As a sysadmin, I recommend Tom Limoncelli's "Practice" books:

- https://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administratio...

- https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Cloud-System-Administration-...

I don't have time to write a detailed post, but would a book recommendation work? :)

"The Practice of Cloud System Administration: Designing and Operating Large Distributed Systems", coming out next month, provides a good viewpoint on how distributed systems design knowledge is useful to someone in a sysadmin role. (I've read a preview via Safari Online and found it an excellent resource.)

[0] http://www.amazon.com/The-Practice-Cloud-System-Administrati...