If there is one constant in the ever-evolving world of technology, it’s this: development and operations teams will butt heads. These two teams still operate in a silo-like environment, where ops doesn’t know much about development, and vice versa. Not only that, but they typically don’t make efforts to understand each other. Thus, these teams often find themselves in a constant adversarial cycle. DevOps was developed to combat this issue, and every tech applicant in the job market should develop DevOps skills to make themselves more marketable and thus more valuable to employers.
Why DevOps Matters
DevOps can be traced back to 2001, when some programmers got together and published what was known as the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. This manifesto outlined a new methodology for software development that focused on efficiency. This manifesto gained traction in the development community over the course of several years, and even though software was coming to market faster and getting updated more often, operations teams struggled to keep up with the issues that stem from those frequent updates. To bridge the gap, DevOps was developed.
DevOps can be difficult to define. In general, it includes practices that improve IT automation, communication, collaboration, and trust between IT operations and development, as well as speeds up the process of generating feedback from end users.
Developing DevOps Skills
DevOps is more of a strategy than a career, and it is wise for both operational IT professionals and development professionals to understand the purpose and function of DevOps.
IT professionals on the operations side can develop DevOps skills by getting familiar with automation tools like Chef, Puppet, and the Microsoft PowerShell language. Those skills will help operations professionals understand more of the development side of the equation. They will grasp the reasons why developers do certain things and make certain decisions, and that understanding can eliminate the head butting that is so common between branches of the team.
Professionals on the development side should take time to learn more about the infrastructure that their programs and apps run on, providing them a better understanding of continuous integration which can ease the management of rapidly changing code bases.
It is important to reiterate that DevOps isn’t a hard skill – it’s a soft skill. It involves learning to listen, becoming more adaptable, collaborating with purpose, and communicating effectively. That’s why it is so vital for every tech pro to grasp DevOps and embrace it in their work.
If you are an IT professional with DevOps skills in the South Florida area looking for new opportunities, the recruiters at Cutting Edge Recruiting would love to talk to you. We work with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking companies in the area who are looking for experienced IT professionals. Contact us today to learn more about our hands-on approach to IT recruiting.
