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System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services are critical for any organization that relies on technology to operate. Here are some of the benefits of having a well-designed and maintained IT infrastructure:

Increased Productivity: A well-designed and maintained IT infrastructure allows employees to work more efficiently and effectively. This is because they can access the tools and resources they need to perform their jobs with ease, without being hindered by technology-related issues or interruptions.

Improved Security: System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services help to identify and mitigate potential security risks. This includes implementing firewalls, anti-virus software, and other security measures to safeguard critical business data and protect against data breaches.

Better Data Management: IT infrastructure services help organizations store, manage, and analyze data more effectively. This can help to improve decision-making processes and drive more successful outcomes.

Increased Uptime: System administrators ensure that critical systems and applications are always available and working properly, which minimizes downtime and ensures that business operations can continue smoothly.

Scalability: As an organization grows, its IT infrastructure needs to grow with it. System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services can help organizations scale their infrastructure to meet new demands, including expanding storage capacity and upgrading hardware and software.

Cost Savings: A well-designed and maintained IT infrastructure can help organizations save money in the long run. This includes reducing the need for expensive hardware repairs and replacements, minimizing downtime, and optimizing resources to reduce overall costs.

This course was easy to follow and explained the new vocab really well. However, all of the assignments that help you get some hands-on practice did not work for me. I only got 25% of the way through an assignment and then I wouldn't be able to move on to the next step because the 'Ctrl X' function in the editor wasn't working. Also, the end assignment doesn't give you any feedback. I loved the idea of being presented with 'real life' scenarios and having to apply what we learned to solve the issue, but as long as you typed enough characters in the box, it assumed that you answered correctly. I typed out nearly the same solution for two of the scenarios because I was lost and thought that was what should be done, but it straight away gave me 100% for the grade. It said that I "gave five or more examples of how I would resolve the issues and detailed reasons why" but I counted and at most, I only listed 4 in any given one. I also did not give detailed explanations as to why because I am not knowledgeable enough to do so. I simply thought "That sounds like stuff we covered in Week 3, so I will just put a random keyword from there and call it good." This is where Coursera's approach is inferior to that of the Open University. You aren't graded by real people and if you are struggling, there is no one to talk you through it and understand why. I suppose you get what you pay for, huh?

In conclusion, system administration and IT infrastructure services are critical components of any modern organization's technology infrastructure. Effective system administration ensures that IT systems are configured correctly, updated regularly, and maintained to minimize downtime and security risks. Meanwhile, IT infrastructure services provide essential support for the hardware, software, and network components that comprise an organization's IT environment.

Effective system administration and IT infrastructure services require a combination of technical expertise, strategic planning, and strong communication skills. IT professionals responsible for these functions must work closely with other departments to ensure that the technology infrastructure meets the needs of the organization as a whole.

As technology continues to evolve rapidly, system administration and IT infrastructure services will continue to play a crucial role in helping organizations stay competitive and achieve their goals. By staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices, IT professionals can ensure that their organizations remain agile, secure, and efficient in the face of ongoing change and disruption.

This course is an essential course to be a System Administrator. It covers every essential topic, up to the Disaster Plans. Thank you for the course, I tried all the labs including Ungraded Labs. And everything, all the Labs, worked fine for me except for the last Lab. (The last error for my lab that prevented me from successfully finish backup was "Tar exited with error 512 () status”. Googled the problem and tried to add the "--ignore-failed-read" option, but it also didn’t work. And see I am just at the beginning of the way where are lots of things to study.

Already knew most of the course program, revised the themes about DHCP, DNS, Cloud services. But the section on the Active Directory was quite new for me, and I'm happy I studied it in this course as I gained more knowledge on Users, Groups, and Policies. I did IBM's course "Cybersecurity Compliance Framework and System Administration" parallel to this course, and both of the courses together provide a better vision and understanding of System Administration.

Overall, this was one of the stronger courses in the program. The labs especially were great for hands on practice and experience. My only issues were with the subtitles/notes functions and with the supplemental readings--the subtitles were often completely inaccurate, referring to "LDAP" as "dial-up" and totally replacing acronyms with sound alike words or unrelated acronyms, which made the note-taking function nearly useless without appending it with corrections constantly (and for someone who is hard of hearing or deaf, it would make the course impossible to learn properly--it's that bad). That, and the supplemental readings were in many cases woefully out of date. For a paid program aimed at an industry that is always evolving and changing, that's a major issue. Overall, though, it was incredibly informative and among the easier of the courses thus far to follow. Good stuff.