The Roadmap to becoming a DevOps Engineer in 2020

By Charles Richard
18 Min Read
DevOps Engineer

What work Does a DevOps Engineer Do?

DevOps is short for the development and operations to improve the collaboration process. A DevOps Engineer that will work with the IT developers to facilitate better coordination among the construction, services, and testing functions by streamlining and automating the integration and the deployment processes.

Who is precisely a DevOps Engineer?

DevOps engineer roles and responsibilities are to manage the IT infrastructure as per the requirement of the supported software code that is much more dedicated to a hybrid multi-tenant environment. There is also a need to have some resources for the provisioning and to get the appropriate deployment model and even for monitoring and validating the performance.

When it comes to the DevOps, there is a need to have some of the incremental and frequent changes in the code versions so that the regular testing and deployment are possible. It might even not be always possible for the DevOps engineers to do the programming and coding from scratch; they anyway need to know about it.

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There is also a need for the DevOps Engineers to connect with the various parts of elements of coding along with the software development kits and libraries kits and integrate with the multiple components of the SQL data management or messaging tools for the proper running software release with the production infrastructure and operating system.

Many of the amateurs are getting confused about how to become a DevOps engineer? Which tools and practices to follow and does the infrastructure automation part of DevOps will help to get those expert skills? We all are aware of how hot the DevOps roadmap is at the moment.

Let us go to the roadmap process by the process to figure out how can you learn the essential skills which are required to become a DevOps expert.

To Become a DevOps Engineer:

Security with DevOps

Begin by learning a Programming language

We all are aware of the most popular main programming languages that are Java, Python, or JavaSCript. Do not panic as we have provided the complete courses below to learn the language of your choice as it is highly recommended to learn any among the given. You can try variant courses available to learn these primary languages. Once, you get command over these languages; things will seem much more comfortable.

  • Java

Java has been ruling the industry from the past 20 decades since it came into the market in the year 1990s. Just like the Python, Java is a compiler-based programming language, and some of the Java features include the concurrent nature, object-oriented programming, general-purpose usage with the help of Java Runtime Environment and Java Virtual Machine that is platform-independent can be used while developing small programs for the system administrator to the top class high functionality software.

To start with it, the course like the “THE COMPLETE JAVA MASTER CLASS” is a great course which has been recently updated with the Java 12. Java plays an essential role in the DevOps engineer roadmap.

  •  JavaScript

All the projects nowadays involved the JavaScript framework and its ecosystem that continues to grow at a notable pace. From the client-side JavaScript to the server-side frameworks, the internet has been splashed with the full range of applications that run on the JavaScript.

If you are interested in learning the JavaScript, then you can look for the JS BOOOT CAMP Tutorial which plays an essential role in roadmap DevOps 2020.

  • Python

Python has its roots in the late 1980s, and as of now, it has even proved to be a pragmatic all-purpose language. Python nowadays can be effectively and efficiently used in almost all the areas like the GUI Development, web development, Software development, System Administration and Scientific and Number development.

Some of the cloud options like the configuration and OpenStack management tools like the Ansible are built on the top of the python, which is impressive. There are various online tutorials that are available over the internet to learn the Python from scratch.

Python is the last used language that helps the engineers in DevOps 2020 roadmap.

Try to understand variant OS concepts to live in the Terminal

The Roadmap to becoming a DevOps Engineer in 2020 1

Earlier, it was solely the supported guys or system admin people who were responsible for knowing about OS and hardware, but with the DevOps, the developers need to know about the Process Management, Sockets, Threads and Concurrency, I/O Management, Memory Storage, Virtualization, and File systems.

If you are thinking of working on Linux, you can try out the Linux Administration BootCamp course on Udemy to learn and understand the better working of Linux OS.

It is good to have good command in the command line for any DevOps guy if he/she is working in Linux. So, it is always better to know some Linux shells like Bash or Ksh along with tools like find, grep, sed, Isof, and networking commands like NSlookup and netstat.

Learn to Live in terminal

Leaving the world of Graphical user Interface and thriving in an entirely text-based environment seems so much terrifying thought but you should never what a shell can do!!

Word processing, emailing, social media, file management, what, not almost everything is possible nowadays in a text-based environment. If you are asking from a perspective of the future job as a DevOps engineer, most of the people say that it does not hurt to learn the fundamentals. In some of the posts or the other, you would be finally interacting with some of the things like functionality.

Shell scripting is what you need to automate the day to day tasks and speed up the process in IT organization.

From a general perspective, it is recommended that you get to know more about the system if you see the shell scripting, and it adds the fun of learning it. For a DevOps guy, it is much more essential to have good command in the command line, mainly if he is working on the Linux.

Get to know some of the Linux shells like the KSH, Bash, and tools like the GREP, ISOF, FIND and some of the networking commands like the NSLOOKUP and netstat is much more mandatory.

Network Security

The days have gone where the world used to be so much isolated; today, we are connected to almost everything which lets us know the importance of networking and security.

You are required to know about some basic networking and security concepts like DNS, HTTPS, HTTP, OSI Model, SSL, and much more in order to become a sound DevOps engineer. You can have a look at TCP/IP Networking Fundamentals for IT Pros to refresh your concepts related to networking and security.

Learn to Set Up DevOps infrastructure to be a DevOps Engineer

You are required to know about the machines set up if you wish to become a DevOps champion and thinking about automation. As a DevOps engineer, you should know how to set up a Web Server like Apache, IIS or Tomcat and also know about Caching Server, Load balancer, reverse proxy, and Firewall. Learning the infrastructure and set up will help to cross the hurdle of making error-prone.

The support is configured, deployed, and managed with the help of a code. This is the hearing of the DevOps movement when an organization can define its infrastructure in the line of code automating most of the tasks in the data center, which becomes much more possible.

This is probably the essential thing for a DevOps engineer, and this is an extensive range of areas as well. As a DevOps Roadmap Engineer, you should also know about the containers like the configuration management tools like the Salt, Puppet, Ansible, Chef, etc. Infrastructure provisioning like cloud formation and terraform.

Continuous Integration

For continuous integration and delivery, setting up a pipeline is one of the essential things for an engineer. You can get a variety of tools in the CI/CD area such as Jenkins, TeamCity, Drone, and much more. It is highly recommended to learn Jenkins as it is a widely used and mature CI/CD tool in the market.

Moreover, apart from setups and deployment, monitoring can be another essential aspect for DevOps, and that’s the reason why you should know how to learn about its infrastructure and application monitoring. You can select from a wide range of tools such as Nagios, Monit, AppDynanic, Datadog and many more depending on your company.

This is another very essential thing for the DevOps engineer roadmap 2020 and champion that is to set up with a pipeline for continuous integration and delivery. There are also some of the tools in the CI/CD area that are:

  • Version Control: Apache Subversion and GIT, Perforce, Mercurial, etc.
  • Containerization: Docker, LXD etc
  • Orchestration: Mesos, Kubernetes etc
  • Building and testing: maven, Jenkins etc
  • Configuration Management: Puppet, Salt, Chef, Ansible etc.
  • Continuous Monitoring: Nagios

Learn to monitor software and infrastructure

Apart from the setup and deployment, monitoring is another essential aspect of the DevOps roadmap 2020, and that is why it is vital for the DevOps engineer to learn about the control of infrastructure and application.

There is a wide range of tools in this space which include the Nagios, Monit, Zabbix, AppDynanic, New Relic, Docker, etc.

You can choose some of them based on which one is used in your organization like the Nagios and AppDyanmic.

Cloud Provider

When it comes to the cloud service provider, the first thing that clicks the mind is how the how to become a DevOps engineer culture that is related to the cloud provider? But as a matter of fact, almost nowadays all the IT companies are migrating its apps to the cloud platform.

Doing the cloud does not properly means that shutting down the legacy data centers, but for some of the application that needs the faster development and delivery including the intelligent availability or the quick disaster recovery measures which can be done conveniently with the help of services that are provided by the public cloud providers like the Microsoft Azure, GCP, AWS and etc.

Cloud nowadays is the next big thing, and sooner or later you have to move your app to the cloud, which even saves a lot of time and money since it is essential for a DevOps engineer to at least know about some of the popular cloud providers and their entire fundamentals.

While on the other hand, AWS stands clearly the global leader in the cloud domain; it is not just alone, Azure and Google cloud which are slowly approaching with their services and then we have some other players like the Cloud Foundry, Digital Ocean, and Heroku.

So, why wait to grab some of the exciting offers to get trained on the cloud computing courses which are available and prove that you a perfect cloud master.

Databases

We do have to agree that automating the deployment of the application becomes as easy as snapping fingers, but why one of the aspiring as a DevOps professional ignore the Databases.

DevOps tools have now even emerged to be a greater extent, however, and the benefits of including the DevOps for the Database that is also being understood by many of the organizations to achieve the more significant operational shifts.

So, it is a correct time to dive into the process of automating the databases related the tasks like regular backups, tuning, etc. and spread a true essence of the resolution for the DevOps.

Some off the soft skills which are required to become DevOps Engineer 

Apart from the technical and hard skills, DevOps Engineers should also possess the ability to multi-task, collaborate, and always put the customer first.

Here they come:

  1. Customer First Mindset: A great DevOps engineer always looks for delivering the value to users and wants to clearly understand and measure how their work is moving the needle.
  1. Curiosity and Empathy: According to the report, curiosity and empathy are perhaps two of the most valuable soft skills traits a potential DevOps engineer can demonstrate.
  2. Collaboration and Communication: It is able to communicate effectively with the full range of stakeholders and understand the current challenges and some of the latest ‘big picture’ in the firm is the first step measure to being able to build a formal strategy to implement culture shifts.
  3. Big Picture Thinking: Because the DevOps combines the needs and wants of multi-disciplinary teams and applications, a successful DevOps engineer that cant loses sight of the big picture of the digital transformation and DevOps at the enterprise level – especially in a large organization.
  4. Flexibility: Keeping the cold head, juggling fluid workloads, and even remaining flexible is one of the keys to proper success in the role of DevOps engineer.
  5. Proper Decision making: In a busy environment, the ability to make the right decision quickly, while even keeping in mind the goals of the big picture, that is also extremely desirable trait employers are looking for in DevOps engineers.

Summing Up The Roadmap to become a DevOps Engineer in 2019

Being a DevOps engineer is not just one job role or profile. A DevOps professional has to switch between the multiple tasks in order to be fair with the position that is assigned to him/her. There is as of now has an urgent need for various sets of skills like the testing, coding, securing, integrating the whole of the IT infrastructure in order to solve the organizational issues and improving the business process.

We hope you have enjoyed the article as we have linked it up with plenty of useful resources from where you can learn off. We wish you good luck with your ultimate DevOps journey as it’s not going to be secure in the beginning, but still, you are getting one step ahead to become a DevOps engineer. Keep Learning!

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Charles Richard is a progressive leader who can identify, initiate, and deliver the analysis that can leverage the data and information needed to generate increased business value. Charles has 8 years of Business Analyst Experience, all with Java development company Tatvasoft.co.uk.And a part-time enthusiast writer who loves to write that matters and believes that writing is the best media to express what you want to share with the rest of the world. Prior to joining TatvaSoft, he was a programmer for about 3 years. He holds MBA and Computer Science degree.