Introduction
In recent years, the IT sector is in a state of constant flux. Among the latest buzzworthy careers, DevOps have been named as one of the emerging jobs in the market today. The industries have opted for online platforms and cloud technology to achieve efficiency in their operations at a reduced cost.
Therefore, the demand for applications and web platforms, and software to address the requirements have proliferated. Today, every organization has a web platform and application to capture the global market.
Such an increased demand in the market has led to an evolution of development methodologies to meet the requirements with efficiency in the developmental environment. Hence, specialist job roles like DevOps have emerged to meet the requirements of the new upgrades within the developmental cycle.
However, new technologies often face the dilemma of how to upskill the workforce without disrupting the workflow. Thus, the online platform steps in to provide the possibility to upgrade the skills with the utmost ease.
Although it is an obvious choice for people to opt for courses, the increased number of online education platforms has led the potential learners to doubt picking the right course. This article delves further to provide some of the top courses to equip students with the right skills to enter this field with challenging job roles.
Related reading: Top 15 Cloud Computing Online Courses
1. Introduction to Containers w/Docker, Kubernetes & Openshift – IBM – Coursera
This course is among the top online courses for beginners with an industry-recognized certification. Coursera offers it in collaboration with IBM.
The takeaways from the course for the learners is to be able to build applications in a cloud-native way with the use of tools like containers and learn to deploy the application in a private, public, or hybrid cloud with increased scalability.
The course explores essential concepts on how containers differ from virtual machines, the importance of containers in cloud computing, and the emerging ecosystem of the technology such as Docker, Kubernetes, Red Hat Open shift, and Istio.
The course also aims to provide sufficient exposure to hands-on experience. The learners will begin from scratch by getting started with Docker to orchestration and scaling using Kubernetes and learning to simplify the deployments with relevant technologies such as Openshift. The course curriculum includes the following.
- Understanding the Benefits of Containers
- Understanding Kubernetes Architecture
- Managing Applications with Kubernetes
- The Kubernetes Ecosystem: Openshift, Isito
- Final Assignment
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: Alex Parker
Level: Beginner
Video Lectures: NA (Self-paced)
User Review: 4.5/5
Price: Free Enrollment (Additional charges may apply for certification)
2. Architecting with Google Kubernetes Engine Specialization – Google – Coursera
The course is available on Coursera in collaboration with the Google cloud platform. It is a specialization course that covers essential DevOps tools such as implementing solutions using Google Kubernetes Engine or GKE.
Additionally, the learners will grasp building and scheduling concepts, load balancing, monitoring workloads, and managing the role-based access control and security and storage requirements for these applications.Â
Although the course is beginner-oriented, it is assumed that the learners have an IT background, including working with Linux and the command line and working with networks and web servers.
The course also emphasizes hands-on exercises for building the practical skills required for DevOps job roles. The course curriculum includes.
- Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure
- Architecting with Google Kubernetes Engine: Foundations
- Architecting with Google Kubernetes Engine: Production
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: Google Cloud Training
Level: Beginner
Video Lectures: NA (Self-paced)
User Review: 4.7/5
Price: Free Enrollment (Additional charges may apply for certification)
3. Professional Certificate in DevOps Foundations: Software Development Optimization – edX
The course is offered on the edX platform in collaboration with Anahuac University. The program covers the foundations that are an absolute necessity for a DevOps engineer.
At the end of the course, the learners will understand the advantages of automating the process of software development, implementing CI/CD pipelines, and creating understanding of the structure to create applications in containers.
Furthermore, the design and deployment, maintenance, and automation in the software development cycle are covered in-depth.
Finally, the agile approach needed for creating secure and reliable products is explored along with the necessary security and testing fundamentals—the entire duration of the course in two months. The course contents are as follows.
- DevOps Foundations and Tools
- DevOps CI/CD Pipeline: Automation from Development to Deployment
- Job Outlook
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: Miguel A. Guirao Aguilera, Sylvain Kalache and Eduardo Rodriguez del Angel
Level: Beginner/ Intermediate
Video Lectures: NA (Self-paced)
User Review: NA
Price: $177 Approximately
4. Introduction to DevOps with Microsoft Azure – FutureLearn
The DevOps certification course is offered on the Futurelearn platform. The program is a specialized course of 15 weeks that is offered in collaboration with Microsoft.
The course aims to build strong foundations of DevOps concepts, working with pipeline and integration techniques and deployment of laas, Paas environments in Microsoft Azure.
At the end of the course, the learners will have a thorough knowledge of working with virtual machines and the proper DevOps professional infrastructure.
The course also emphasizes student exposure to the practical implementation with hands-on experience throughout the course.
Some of the critical concepts are learning about the DevOps creating a stable DevOps environment using Azure automation, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and deployment, delving into container clusters’ concepts, and using the Azure container services. The course modules are.
- Microsoft Future Ready: Fundamentals of DevOps and Azure Pipeline
- DevOps Development, Implementation, and Azure Automation
- Continuous Integration and Implementation
- How to Run Containers in a DevOps Production Environment?
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: Cloud Swyft and Microsoft Professionals
Level: Intermediate
Video Lectures: NA (Self-paced)
User Review: NA
Price: $39/Month
5. AWS Developer: Deploying on AWS – edX
This is a six weeks course offered by Amazon AWS on the edX platform. It is a part of the AWS developer series; however, the course can be enrolled separately. The entire duration of the course is six weeks.
The online training course builds the essential DevOps knowledge and the necessary infrastructure for software development. Some of the key concepts covered are DevOps methodologies and tools, building and testing the application using AWS cloud9, deployment using the cloud-based infrastructure with AWS.
Next, the course explores the continuous integration and delivery pipeline using the AWS Code Build, AWS Code Commit, and AWS CodePipeline.
Additionally, the learners will understand how to monitor the application and the deployment using the dashboard to gather essential information and catalog performance metrics. The course has a strong focus on building the hands-on experience, and it is performed using the AWS services throughout the course.Â
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: Seph Robinson, Rafael Lopes, and Russell Sayers
Level: Advanced
Video Lectures: NA (Self-paced)
User Review: NA
Price: Free Enrollment (Approximately $150 for certification)
6. DevOps Foundations – LinkedIn Learning
The DevOps certification course is available on LinkedIn Learning. In this course, the learners are introduced to the DevOps movement and CAMS’s core values (culture, automation, measurement, and sharing).Â
The course explores various methodologies and DevOps tools that an organization can adopt to smooth the transition into DevOps. Additionally, the agile and lean project management pipeline concepts are covered along with its management principles.
Finally, how the old school principles like ITIL, ITSM, and SDLC fit into the DevOps environment is explored.
The course concludes by covering the three main tenets of DevOps: infrastructure automation, continuous delivery and reliability engineering, and DevOps’ future and transition from the cloud to the serverless architecture. The course curriculum includes the following.
- Introduction: Development and Operations
- DevOps Basics: What is DevOps? DevOps Core Values, DevOps Principles, Ten Practices for DevOps Success, DevOps Tools
- DevOps: A Culture Problem: The IT Crowd and the Continuous Improvement
- The Building Blocks of DevOps: Agile, Lean, ITIL, ITSM, SDLC
- Infrastructure Automation: Infrastructure as Code, Immutable Deployment, Infrastructure Toolchain
- Continuous Delivery: Small, Fast and Better, Continuous Integration Practices, The Continuous Delivery Pipeline, The Role of QA, CI Toolchain
- Reliability Engineering: Engineering does not end with Deployment, Design for Operation, Theory and Practice, Metrics and Monitoring, SRE Toolchain
- Additional DevOps Resources
- The Future of DevOps
- Conclusion
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: James Wickett, Ernest Mueller
Level: Beginner
Video Lectures: 37 Videos (Self-paced)
User Review: NA
Price: Free 1 Month Trial (Charges Apply After the Trial Period. Approximately $19)
7. Become a Cloud DevOps Engineer – Udacity
The course is available on Udacity. It is a nanodegree program, which is the equivalent of specialization on this platform. The course’s duration is four months, and the prerequisites of the course include web development, object oriented programming, and Linux Command Line Basics.
The course’s benefits are providing real-world projects from industry experts and technical mentor support, and career services.
The course covers the essentials of designing and deploying the infrastructure as code, building CI/CD pipelines for various deployment strategies, and deploying scalable microservices using Kubernetes.
The course modules are.
- Cloud Foundations
- Deploy Infrastructure as Code
- Build Ci/CD Pipelines, Monitoring, and Logging
- Microservices at Scale using Kubernetes
- Capstone Project
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: Kesha Williams, Carlos Rivas, Noah Gift, Byron Sommardahl,
Level: Intermediate
Video Lectures: NA (Self-paced)
User Review: 4.6/5
Price: $876 Approximately
8. Cloud DevOps using Microsoft Azure – Udacity
The course is available on Udacity. The three months’ course is in collaboration with Microsoft.
The course prerequisites include proficiency with coding using Python, knowledge of loops, if/then statements, data types, functions, classes, and objects. Azure account, the basic idea of the cloud’s core component, and familiarity with necessary Linux shell skills.
The learners will be equipped with deployment, testing, and monitoring cloud applications on Azure. The learners will also have sufficient exposure to prepare for the Microsoft AZ-400 DevOps Engineer Expert certification exams.
There is a provision for real-world projects with industry mentors, project reviews, technical, mental support, student community, and career services.
The course curriculum includes.
- Azure Infrastructure Operations: Automated deployment and management of cloud infrastructure, Understand the DevOps Lifecycle, Basics of Infrastructure Management in Microsoft Azure, Cloud Security Best Practices, Create Robust Repeatable Deployments in Microsoft Azure.
- Agile Development with Azure: High-Quality Software Deployment, DevOps Principles, Agile Practices for Project Management, Hands-On Exercises, CI/CD Pipelines, Couple Infrastructure as Code, Testing Best Practices
- Ensuring Quality Releases: Evaluation of Performance, Test Cloud Based Application, Functionality of Pipeline, Test Suites, Azure Monitoring, Azure Log Analytics
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: Erik Galinkin, Noah Gift, Nathan Anderson
Level: Intermediate
Video Lectures: NA (Self-paced)
User Review: NA
Price: $657 Approximately
9. Continuous Delivery and DevOps –Â University of Virginia – Coursera
The University of Virginia offers the course on the Coursera platform. It is a beginner-oriented course that aims to cover the foundations of DevOps.
At the end of the course, the learners will understand the delivery pipeline and prioritized recommendations to improve it, skills and roles involved in DevOps, maintaining the continuous delivery capability, automation testing and review, system operations, and the appropriate DevOps methods. The course modules are.
- The Importance of Velocity and The Jobs of Delivery: Importance of Velocity, Delivery Pipeline, Test Stack, DevOps Introduction, Development and DevOps, Test and DevOps, Getting Started with Delivery Pipeline
- Your Testing Stack: Sample Application and Code, Small Unit Test, Medium Integration Test, Large System Test, System Testing
- Infrastructure and The Jobs of Ops: Codes you Do not want to Write, Ops Person, Ops System Admin, Designing and Deploying, Maintaining and Monitoring, Version Control, Role of Version Control, Kubernetes and Container Orchestration
- Delivering Continuously: CI/CD Process, Feature Flags, and Blue/Green Pattern, Interview with Experts
- Course Wrap Up
COURSE DETAILS:
Instructor: Alex Cowan
Level: Beginner
Video Lectures: 46 Videos (Self-paced)
User Review: 4.6/5
Price: Free Enrollment (Additional charges may apply for certificate)
Overview of DevOps
DevOps is an amalgamation of two processes in an organization: the software development process and the operational process. The organizations are on the lookout for better efficiency and productivity to meet the needs of the customers.
It is achievable with constant coordination among the teams and following the right practices to deliver high-quality products. However, it can get very chaotic in the entire developmental environment in a quick time.Â
Therefore, to ensure that there is a continuous collaboration among teams while following the philosophies, practices, technologies, and tools to improve the developmental cycle’s overall efficiency, it allowed the formation of the DevOps culture today.Â
DevOps ensures that its adaptability will lead to organizations achieving the business goals faster with quicker developmental time. This has caused a tremendous demand for DevOps professionals to fill the specialized roles in the IT industry.
Benefits of DevOps
Faster Delivery Time
DevOps culture allows an organization to adapt to changes and market demands much more comfortably than traditional approaches. As the developers and the operations team are jointly involved in the development process, there is more business efficiency with better communications. Thus this approach enables higher productivity and delivers faster results.
Reliable Products
Continuous integration, monitoring and logging, and continuous delivery and a test at each step ensure every update is checked for its feasibility before implementation. This ensures that reliable products are developed promptly while staying ahead of the competitors in the market.
Co-ordinated Environment
DevOps has a strong emphasis on a collaborative approach to achieve a high-quality product. It signifies that each individual in the developmental process will be aware of the changes and all will have shared responsibility for the tasks performed during the development.
Such an approach allows a smooth workflow while creating strong coordination, which causes a healthy working environment.
Better Security
DevOps based approaches have automated compliance policies and configuration techniques that ensure all the applications are highly secured.
DevOps Engineer: Roles and Responsibilities
The DevOps engineers are professionals with a strong software development background. They have advanced knowledge about the requirements of the developmental life cycle. Such professionals need to be aware of the customer’s organizational approach to answering the needs and adopting different models as per the requirements.
Additionally, the DevOps engineers must be well equipped to understand the models’ shortcomings and testing and suggest better approaches to attain efficiency in a production environment.
Ideally, the DevOps engineers work with CI/CD pipelines associated with the crucial steps in a developmental stage, such as planning, testing, monitoring, building, and deployment.The DevOps roles are challenging roles that include technical and management responsibilities. Some of the critical roles existing today are:
- DevOps Principal Officer: Associated with DevOps implementation.
- Release Manager: Responsible for releasing new features and updates to ensure stability during the product life cycle.
- Automation Professional:Â Involved with the automation and orchestration tools.
- Software Developer: Mainly working on the development and testing process.
- Quality Assurance Professional: Maintaining the quality of the products to meet the requirements.
- Security Engineer:Â Monitoring the product security.
Some of the core responsibilities are:
- Understanding the customer requirements.
- Equipped with the knowledge of development, testing, and automation tools and their implementation.
- Associated with the project planning and management activities across the teams.
- A thorough analysis of the existing technology and identifying critical areas of improvement.
- Development of codes, installation, and configuring IT solutions.
- Capable of using configuration tools for updates and bug fixes within the production environment for deployment purposes.
- Ensuring routine checks for application maintenance is performed.
- Project management.
- Monitoring the product life cycle.
- Deployment of security solutions using vulnerability assessment techniques.
- Maintain clear communication with the team members and the customers.
- Continuous improvement of the CI/CD pipeline.
Technical Know-How for a DevOps Engineer
- DevOps engineers has multiple responsibilities ranging from technical skills, operational skills, and soft skills. Some of the essential technical requirements are listed below.
- Understanding of Linux and its infrastructure.
- Programming languages proficiency in Python. Java, Ruby, and Perl.
- Excellent skills with database management.
- Troubleshooting experience.
- Experienced in various open-source technologies and cloud computing services.
- Agile and DevOps principles.
- Docker and Kubernetes.
- Monitoring tools such as Zabbix, Splunk.
- Testing tools, i.e., selenium and Testing Whiz.
- Deployment tools like Puppet, Chef.
- Jenkins for working with CI/CD pipelines.
- Git and GitHub for source code management.
- Soft skills are critical while dealing with customers.
DevOps Practices
- CI/CD Pipeline
- Version Control
- Agile Software Development Approach
- Infrastructure as Code
- Configuration Management
- Continuous Monitoring
Possible Job Roles in the DevOps Industry
- DevOps Architect
- Automation Engineer
- Software Developer and Testing Expert
- Integration Specialist
- Security Engineer
- Release Manager
According to a recent Glassdoor report, the average base pay of a DevOps engineer in the US is $115,000.
Top Companies recruiting DevOps engineers:
- IBM
- Microsoft
- Salesforce
- Amazon
- Accenture
- SAP
- Oracle
- Apple
- NVIDIA
Conclusion
DevOps is among the substantial career opportunities in the IT industry today. The roles and responsibilities of a DevOps engineer are crucial for an organization’s success.
Those doubtful minds, wondering whether the DevOps job roles are future proof, can be assured as DevOps will continue to flourish as it can achieve an organized and healthy work environment.
With the further advancements in the technology market, it is assumed that an approach as practical as DevOps will continue to evolve to introduce more effective management solutions for faster delivery and higher productivity in an organization.
The opportune moment for aspirants and professionals to take the plunge in a particular domain should be when it is at its peak and continuously evolving. Therefore, DevOps is that career opportunity that will enable the professionals to achieve the peak of their career growth if they enter the industry. The continuous demand for such professional and higher salary packages is yet another positive to start a DevOps career.
However, it is of utmost importance that individuals are well- equipped with the skills and the technical knowledge to be successful as a DevOps engineer. Also, the continuous upgradation of the tools and technologies, and methodologies behind the DevOps approach is crucial. Thus, opting for a convenient way of upskilling is the online platform.
With numerous online platforms, there is a constant doubt over the learners’ minds as to which of the offerings are the right ones for them. As it is evident the technical industry requires recognized certification and hands-on experience, the need for opting for such certification courses is very important.
Therefore, this article focused on listing out some of the most popular and value-added certifications currently available. In that case, it is the opportune moment to deep dive into a suitable course and build the necessary skills to embark on a field that is producing excellent opportunities.
