Second Annual SysAdmin of the Year Contest Launches to Celebrate the Rock Stars of IT

Splunk and Industry Leaders Shine the Spotlight on SysAdmins Who Keep The Worlds Servers and Datacenters Running

SAN FRANCISCO – July 27, 2007 – Today, System Administrator Appreciation Day (the last Friday of every July), brings with it the kickoff of the Second Annual SysAdmin of the Year Contest. Splunk, creators of the original IT Search engine for logs and IT data, along with other industry leaders and co-sponsors SourceForge.net, Digg, NaSPA, LOPSA, and USENIX/SAGE have officially launched the 2007 "Is Your SysAdmin A Rock Star?" contest. Bringing much deserved attention to the work of system administrators, the annual contest recognizes superstar individuals for outstanding achievements from the smallest server room to the biggest datacenter.

"Last year’s first SysAdmin of the Year contest was a great success with over 5000 nominations. It proved people want to recognize the SysAdmins who make their jobs easier," said Patrick McGovern, VP marketing and community at Splunk. We are thrilled to once again be a sponsor, making sure these unsung heroes get the recognition they clearly deserve."

During the three-month contest, anyone can nominate their system administrator, network manager, database administrator, or other IT professional simply by submitting an online nomination describing why their IT person is a SysAdmin Rockstar, going beyond the call call-of-duty on a daily basis. The panel of judges includes Jeff Bates, co-founder of Slashdot,org, Ted Kekatos, originator of System Administration Appreciation Day, and 2006 SysAdmin of the Year Grand grand prize winner, Michael Beck of Emerging Technologies Group. The contest is open to U.S. and Canadian resident IT administrators currently employed as an IT administrator.

Prizes will be awarded at five levels:

• Grand Prize - One winner will receive a Gibson Explorer guitar, an Apple MacBook Pro, a trip to the LISA Conference in Dallas (November 11-16, 2007), and a Splunk Enterprise license
• Runners-Up - Three individuals will receive an Apple iPhone
• Honorable Mentions - Ten individuals will receive a case of Red Bull Energy Drink
• Nominees - The first 2500 nominees will receive a free SysAdmin of the Year t-shirt

"SyAdmins typically only hear from higher-level managers when there's a problem", said Tom Limoncelli, contest judge and co-author of The Practice of System and Network Administration. "These IT professionals are the ones on the front lines, keeping mission critical servers and applications running. They deserve to be recognized and applauded."

"Syadmins are rarely appreciated - whether things are running smoothly or not," said Ethan Galstad, creator of Nagios, a leading Open Source systems management tool. "This contest is a great way of showing people the amount of planning, hard work, and quick-thinking that goes into the production and use of system pixie dust."

To nominate your system administrator, visit: http://www.sysadminoftheyear.com. Deadline for nominations is October 12, 2007.

About Splunk

Splunk^® Inc. provides the engine for machine data™. Splunk software collects, indexes and harnesses the massive machine data continuously generated by the websites, applications, servers, networks and mobile devices that power business. Splunk software enables organizations to monitor, search, analyze, visualize and act on massive streams of real-time and historical machine data. More than 3,300 enterprises, universities, government agencies and service providers in more than 75 countries use Splunk Enterprise to gain operational intelligence that deepens business understanding, improves service and uptime, reduces cost and mitigates cybersecurity risk. To learn more, please visit www.splunk.com/company.

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