Progress never stands still. Now all kinds of information technologies are coming to the forefront. They are introduced not only as independent tools but also as additions to the activities of companies.
Organizations are looking for a variety of analytics and software solutions to optimize costs and find the best ways to attract customers. To implement the tasks, specially trained people are hired.
Some time ago, a vacancy called “DevOps engineer” became widespread. This article will talk about what kind of employee he is, what he does, and also how promising the chosen direction is. DevOps activities will also be fully disclosed.
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DevOps
The term was first mentioned in 2009. It is a methodology for the interaction of developers with workers engaged in information technology services. DevOps describes their integration to ensure product quality.
The relevant direction includes:
- technology;
- all kinds of processes necessary for production and analytics;
- culture of interaction within the team.
So, developers come up with and write an application, testers have to check it, and the system administrator will install the final software for further work on the necessary devices. Previously, all this was separated from each other. Later, the idea of combining these operations into DevOps appeared. This is how DevOps engineers were born.
What does DevOps include?
If you use Google and other search engines, you can see that DevOps has several parts. It includes four components:
- culture. It provides for the creation of a single structure of two departments – operation and development. To achieve maximum and high-quality results, a person has to prove himself as a good manager.
- Automation. This “block” does not require special comments. Today, almost all companies are trying to bring everyday processes to automation. This helps to optimize production and business processes.
- measurements. The need arises when something goes “not according to plan” in IT systems. In this case, you have to turn to system engineers who are looking for the causes of failures. When it comes to DevOps, according to data from Google, the situation will be different. Initially, stack tools like Graphana or CollectD are installed on the involved devices. Metrics are implemented immediately in the codes of new applications.
- Exchange. It is assumed that during the development and release of products, everyone works smoothly and consistently. Product decisions are made openly, and specific knowledge is located in one place, accessible to the entire team. It is required not only to systematize the results obtained but also to correctly convince others to use the relevant developments.
Google points out that the illiterate use of DevOps brings certain problems to the entire company. The decisions made do not allow the business to achieve rapid success. Also, conflicts in the team between groups of programmers and system administrators are not ruled out.
Important: DevOps allows you to quickly and safely implement updates and content improvements to increase the competitive advantages of the software. As a result, it turns out to extract the maximum profit from applications.
Engineers – who are they
It is worth paying attention to the fact that with the advent of the mentioned direction of work, specialists appeared – DevOps engineers. The corresponding profession cannot be called unambiguous. It is difficult to describe it in a few words.
At the moment, there is very few such personnel, but business needs them. Therefore, when developing software, as well as improving it, the relevant persons are very much appreciated.
According to data from Google, DevOps engineers are specialists who can synchronize all stages of creating utilities. From programming codifications to testing and releasing content.
This worker is proficient in:
- specific tasks of programmers;
- features of the work of testers;
- nuances of system administration.
Such an employee perfectly solves non-standard tasks and helps the whole team to find a “common language”. He is responsible for process automation.
In a company, the role of the employee in question is sometimes distributed among several members of the team, each person which has his specialization that is different from the rest.
Differentiation from other IT-specialists
The understanding of who DevOps engineers are is currently very vague. Neither in Google nor other search engines is there a clear definition of the corresponding line of business. Therefore, we have to figure out how “developers” differ from other IT specialists.
They are often confused with system administrators (the field of DevOps is closely related to this area), as well as big data analysts. Next, let’s look at the key differences between the listed frames.
Key points
It is worth paying attention to the fact that all the mentioned directions historically appeared at different times:
- system administrators – in the 80-the 90s of the 20th century;
- “developers” – the beginning of the 21st century (the 2000s);
- BigData specialists – the second decade of the 21st century (since 2010).
Although it seems that all of the listed workers are doing the same thing, they have a huge difference in applied areas of responsibility and objects of work:
- system administrators need to work with user PC software and hardware, as well as with peripherals and network devices;
- Big Data employees are responsible for Apache Hadoop clusters, cloud services, virtual servers;
- DevOps employees are busy with the configurations of working, test, and production servers.
Also, the difference between the areas under consideration, according to data from Google, lies in the interaction with the categories of participants in IT processes:
- system administrator (non-DevOps) – communicates with end-users and management;
- BigData admin – interacts with big data analysts and engineers, software developers, and Data Scientists;
- “developer” – works with developers and testers, sometimes he helps them to cope with the assigned tasks.
But that’s not all. The goals and objectives of any of the mentioned areas of activity will be very different from each other. With the help of relevant knowledge, any person will be able to decide in which direction to work in the future.
Goals and objectives
Google is a search engine that often helps to find answers to the most difficult questions. This is an easy way to find information on the web. And Google points out that the goals and objectives of system administrators, BigData specialists, and “developers” are enormously different.
System administrators are mainly involved in:
- setting up and maintaining local networks;
- hardware and software (configuration, monitoring, installation, debugging);
- operating systems;
- creating and maintaining user accounts;
- reservation of information;
- ensuring information security;
- administration of corporate-type servers (web, mail);
- repair of hardware parts of computers and peripheral devices;
- user technical support.
BigData specialist is responsible for:
- creation and further maintenance of IT infrastructure for Big Data systems;
- configuring local and cloud clusters;
- databases for Big Data (their administration);
- setting up cloud services and platforms required for big data solutions;
- ETL systems;
- corporate information storage;
- development of a BigData user management policy;
- information security of clusters;
- server load;
- backup and restoration of existing materials (archives) if necessary.
The principles of work of DevOps engineers according to Google are:
- development of the release delivered by the developers;
- ensuring proper operation of web servers and development infrastructure servers;
- creating productive environments for frequent adjustments;
- standardization of the content creation environment;
- automation of deployment processes, as well as testing;
- creation of continuous product integration;
- responsibility for the uninterrupted, stable operation of utilities;
- ensuring a high level of availability of the released software;
- utility scaling;
- backup copying, as well as monitoring of services and servers.
The information from Google, written above, will help you figure out which employee and what exactly he does, and then make an informed choice of profession.
Attention: in the conditions of the modern development of IT technologies, BigData admins, as well as DevOps engineers, are in special demand.
How to start a career as a developer
Google allows you to understand not only what a particular specialist does but also suggests a more effective way of development in the chosen direction. If you find out in advance what skills, knowledge, and skills will be useful to the “developer” or other staff, it will turn out to succeed many times faster.
About the spectrum of knowledge
DevOps engineers must have the following knowledge:
- competent use of Google and other search engines to find the necessary information;
- programming skills in several languages (Python, C, Java, and others – basic knowledge is enough);
- principles of operation of the OS;
- cloud services;
- ability to understand hybrid solutions;
- understanding of microservices and orchestration systems;
- good legibility in configuration systems.
Also, a person must be assiduous, smart, and active. The development of communication skills and stress resistance are true friends in building a career. Psychology skills will also not be superfluous, but they cannot be classified as mandatory. But the understanding of mathematics and computer science – yes.
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Instruments
Google says that a DevOps engineer will work with a specific toolkit. And it will have to be well understood. Otherwise, it will not be possible to achieve success and rapid career advancement under any circumstances.
According to Google, DevOps engineers should be able to work with:
- Dicker containerization systems;
- Kubernetes container orchestrators;
- GitLab platform;
- Jenkins, which makes CI/CD pipelines;
- Ansible – infrastructure management;
- platform cloud services;
- services for monitoring and alerts.
It’s hard to believe, but that’s not all. Google is full of information about what good DevOps engineers should understand and be able to do.
Additional skills
To automate the work of the team and get the maximum result, “developers” will have to work hard. To move up the career ladder, you need to work hard and participate in all kinds of practices.
Also good at:
- assembly systems;
- means of checking source codifications;
- storage and transfer of artifacts;
- monitoring and alert utilities;
- logging services.
The more the expert knows, the better. His range of skills will be useful to both system administrators (not in the DevOps field) and the rest of the team.
About salary
An important point that people are interested in before starting any work is the issue of earnings and career growth. Shortly, the corresponding activity will develop and be valued in the labor market.
The issue of earning DevOps engineers depends on the region in which the employee will work. Beginners are ready to pay from 90,000 rubles a month, gradually increasing this figure.
The average salary of the considered category of subordinates in the company is 350-400 thousand rubles. Some firms are willing to pay from 500 to 800 thousand. The skills of such workers are highly valued and will be valued.
About training
Also in Moscow and other regions of the country, the question arises as to how exactly one can become a DevOps engineer. There are various options for the development of events:
- Study at a university. In Russia, this is not the best and not the most common option. Developers are not trained, but you can choose IT direction, analytics, marketing, and programming. Abroad, some higher educational institutions train this particular category of specialists.
- Prioritize self-education. For a beginner, this is not the best solution. DevOps, according to Google, is a vast field and requires a huge range of knowledge and skills. It is possible to cope with the task on your own, only it will be very long. And not always effective.
- Complete specialized narrow-profile courses. They are both face-to-face and remote. Within a few months (sometimes up to a year), educational centers will train DevOps engineers. Training is conducted according to a strictly planned plan. The result is the issuance of a certificate of the established form.
Everyone decides how to act. But one thing is clear – “developers” are promising. And it will be easier for system administrators, IT specialists, and analysts to master this field of activity.
