DevOps is focused on aligning software development and IT operations to deliver products with speed and agility. It’s a new way of thinking that requires the whole team to adjust their processes to support and enhance the product.
If you’re looking to become a DevOps developer, you first need to understand the prerequisites necessary.
In this guide, we’ve listed the top prerequisites to becoming successful DevOps engineers.
The best part: You will find the steps to start your DevOps journey with handpicked resources.
Let’s get started.
📌 Table of Contents
- What is DevOps?
- DevOps prerequisites to learn
- Why should you learn DevOps?
- How to start learning DevOps?
- Learn DevOps from free resources
- Final words
What is DevOps?
DevOps stands for Development and Operations methodology that primarily aims at increasing the capability and performance of the software in companies by continuous progress and corrections. The DevOps teams use automation to perform tasks without needing hours-long coding and still have an error-free approach. They also thoroughly monitor the user requirements and abide by them to give out a product that never misses impressing the audience.
Moreover, the DevOps teams are organized in their ventures and communicate neatly before going on projects or taking up any developmental work.
Simply put, the software that needs further modification is not taken up without a planned-out discussion. This keeps the team working toward the same type of development the customers search for in the company.
DevOps Prerequisites
For any business to run without a hassle and not fall back into the competition, it has to cater exclusively to its target audience’s demands more than anyone else in the field. This is often achieved by employing the DevOps module.
Before we dive into the journey of DevOps, you should probably consider these requirements.
1. Programming Languages
Nowadays, anything associated with the digital world and its technical side has to have some sort of programming language as the prerequisite. And it is rightfully so, considering the day-to-day activities that need basic programming skills like Python and Java.
As a DevOps aspirant, you might want to go into learning as many relevant programming languages as possible to strengthen your hold on the functions and operations.
In addition, the team often requires frequent automation processes, so you can also clear your path by being able to write down the codes swiftly and bug-free.
Here are some in-demand programming languages to learn:
- GoLang
- Python
- Bash
- Powershell
- Groovy
- JavaScript
- Ruby
- Scala
2. Automation Tools
Any DevOps expert needs to have at least a basic understanding of the automation tools used in the industry. These could range from basic troubleshooting scans to full-fledged testing over the whole program.
Hence, having a clear and fundamental approach to such tools is more than just necessary. Configuring various apps and testing them for further development is common in a DevOps team.
Therefore, having a firm grasp on automation tools that come in handy while handling tasks on a large scale is a must. Tools may include Jenkins, Hudson Though, or Works, among many other automation assistants available.
📌 Further reading: Learn how DevOps can use the most of artificial intelligence
3. Teamwork Skills
Being in a DevOps team will require exceptional communication skills. And this is the case because so many professionals come together to plan a single project with a collective mindset of maximizing the outcomes.
However, this would never be possible if even one of the groups were to stick out and not cooperate. Hence, the team often emphasizes this aspect of having good teamwork and communication skills. Moreover, if you are a newbie in the field, you are even more required to present yourself as a favourable team member.
DevOps, no doubt, focuses on the technology first, but the priority of having the best and the most capable human resource remains unmatched.
4. Training and Qualifications
DevOps is a diverse strategic plan and to get into a team is a huge dream come true for most tech geeks. However, valuable experience and professional certification can sometimes cause a bit of a hurdle. Hence, it is important to note this prerequisite for DevOps.
In addition, the projects given to you will be based on your qualifications and, ultimately, the grading you receive.
So, the quicker you make up for the experience by having hands-on exposure in the field through training and workshops, the better your chances of becoming a DevOps professional are.
Also, you can aim to learn from that training and apply the same in your work to fetch better results.
5. Logical and Rational Thinking
DevOps is a logic-driven problem-solver for most businesses. In most cases, the team often relies on crafting better and positive results for the company and the product through experimenting with calculated risks.
So, the expense of having well-functioning, rational minds on board increases. In addition, an individual’s capacity to make frequent and effective decisions on behalf of the team remains of utmost essence.
6. Being Up-to-date
As we all live in a world that’s under constant evolution, we simply cannot ignore the importance of staying updated with the changes. And the same is the finding among DevOps teams that require professionals who can keep up with the ever-changing environment and adapt easily.
Moreover, the team and the company would often require testing and monitoring of the products compared to the market for drawing conclusions and acting upon instant modification. So, the up-to-date nature of an aspiring DevOps expert would very easily suffice as a big plus factor.
Why Should You Learn DevOps?
DevOps has become one of the most well-regarded customer acquisition and maintenance strategies in the corporate world today. The development and operations team works their best to outperform any other competitor in the market by utilizing some of the latest technological advances in the world.
However, you should also understand the need to learn the key requirements for DevOps to intrigue you further.
1. Increased Efficiency
Learning the prerequisites means you will be easily accommodated in the work environment of DevOps professionals. Thus, you will better understand the needs of the market and the changes the products demand to achieve the same.
And further along, you will also most likely perform accordingly to judge and deliver nothing less than the best results.
2. Better Performance in the Team
As you arm yourself with better coding skills and understand the functioning of the various advanced tools to assist you with automation, your performance in the team will also have brighter chances of being better on a huge scale.
Also, if you consider the prerequisites as mandatory checkboxes to be ticked, your skill set will benefit profoundly.
3. Improved Communication
Better communication achieved by the team members leads to greater collaborations and event production. The collective or group’s goal is fuelled rather than just having a few individual goals on board. This, in return, saves time, increases efficiency, and manages to give better results and satisfy a broader audience.
How to Start Learning DevOps?
As more and more people keep getting fascinated by DevOps and its wonderful workings, the question of where and how to begin often arises. The DevOps prerequisites can be learned thoroughly and structured to prevent missing out on important steps in becoming a professional in the field.
1. Learn Coding
This is merely the pre-preparatory stage for any candidate in the tech world. So, you can go on learning any programming language that suits you the best and is even time-effective; it is advisable to take up medium-to-hard level languages and scale up with them. This ensures that you still have a grasp on the previously learned skills.
2. Learn to use DevOps Tools & Technologies
After learning the primary skill sets required for qualifying as a DevOps professional, you should extensively study the various tools and technologies you might come across in future training and projects in the DevOps team. This also includes testing various tools like Puppet, Splunk, Jenkins, and Chef, among other utilities. Acquainting yourself with these tech tools will make it easier for you to get along with them later in the job.
3. Workshops and training
After you gather the relevant skills, a workshop or a short training is the best place to gain more practical exposure to working DevOps. You can even gain better insights into the planning and developmental side of the software. Moreover, these also act as a booster for your work experience and industry knowledge.
4. Gets hands-on Experience
Any company functioning through a rigorous study of the market data and the customer details will probably already have a DevOps team on board.
This means you can apply for a short tenure to any company demonstrating the required skills and try it out as a practice job before getting a fixed position or promotion to a newer company. Currently, there are 69,845+ positions available for a DevOps Team globally, According to LinkedIn.
So you can create a strong profile on LinkedIn, search for “DevOps Team” and apply to a team.
Learn DevOps from Free Resources
If you want to start your career in DevOps then there are many free resources available where you can start learning DevOps from scratch to advance in a fast time. We’ve handpicked some top-most free courses useful for learning DevOps:
- DevOps Crash Course: Learn Jenkins Docker Kubernetes GIT – Udemy (Enroll Now)
- DevOps – The Introduction Course – Udemy (Enroll Now)
- Continuous Delivery & DevOps – Coursera (Enroll Now)
- Implementing DevOps in the Real World – Pluralsight (Enroll Now)
- DevOps Course: CI/CD with Jenkins Pipelines Groovy DSL – Udemy (Enroll Now)
These are some top free resources where you can learn DevOps from scratch to advance and unlock new opportunities for your career.
Final Words
DevOps has turned out to be a swift response to customer issues and hence, has seen a greater presence in businesses nowadays.
You can think of it as tech-handled customer care that delivers the precise need with never-thought-before ideas coming into life.
Therefore, getting into DevOps has seen a surge too.
And as the demand increased, people turned to learning more skills as prerequisites. What skills did you tick off your prerequisite list?
📌 Supplementary resources
- [PDF] An Overview of DevOps
- Exploring the Benefits of Combining DevOps and Agile
- Focus Areas, Themes, and Objectives of Non-Functional Requirements in DevOps
- AI-Augmented Automation for DevOps
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