Who are DevOps engineers and why everyone needs them

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It is believed that this is not a person and not a profession. But this does not prevent such a specialist from earning more than other IT professionals.

What is DevOps

The term DevOps appeared in 2009 with the light hand of the Belgian IT consultant and project manager Patrick Debois. On his Twitter page, Patrick offered to discuss Agile Systems Administration. The hashtag he invented, which merged development and operations, quickly became popular around the world.

Today DevOps is the name for a whole philosophy and culture of interaction between diverse professionals. As well as a system of relevant practices.

It was DevOps practices that helped Etsy move from frustration and isolation to successful collaborative manufacturing.

Jennifer Davis is the author of The DevOps Philosophy. The art of IT management"

DevOps methodology helps programmers, testers, and operations engineers to act as a team and strive towards a common goal. As a result, the development and release of new releases is accelerated, which is good for both users and businesses.

Who Needs DevOps Engineers and Why

Although DevOps is a relatively recent approach, there is little doubt about its value. But with the profession of DevOps ‑ engineer, everything is not so simple. There is an opinion that there is simply no such specialty. After all, an individual person cannot simultaneously program, test and launch an application into production.

Nevertheless, on the recruitment sites - both Russian and American - they are actively looking for DevOps engineers. Especially large organizations are interested in them, where many different teams work, and the speed of release and update of programs is critical. But, in principle, DevOps can benefit any company that develops applications or manages servers.

The global task of the DevOps engineer is to speed up, simplify and automate the creation of software at all stages, from writing code to launching a project, as much as possible.

Of course, this is not done for the love of art, but to save the business time and money.

The DevOps specialist most of all worries during the project release stage. This person is expected to adjust the process of building and launching the program, track possible problems and quickly solve them. As a representative of the whole philosophy, the DevOps engineer is responsible for the effective collaboration between development and operations teams. Ideally, these departments should follow the motto "One for all, and all for one", rather than shifting arrows to each other in the event of another delay in release or software glitches.

However, with the advent of DevOps-engineer, such delays and mistakes will be much less. At least that's what he is hired for.

What a DevOps engineer should be able to do

To successfully complete their tasks, a DevOps engineer must understand programming, system administration, cloud technologies, and infrastructure automation. And also be a good manager and negotiator.

Although the requirements for an employee depend on a particular company, in any case, the list of expectations from a DevOps engineer is very wide. Here are just a basic set of skills and knowledge that you cannot do without in this profession:

• Understanding the life cycle and stages of software development.
• Understanding the principles of Agile - an agile approach to development.
• Understanding continuous integration / continuous delivery (CI / CD) processes - continuous integration and application delivery.
• Experience with CI / CD automation tools (Jenkins, GitLab CI / CD, CircleCI, Bamboo, TeamCity and others).
• Experience in automating virtual infrastructure (Infrastructure as Code, or IaC) using Terraform.
• Experience with configuration management tools (primarily Ansible, but also Chef and Puppet).
• Experience with the Git version control system.
• Expert knowledge of Linux and / or Windows operating systems.
• Knowledge of network technologies and basic network protocols (TCP / IP).
• Experience in database administration (MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL).
• Experience with web servers (Apache, Nginx) and web application deployment.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud).
• Experience with containers (Docker) and container management system (Kubernetes).
• Ability to write scripts for automation in two or three languages (as a rule, we are talking about Bash, Python, Ruby or Perl).
• Experience with infrastructure monitoring tools (Zabbix, Prometheus).
• Developed soft skills.
• Spoken and written English - not lower than Intermediate.

In addition, being successful in DevOps is critical to being able to learn quickly, to understand the problem thoroughly, and to have an ineradicable drive to optimize and improve everything.

How much does a DevOps engineer pay

The diverse skills and talents of a DevOps engineer are generously rewarded. The average salary of a multi-tool technician is approaching $ 100,000 per year in the United States and 140,000 rubles (about $ 1,800) per month in Russia. This is higher than the average for Russian IT specialists (108 thousand rubles, or about $ 1,400, per month).

Earnings depend on the level of the specialist (junior, middle or senior) and on the region. For example, the rate of a DevOps engineer at the middle level tends to 230,000 rubles a month (about $ 3,000), while a senior may well claim an amount one and a half to two times higher ($ 4,500-6,000). Moscow and St. Petersburg traditionally pay more than other cities.

How to become a DevOps engineer

DevOps is, first of all, experience and a deep understanding of how the process of developing, launching and supporting programs works, and not knowledge of specific tools.

It is not surprising that the easiest way to enter the profession is for those who have already worked in IT either as a programmer or as a system administrator. Some are able to master the tools and principles of DevOps on their own, while for everyone else there are many retraining courses.

Beginners can also learn from the courses. But in any case, it is better to pass them not from scratch, but on the basis of higher or at least secondary education in the field of information technology. Ideal for beginners - learning the basics of DevOps at IT-companies that give a chance for employment.

Where DevOps engineers are trained

We have compiled a list of five popular courses for every wallet, pace and level.

1. School DevOps

• Duration:2 weeks - 3 months (10–68 academic hours).
• Price:0-120 thousand rubles per course.
• Students:from beginners to specialists with a year of experience as a DevOps engineer.
• Format: online lessons, live communication with teachers.
• Employment: employment counseling, resume writing assistance, a two-week internship after an advanced course.

offers a free online course for those taking their first steps in the profession. In 10 academic hours, you will get acquainted with the basic concepts of DevOps, Agile and the software life cycle, and also learn how to work with Linux, Git, Jenkins and Ansible.

An extended retraining course lasting 36 hours (2 months) is intended for system administrators, network and system engineers, programmers and testers.

Finally, professionals who have already worked as a DevOps engineer for at least a year, know scripting languages (Python, Perl, Ruby) and are fluent in technical English can improve their level on an advanced course lasting 68 hours (3 months). Upon completion of training, students will have a two-week internship.

2. Skillbox

• Duration: 2 years (260 online lessons).
• Price: 6 591 rubles a month (3 955 rubles a month with a discount), installments for 24 months.
• Students: IT ‑ specialists of junior and middle level.
• Format: video lectures, workshops, homework with feedback from the mentor.
• Employment: recommendations for drawing up a portfolio and resume, preparation for an interview, personal consultations, the presence of real customers at the defense of the diploma.

The program "" from the online university Skillbox is designed for sysadmins, testers and programmers who want to acquire a new demanded specialty. Newbies can try their hand, but they should at least have a basic understanding of the basics of Linux, networking and databases, be able to work with web servers and program in Bash.

Without interrupting their main activities, students will master the most popular Docker containerization and Git version control systems, learn to automate server configuration and CI / CD processes, and create monitoring solutions. In addition, they will begin to write scripts in Python, even if they did not know how before.

As a gift, students receive a course on cloud services and the Kuberbetes container management system. Plus two months of free English.

3. Netology

• Duration: 11 months (64 hours of theory and 252 hours of practice).
• Price: from 5 895 rubles per month if paid in installments.
• Students: sysadmins, novice DevOps ‑ engineers, programmers, testers.
• Format: webinars, homework with expert feedback, hands-on labs, and graduation in the cloud.
• Employment: assistance in writing a resume, searching for vacancies and preparing for an interview.

The "" course from Netology allows IT professionals with work experience to move to a new profession in less than one calendar year.

Students get everything a DevOps engineer needs to get employed. This is working with Git, Linux and database administration, automated build and delivery with Jenkins, GitLab CI and TeamCity, building a cloud infrastructure using Terraform, scripting, and much more. A nice gift - an extended Python course and free English lessons for IT professionals.

4. ProductStar

• Duration: 2 months (11 blocks and 11 workshops).
• Price: 25,000 rubles for the entire course (19,000 rubles for the first 25 students).
• Students: sysadmins, novice DevOps ‑ engineers, programmers, testers.
• Format: video lectures, homework and feedback from the mentor.
• Employment guarantees: help with resume writing, consultations on the main points when applying for a job.

You can master the basics of the profession on the online course "" from ProductStar as soon as possible and at any time convenient for you. The basics include DevOps methodology, Linux basics, familiarity with Git, CI / CD and Jenkins, packaging applications in Docker, configuration management with Ansible, Bash programming, and an introduction to Python. Not too bad for a start!

5. REBRAIN

• Duration: at your own pace (six modules, 200+ tasks).
• Price: 75,000 rubles for the entire course (10 months in installments).
• Students: network engineers, sysadmins, technical managers, testers, developers, beginning DevOps engineers.
• Format: practical tasks, chat with course compilers, check within 24 hours with detailed feedback, video lectures, master classes.
• Employment guarantees: drawing up a resume.

REBRAIN provides online workshops for infrastructure professionals. The program "" also consists of 90% practice, or rather, more than 200 tasks. Nobody limits you in time, so you can take the course at least until the end of your life. But a motivated student usually fits within 6-8 months.

As you solve problems, you will explore the entire technology stack required by a DevOps ‑ engineer - including Git, Nginx, Terraform, Ansible, databases, CI / CD and monitoring tools, Docker and Kubernetes. Separate modules are devoted to popular programming languages and testing.

Classes are conducted by the specialists of the DevOps ‑ agency Fevlake. Graduates, in addition to knowledge and a certificate, receive unlimited access to all materials.