DevOps is a growing field with its popularity growing across sectors. It is a collaborative word including both Development and Operations, and that is its main selling power. DevOps is a term for the range of operations that try to bridge the gap between the Development and Operations team in an organization, reduce their conflicts and improve coordination.
Professionals who are skilled in DevOps are expected to help the company deliver the best quality product at the quickest pace. The code or the software delivered should be bug-free, efficient, and should have been deployed within the time range specified by the client. As it may sound, this is a very challenging role and thus demands a lot of skills from the professionals working in the DevOps team.
Many software engineering graduates who want to enter this role prefer going for a separate DevOps Engineer Training, usually offered through online websites as certification courses. Such courses take you through a journey from the basics of DevOps to nuanced advanced concepts. They also offer hands-on exposure to various DevOps tools and other allied applications.
However, getting into this role isn’t easy as there are still limited roles and the competition is really high. You need to have some basic requirements and additional skills to give you an edge over other candidates. We are discussing these things in detail below. Before that, let’s take a quick look at what exactly DevOps is.
What is DevOps?
A combined word of Development and Operations, DevOps is a new age IT concept that focuses on the continuous deployment of error-free service. The main objective is to bring together the different silos in an organization, integrate their work, and create a common platform for sharing knowledge, ideas, and even grievances and conflicts at times.
Some of the key benefits of creating a DevOps function in the organization are:
- Speed: There is a more coordinated environment now, which facilitates better work performance.
- Support: Integration between Development and Operations helps in the quick resolution of problems as issues are highlighted quickly. Also, there are dedicated DevOps professionals who are constantly working on providing support to teams.
DevOps can be a lucrative profession as employees in such teams are considered important assets and also offered respect. Many online courses like Simplilearn Online Certificate have been offering specialized DevOps courses to students for a long.
What are the Skills Needed to Become a DevOps Engineer?
DevOps is a skill-demanding role and thus candidates aspiring for this should ensure they possess these skills.
- Coding: Coding or programming is the most essential criterion for almost any IT sector role. Some of the key languages that DevOps professionals should be familiar with include Ruby, Python, Java, C++, etc. They should also have knowledge of certain script languages like JavaScript.
- Operating Systems: To suit the needs of a wider audience and clients, and also to leverage different benefits, DevOps engineering should be capable of working on different operating systems. The basic preferred operating systems include Windows, macOS, Linux, and Ubuntu.
- Databases: Database Management and efficiency in running queries is another skill that these professionals should have.
- Algorithms: DevOps people should be aware of what are the different algorithms and what is the unique purpose of each one of them. They should know how to reduce the complexity of operations as delivering an efficient code is their top priority.
- Cloud Services: Cloud is taking over the traditional forms of local servers in organizations. It is scalable, more secure, cost-efficient, flexible, and does not require any physical maintenance. Thus, DevOps engineers should be able to adapt to these cloud platforms and services, as their operations might have to interact with them from time to time.
- Cyber Security: DevOps people wear multiple hats as they work between different departments. They should also be capable of dealing with emerging cyber threats in form of malware and various trojans. Since they are at the nodal point of various subordinates, they should have enough expertise so that they are able to guide the team when the need arises.
- Life Cycle Development: This is one essential skill that DevOps people should learn at an early stage. Ensuring that an error-free code is delivered within the expected time range requires them to understand the concepts of the life cycle of the project. They should be able to facilitate coordination, reduce time at various stages, and promote proper planning and discussion, from the inception of the idea to final delivery.
What Use Do These Skills Make in Their Job Responsibilities?
To better understand how these skills are helpful for DevOps students, go through the day-to-day responsibilities of such professionals.
- Dealing with customers and clients, and figuring out their exact needs. Organizing these in the form of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to better assess progress.
- Facilitating communication between the 2 teams of Development and Operations, understanding their history of working together, and bringing all the stakeholders to a common table.
- Strengthening the infrastructure of product development and delivery.
- Meeting upper management regularly, updating them with progress, and aligning DevOps objectives with the Business Strategy and objectives.
- Keeping a track of all the latest happenings in the IT world, with the aim to learn the latest developments which can help in improving your own operations.
- Monitoring work of subordinates, like finding bugs in codes, and other activities. Guiding the team at regular intervals and solving their doubts and queries.
- Optimizing resources, tools, and existing applications to save on both time and resources, eventually helping in faster delivery of the product.
- Automating processes, and even migrating to cloud servers, if required.
- Implementing cyber security methods to safeguard the company assets.
DevOps is still a growing field and there will surely be better opportunities in this sector in the near future. Equipping yourself with DevOps skills will only be a win-win situation as the career is also very lucrative. There are various courses that you join to learn DevOps from websites like Simplilearn, Udemy, Coursera, etc. When it is so easy to learn, then why not?