I also think that an 'ideal' SAS platform administrator would be someone that has general system administration skills and experience, together with SAS software skills and experience (including programming). This would provide an understanding of the SAS platform user needs together with knowledge of how best to provide them using the software and hardware infrastructure available. Of course with the increasing depth and complexity of the SAS platform and associated solutions, together with the wide array of system infrastructure options to support it, it is very hard to find a single 'ideal' person with all of the necessary skills. For organizations big enough to support it, a team that spans the necessary skills is more likely to be viable and might also be a good reason to embed SAS administrators, with SAS software skills, within the IT function so that they can cross-pollinate :)

As one of the external instructors for the SAS Platform Administrator Fast Track course in Australia I have found that the students that attend the courses come from diverse backgrounds. My experience so far has been an approximate 50/50 split, with half being IT sys admins wanting to learn how to support their SAS platform users, and the other half being traditional/technical SAS programmers wanting/needing to learn more about administration. I find that both ends of the spectrum do as well as each other in the course. They also seem to benefit from the discussions and questions they have for each other (one of the reasons I believe so strongly in classroom training).

Personally I believe that it doesn't matter so much which side of the spectrum aspiring SAS platform administrators come from as, given time, they can readily learn the other side (or have access to others with the required skills). Rather than skills that can be easily acquired, I would personally place more emphasis on finding someone who is rigorous and methodical in their approach to tasks. I would place more weight on a strong aptitude for careful and considered impact analysis, risk assessment, change management, and planning of recovery options. A methodical approach to troubleshooting based on layered pre-validation of underlying assumptions is also to be very highly valued.

I believe the support of the organization itself, in recognition of the importance of the SAS platform administrator position is essential. Whilst, in the past, prior to SAS 9, SAS administration was often a small part-time role, these days I feel it deserves to be a full-time role for an individual (or team) in most medium to large organizations. When I speak to people who have been given administration in addition to their normal role they usually say they only have time to do the bare minimum and cannot be proactive in their approach. The strong support of an organization in terms of training, certification, and conference/user-group attendance (to learn from ones peers) is a wise investment. Learning from one's own mistakes with expensive and sometimes business critical hardware and software platforms can be a costly and risky exercise otherwise.