Coffeebrain695 and other community members share real-world experiences of DevOps engineers handling SaaS user management and tool administration due to shifting team roles.

DevOps Engineers and SaaS User Administration – Where’s the Line?

Posted by Coffeebrain695

“My company has really thrown the kitchen sink at SaaS products. Every week a new one seems to be coming up and I’m struggling to keep track of it. We have SSO enabled for most, but there are exceptions and user/group changes in Google Workspace still need manual work. It often feels like I’m doing Office IT rather than DevOps. Our security/IT guy had to step back, so these duties got dumped on us. Is managing tools and users just part of the platform/DevOps engineer job?”

Community Insights

  • Common Occurrence: Many confirm that in organizations with fewer dedicated IT resources, platform, DevOps, or infrastructure engineers often inherit user admin and SaaS management tasks—especially after layoffs or role reductions.
  • Scope Creep: Several members note this admin work isn’t truly DevOps, but often gets ‘lumped in’ when others depart: “User admin and SaaS wrangling isn’t DevOps—it’s what orgs shove into DevOps when they fire the person who was actually doing it.”
  • Defining Boundaries: Advice is given to candidly track and report time spent on these activities to management, demonstrating impact on proper platform work:
    • Log time spent on non-core DevOps tasks
    • Show how it competes with platform engineering
    • Recommend splitting or delegating IT admin back to dedicated Ops/Sec roles
  • Automation Suggestions: Some contributors describe success in reducing manual toil:
    • Automate user and SaaS provisioning (e.g., Google Workspace admin with Terraform)
    • Implement self-service or CI-led account changes, minimizing hands-on involvement
  • Mental Health and Professional Focus: Reassurance that setting boundaries isn’t being “precious”—it’s key to protecting engineering focus and avoiding long-term burnout
  • Resources: NoFluffWisdom Newsletter is suggested for deeper takes on scope management

Takeaways for DevOps Teams

  • User & SaaS admin work is a recurring ‘side effect’ when organizations cut IT staff
  • Automation (Terraform, CI/CD) can reduce some of these burdens
  • Clear communication and time tracking help make the case for restoring IT/ops support
  • Not every task that involves infrastructure or user access should default to DevOps—it’s healthy to draw lines and push for sustainable workflows

Key Technical Points

  • SSO, RBAC, user provisioning intersect with DevOps, but the routine admin should ideally be automated or delegated
  • Tools mentioned: Google Workspace, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines for user management

This post appeared first on “Reddit DevOps”. Read the entire article here