From the start-ups to big organizations, everyone is inclined towards; such is the DevOps air. And there is a good reason for it. DevOps methodology brings the (Dev) development and (Ops) operations team within an organization closer, which helps in the product’s faster and efficient delivery.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is neither a tool nor a technology. Instead, it is an ideology where two essential parts of a business – the software development team and the IT operations team work closely and share the progress. DevOps ensures proper communication between these teams, which further makes it possible for the organization to deliver the end-product in minimal time and with minimal problems.
How is DevOps helping the Organizations?
Reduced delivery time is one of the significant benefits of implementing DevOps in an organization. Ultimately, an organization wants to deliver the software in the least possible time. And since DevOps makes use of the Agile principles, fast delivery of the software is guaranteed.Collaborative working within the teams is emphasized. This helps to identify the problems early on in the software development cycle. The teams can then work on optimizing the software.The DevOps methodology also reduces the complexity of the problems. The idea is to provide incremental improvements in the product, making sure that a problem never gets too complex.Cross-skilling is also a viable option with DevOps. The employees who work in this model are generally happy because they can improve themselves and pick up new skills.
The benefits of DevOps are multi-fold. As a manager, as a developer, or as an operations person, you might be thinking of learning DevOps, given the current scenario. DevOps skills are on-demand, and the following online resources will help you to learn them effectively.
Ansible for Beginner
This Udemy course is for beginners starting with Ansible. It starts with an introduction to Ansible with several practical exercises for hands-on experience. The good thing is you can practice those exercises right in your browser. Here are the topics covered in this course:
Introduction to Ansible basicsIntroduction to YAML (with exercises)Building Ansible Inventory files (with exercises)Automated Provisioning/Web Server deployment using Ansible
Requirements: This course requires basic familiarity with the Linux command line, and having a Linux system handy is a plus though not required. Suited for: It is suited for System Administrators, Cloud & DevOps Engineers, Automation Engineers, and anyone willing to learn Ansible.
Terraform
Next on our list is another Udemy course on Automation using Terraform. Terraform is an infrastructure automation tool that works on all major cloud providers, and having a grip on this tool is a definite plus for anyone who wants to learn DevOps. Here’s what’s covered in this 10+ hours course:
Covers Terraform basics, including advanced features.Provision AWS resources using TerraformPrepare for the HashiCorp Terraform CertificationCreating custom images using PackerUsing Terraform with AWS ECS, Fargate and CodePipelinesApplying DevOps with Terraform
Requirements: This course requires you to have an AWS account or create a free AWS account for hands-on practice.
Learn Kubernetes
Kubernetes is a container orchestration tool that is the buzzword in the DevOps community. It’s a major enabler for the DevOps life cycle, allowing you to deploy your containerized applications with high reliability easily. This course covers the building, deploying, and maintaining Kubernetes and covers the following topics:
Install and configure KubernetesSetting up a cluster and run applications on Kubernetes.Learn about Healthchecks, Secrets, ConfigMaps, placement strategiesDeploy a Cassandra cluster on KubernetesLearn about users, quotas/limits, the node maintenanceSetup monitoring on KubernetesUsing Volumes with persistenceScaling apps using metricsPackage applications with Helm and deploy Helm Charts using Jenkins.Learn about kubeless to run Serverless functionsLearn about Istio to deploy a service meshDeveloping using Skaffold
Requirements: Having a basic knowledge of Linux, Docker, AWS will help but is not mandatory. Access to a Linux machine and AWS account is also recommended but not necessary.
DevOps Foundations
Our next DevOps course on the list is offered by LinkedIn Learning and covers DevOps Foundations. Various tools enable what DevOps envisions. Having a thorough understanding of DevOps methodologies and tools helps in setting a strong foundation. It covers:
DevOps movement, focusing on the core value of CAMS (culture, automation, measurement, and sharing)Methodologies and tools an organization can adopt to transition into DevOpsHow principles like ITIL, ITSM, and SDLC fit within DevOpsDiscussion about infrastructure automation, continuous delivery, and reliability engineeringConclude with discussion on the future of organizations transitioning from the cloud to serverless architectures
Suited for: Anyone wanting to learn about DevOps in theory.
AWS DevOps
Along with AWS concepts and best practices, these are the important topics that are covered in this course catering towards the certification requirements:
AWS Codepipeline, Code DeployCloudFormation, CloudTrail, Cloudwatch, CloudFrontSQSElastic Beanstalk, ElasticacheAWS OpsWork StacksEC2, EBSAWS ConfigSSM, IT GovernanceAutoScalingMultiRegion and MultiAZELB, RDSA/B Testing and Blue/Green Deployments for DevOpsLambdaAPI Gateway
Suited for: Anyone who wants to prepare for the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional exam or interested in learning DevOps, especially from an AWS cloud perspective.
DevOps and SRE
This is a beginner level offering from The Linux Foundation catalog for learning DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering best practices and covers topics ranging from DevOps methodologies, cloud computing, containers, and CI/CD concepts. Main topics from this course are listed below:
Introduction to DevOps and Site Reliability EngineeringCloudContainersInfrastructure as a CodeContinuous Integration/Continuous DeliveryObservabilityFinal Exam (Verified Certificate track only).
Requirements: To make the most of this course, you’ll need a basic understanding of Linux systems and networking, scripting knowledge, security, and virtualization concepts with system administration and troubleshooting skills. Suited for: People aspiring to learn about DevOps / Site Reliability Engineering.
Implementing DevOps
This is another DevOps course offering from The Linux Academy, which introduces the fundamentals of CI/CD within an open container ecosystem. It is targeted more towards developers keen on learning modern development techniques and methodologies while preparing you to be agile and deliver features rapidly. Below are the important concepts covered in this course:
Continuous Delivery ConceptSetup: Creating the Learning EnvironmentBasics of Container Operations with DockerRevision Control with GitSetting Up Continuous Integration with JenkinsPipeline-as-a-Code with JenkinsfileUsing Docker to Simplify CI pipelinesPackaging Applications with DockerContinuous Delivery to Dev with Docker ComposeContinuous Automated TestingRunning Apps at Scale with KubernetesContinuous Deployment with Spinnaker
Requirements: For this course, you’ll need to have basic Linux and system administration knowledge and understand the software delivery process. A cloud account with AWS or GCP is recommended for practice. You can always opt for free-tier offerings from major cloud providers.
Software Optimization
Next on our list is the DevOps foundations course from edX offered by Universidades Anáhuac (AnahuacX). This course covers DevOps basics along with continuous integration and continuous delivery methodologies, containerized applications, automation process in software development, and fundamentals of DevOps security and testing. The course is further sub-divided into two-course offerings with below-covered topics: DevOps CI/CD Pipeline: Automation from development to deployment:
Configuring laaS with AnsibleInfrastructure creation with TerraformUsing Jenkins for CI/CDTesting in the CI/CD processIntroduction to DevSecOps
DevOps: Foundations and structural tools:
Introduction to DevOpsContinuous Integration / Continuous DeploymentInfrastructure as CodeCreating applications in containers with DockerPuppet: The big picture
Requirements: Basic programming and optionally basic Linux skills and command-line experience. Git experience is a plus.
DevOps Certification
This is from Edureka! Offers in-depth knowledge of various popular DevOps tools and aspects of DevOps delivery models. It’s hands-on based training to help you become a certified DevOps practitioner with best practices and tools in the DevOps field. The course curriculum consists of:
Overview of DevOpsVersion Control with GitGit, Jenkins & Maven IntegrationContinuous Integration using JenkinsContinuous Testing with SeleniumContinuous Deployment: Containerization with DockerContainerization with Docker: Ecosystem and NetworkingContinuous Deployment: Configuration Management with PuppetConfiguration Management with AnsibleContainerization using KubernetesContinuous Monitoring with NagiosIntroduction to DevOps on Cloud
Suited For: The following professionals can go for this course: Software Tester, System Admin, Solution Architect, Security Engineer, Application Developers, Integration Specialist.
Cloud Dev Ops
This course is a 4-month nanodegree offering from Udacity that covers cloud concepts, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD pipelines, and microservices focusing on development and related best practices. There are hands-on exercises and a real-world project at the end of the course to utilize and use your newly learned skills. It also offers technical mentor support and career services for the students of this course. These are the major topics that this course covers:
Cloud FoundationsDeploy Infrastructure as Code (IAC)Build CI/CD Pipelines, Monitoring & LoggingMicroservices at Scale using Kubernetes
Suited For: This course is suited well for beginners and professional/developers who are new to the DevOps world and are trying to sharpen their skills.
Master’s Program
DevOps Engineer Master’s Program is brought to you by Simplilearn and prepares you for a career in DevOps with 225+ hours of applied learning and multiple real-life projects. It covers DevOps principles and continuous development and deployment concepts, configuration management, and agile software development using DevOps tools such as Git, Docker, Jenkins, etc. This program consists of 7 detailed courses, after which you’re awarded a Master’s certification in DevOps.
DevOps Certification TrainingGit and GitHub TrainingCI/CD Pipeline with JenkinsDocker Certified Associate (DCA) Certification Training CourseCertified Kubernetes AdministratorDevOps on AWSAWS Developer Associate
DevOps Dummies
Fancy book?
Google Certified
Embark on a journey to advance your skills and career with Coursera which provides SRE & DevOps Engineer & Google Cloud Professional certification. Enroll for this certification for free, and learn the techniques to monitor, troubleshoot, and enhance application and infrastructure performance in GCP guided by SRE principles. The skills that you can gain with this certification are SRE culture, cloud computing, GCP, business value, Google Compute Engine, Google App Engine, continuous delivery, Jenkins software, Kubernetes, site reliability engineering, and disaster recovery. This certification program features hand-on labs through Qwiklabs platform. It will provide you with the opportunity to apply the knowledge you have gained through the video lectures. Get a shareable certification after course completion and learn according to your schedule. It takes around 3 months to complete the course.
CI/CD
Learn the concepts of DevOps, continuous integration (CI), continuous deployment or delivery (CD), from Udemy at a super affordable price. This course is for a beginner in these fields, analysts, Ops, developers, team managers new to DevOps, software architects, and other professionals wanting to learn about the CI, CD, and DevOps model. The course will help you understand how time-to-market works and business revenue gets benefits by implementing DevOps, and CI, and CD. They use cartoons, animations, and powerful illustrations that cover almost 90% of the course content to explain things interactively. They explain the remaining materials in crisp, bullet-points for better understanding. The course covers the issues concerning the traditional methodologies of software development life-cycle, and how DevOps, CD, and CI evolved and can solve those issues. Hence, it will create a solid foundation for you that can help you more during the implementation phase. To start with the course, you need a basic understanding of software development life-cycles.
Whizlabs
Learn DevOps by Whizlabs and become a certified professional to accelerate software development, or get a high-paying job. This DevOps certification helps professionals to demonstrate and validate their expertise and skills on leveraging DevOps tools, including Docker, Git, Kubernetes, Jenkins, and more. Whizlabs offers multiple DevOps certifications such as:
Puppet certification Docker certified associate Kubernetes with Docker and AWSOpenShift BasicsRed Hat OpenShift AdministrationAnsible BasicsGit fundamentalsCertified Kubernetes AdministratorDocker SwarmCertified Kubernetes Application DeveloperPuppet 206Certified Jenkins EngineerChatbot with Node Js/Dialog FlowInfrastructure Automation with TerraformCI/CD using GitLabHashicorp Certified Terraform Associate
The certified educators of Whizlabs have deep understanding of the exam and they create courses that can prepare you fully for the certification examination. They use unique methods with exam-orientation to create easy-to-learn courses great for self-study.
Conclusion
Learning DevOps is not a mere goal. DevOps is a methodology that one needs to practice every day at work to get better at it. Hence, once you have learned DevOps using the resources above, it is time to get started on it. The idea is to improve yourself and your business continuity and deliver the best software every time.
