Career In DevOps - Roles and Responsibilities, Salary, Future

The best thing about a DevOps model is that you can adopt it without sacrificing security.
DevOps is a combination of words Development and Operations. It is a methodology or a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). It actually bridges the gap between the developers and the IT staff. DevOps model help businesses improve their ability to deliver high-speed applications and services. It allows for quicker adaptation and improvement of products than conventional software creation. Businesses can offer customer support and perform better in all IT areas. Under a DevOps model, you can easily build more effective teams. Developers and operations teams collaborate closely and combine their workflows. The model also encourages ownership and accountability which helps reducing inefficiencies and saves time. And the best thing about a DevOps model is that you can adopt it without sacrificing security.



Who is a DevOPs engineer?

DevOps Engineers work with developers, system operators and other IT production staff to oversee code releases and deployments. A DevOps Engineer has a thorough knowledge and understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle and various automation techniques. He helps in building, testing and maintaining the infrastructure in order to simplify the development process of software. He works with developer and ensures that development follows establish processes. Since, a DevOps Engineer helps in finding problems and building solutions, knowledge of coding languages is must. But as you become senior, you will more likely to be involved in the project management and planning side of development.

Roles and Responsibilities

A DevOps engineer has many roles and responsibilities such as

- Building and setting up new development tools and infrastructure
- Working to automate and improve development and release processes
- Testing code, processes, and deployments to identify ways to minimize errors.
- Finding new areas to improve deployment efficiency.
- Coordination and communication between the teams and customers.

What are the most demanding DevOps Skills?

A DevOps Engineer should be able to handle a Linux operating system as most companies prefer hosting their applications on Linux.

A DevOps engineer should be familiar with multiple languages to function as a DevOPs engineer. Python, Shell, Java, Javascript are examples of such languages. Learning python is highly recommended. A good understanding of programming would improve a DevOps Engineer’s productivity.

Continuous Integration is the essence of DevOps. It is the practice of continuously integrating all the code from different developers into a single piece of software. A good knowledge of tools for Continuous integration is required such like Jenkins, Bamboo etc.  

Now, in order to test and automate, you must also understand automation testing tool. Selenium is the most widely used automation testing tool for web applications.

You must also learn about various cloud platforms and Cloud Computing skills that can deploy upgrades and fixes.  There are various cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, GCP .

Also be familiar about a few Continuous Monitoring tools like Datadog, Splunk, etc. These tools are used to monitor application performance, down time, error logs, etc.

DevOps culture enables all workers to be communicative, so you must have good soft skills.

Is it possible to get a job in DevOps without experience or as fresher?

It is difficult, but not impossible, to obtain a job in any technology without prior experience. First, you must make a decision and commit to learning DevOps for a few months. Once you've made up your mind, it doesn't matter what background you have. It would be simple for you if you have a computer science background because you would be familiar with programming languages and linux operating systems. Then you can pursue certifications, as companies prefer to hire certified individuals. Certifications are good way to showcase your capability in absence of experience. After that, You can try to gain some experience as a freelancer,  you can also try to contribute to some open source projects. This will help you gain more experience, skills and expertise.

Let us now look at some of the popular DevOps certifications to start your DevOps Journey:

- Certified Kubernetes Administrator
- Certified Jenkins Engineer
- Docker Certified Associate
- Microsoft Certified Azure DevOps Engineer
- AWS Certified Solution Architect
- Google’s Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer

What salary can a DevOPs engineer expect?

A DevOps engineer’s salary is quite lucrative but varies depending on the organization, experience and of course geography. You should expect to earn about Rs. 3-5 lakh per year as an entry-level Devops engineer. At the mid-level, the average salary for DevOps engineers is about Rs. 9-15 lakh per year. The average salary for senior DevOps engineers can be between Rs.30-40 lakh per year. However, the true determinant of your salary is the skills you possess, the mastery you have attained over them, and how quickly you grow and help the company grow.

Future of DevOps

The demand for DevOps has been going up and knowledge of DevOps enables you to automate and integrate the development and operations processes. Today, organizations all over the world are focusing on reducing productivity time through automation, so now is a good time to start investing in and learning DevOps for a rewarding career in the future.
So to conclude, DevOps has a bright future ahead.