In recent years there have been tremendous technological changes and acceptance notified in the IT field. A growing number of companies are adopting new technology. The Development and operational changes have to lead to a new stream of DevOps practices. Let’s begin and explore the DevOps journey.
What is DevOps?
Well...DevOps is the mash-up of Development and Operations. It is a method of managing the full application development life cycle, including development, testing, deployment, and operations, by a single team.
DevOps is a term that combines two words: development and operations. DevOps is a method of managing the full application development life cycle, including development, testing, deployment, and operations, by a single team. The goal of DevOps is to shorten the development life cycle of a system while providing features, repairs, and updates regularly that are closely aligned with business goals. DevOps is a software development process that allows for the rapid and reliable development of high-quality software. Continuous development, continuous integration, continuous testing, continuous deployment, and continuous monitoring are some of the steps.
Now that you know what is DevOps, let's have a look at why DevOps matters with the help of an example:
When thinking of an example, you can consider Netflix! Yes, Netflix is a fantastic example of DevOps. Their DevOps culture has enabled them to innovate faster, leading to many business benefits. It also helped them achieve near-perfect uptime, push new features faster to the users, and increase their subscribers and streaming hours. The automation in Netflix is all defined by DevOps. So, hope you understood how DevOps is making things better for us.
Now all this process is only possible with certain tools. And what are those tools? Let’s have a look at the Top DevOps Tools 2022:
Popular DevOps Tools
To get a successful DevOps transformation, there are certain DevOps tools, some of which are mentioned below:
Version Control Tool
Version control tracks all the code and programming updates and changes. Such that in case of data loss or code error the previous version of the code can be retrieved. So, It is a tool that takes care of program backup.
GIT:
GIT is a tool that allows you to track changes in your file and, by using it you can easily coordinate the work among your team. Before Git was introduced, Developers mostly submit their codes to the central server without having their copies. If they made any changes in the source code, it was unknown to the other developers. Also, there was no communication between any of the developers. But Git solved these all. Through GIT, every developer can have an entire copy of the code on their local systems. Moreover, any changes made to the source code can be tracked by others. There is regular communication between the developers. Even they can undo the changes made in the code.
If we look at the features:
GIT is a Free Open source Tool, it allows distributed Development. It even supports pull requests and enables a faster release cycle.
Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and LinkedIn, are some of the companies using GIT.
The next tool we have is the Build tool:
Maven:
Maven is a DevOps tool used for building projects. It is also designed to manage reporting, documentation, distribution, releases, and dependencies processes. Projects written in Java or C++, Ruby, and Scala are managed by Maven.
Maven features include:
The project setup is simple and follows best practices.
It is used in almost all projects.
Reliable and dependable in project management.
Another most used tool is,
Configuration management tool:
Configuration management refers to the maintenance and control of the components of a complex system. IT components may include networks, servers, storage, and applications.
The next tool is,
Chef:
Chef is an open-source framework that has multi-platform support which includes the cloud. Chef is a popular DevOps tool. Chef is a powerful automation tool that enables developers to transform infrastructure into code. Starting from deploying, repairing, and updating to managing servers and applications in any environment, Chef can do it all.
It can also be integrated with cloud platforms like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Open Stack, etc.
If we look into the features,
A chef can easily manage hundreds of servers with a handful of employees.
It maintains a blueprint of the entire infrastructure.
Moreover, it supports large deployments.
Now, to implement DevOps practices, DevOps Engineer comes into the picture.
Who is a DevOps Engineer?
There are many benefits of learning DevOps. It is the most in-demand skill that many companies are looking for. If you are interested in a DevOps career, then you are on the right path, because it is an interesting and highly paying job as well. Let's see what a day looks like for a DevOps Engineer:
DevOps engineer is an IT expert who has a wide range of knowledge and expertise on development and operations that includes coding, infrastructure management, system integrations, and DevOps toolchain processing.
Someone who understands the software development lifecycle and has good knowledge of various DevOps tools to develop the CI pipelines.
Moving ahead let us understand in detail,
What are the roles and responsibilities of a DevOps engineer?
DevOps engineers’ daily tasks are multiple; from technical to operations all tasks require prompt attention. Mainly DevOps Process includes the following points...
The DevOps engineer is the one who is responsible for implementing the overall DevOps lifecycle.
Understand the KPIs and customer requirements.
Implementation of various automation tools, testing, development, and IT infrastructure.
- A DevOps engineer should be an automation expert, who is responsible for achieving automation and orchestration of tools.
- And finally, a security engineer monitors the product's security and performance.
- So these are some of the important roles that are present in DevOps.
Let’s talk about the responsibilities of a development engineer. Some of the key responsibilities of a develops are:
- Handling the administration of IT infrastructure.
- Project management and planning team structure and activities.
- It is his responsibility to provide server support and application support.
- And finally, a DevOps engineer assures complete system backup and if a backup is insufficient he has to create a backup policy as well.
So...These were some of the DevOps engineer’s responsibilities.
Let us go head to the main topic,
What are the Day-to-Day Tasks and Activities of a DevOps Engineer?
Let’s put up some general points that DevOps professionals execute or do on daily basis. It is very important that...He must make sure that the CI CD pipeline is smooth and that it is given top priority in case it requires attention or fixing.
Also, check slack for urgent messages. He must make sure he has smooth coordination with the both development and operation team, program management team and other stakeholders is must. He must give good attention to the automation backlog. The next big thing that DevOps Engineer looks for is, Infrastructure management.
DevOps engineer is also responsible for the maintenance and management of the infrastructure that is required for the CI CD pipeline and for making sure it delivers accurate results.
Then comes the documentation. Though a DevOps engineer spends less time on documentation it is a very important task on daily basis. Prepare server information daily week chart and take simple steps to modify the infrastructure.
The next big task involved in the day-to-day activities of DevOps engineers is monitoring. DevOps engineer monitors the project status and growth and keeps track of its software lifecycle to make sure it runs smoothly.
It is very crucial to make sure that you learn and perform self-development sessions for team encouragement and to make sure every team member is updating and enhancing their skills.
Lastly, the major task that should be encouraged is continuous improvement. A DevOps engineer should channel the attention to awareness of the capabilities of CI CD and DevOps practices
So these are some of the activities you can say a DevOps engineer does on daily basis. However, these are general activities; they may vary based on experience, the organization, and the type of industry.
What Skills must a DevOps Engineer have?
Acquiring a position as a DevOps engineer is not an easy job, it requires accomplishing many technical skills. Technical expertise and experience give a professional great exposure and enhance their ability towards the job role and responsibilities.
A DevOps engineer in general should have the following skill sets:
- Manage software development and automation.
- Handle well the development and operation departments with ease.
- Efficiently must use the DevOps tools to execute tasks successfully.
- Tools that a DevOps engineer must practice.
- Constant development & integration tools.
- Tools that help in managing the code architecture.
- Cloud architecture.
- System monitoring and debugging tools.
- Orchestration software.
- Linux platform knowledge.
- Should be proficient in Python, Ruby, Go, or other language programming skills.
- Should be able to work in Git.
- Along with all technical skills, and DevOps engineer is also expected to be professional in soft skills as well.
- Customer orientation.
- Ability to handle tough and challenging tasks.
- Great presentation skills.
- Understand from the customer’s point of view and deliver the results successfully.
How Important Are The DevOps Engineers For The Companies?
The companies aim for quick product delivery results with accuracy. These business fundamentals are taken care of by the DevOps engineer. By making the tasks easy and accurate with the implementation of automation in the system, the DevOps engineer smoothens the system process.
Companies look up for less time in program structure and product delivery. This is made possible by the DevOps engineer as his task is to reduce manual work and increase work efficiency through technological automation.
With system updates and an innovative approach towards the coding and programming languages, also with the best coordination of operations teams with the development team, The DevOps engineer has to smoothen the work process. This responsibility is well managed by the DevOps engineer.
Hence, a DevOps engineer is an asset to the company and plays a very important role in business advancements.
What are Different DevOps Methods?
Businesses can go for a few popular DevOps approaches to speed up product releases. The most popularly used DevOps methods are Scrum, Kanban, and Agile.
Scrum:
Scrum outlines how teammates should merge to speed up growth and quality assurance projects. The procedures of Scrum include defined responsibilities, as well as critical routines and vocabulary (interval training, time boxes, scrum meetings).
Kanban:
It was mainly developed as a result of Toyota's factory floor efficiencies. As per Kanban, the situation software project work in progress (WIP) should be measured on a Kanban board.
Agile:
Earlier, DevOps tools were highly influenced by agile software development methods. It is incorporated into several DevOps approaches, such as Scrum and Kanban. For instance, Agile approaches such as documenting needs for user stories, organizing daily stand-ups, and incorporating constant client feedback, are all linked to increased responsiveness to changing demands and requirements. Agile also recommends shorter software development lifecycles over the longer, older "waterfall" methodologies.
Bright Career Options
- The DevOps engineer holds great future opportunities in the following fields.
- IT Team Leaders.
- Systems Administrators.
- Architects.
- Software Developers.
- Cloud Engineers.
- Deployment Engineers.
- Operations Support.
- Project Managers.
- IT Managers.
Conclusion
A normal day for a DevOps engineer can be very challenging and interesting. It may vary from technical to communication tasks. No doubt the technical aspects must be profoundly taken care of, with accurate coding and innovative development solutions. It is also a DevOps engineer's responsibility to maintain a strong workflow.
DevOps requires constant improvisation and a continuous work process that generates great business. A people-oriented approach should also be maintained. The coordination should be clear from the client's requirements to the comfortable communication flow with the operations team, developers, and stakeholders.
On the technical front, the DevOps engineer should make sure all the settings are accurate with the automated setups, testing, debugging, and deployment.
A DevOps engineer makes the best use of the tools and provides actionable insights into the company.
