Why Would You Want to Become DevOps?

First, you need to understand that DevOps is not a profession but a methodology. In the DevOps model, there are different kinds of disciplines: developer, build engineer, tester, release engineer, automation engineer, OPS, infrastructure engineer, and other technical specialties. However, the philosophy of the DevOps methodology states that development, testing, and operations are one seamless process. So following along the lines, a position like DevOps appeared, and in fact, it implies that there is a Jedi who knows all the arts and understands all the processes from a to z, can get involved at any time, and knows how to fix any bug. And, of course, the cost of this Jedi’s services is almost equal to the sum of half the Death Star. By the way, this is one of the main reasons people want to become DevOps.

If you think you could survive all the circles and steps of training and initiation, you’re on your way to DevOps.

What Qualities Does DevOps Engineer Need?

DevOps is a new round of admin evolution. Its features replace task shifting from developers to administrators. DevOps speeds up the release of new features and qualities and identifies and fixes product issues faster. It means that a person must have a specific set of qualities and competencies to perform:

• Continuously deliver software to the customer;
• Ensure security;
• Automate technological processes;
• Run and maintain the development environment;
• Continuously improve tools and workflows;
• Balance team scheduling with customer expectations.

All of these skills imply specific soft and hard skills, such as:

• Experience in most of these areas;
• Technical knowledge;
• Ability to write code;
• Ability to negotiate with a large number of development participants/teams and the customer;
• Self-organization;
• Discipline;

But the main thing is, of course, the experience, experience, and only experience. History knows no cases when a person became DevOps from scratch.

8 Steps on the Way to a DevOps Engineer Career

So, let’s get right to the point. To become a DevOps, you need to:

Learn Languages

And we don’t even mean English here. A good DevOps engineer should know at least one programming language from the cohort of Python, Java, Nod.js, C++, etc. This knowledge is needed to understand what colleagues do, what code you deploy, understand programming logic and loops, how environments work, what masses are, and how to work with them.

Learn Operating Systems

Knowledge of GNU/Linux and Windows operating systems is a must to provide DevOps services. In addition, DevOps must understand the components and structures of operating systems.

Learn Networking and Components

Future DevOps engineer must understand IPv4, IPv6, mask/netmask, gateway, routing, NAT/PAT forwarding, masking, VPN, VLAN, DNS, etc.

Know the Operating Principles and Configuration Systems

To understand a set of operating principles and provide security for automated installation, DevOps knows databases such as MySQL and how to configure web, mail, DNS servers, and virtualization systems.

Learn Containerization

DevOps must be proficient in at least one of the container orchestration platforms (Docker, Kubernetes, Microsoft Azure Container Service, Apache Mesos, Amazon EC2 Container Service). There is a minimally necessary set of software inside the container for the process to work. It is already an incomplete OS, which needs to be monitored, tracked for remaining space, etc. A container is a data processing tool but not a data storage tool.

Explore Cloud Services

Knowing how to work with cloud providers (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.) is a must-have skill for DevOps, as is knowing how to deploy an application to the cloud.Тестировать и

Identify Vulnerabilities

One can search for vulnerabilities with an automated tool. Just know what the most critical vulnerabilities are and how to use tools to find them.

Understand Business Needs

A DevOps engineer has to understand the needs and requirements of the business, see its role in the development process, and tailor the approach to the customer’s interests.

Conclusions

Before the pandemic, there was already an apparent problem. The IT industry is moving toward an increased demand for highly skilled individuals. The responsible operation of current technology (not to mention participating in its development) is difficult. Every year it becomes more and more difficult to find engineers who have the necessary background to work well with higher-level solutions, in the case of DevOps engineers, whose effective work largely depends on interaction with colleagues-developers. They require a technical base and high soft skills. The cherry on the cake is remote working skills. All this leads to increased demand and correspondingly high salaries for candidates.

It is easier to move into this specialty if you are a representative of other fields in IT, especially if you are a system administrator or developer. Both can quickly build up the missing amount of experience and knowledge. They already have half of what they need and often more than half.

Also, testers make excellent DevOps engineers. They know what works and how it works, and they are aware of the drawbacks and shortcomings of software and hardware. So you could say that a tester who knows programming languages and can write programs is a DevOps engineer already.