With its crucial importance to all the booming businesses in the twenty-first century, Information Technology has always had the prospects of spurting an array of careers within its own ranks too. Therefore, the emergence of Developers and System Operators never came as a surprise. These experts have taken and continue to take technology to inexplicable heights. But while they blow us away with consistent innovations, attention has begun to gradually shift to some even more complex and evidently lucrative careers in IT and that is where a DevOps Engineer comes into play.
Interestingly, “DevOps” is coined from the words, “Developers” and “System Operators” and it expressly explains why DevOps engineers are those who collaborate with IT technicians such as developers and operators, in a bid to manage the creation of codes and software programs.
A DevOps engineer is primarily an IT expert who levels up the boundaries around software development and software testing. In addition, he or she monitors the infrastructures that are required to assist software codes in different environments.
Roles of a DevOps Engineer
Project Organization
A DevOps engineer usually takes active part in organizing projects. Besides his or her input in terms of providing the costs, impacts, risks and system options, he or she equally supplies development-related forecasts which ultimately give room for timely and duly organized projects.
Programs Development
DevOps Engineers are charged with the creation, modification, installation and configuration of IT solutions. Furthermore, they run updates and maintenance on IT programs and packages.
Files Dispatching
Through the assistance of configuration management programs, DevOps Engineers create new upgrades, bug fixes and modules which are automatically dispatched and synchronized into the packages they have been created for.
Troubleshooting Services
DevOps Engineers regularly check for errors and bugs within computer programs and routinely administer troubleshooting services in order to resolve such malwares.
Performance Rating and Evaluation
Besides the task of reviewing the performances and usability of computer programs, DevOps Engineers equally provide suggestions on the ways to improve or increase these performances and this is mostly done through gap analysis.
In all, the responsibilities of these experts cannot be apportioned to a single career path. In most cases, software developers whom must have taken up different maintenance and upgrade duties, are those that ultimately become DevOps Engineers. Although, a system administrator with an ample knowledge of coding, scripting and testing, can also graduate into the position.
Skills to Inculcate by Every DevOps Engineer
Comprehensive Technical Ability: It is expected that a DevOps Engineer has a good knowledge of networking and storage. This is important because network and storage are no longer silos. Hence, a DevOps expert has to be able to create or come up with solutions that are expressly effective and applicable.
Competency in System Administration: Whether it is with Windows or Linux, a DevOps Engineer needs to be an expert Administrator, as he or she would have to develop and administer severs repeatedly. More so, the demand for experts that can automate activities of servers, is on the increase.
Mastery of Scripting: DevOps Engineers have to consistently write scripts such as Java, Ruby, Bash, Python, among others. They are sometimes required to create codes which changes original manual procedures to automated ones.
Extensive Developer Prowess: Since building and creation of scripts can be easily done by a System Administrator, A DevOps Engineer should be able to validate his or her high-ranking status by going beyond the creation stage. He or she has to be able to develop installation, configuration and validation programs which are automatically triggered as soon as a single command is punched.
Other skills to be inculcated include: Ideal customer relations, a caring heart and an unending thirst for innovation.
Education/ Degree
Since it is a relatively new field, aspiring DevOps Engineers usually have different educational backgrounds. While some are graduates of Computer Science or Computer Engineering, others may have obtained a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering or in any other STEM degree. In addition, a master’s degree in any of these fields, provides a solid preparation for a DevOps Engineer career.
The most notable Tertiary institution that offers DevOps Software Development as a distinct degree is John Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.
Income
A DevOps Engineer’s job description is largely complex since he or she has to combine the roles of many other IT experts simultaneously. This is why they top the charts in regards to income of IT professionals. The monthly earnings of a DevOps Engineer is between the range of $115,000 and $250,000.
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