We have all heard the phrase, 'Necessity is the mother of invention' and this means when the need for anything emerges, new things come to life.
Similarly, the Information and Technology industry aims to cater to everyone's specific needs with the advent of software development and other technology to ease the lifestyle and increase productivity.
One such thing is DevOps.
The advent of DevOps has helped software developers and businesses with a simplified solution enabling them to access better and enhance their business operations.
But, do you want to know how?
The answer is streamlining the software development life cycle (SDLC) and minimizing the development time without compromising the quality of the software.
This article will not only help you hire a developer according to your needs but will also serve you with some of the essential skills that every DevOps engineer should have, making the hiring process more manageable and developing high-quality software for your business.
So, let us start with What DevOps is.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is the portmanteau for Software Development (Dev) and IT Operations (Ops), where the development team and the IT operations team collectively work together to bridge the communication gap among them making it a successful combination of specific practices, culture change, and tools .
It is a set of practices that aim to improve and shorten the software development life cycle, which in turn also helps in boosting productivity and efficiency of work.
Additionally, it highly emphasizes enhanced customer satisfaction and quick delivery of quality products and is determined by its key principles such as workflow, automation, and rapid feedback. It has three popular methodologies which include Scrum, Kanban, and Agile, and this approach is widely practiced by famous industry giants such as Amazon, Netflix, and Adobe.
Also, note that DevOps has innumerable benefits, and some of them are mentioned below.
It automates the software development process , which helps in improving productivity at work and enabling faster delivery of software.
It helps in better team collaboration and aids with transparent communication between the team members.
DevOps also aids by gathering rapid feedback which helps in enhancing the quality of the software.
Automation of the testing process helps in early error detection in the code which helps in improving the quality of the build.
It also stabilizes the workflow, helps in better resource utilization, faster problem-solving capabilities, fewer deployment failures, and also promotes agility in business.
Now that we are known about DevOps and its benefits we will be moving ahead with the key DevOps engineer skills to consider while hiring developers for your business.
Key DevOps Engineer Skills to Consider
The key skills to consider for a DevOps engineer are -
Automation Skills
Cloud Platforms
Coding Skills
Containerization Skills
LinuxOperating System
Security Skills
Understanding of DevOps Tools
Now that you have the list of essential skills for a DevOps engineer let us describe them in detail for your better understanding.
Automation Skills
Automation is the core of DevOps practice, it not only helps to automate the development process with the DevOps pipeline but also helps in enhancing the app's performance monitoring capabilities. The knowledge of several automation tools like Source Code Management (SCM), Puppet, Chef, and Ansible will be beneficial to acquire if you are in the DevOps field.
Additionally, a DevOps engineer should also know how to automate the CI/CD cycles, configurations, infrastructure, and more.
Cloud Platforms
Cloud computing and DevOps go hand in hand. It aids DevOps by providing all the necessary cloud computing platforms to test, deploy, and launch the software. It facilitates a resource monitoring mechanism and also enables you to build the foundation for your infrastructure.
Some of the most popular cloud platforms that you can add to your skillset are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure, and you should also have a strong grasp on some of the important cloud computing skills like network management and database management.
Coding Skills
It is an important skill that every DevOps engineer should possess and should also be taught about basic programming languages like Python, Ruby, Java, Javascript, PHP, Node.js, and many more that add optional static typing.
Containerization Skills
It is a must-have skill for every DevOps engineer and aids with the completion of software development-related tasks efficiently which is secure, lightweight, and also high-performing. It is a technique that helps in packing applications in small chunks to deploy them quickly and also ensures that the applications on containers will run the same no matter where they are deployed. Some of the important containerization tools that you can consider learning are Docker Engine, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, OKD, Vagrant, and many more.
Linux Operating System
Linux is an important operating system for DevOps engineers, most companies prefer hosting applications along with the master nodes for several configuration management tools like Ansible, Chef, and Puppet running on it.Â
It is widely preferred because of its inevitable characteristics like it is stable, secure, free to use, having a small footprint, and huge community support. Also, ensure that you are well-known for Bash scripting, Networking, Basic file system and navigation, File and content search, SSH and storage, and others.
Security Skills
Security is another important factor in the IT industry and every DevOps engineer needs strong security skills that help in threat investigation, security training, vulnerability assessment, and many more data protection techniques.
Learning about DevSecOps can be beneficial skills to acquire to become a DevOps security expert.
Understanding of DevOps Tools
It is one of the most important skill sets to consider to build a career with DevOps and become a successful DevOps engineer since these tools facilitate the various stages that are executed in the DevOps practice. Some of the important DevOps tools that you can consider include Git, Github, and Gitlab for Source Code Management, Jenkins and Bamboo for Continuous Integration, Puppet, Chef, and Ansible for Configuration Management, Selenium, TestComplete, and TestingWhiz for Continuous Testing, Nagios , and Splunk for Continuous Monitoring, and many more.
The aforementioned were a few essential technical skills for a DevOps engineer. Besides this, some of the important soft skills that you should not miss out on include efficient communication and collaboration skills, mentorship and commitment skills, and problem-solving capabilities.
Conclusion
DevOps has not just bought a new practice to life but has also enabled several businesses with advanced performance capabilities and has served well by fulfilling all operational needs with efficiency.
Now that you have the list of the important technical skills that every DevOps engineer should have, you can hire developers accordingly to develop a top-notch project for your business and reach new heights.
But if you are a beginner and are willing to build your career in DevOps then you can definitely consider learning these skills and adding them to your resume.
DevOps Engineer Roadmap 2023
FAQs
What is DevOps?
DevOps is a set of practices that brings together two different teams ie the Software Development team (Dev) and the IT Operations team (Ops), to work collectively that helps in shortening the software development life cycle, enabling faster delivery without compromising the quality of the software.Â
What are the benefits of DevOps?
The benefits of DevOps are -
It helps in the faster delivery of software
Ensures better team collaboration
Improves the software quality, and
Also facilitates fewer deployment failures.
What are the 5 essential skills that every DevOps Engineer should have?
The essential skills that every DevOps engineer should have are -
Automation Skills
Coding Skills
Linux Operating System
Security Skills, and
Understanding of DevOps Tools.
