What is DevOps?
Tags: devops, cloud, career, beginners
Published: 2023-01-24 13:50:11

> Really understand what DevOps is and the massive opportunities it offers!

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Originally published [here](https://techmormo.com/posts/what-is-devops/).
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHxMaoe8DL0

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What the heck is DevOps?

And why is the demand for DevOps Engineers growing even faster than for Machine Learning or Data Science jobs?

Keep reading to find out…

## Introduction

Here’s the agenda for this tutorial:

- What is DevOps?

- Common DevOps Practices

- Core DevOps Technologies

- Why learn DevOps?

- “Do I HAVE to be a ‘DevOps Engineer’?”

- The Challenges in learning DevOps

- How TechMormo can help master DevOps

Ok, let’s first answer…

## What is DevOps?

> DevOps is a concept aimed to deliver better software faster by uniting Software Development (Dev) and Operations (Ops).

The Dev team is responsible for product development, whereas the Ops is responsible for running systems smoothly.

Traditionally these teams have worked separately with conflicting interests.


![1](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/pqed2v5r8g6c1lhskt6i.png)

The Dev team wants to move fast, release new features, and fix bugs.

The Ops team, on the other hand, wants to move slowly and reduce changes to keep things stable.

This conflict of interests used to cause a great deal of tension within organizations, negatively impacting the product.

DevOps breaks down the proverbial walls within organizations so that teams can communicate and collaborate better.


![2](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/bwj96jy21iboam5b63bk.png)

By embracing a set of practices, tools, and cultural changes, DevOps provides faster releases, faster feedback from customers, and ultimately better software.

## DevOps Practices

DevOps is a broad and abstract topic. Different companies implement it differently.

But most teams that embrace DevOps usually have a few practices in common:

### 1) Break down organizational silos to empower cross-functional teams

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/se4hzh35vcuiow4qpzjl.png)

This enables better communication and collaboration between teams in an organization. It also promotes self-sufficiency enabling teams to develop and deploy their products/services independently. Ultimately, the organization gains unrivaled agility.

### 2) Release short and incremental changes

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/rolnviniy4vguxrhr9p5.png)

Inspired by Agile methods, this practice is key to being quick in an ever-changing industry. Short, incremental changes are faster to develop, review and ship. It also helps to resolve sudden incidents faster when deploying a small change, as opposed to when deploying 10,000 lines of code and multiple breaking changes.

### 3) Adopt microservice architectures

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dk5ggqy1i92jmoybgkr3.png)

When you have multiple teams able to own the entire lifecycle of their projects, you naturally get many small loosely-coupled services talking to each other ie. microservices. Although, this is not a necessity, esp. for small companies that can benefit from the simplicity of Monolithic architectures. But when growing or scaling, microservices can help significantly.

### 4) Version control everything

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/zh6vv6b234qv51e1ds5q.png)

DevOps Teams often apply version control to many different assets. From design and architectural assets, infrastructure, configuration, and of course - source code. Version control has a very useful property - it creates an immutable view of the history of changes. This enables a team to refer to exact changes made, as well as to roll back easily.

### 5) Automate everything

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ixgzu961qi2ra6y6r7nw.png)

By leveraging tools and technologies, DevOps fosters a culture of automation. Tasks that are repeated often, are manual, or are toilsome are usually primary targets of automation. Why automate? It lowers costs, significantly improves speed and throughput, reduces bugs + human error, and lets team members focus on high-value tasks.

## DevOps Technologies

By incorporating DevOps practices, a set of tools and technologies emerged.

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/cqogyskunh0v5pavevfp.png)

The following are the core segments of DevOps Technologies:

- Scripting languages (eg. Python, Shell Script, Ruby)

- Version control system (eg. Git, SVN)

- OS & Linux basics (terminal usage, mgmt. of processes, memory, storage, etc.)

- Networking & Security basics (IP, Firewalls, DNS, HTTPS, LBs, etc.)

- Containerization (eg. Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)

- (CI/CD) Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (eg. Jenkins, Gitlab-ci, etc.)

- Cloud Computing (eg. AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.)

- (IaC) Infrastructure as Code (eg. Ansible, Terraform, etc.)

- Monitoring & Observability (eg. Elastic Stack, Prometheus, Grafana, etc.)

NOTE: this is neither a fixed nor a comprehensive list. As DevOps practices evolve, so will the technologies associated with them.

Now, learning all these technologies might seem daunting.

Or exciting.

Or both.

Whatever your response is, you might naturally ask…

## Why learn DevOps?

Below are the top 3 reasons we love DevOps!

### 1) Massive learning opportunity

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7ey3a7m6ss1okizxphez.png)

DevOps touches a lot of roles and domains, not just Dev and Ops. This means a DevOps Engineer has to learn continuously, enabling the opportunity to build a diverse skill set.

Depending on the company, this can include elements of Design, Development, Operations, Testing, Management, etc.

It sounds fantastic if you love to learn, but scary if you’re not into learning.

In the coming days of Automation & AI, if you don’t develop a love for learning, you might be in trouble.

Remember, learning is investing in yourself.

As Warren Buffet puts it -

“The best investment you can make is in yourself… The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.”

### 2) High-impact role

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8788g1jg3t14kkf2iev1.png)

As a DevOps Engineer, you can move (technological) mountains.

Is this a joke?

Nope.

Imagine commanding hundreds of servers at your will, automating manual-repetitive tasks, designing microservices, and having ownership of the entire SDLC.

Your actions will have a direct impact on the business, including how quickly the product can be released, how smoothly your team members can work, etc.

In other words, you will have a highly leveraged role.

Sounds exciting, right?!

Remember, with great power, comes great responsibility.

And big money too! 💸

### 3) High salary & exploding demand

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/gvmtiqlugi4fw85xttep.png)

Companies realize the huge benefits of implementing DevOps. That’s why they are willing to pay top dollar for DevOps Engineers.

For example, an average AWS Solutions Architect makes over $150k/year in the US, according to Glassdoor.

What’s more, the demand is exploding!

In 2021, Bain & Company reported a growth of 443% increase in DevOps job postings from 2015 to 2019. This growth is even higher than postings for Machine Learning (417%), Data Science (167%), or Software Engineering (69%).

Additionally, most Engineers are not competent in DevOps, resulting in low supply and low competition.

This is YOUR opportunity!

You won’t have a hard time finding jobs with DevOps skills.

You want to tap into this huge salary growth. But you think to yourself…

## Do I HAVE to be a ‘DevOps Engineer’?

Absolutely not.

Any IT Professional can start learning DevOps, make an impact, and position themselves to be able to earn more.

The shortage of DevOps Engineers means many companies don’t even have a dedicated role for “DevOps”. Instead, existing Software Engineers or System Administrators are usually trained in DevOps skills.

But, most Engineers don’t become competent in DevOps due to…

## The Challenges in learning DevOps

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/q8innu28w86bosbftlzj.png)

Learning DevOps is often overwhelming, whether you’re about to start or already a practitioner.

- DevOps is complex: There are a lot of things to learn. Additionally, it is continuously evolving as new technologies come out every day.

- Lack of guidance: Due to the complexity and unique backgrounds of individuals, it is difficult to figure out an effective path to DevOps mastery.

- Most resources are just theory: Tired of theory lectures and PowerPoint slides that offer no practical value? We are too.

- Live classrooms don’t take your pace into account: Ever been stuck in a class that goes too fast or too slow? This often happens for live DevOps training because not everyone learns at the same pace.

How do you master DevOps effectively then?

## How TechMormo helps you master DevOps?

![-](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vamc0700v8cvmzfvn23b.png)

At TechMormo, our goal is to help you master DevOps.

- Simplicity: we are obsessed with simplifying complex topics to help you become a better DevOps Engineer. We craft lectures with easy-to-understand animations and visuals.

- Do projects, start to finish: Learn how to create and scale projects from start to finish, step-by-step. Whether you're just starting out or are already a practitioner, you will find value in our content.

- Hands-on practical skills: Don’t just digest Theory. Learn hands-on practical skills that you can implement in your job TODAY.

- Learn at your own pace: Stuck in a class that’s too slow or too fast? We create on-demand learning resources that you can use anytime, anywhere.

So, what are you waiting for?

Subscribe to the [TechMormo Newsletter](https://techmormo.com/newsletter/) to get notified of new cutting-edge DevOps content.

Learn DevOps, stand apart, and reap the rewards! 🏆

## Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learnt what DevOps is including its core practices and technologies.

We also discussed why learning DevOps is beneficial, what the challenges are in learning, and how TechMormo can help in your DevOps journey.

DevOps is continuously evolving. The practices and technologies are likely to change over time. But what’s important is to understand its core purpose: “deliver better software faster”.

Thanks for making it so far!

We have a LOT more exciting DevOps content on the way! 🙌

See you at the next one.

Till then…

Be bold and keep learning.

But most importantly,

Tech care!