What Is DevOps?
DevOps is a cooperation between developers and operations engineers to fulfil a shared objective through a combined philosophy and methodology.
In traditional software creation, there was a definitive separation between the processes of operations and development. Programmers had a limited role in how the applications they designed were used, and had very little knowledge of where or how the software functioned. Meanwhile, the system administrators responsible for managing the operations were completely unaware of how the software worked or how it was produced, thus they were solely reliant on luck that it would function as they were hoping it would.
This concept creates a rivalry between two factions, one with a long-term ambition for consistency, and the other with a long-term aim to transform. This generated so much resistance that the updates were only done occasionally to prevent problems.
Due to the limited release cycles of the pre-DevOps era, both the development and operations teams lacked a good understanding of each other’s work. Consequently, hand-offs between the two divisions meant that any changes required many weeks of extra labour and long hours, often leading to substantial downtime.
DevOps strives to improve the relationship between developers and operations personnel, as well as by introducing an exchange of duties.
Frequent alterations are a must, ideally occurring numerous times a day, and comprehensive automation and evaluation should be included in order to minimize the length of service outages and troubleshoot issues promptly. This leads to more beneficial results for the business due to improved quality of software, fewer instances of overtime and system breakdowns, as well as faster implementations of customer ideas.
What Is a DevOps Engineer?
People use the term DevOps Engineer quite often, and it can have a variety of interpretations.
Some people argue that it is not necessary to have someone with the job title of DevOps Engineer, as DevOps isjust a culture or approach to working, and not an actual role.
Those who hold the same opinion would claim that forming another division would be counterproductive to having related functions that collaborate and share responsibility.
These arguments are not wrong. Certain organizations that possess a high level of awareness and proficiency in DevOps engineering do not even assign any position under that title, such as Google. It is accurate to say that when hiring for a DevOps Engineer occur, the position might actually be looking for someone who has expertise in the areas of infrastructure engineering, systems reliability engineering, continuous integration/continuous deployment engineering, or system administration.
So the definition for DevOps engineer is rather broad.
It is for certain that a DevOps engineer should be well-acquainted with both DevOps tradition and methods, and should be able to serve as a communicator between different teams to enhance the delivery speed of software.
In this article, I am going to provide an overview of the skills needed to become a DevOps engineer, as well as some of the most important and relevant abilities needed to get a job in this field.
What Does a DevOps Engineer Do?
While DevOps is a term that may encompass many roles there are some common tasks across these different roles:
- Spinning up and automating infrastructure
- Writing CI/CD Pipelines
- Creating and configuring container orchestrators
- Working closely with developers to write well designed microservices architectures
- Design DevOps strategies (Roadmap of infrastructure and deployments)
- Designing observability platforms and recommendations for various teams.
- Providing platform and infrastructure recommendations and advice to development teams.
- Ensuring that all workloads and infrastructure is secure.
- Etc.
What Skills Do DevOps Engineers Need?
It can be daunting trying to figure out what should be studied first. Even though this has been done for a long period of time, it’s still simple to get overwhelmed by all the technologies that already exist, in addition to the ones that are coming out in the future, because there’s no end to the variety.
People often ask, “What should I learn first?” AWS? GCP? Kubernetes? Docker? Jenkins? Terraform? Ansible?
I am going to split the list into the following categories:
- Core Technical skills : common knowledge that’s required in all DevOps roles. Must absolutely learn them. There is no picking, there is no ifs or buts – you need to know it well.
- DevOps Technical skills : Tools and processes that are very common in DevOps roles but that you may not use or need in every role. Not all roles include all of these, but it’s good for you to be familiar with them.
- Soft skills : Not technical skills, but skills that will help you further your career and deal with people on a daily basis.
It is impossible to acquire DevOps technical abilities without possessing the fundamental skill set. It isn’t necessary to possess top-level expertise in any of the core abilities to start honing DevOps competences. The significance of Interpersonal Skills cannot be underestimated for job roles related to DevOps since it involves setting up and keeping up helpful communication from one end of the establishment to the other.
What Are The Types of DevOps Courses and Qualifications Available?
It is not necessary for one to be certified to acquire a DevOps role; in fact, employers pay more attention to the individual’s experience than certifications. However, they can be a good way to get you inspired to gain more knowledge. Even if you lack a college degree and no job experience, these opportunities can serve as great additions to your resume. I will include introductory qualifications for every competency that you can pursue to begin your progress.
Core Technical Skills
The following six technical capabilities will be integral to any job with a DevOps focus. Once you have mastered these fundamentals, you are ready to start applying for entry level roles or internships as you move on the learning ladder towards DevOps technical skills:
- Linux (OS fundamentals)
- Basic Programming skills.
- Bash
- Git
- Networking Fundamentals
- Cloud Platform Fundamentals
Linux (OS Fundamentals)
Linux is a free open-source operating system that has its roots in the Unix platform. The bulk of DevOps positions require familiarity and utilization of Linux, though you can choose to focus on Windows and pursue a career path through Microsoft. However, Linux and all the open source materials accessible make it much simpler to comprehend operating systems and how they operate.
An abundance of online materials exist that can assist you in mastering Linux. Examining the LPIC test program and taking the assessments to gain the qualifications might be a good point to begin.
Resources
Certifications
Basic Programming Skills
Don’t worry, you don’t need to be as knowledgeable as Dennis Ritchie to work as a DevOps engineer. It’s not necessary to define yourself as a programmer to start working in most DevOps positions.
Though it is not a requirement, to have a rudimentary understanding of programming principles like repetition, variables, organized sets of data, and records will be of help when you must make or alter code. It is also a requisite for scripting and controlling your tasks.
It would be a good idea to begin your programming journey by acquainting yourself with the fundamentals of Python, since it is relatively straightforward. Afterwards, try tackling a range of puzzles and tasks on a site like Edabit – this should help you steadily build up your knowledge and skill to an intermediate level. If you reach the required proficient level, you should find scripting and completing automation tasks straightforward.
It is beneficial for you to acquaint yourself with well-known design patterns and algorithms during your learning process. You don’t need these elements to initially begin a DevOps journey, yet they will be useful at some point in the future.
Resources
Certifications
Bash
Bash is the most fundamental scripting language used to simplify tasks in the Unix environment (equivalent to Powershell for Windows). Regardless of your comfortability with scripting in Python or other languages, bash is accessible nearly everywhere and mastering it will be essential for this job.
You don’t need to be an expert coder to complete most day-to-day tasks, yet having at least some familiarity with programming certainly makes things easier.
Resources
Networking Fundamentals
You don’t need to be a network engineer to start your career in DevOps but it helps a lot if you have a basic grasp of networking, such as:
- What’s an ip?
- What’s a subnet and subnet mask?
- What’s a route?
- What’s a router and a switch?
- What’s a VPC?
Knowing the above information and a little more is necessary to be able to diagnose and come up with VPC strategies for your cloud environment.
How to Become a DevOps Engineer
When investigating how to become a DevOps engineer, there are various paths to consider. (A combination of the options below is usually best!)
Take courses or bootcamps
There are plenty of options here too. For instance, you can enroll in certain courses outlined above, to advance your DevOps abilities in a way that relates to constructing your own DevOps qualification.
You can also opt for a comprehensive DevOps course/bootcamp which will offer you the whole range of necessary abilities required to shape yourself into a DevOps engineer in only a single comprehensive program. Here are a few to check out:
- DevOps Bootcamp: Learn Linux & Become a Linux Sysadmin on ZeroToMastery
- Become a Cloud DevOps Engineer on Udacity
- DevOps Bootcamp by The Linux Foundation
- 30 Days Devops Challenge by School of Devops
Get certified
Aim to achieve a certification while you are in the process of training. You can study and then take a lot of DevOps certifications to demonstrate your capabilities to prospective employers. For example:
- Docker Certified Associate (DCA)
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
- Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
- Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert
Work your way in
Another option is to start out with other jobs in tech and build your way up, like these two guests from the Learn to Code With Me Podcast did:
- Logan Tran started in quality assurance, got a job as a junior software engineer 2 years later, and then became a DevOps engineer
- Before becoming a DevOps engineer, Nicole Forsgren was a professor, a performance engineer, and a sysadmin.
You can begin a career in DevOps from either a development position or an operations role. For instance, you can initially gain skills in either development (Dev) or product management (Ops) before becoming knowledgeable enough to transition to the field of DevOps.
FAQs About DevOps Engineers
Let’s look into a few inquiries about how to turn into a DevOps engineer!
Is DevOps easy to learn?
DevOps is a discipline that requires knowledge of both the development and operational aspects. It is not a very simple job to get started in.
Although it may not be straightforward, mastering the core principles and the DevOps practices will not be too demanding if you are determined and go about it slowly. You can facilitate the DevOps learning process by engaging in your own undertakings, preparing for qualifications, and participating in web-based classes or a condensed training program.
How long does it take to become a DevOps engineer?
You need to have a sense of the general situation before you can get an employment as a DevOps engineer, which can usually only be acquired through real-world involvement. This could imply devoting time to other occupations (for example, developer, system administrator), gaining assistance from someone with advanced knowledge, or having relevant internships, etc.
Earning an education by working through online courses can provide you with a strong base of knowledge, however, it may take a few years before you are ultimately ready to start working as a full-time DevOps engineer. And that’s okay — you have to start somewhere! An illustration of this would be Logan Tran, who had a post as a software developer for in excess of 1 year prior to getting a DevOps role. He put in a lot of effort to master the skills needed to be a software engineer.
What related/similar jobs are there?
Are you interested in operating a job within the DevOps environment, even if it is not strictly a DevOps engineering position? Other job roles associated with similar duties are Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Build Engineer, Release Manager, Platform Engineer, and DevOps Advocate.
Which companies need DevOps engineers?
In a recent study, it was found that 74% of businesses have started using DevOps, and the numbers are climbing! This indicates that corporations of varied sizes and dimensions need personnel with aptitude in DevOps.
Is DevOps Right for You?
DevOps is an occupation that combines facets of both programming and operations work. If you take enjoyment from accomplishing a lot and getting programming out quickly, you should look into this job.
This position is not only highly rewarding financially, but the results of your work will continually become evident due to the ongoing process of DevOps coding and implementation.
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