I am the Senior Systems Administrator at a smaller company (~320 users) with a 5 member infrastructure team. The team's current supervisor is the "network/security guy". There's also a "phone system/iSeries guy", and myself, the "Windows/servers/VMware/NAS/SAN/and vast majority of hosted services guy". There's also a junior sysadmin that is delegated work from my plate and a helpdesk tech.


I'm looking to justify splitting out network and systems infrastructure. I'm looking to report to the IS Director and have the junior sysadmin and helpdesk tech report to me.


I can't work under our supervisor any longer. Management is aware that it's gotten to the point that a change has to be made or I'll be looking for a new job. A separation of network and systems was floated to management by the IS Director and she was advised to address the issue through training of the current supervisor. I want to save them the trouble. I know that no amount of training is going to resolve the issues. I believe that when the IS Directory floated the idea of splitting the team that my displeasure was the only reason given. I think that a good business case is what's needed. I know that management values me greatly both for what I contribute now and for my management potential. They would not be opposed to me heading up a systems team. In fact, if the supervisor left the company today I know they would make me the infrastructure supervisor tomorrow. What they are opposed to is having two supervisors when they can get away with one.


So what are the factors that drive a growing infrastructure team to split into network and systems?