If we talk about the software development cycle, it includes a plethora of steps and consumes a lot of time. DevOps is nothing but a practice that focuses on reducing the time consumed to accomplish the software development cycle. Automation is the key for DevOps and the practices of DevOps operate well with continuous delivery methodologies of Agile and it thereby makes the software get into the market in a very small time. One can discover an ongoing improvement in knowledge, creativity, and systems delivery using DevOps. Thus, software developers can gain more growth and prosperity with the use of DevOps practices. This article is all about how to become a DevOps Engineer and its other related facts given below.
What Do You Mean by DevOps Engineer?
DevOps engineers are those who hold years of hands-on experience and deeper knowledge of a huge spectrum of open source tools and techniques. They are equipped with key attributes along with the data management skills and ability to code and script and have a great focus on business success. “Special Forces” is the right name for them as they have strong collaboration, better communication, and great performance that goes beyond functional borders. Moreover, they always believe in working comfortably with deployment and incremental code testing. DevOps engineers make use of automation tools to take the business forward quickly and to the next level. At the same time, they offer various benefits of stronger technology to the business. Above all, they have a keen interest in framework computerization, scripting, and coding, taking care of deployment automation, and dealing with the version control system.
Characteristics of a DevOps Engineer
There is a huge demand for individuals having DevOps skills everywhere as businesses are able to achieve positive outcomes from DevOps. It has been found that enterprises making use of DevOps practices are quite high-functioning. DevOps Engineer has the ability to deploy code up to 50% fewer of their deployments fail and 30 times more often as compared to their competitors. Check out some of the attributes or qualities of a DevOps Engineer which are as follows:
- A Wide Knowledge of Ops and Sysadmin roles
- Experience in a huge spectrum of open source techniques and tools
- Strong knowledge of different computer programming languages
- The expertise of DevOps Automation tools such as Puppet, Chef, and Ansible
- Good knowledge of Agile Methodology in Project Management
- Experience in Delivery, Continuous Integration, and Deployment
- Expertise in software testing, deployment, and coding
- A positive thinker with the potential to link the business as well as technical objectives
- Industry-wide experience in adoption of DevOps solutions for the collaboration of the team
- Different Responsibilities/Roles of DevOps Engineer
- Develop and maintain open-source services and highly automated services landscape
- Maintain and control infrastructure system
- Scale systems and make sure that the services are available with Developers so as to alterations to the infrastructures needed by new commodities as well as features
- Ensure the integral components of technology is connected with the success of the company by taking over its ownership
How Can You Become a DevOps Engineer?
DevOps is all about taking the business ahead by providing it a robust technological benefit. DevOps is less about undertaking things in a specific way. One cannot become a DevOps engineer just with a single path rather it requires a consulting process as well as continuous learning. Every task of DevOps has been made from different testing, development, ops team consulting through running pilots and consultants which is why it is difficult to get it adopted with a generic playbook. To become a DevOps professional, you should start learning about the methods, practices, values, and principles of DevOps and try to share it through any platform so that you can even make others learn along with you.
Here are some of the golden tips to become a DevOps professional which are as follows:
- Get the awareness of IaC (Infrastructure-as-Code) – CM
- Involve with the community and create your personal brand
- Have expertise in Private, Hybrid, and Public Cloud rendering
- Become an expert in operations before you think about DevOps
- Gain the knowledge of DevOps frameworks and principles
- Achieve hands-on experience with different Linux tools and distros
- Learn to deal with automation, CI-CD, and monitoring tools (Github, Ansible, Jenkins, Puppet, and more)
- Reveal empathy as well as curiosity
- Begin with cross-collaboration and process re-engineering within your teams
- Get the certification of container technologies such as Cloud, Kubernetes, and Docker
10 Steps You Need to Follow to Become DevOps Engineer
Have a look at the best 10 steps to become DevOps Engineer which is given below:
1. Gain Fluency in Programming Languages
Coding skills are a must especially when it is about the usual suspects such as JavaScript, Python, Perl, and Ruby. You should be well-versed with programming to perceive the obstacles that are faced by the dedicated programmers while developing the application or software. Being a competent programmer, you would definitely adopt DevOps practices to determine the flexibility of the code during the production time and environment.
2. Know About the term ‘DevOps’
In most individuals’ DevOps journey, one of the initial stumbling obstacles is their false perception of the term. DevOps is not just blending the operations and development teams but also the implementation of certain processes and practices and following them properly throughout your whole delivery journey. You should bear in mind that DevOps is not like Agile.
3. Gain Knowledge About Different DevOps Tools
As a matter of fact, there are plenty of DevOps tools accessible in the market. There is no single correct answer to the question ‘’What are the best DevOps tools to make in use?” in fact, the answer depends on different facts like unique requirements of the given environment, the size of the team, and the stage of SDLC at which you will use the tool. However, not just the implementation of DevOps tools make things successful but you should know which tools work the best in which environments and be familiar with the industry-standard tools.
4. Boost Your Testing Skills
The success of DevOps adoption also depends on the testing activities. Even though DevOps increases the rate of delivery, you should be equally fast and accurate enough in your testing skills. Moreover, continuous testing is important in any DevOps implementation as it calls for regulating automated tests to assess the involved risks. Keep in mind that inefficient testing can be an obstacle in your DevOps delivery pipeline.
5. Keep a Relationship with Cloud Platforms
The Cloud and DevOps go together for the most part. Both of them together can encourage faster deployment rates as well as easier IT automation and thereby lets you collaborate well across version control and other such functions as well. In addition, involving DevOps in the systems of cloud management is a better option for various organizations to make hybrid cloud management possible.
6. Develop Security Skills
One of the must-have skills for a DevOps engineer is to have the ability to write security code. For quicker code deployment and development cycles, it is necessary to make the DevOps environment successful. Furthermore, the popularity of embedding security into the pipeline of DevOps is growing rapidly which is why DevOps engineers are expected to have the security skills to a great extent.
7. Do Not Underrate Non-Technical Skills
Normally, individuals underestimate non-technical skills in a technical environment but there are certain crucial non-technical skills that play a huge role in prospering the DevOps career of an individual. The collaboration among DevOps professionals adopts an environment of shared responsibility. As a DevOps professional, you should have a customer-focused mindset in order to meet the requirements of the customers. At the same time, communication skills are equally important so that you can consistently work with individuals from different technical backgrounds.
8. Get Expert in System Administration
To become a DevOps engineer, you should have experience in Linux or Windows administration. Even though they have two distinct roles, they share several common technical skills hence system admins normally switch to DevOps. If you are a system administrator, you would be already aware of scripting, OS admin, and monitoring and of course, they would come into use in the DevOps career.
9. Gain Expertise in Infrastructure Automation Tools
DevOps should involve the practices of infrastructure automation as it is obviously one of the crucial components of DevOps. If DevOps is undertaken without infrastructure automation, it would be like your own horse that only runs inside your farm. But again automation is not the only thing that operates the DevOps. However, the more benefits you can reap the more things you automate.
10. Use of Containers
Experience in containerization is a plus note in your DevOps career. Many organizations have found that containers are an attractive option in the environment of DevOps. It renders enhanced reliability, versatility, and portability and thereby eases the workloads of the software developers. It is true that many successful DevOps service providers offer containerization services and they usually look for people who are familiar with containerization tools such as ClusterHQ, Kubernetes, and Docker.
