In the past, I’ve written that it’s never been easier to learn about Cloud Computing and develop the skills needed for success. In parallel to learning about the underlying technology behind Cloud Computing, many IT professionals are trying to learn how to evolve the skills needed to create a successful DevOps environment for their business. And keep in mind, DevOps skills are highly in demand.
NOTE: DevOps is a cultural/operational model, but there is still a set of technologies that will help enable those best practices.
Learning about these technologies is getting easier and easier, with many options for learning available via the Internet (no equipment necessary).
- Try GitHub – a great way to experiment and learn about “Git” and the popular online service that is used by more and more developers (both Apps and Ops)
- Try Docker – a great way to learn the basics of building, deploying and managing linux containers. Also, check out the Docker Book, a great resource in written format.
- Try OpenStack – let the OpenStack Foundation run the underlying resources you need to try out any of the OpenStack projects.
- Try Apache Mesos – the container scheduling technology that originated at Twitter
- Try Google Kubernetes – learn about the container management system that Google uses on the Google Cloud
- Zero to Docker (NetFlixOSS) – you’ve heard about all the cool things that NetFlix does to run their cloud, and now you can quickly experiment with any of the open-source projects they have created (and use in their own cloud)
- AWS Free Tier (and Free Training) – need to learn about why so many people are talking about and using AWS? all of those resources are available to you, on-demand, for free (at least the smallest sizes)
- Beginner’s Guide – http://lifehacker.com/5744113/learn-to-code-the-full-beginners-guide – don’t consider yourself a developer? here are the basics that will help you if you want to develop applications, or just write some code to help you better manage the Ops side of your IT environment.
- Participate in a Community Project on Social Coding – 12 Days of Commitmas #commitmas
- Learn about Puppet – https://docs.puppetlabs.com/learning/
- Learn about Chef – https://learn.chef.io/
- Learn about Ansible – http://www.ansible.com/get-started
- Learn about Vagrant – http://www.erikaheidi.com/blog/a-begginers-guide-to-vagrant-getting-your-portable-development-e
- Code School – https://www.codeschool.com/
- Code Academy – http://www.codecademy.com/
- Write an iOS App – http://lifehacker.com/i-want-to-write-ios-apps-where-do-i-start-1644802175 – maybe you’ve got a great idea and want to see if others agree? iOS is the mobile platform that has paid the greatest amount to application developers.
Creating a culture within your company that can effectively model themselves on DevOps principles can be difficult, but learning the technology skills needed has never been easier. Pick a tool, pick a tutorial and see what you can learn in a few days or a few weeks.
