goes wrong, even if it is more cost-effective.

It's always prudent to do your due diligence when moving anything to the cloud.

well in the article we are discussing, Charlotte mentions that a sysadmin in the time-honored sense-- (Are you still a system administrator in the time-honored sense? Somebody whose job it is to plan, install, configure, and maintain your company IT infrastructure? Then you'll have to be very tough or very flexible, for your job is about to reach the end of its shelf life -- at least at many enterprises.) as being qualified to make these decisions.

And in the corporations I have worked for the Security Officer is not some figure sitting around reading firewall logs. No sir in actuallity the CSO is outside the traditional corporate chain of command and answer directly to the CEO. And is in position and ppossesion of technical skills and knowledge to make the very decisions you say are outside of his/her perview. Perhaps you might look into the new way secuity is looked at in the corporate and government IT worlds. I suppose we will just diisagree on this also. But it is my experience that the decisions described in the blog fit well with the CSOs I have worked with.

Respectfully,

Kurt

Usman - That's not necessarily as a big a factor as it might appear. Internet technologies change so quickly that even a recent college grad is likely to find his education is obsolete in a few short years.

@Usman Ejaz, another possible factor, yes. Maybe we should set up a poll here for hiring manager to get their take on what they think.

Prejudice and salary factors are not the only thing involved in hiring of just out of college IT pros, they are trained on new technologies/tools which in near future are going to be used in industry. and I think that is the major factor in their hiring.

Just out of college IT pros often get hired over vets due to age prejudice, and the fact that they're more willing to work long hours cheaply. 

dcawrey - Sometimes it's good for one's career to stay exactly where you are when everybody else is rushing off to the new thing. Just ask a mainframe data operator or COBOL programmer about that. 

Neither a system admin nor the security officer should make these decisions. It should be made at midmanagement level at minimum, ideally the CIO. Because there is more than security involved in deciding to deploy to the cloud, there are also business, legal, and regulatory issues.