7 In-demand DevOps Skills to Nurture an IT Career

DevOps is a combination of two distinct fields: development and operations. Compared to traditional software development methodologies, this boosts the potential to launch software products more quickly, with faster changes and evolutions. It allows teams to develop and react to the market more quickly, supports an increase in releases, makes it easier to find and repair defects, and encourages stability, security, and scalability through enhanced team communication.

The majority of businesses have taken initiatives on implementing DevOps principles. This ensures DevOps Engineers are one of the most sought-after professionals in the IT industry today. So, what are the talents that companies are seeking in a DevOps engineer? Let’s look at the most important DevOps talents that employers are looking for.

1. Linux and Scripting Skills

We live in the Linux era and the majority of businesses prefer to run their applications on Linux. So, a DevOps Engineer’s ability to work with the Linux operating system is critical. The nicest thing about Linux is that it is highly adaptable, allowing developers to tailor it to their own demands and requirements, assuring flexibility. Linux is also recognized for its security and scalability, so getting some hands-on experience with it is essential for learning DevOps. Due to their integration support, appropriateness for key performance operations, compatibility, and security, a few Linux distributions namely RHEL, CentOS, and SUSE Linux are chosen.

DevOps Engineers must be able to work with any scripting language and have a solid understanding of at least one (preferably Python). As a result, Linux and Linux-based scripting are necessary for DevOps skills.

2. Networking Skills

Networking is the foundation of DevOps and getting IT sector jobs, much like Linux. Many people have failed in DevOps because they are bad at networking, in my experience. SSH and Ping are the only options for many. Although Linux and networking are frequently used together, they are two distinct abilities. Although no one expects you to become a full-fledged network engineer, you should have a fundamental understanding of network traffic and protocols.

3. Cloud Computing Skills

The cloud provides a centralized platform for app testing, deployment, debugging, and release. It also allows for resource sharing and cooperation so that the process may be improved. As a result, becoming a DevOps engineer necessitates familiarity with many cloud providers, services, and platforms. Google (GCP), Microsoft (Azure), and Amazon (AWS) are some of the most popular cloud services. The cloud also makes automation easier, and the data and source code can be easily recovered during any mishaps. 

4. Coding Skills

Coding is a critical ability to acquire in order to be considered as a DevOps engineer, as it requires familiarity in a few languages. Python, Golang, Ruby, JavaScript, Perl, Java, Bash, PHP, and more are just a few of the languages available. These are the languages that are most suited to automating tasks. Good programming skills are required to replace human tasks.

5. Mastering DevOps Tools and Technologies

Configuration management

Configuration management enables engineering teams to design strong and reliable systems by utilizing technologies that automatically manage and monitor configuration data modifications. Complex software systems comprise components with varying degrees of granularity and complexity. Puppet, Chef, and Ansible are the major configuration management tools.

CI & CD 

A solid grasp of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery is essential in DevOps since it enables the development and delivery of high-quality software to clients on time. Continuous Integration entails merging full functionality or new code with existing code. This effectively saves time that would have been spent on project integration. Following that, Continuous Delivery prepares the code for deployment with minimum manual involvement.  

Source Code Management

Coding is often created and modified by developers. Source code management software helps to store code, integrate new code into existing code, track code versions, and so on. It also assists team members in collaborating on source code. The most prevalent tools for this purpose are Git, GitHub, and Gitlab.

Monitoring

The method and technology necessary to include monitoring throughout each phase of your DevOps and IT operations lifecycles is referred to as continuous monitoring. As your application and infrastructure progress from development to production, it helps to guarantee their health, performance, and dependability. Continuous monitoring is based on the ideas of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD), which enable you to develop and distribute software more quickly and reliably, allowing you to give continuous value to your consumers. Nagios, Zabbix, Splunk, and other tools are commonly utilized.

Containerization Technology

The practice of virtualizing an operating system such that various containers running different applications may share the operating system and system resources is known as containerization. This is totally different from the usual method of hardware virtualization, in which the system hardware is shared among several virtual computers. Containerization’s leading suppliers include Docker, Kubernetes, and vagrant. As a result, knowing containerization technologies as a DevOps engineer is necessary. 

6. Mastering Infrastructure as Code Configuration & Management

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is employed to control server, storage, and networking infrastructure in data centers. IaC ensures large-scale configuration and management are easier. Whereas in the traditional data center the configuration changes and infrastructure management predominantly requires human intervention.

Infrastructure configuration information is stored in standardized files that may be accessed by software that keeps track of the infrastructure’s status via IaC. Because it removes human configuration processes, IaC can boost productivity and dependability

7. Honing Soft Skills

DevOps engineers must not only be technically proficient but also have outstanding teamwork and communication abilities. Because you must properly grasp and comprehend what the customer requires, you must have excellent listening abilities. Taking responsibility, exercising self-control, and maintaining a happy attitude are all qualities that offer value to team members and ultimately influence the application’s success. DevOps necessitates boldness and attentiveness in order to discover crucial areas for development and to comprehend the objectives. Empathy is necessary for seeing and appreciating what others have to say, as well as avoiding team disputes. Creating a healthy work atmosphere by enabling trust among team members via active, clear, and efficient communication can increase the quality of the product provided.  

8. Earning Certifications

Certifications to showcase your DevOps knowledge. The following is the list of some certifications for the DevOps Engineers.

1. AWS (Amazon Web Services):

• AWS Solutions Architect Associate
• AWS Developer Associate
• AWS DevOps Engineer Professional 
• AWS Solutions Architect Professional  

2. Azure (Microsoft):

• Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
• Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204)
• Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions (AZ-400)  
• Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)

3. GCP (Google Cloud Platform):

• Associate Cloud Engineer
• Professional Cloud Architect
• Professional Cloud Developer
• Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer

Often freshers have questions about whether they can explore a DevOps career? this article by CloudThat CEO helps them to have clarity of how to stride the career path as DevOps engineers: 

If you’re new to the DevOps sphere, the number of DevOps skills to gain mastery may appear daunting. However, these are the core abilities that employers are seeking, and mastering them will give your CV a boost. We are hoping that this post helped to clarify the DevOps abilities needed for a successful career

About CloudThat

As a pioneer in the Cloud Computing training realm, we are a Microsoft Gold Partner, AWS (Amazon Web Services) Advanced Consulting Partner, and Training partner. Also, we are Google Cloud Partners delivering best-in-industry training for Azure, AWS, and GCP (Google Cloud Platform). We are on a mission to build a strong cloud computing ecosystem by disseminating knowledge on technological intricacies within the cloud space. Our various certification training courses help organizations to get their workforce trained and thus reap the benefits of valid knowledge to strengthen the organization’s workflow.