Are you prepared to thrive in a professional world reliant on technology? According to the EU Commission, by 2021, Europe could have a shortfall of about 900,000 crucial IT professionals. Already, many technology businesses are struggling to find the right talent and skill in their industry, particularly as the sector shifts from a focus on hardware to software.
Since the world of formal education is widely regarded as largely out-of-date, professionals who want to stay ahead of the competition, and highlight themselves as the ideal candidate for any DevOps role, will need to pinpoint and cultivate the right skills for our rapidly evolving world.
The best way to enhance your value in the growing digital market is to be ahead of the game and keep your skills updated. While it’s not about learning every technology or coding language that emerges on the market, there are a few essential skills you'll need to refine if you want to have your pick of the technology job market.
Technologies and Tools
The DevOps landscape is a place of continuous development and evolution. If you want to thrive in this space, you need to be informed about the latest and greatest innovations in this area. There are numerous elements to look at, including:
- Source Control software (VSTS, Svn, Bitbucket)
- Continuous Integration (Bamboo, Jenkins)
- Cloud (AWS, OpenStack, Google Cloud)
- Infrastructure Automation (Ansible, Chef, Puppet)
- Deployment orchestration and automation: (VSTS, Jenkins, Octopus Deploy)
- Container concepts (Docker, LXD)
Though you may not be able to become a specialist in every piece of software on the market, a great DevOps Engineer is always curious about the latest developments in their field. By keeping pace with industry developments, reading up and exploring new software, and diving deeper into solutions that might be relevant to a new employer you will position yourself as a potential employee who is ahead of the field.
Security First
As coding and technology become more streamlined and efficient, it's important to remember that security will always be an essential part of any DevOps career. Sometimes, the most important skill you can demonstrate to a hiring manager is your ability to consider software integrations and developments from the perspective of business integrity.
As a developer, it will be your responsibility not only to write code that protects applications from attacks, but you'll also need to think about how you can overcome common cybersecurity problems when implementing new software too.
Make sure that you're prepared to perform security tasks during the requirement phase of your DevOps journey. Explore the latest safety options, and let your business know that you're capable of installing security measures into applications from the start - rather than having to bolt them on at a later stage.
Version Control
A thorough understanding of version control is crucial for any DevOps specialist. Version control simply allows you to track your product versions, reverse changes, and keep a backup of your data close. Version control can also help multiple people in a team work on the same codebase at the same time.
Today, the most popular version control solutions are SVN and Git. If you want to get ahead of the crowd, however, you need to be well-versed in how to use both. The good news is that the logic behind these systems is very similar. While websites like WordPress use SVN for their plugins because it was available before Git, Git is accessed by developers from almost all industries.
To learn more about Git, you can read up on the Git Book online. Similarly, there's plenty of documentation available for SVN too.
Automation Experience
Automation is a fundamental element of DevOps in today's digitally transforming landscape. A lot of the manual tasks previously performed by administrators can now be automated through standard scripting languages like Ruby, Python, and Shell. As a DevOps professional, you'll need to speak many coding languages and understand how you can use those languages to automate manual tasks and remove the human component from repetitive jobs.
DevOps engineers need to be able to implement automation solutions at any level in today's business environment. As manually-configured infrastructure systems become a thing of the past, candidates who can evidence their ability to provision and configure infrastructure using code will create the best career opportunities for themselves.
Develop your experience with on-premises infrastructure like Hyper-V and VMware, as well as cloud and hybrid solutions like Amazon Web Services and Azure. Where possible, it may be helpful to build a portfolio that shows your automation experience.
Build Tool Knowledge
Finally, as more companies strive to grow as fast, and efficient as possible, a solid understanding of the latest build tools is crucial for DevOps experts. Build tools remove the strain of compiling SASS/LESS, optimising images, and checking for errors - cutting your development time to a minimum.
The two most prominent build tools to understand on the market today are Grunt and Gulp. However, it's up to you to make sure that you have an in-depth knowledge of the build tools that are most appealing to the organisation you want to work for.
By learning as much as you can about build tools, you could enhance your appeal in any company, by walking into a new work environment and introducing automation solutions to make everyone's life a little easier.
About Inspire People
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Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.
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