Developing your DevOps Skills
If there is one constant thing about technology, it is change.
It started with mainframe computing, then minis, PCs, distributed systems, client-server, open systems, internet, ecommerce, mobile devices, ITIL, app stores, and now we have DevOps. So what is DevOps, why can it be beneficial, and why is it an important skillset for candidates who interested in adapting to the changing needs?
The Need for DevOps
DevOps – a conflation of ‘development’ and ‘operations’ — is “a software development and delivery process that emphasizes communication and collaboration between product management, software development, and operations professionals. It supports this by automating and monitoring the process of software integration, testing, deployment, and infrastructure changes by establishing a culture and environment where building, testing, and releasing software can happen rapidly, frequently, and more reliably.” We have all heard the saying “necessity is the mother of invention”. And while DevOps was not necessarily “invented” it certainly came about due to the necessity to deploy quality software faster and faster in the internet age, where relevant content and functionality wars between websites occur daily. Just think about how often you need to visit the app store to update your apps! Said another way, DevOps was not a solution looking for a problem, it was the solution to the problem of painfully slow and buggy software development and deployment cycles of the last century. For the IT professional, DevOps means an end to isolated responsibilities such as “I just write code” or “I’m just an infrastructure guy/gal”, and represents massive opportunity to a new career that blends aspects of product development, software coding, and infrastructure operations. Thinking about this another way, it provides an opportunity to become more valuable, as single-skilled worker roles writing code or administering Linux servers become commoditized. Further, as automation continues to become pervasive in all aspects of IT and is a key aspect of DevOps, demand for DevOps engineers will continue to boom. Conversely, as discussed in our June blog, demand for the commoditized roles at offshore outsourcing companies has begun to decline. [i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps
