Exchange administrator vs windows system administrator

The differences between exchange administrators and windows system administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an exchange administrator and a windows system administrator. Additionally, an exchange administrator has an average salary of $93,513, which is higher than the $79,845 average annual salary of a windows system administrator.

The top three skills for an exchange administrator include powershell, windows server and troubleshoot. The most important skills for a windows system administrator are windows server, infrastructure, and powershell.

Exchange administrator vs windows system administrator overview

	Exchange Administrator	Windows System Administrator
Yearly salary	$93,513	$79,845
Hourly rate	$44.96	$38.39
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	71,304	94,648
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 56%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	2	2

What does an exchange administrator do?

An Exchange Administrator is responsible for setting up and managing an organization's Microsoft Exchange server. As an Exchange Administrator, you will assist in creating mailboxes and user accounts as well as restoring files and backup security. You will also conduct routine maintenance of the server, configure new users, and help in managing server infrastructure. Other duties include managing email-related tools and systems, assisting in server migration and disaster recovery, and handling and managing client inquiries.

What does a windows system administrator do?

A Windows System Administrator maintains the systems and servers of a Windows operating system. They evaluate and modify the system's performance.

Exchange administrator vs windows system administrator salary

Exchange administrators and windows system administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Exchange Administrator	Windows System Administrator
Average salary	$93,513	$79,845
Salary range	Between $70,000 And $123,000	Between $60,000 And $104,000
Highest paying City	San Jose, CA	Sunnyvale, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Unisys	Meta
Best paying industry	Finance	Finance

Differences between exchange administrator and windows system administrator education

There are a few differences between an exchange administrator and a windows system administrator in terms of educational background:

	Exchange Administrator	Windows System Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 56%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Computer Science	Computer Science
Most common college	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Exchange administrator vs windows system administrator demographics

Here are the differences between exchange administrators' and windows system administrators' demographics:

	Exchange Administrator	Windows System Administrator
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 83.4% Female, 16.6%	Male, 88.3% Female, 11.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 11.6% White, 61.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.6% Asian, 13.7% White, 61.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between exchange administrator and windows system administrator duties and responsibilities

Exchange administrator example responsibilities.

Monitor, maintain, and manage Citrix XenApp user sessions and support their ThinClients.
Manage IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0 server clusters and services across multiple sites and domains.
Save company many hours of manual testing and developing by engineering Java applications to automate tedious tasks.
Utilize strong working knowledge of TCP/IP, DHCP, HTTP, LDAP, SNMP, SMTP, and other networking protocols.
Subject matter expert on the Linux and UNIX servers.
Perform multiple batch moves from on-premise exchange environment to O365.

Windows system administrator example responsibilities.

Manage and configure VPN connections for the users.
Deploy and manage Panasonic PBX and VOIP phone systems and network connectivity.
Manage exchange stores, mailbox provisioning, active sync and monitoring the mailboxes.
Manage data usage, space, security and archival over servers, workstations and NAS machines.
Manage issues with server hardware, networking, web services, database, DNS, clustering, and e-mail.
Manage all OU's under domain at multiple sites across the country through a constant VPN tunnel per client rules.

Exchange administrator vs windows system administrator skills

Common exchange administrator skills

PowerShell, 8%
Windows Server, 7%
Troubleshoot, 7%
Infrastructure, 6%
Microsoft Exchange, 6%
Mobile Device Management, 4%

Common windows system administrator skills

Windows Server, 9%
Infrastructure, 7%
PowerShell, 7%
Troubleshoot, 6%
Linux, 5%
SCCM, 4%

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Exchange Administrator vs Windows System Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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