🦸‍♂️ Nobody Dreamed of Becoming a DevOps Engineer

I began learning backend development, starting with PHP, then expanding into more structured programming languages like Pascal, C++, C# (Pascal? I already feel like a fossil by just saying that word 😆).

This opened doors to full-stack development, allowing me to work on both the frontend and backend of applications. But as my applications grew, so did the need to deploy them efficiently. That's when I stumbled into the world of pipelines, CI/CD, and cloud infrastructure management.

Suddenly, managing deployments manually wasn't enough. I needed to automate processes, manage infrastructure effectively, and deliver code seamlessly. This realization pushed me toward DevOps - and once I discovered the power of automations, I was hooked to it. ⚙️💻☁️

Avoid the trap of trying to automate every tiny detail, as it can lead to losing sight of what's truly important. Attempting to automate the last 20% of processes may consume 80% of your time and energy, potentially derailing your overall progress.

Automate Everything: NoOps

"NoOps" - (not) just another buzzword.

While still in its infancy, NoOps envisions a future where infrastructure management is fully automated - so much so that developers no longer need to worry about operations.

I envision building our internal tools and core components in a way that developers would genuinely "love" to use: Pipeline Templates, Configurations as Code, Infrastructure as Code—you name it. I see this concept as similar to an SDK.

While we aren't quite at NoOps yet, the concept illustrates just how far automation can go.

And remember! GitOps goes hand in hand with NoOps.

(Uuugh! Do I need to explain GitOps as well!?? 😩🙈)

Ok! I'll be quick: GitOps - Make sure you keep everything in repository(es). 😇

Different Faces of DevOps Engineers

Throughout my career, I've encountered many different types of DevOps engineers. Each comes from a unique background, and each has their own strengths and challenges. Let me introduce you to a few:

The Ops-Heavy Engineer: Lacking the "Dev" in DevOps

These engineers typically come from traditional IT operations. They are experts at managing servers, networks, and cloud resources but often rely on manual processes through GUIs and dashboards. They may be proficient at ClickOps but lack the coding skills needed to automate these processes. Their DevOps journey starts with learning scripting languages like PowerShell, Bash, or Python and mastering tools like Terraform or Ansible to automate their work.

The Dev-Heavy Engineer: Experiencing Ops for the First Time

On the other end of the spectrum, you'll find developers who are diving into the world of operations for the first time. They're skilled at writing clean code and building applications, but managing infrastructure, deploying applications, and troubleshooting cloud environments is new to them. Their challenge is learning how to integrate deployment pipelines and monitor infrastructure while maintaining the quality of their code.

The Balanced DevOps Engineer

The ideal DevOps engineer balances both development and operations

(🤚 Yep! That's me 😁). These engineers can write scripts, manage infrastructure, automate processes, and troubleshoot issues in production. This type of engineer represents the essence of DevOps: combining the development skills to build software with the operational know-how to deploy and maintain it seamlessly.

No matter where you start, each path is a valid entry point into the world of DevOps. Whether you're an ops-heavy engineer learning to code or a developer stepping into the world of infrastructure, there's room for everyone in this journey.

for the nice article that kickstarted in me the whole idea of writing articles.

🔗 for the persistence he showed by asking once in a while Hey! Did you publish your article? 😇

(Now it's my turn 😈)

Thanks to

Your first article is probably the hardest article you'd write

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