Devops2023 – DevopsCurry

Is Devops still a good career choice in 2023?

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 08:28:05 +0000

Why you should pursue a Devops Career in 2023

The demand for DevOps has been increasing within the market hence increasing the demand for a skilled DevOps team. As almost every company is implementing cloud services for their working for which they require professionals. If you belong to an IT background then learning DevOps has become a need to start with your career.

DevOps has a promising future with numerous solutions to IT problems. Well, there is no doubt that DevOps experts are highly paid and dedicated. DevOps is a great approach that is now adopted by many IT companies to provide reliable and faster solutions to their clients.

What is DevOps?

Before getting into the need for learning DevOps, one should know what DevOps is. DevOps is an approach or practice that combines the development team and the IT team to collaborate throughout the entire software development cycle so that all the team will be on the same page. It helps in shortening the SDLC (software development Life cycle) and ensures the delivery of high-quality software.

DevOps knowledge allows you to automate and integrate the development and operations process.

Today organizations across the globe are focusing on reducing productivity time with help of automation and hence it is a good time that you start investing and learning DevOps for a rewarding career in future.

Why should you learn DevOps in 2023?

The future scope of DevOps is bright and increasing day by day. With the introduction of new tools and technology, this approach is being adopted by many companies. There can be many influential reasons why you should go for learning DevOps this year.

Improved automation
With the implementation of the DevOps approach, every company can easily automate their tasks from small to complex effortlessly. Software is a critical element for organizations and providing the best quality software to the clients is a must to remain in the market. Thus software automation has become a need for IT companies to increase their business. Automation improves efficiency and simplifies the SDLC pipeline.

Effective security
The security concerns increase whenever you automate your system or application. There can be higher chances of raising problems with automation. Thus all the automation should be done in a more controlled way which can be done using DevOps methodology. It ensures that the software remains secured during its development and testing phase. The application’s integrity is maintained by implementing security protocols via DevOps.

Future scope of DevOps
According to surveys and research, DevOps has created many jobs in the past few years and has a bright scope in the upcoming year too. As companies are being digitized, the need for DevOps has increased at an enormous rate. The future of IT companies is now dependent on the DevOps approach, making it the most demanding job. The market has grown from 40-45 percent within the last five years, increasing the DevOps demand.

Image Credit: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/devops-market

Container technology
Container technology comes with various benefits and one of them is to sandbox the application security. It is a packing method that allows an application to run with separate holding. The introduction of container technology in DevOps will increase system security and its performance. This technology is under research and evolving which will make the system more cost-effective.

Enhance product quality
DevOps has improved the product development process and also reduces the chances of failure. DevOps has managed the pipeline workflow in such a manner that the high-quality software is developed with fewer efforts. It reduces the security issues during the development, testing, and deployment phase of an application.

AI/ML integration with DevOps
DevOps has changed the software development picture. But with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, you can automate your application in a much-controlled way. Today people are moving to AIOps and data ops that provide an efficient way to automate a complete working pipeline.

Reasons to learn DevOps in 2023

The increasing demands have provided many reasons to learn and adopt DevOps in 2023. Below are a few reasons.

Become a valuable Asset to the company

Learning DevOps will enable you to learn many tools and technologies. Companies prefer skilled and experienced people with multiple skill sets to optimize company costs. If you are a DevOps person then you will be a valuable asset to your company. With DevOps, you will know how to use different tools and implement solutions faster and efficiently.

Enable faster Release cycles

DevOps maintains the agility of the SDLC process and ensures that the software will be delivered in time. With the DevOps methodology, user behavior can be analyzed to make further changes and better software. This is only possible with the use of multiple tools available with DevOps.

It is Smart career choice in the current technical job market

DevOps is a popular career choice now. According a research by the Forbes magazine, a DevOps specialist with a basic degree of high school can also earn a median wage of almost $106,734. Though your salary will depend on your role, the average pay for the different roles is not radically different. For instance, a DevOps Release Manager earns an average of $92K, a Site Reliability Engineer $125K, and a DevOps Engineer $115K. Researches have also shown that in the coming years DevOps will be the main hiring criteria for 46% of the IT companies.

Integrated with various tools

There are many tools from various platforms and frameworks that can be easily integrated as a part of the DevOps lifecycle phases. These tools increase the flexibility and ease of working at any platform and any phase of the software development cycle. Some of the tools like- Git, Jenkins, Selenium, Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible, Terraform,Puppet, and many more.

Provide better SDLC knowledge

SDLC consists of many phases and DevOps helps you to understand each phase in detail. If you belong to the developer team then you still know how the testing and production are happening. This knowledge is not limited to just one team, every small team knows the working of the other team. With the DevOps approach, every team member stays on the same page from coding to the deployment of the software.

To boost your professional credibility

Learning DevOps provide you knowledge of new tools and technology thus boost your chances for a better-paid salary. You can apply simple solutions even to complex IT problems without impacting the software quality. As companies are now focusing on people with DevOps skills, it is high time to start learning and certified in DevOps.

Conclusion

So if you are thinking that you have already missed the Devops flight and now no opportunity exist for new candidates, I am happy to tell you that you still have a time and also a lot of scope to make a rewarding career into the Devops domain.

As we saw in this post that the demand for Devops professionals is continuously increasing and the Devops market is expected to grow in revenue across the globe, you still have time my friend to make a switch or start fresh into Devops.

If you have not read our previous posts on Devops Career & Skills and how to transform into a Devops professionals, sharing them again for your reference. Hope this was a useful post for you, do not forget to like, comment & share.

Roles and Responsibilities of a DevOps Professional
Key Soft Skills needed to become a Devops Pro in 2023
Market yourself with a smart and highly impressive DevOps resume
A Complete Guide To Transition From a SysAdmin to DevOps Role

The post Is Devops still a good career choice in 2023? appeared first on DevopsCurry.

DevOps 2023: A Complete Guide To Transition From a SysAdmin to DevOps Role

Namrata Joshi — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 14:03:10 +0000

A Complete Guide To Transition From a SysAdmin to DevOps Role

In today’s world, every IT professional is aware of the rise and importance of DevOps. DevOps is meant to break down silos and increase interaction between development and IT operations to improve the software development and delivery process.

With the rise of Devops and it getting popular day by day, we see many traditional software roles slowly transitioning into a Devops profile. And most common among them are our age old friends for decade, the SystemAdmins. Since DevOps is a mix of Developers+SysAdmins, a lot of SysAdmins are trying to hone their scripting and development skills and make a shift into a Devops role.

Now transitioning from a SysAdmin role to DevOps professional is upto the individual and his capabilities.As is true with most traditional IT roles, a good SysAdmin likely excels in several areas that make up critical aspects of a DevOps professional’s skill set. But, along with this it’s also crucial that a System Administrator acquires new skills to achieve success in a DevOps role.

The traditional System administrator role is one of the most diverse as well as complex roles in IT. A SysAdmin should know about operating systems, networks, hardware, OS and databases. They should also have an idea about budget, operation, and support. DevOps offer several attractive jobs. Companies are looking for professionals to introduce and implement DevOps to their organizations.

Before you make a shift, it’s essential to do a self-analysis that as a System admin, Developer, or QA professional your skills are fully compliant with the requirements of the DevOps industry.

Difference Between SysAdmin and DevOps Engineer

The system admin job is limited to configuring, maintaining servers, and computer systems.
Traditionally, the system admin has no role in the development process of software. There used to be silos between system administrators and developers.
The system admin role is no new to the industry. It has been around for a while with tasks and responsibilities well-defined.
DevOps is a different approach, it’s creating a pipeline of development, QA, and system admin to overcome the lack of co-ordination.
In DevOps, the whole team is involved in the product development lifecycle.
However, there isn’t any formal definition of a DevOps engineer, it is one of the most complex roles.

Old SysAdmin Responsibilities

SysAdmin or System administrator used to share the following responsibilities:

1. Backup and Disaster Recovery 

SysAdmins implement data backup along with disaster recovery strategies. These strategies are for IT systems as well as SDLC environments. Some of the activities include the implementation of automated software solutions and the replacement of hardware and software components.

2. Network, Security, and Database Administration 

SysAdmins make sure that network interactions follow all the protocols to maintain network integrity. SysAdmins do activities like network monitoring and analysis, the security of hardware components, identity, and access management, etc.Usually, these responsibilities are centered on infrastructure and network security. Database administration activities include maintaining the integrity, performance, and efficiency of the database system. SysAdmins act as the connection with users to address database related problems like backup and restoration.

3. User Administration 

Supporting the reliable and effective use of complex IT systems by the end-user is the primary responsibility of a SysAdmin. This includes activities like managing identities, access to providing dedicated technical support to individual users. They are also one-stop-contact with IT departments for users to resolve any technology-related problems.

4. Documentation 

SysAdmins are responsible to maintain reports of IT asset usage. Documentation is the key requirement for regulatory compliance. End-user requests and also business requirements and IT issues are documented to plan for future IT investments and upgrades.

5. System Maintenance 

SysAdmins are responsible for dependable access and availability to IT systems. SysAdmins are required to troubleshoot and fix issues that compromise system performance or access to an IT service. They also do system improvements as and when required. For Ex. upgrades based on evolving end-user and business requirements.

Image Credits: Medium Post by James Lee. https://medium.com/@tao_66792/a-transition-guide-from-system-admin-to-devops-engineer-16354b571c52

SysAdmins: Learn New Skills To Get Into DevOps

Some traditional approaches to SysAdmin are still valid in DevOps. But a DevOps engineer must be familiar with cloud computing and automated tools. He must be good at collaborating with other teammates or in other words a good team-player.

Here are some key skills SysAdmins should learn and master to succeed in a DevOps role.

1. Cloud Computing

Cloud is an essential part of DevOps as most of the DevOps projects are hosted on the cloud. A DevOps engineer must be able to configure services and servers related to various cloud providers. Other than that he/she should have an understanding of cloud services like Software as a Service(SaaS), Platform as a Service(PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS).

2. Coding and Scripting Skills

A SysAdmin is not a developer. But it’s a good idea to have knowledge as well as experience in coding and scripting to make the transition into DevOps. Many SysAdmins may have relevant experience with popular platforms that support automation. It’s a good idea to get to know languages like Ruby and Python. DevOps teams give importance to automation and that means there will be a lot of effort into writing scripts for manual operations like server configuration and application deployment.

3. Continuous Integration (CI)

Continuous Integration or CI is one of the most important parts of DevOps. CI allows developers to continuously update changes to a single repository. So, the traditional System Administrators do not know about Continuous Integration pipelines. To get into DevOps, CI is an essential thing to learn. There are numerous different tools to implement Continuous Integration in your organization. Some tools will even allow you to host the CI servers in your network infrastructure. Some of the popular CI tools are Jenkins, CircleCI, TravisCI, GitLab, Bamboo, TeamCity, etc.

4. Forward Thinking Deployment Strategies

The foundation of CI/CD is the most frequent delivery of code changes to production environments. Deployments occur with a huge frequency in DevOps. Hence, there should be a surety that application downtime is kept to a minimum. So, a SysAdmin transitioning into a DevOps engineer must understand the most effective ways to deploy applications while minimizing the downtime. They should familiarize themselves with safe and effective deployment strategies.

5. Configuration Management 

A SysAdmin must be familiar with configuration management if he’s trying to get into the shoes of a DevOps engineer. Some examples of such tools are Chef, Ansible, and Salt. Such tools are build to make things easy to automatically configure and maintain hundred and thousands of servers. Configuration management tools help in automating several processes.

6. Application Containerization and IaaS 

SysAdmins who wish to transform into DevOps professionals are likely to deal with deploying and supporting containerized applications. Such applications run on cloud-based infrastructure. Hence, to guarantee success as a DevOps engineer, the person must have an understanding of the practices involved in containerization. Additionally, that person should also have a familiarity and practical experience with popular IaaS platforms like AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Some of the DevOps skills are already possessed by SysAdmins like scripting, OS admin, and monitoring. But DevOps is a completely different approach and it’s creating a pipeline of development. It is a learning curve and now is the best time to get started. Pick a programming language and start learning. Along with that, get your hands on Git, CI/CD, and a Configuration and Automation tool. Always remember, an expert was once a beginner who never stopped learning.

Conclusion:

Like other career transitions made within the same industry, the role of a system administrator has a bit of overlap in responsibilities and experience with that of a DevOps professional. Many SysAdmins already have experience with scripting and may even have a level of familiarity with the technologies and platforms for automating application deployment, server configuration, etc.

So finally it’s up to the individual whether he wants to remain a SysAdmin or transition to DevOps. As you can see, there’s a learning curve involved, but there’s no time like the present to get started seeing the kind of popularity Devops profile enjoys and a bright future that a Devops Professional has.

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