{"id":54640,"date":"2023-11-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"urn:uuid:f3e7a095-4dd8-94d7-6c40-d905a98d6046"},"modified":"2023-11-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T00:00:00","slug":"which-devops-skills-are-the-hardest-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/which-devops-skills-are-the-hardest-to-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Which DevOps Skills are the Hardest to Learn?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There\u2019s no denying it: DevOps is hard.<\/p>\n

DevOps professionals juggle diverse, complex tasks, from setting up pipelines for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI\/CD), writing software tests, and managing infrastructure as code (IAC) to handling the intricacies of modern network architectures. They must also constantly learn new processes and tools to stay on top of the evolving technology landscape.<\/p>\n

This article draws on insights gathered from working DevOps professionals about the skills they found most difficult to learn. Their comments underscore the breadth of DevOps practice and the varied backgrounds of its practitioners. For example, professionals with traditional operations backgrounds may find the coding aspects of IAC the most challenging. Similarly, those from development-focused roles might find the multi-layered setup of CI\/CD pipelines hardest to grapple with.<\/p>\n

More unexpected was the number of people who cited soft skills as their greatest DevOps challenge. Technical disciplines have traditionally overlooked these skills, but they\u2019re crucial for effectively bridging the gap between functions\u2014a core necessity of DevOps.<\/p>\n

Unpacking the most challenging DevOps skills<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The wide range of responses to our question highlights the importance of a diverse skillset for DevOps practitioners. Let\u2019s dive into some of the most prominent technical and non-technical skills they\u2019ve described.<\/p>\n

The intricacies of networking<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Networking has traditionally been a distinct practice, but with DevOps breaking down silos between operations and development, its culture and principles have been integrated into networking processes. The challenge is that modern networks can be daunting in size and complexity.<\/p>\n

Modern network architectures, particularly in cloud environments, have become increasingly intricate. They often incorporate a combination of virtual networks, private data centers, and public cloud infrastructures, each with distinct protocols, configurations, and security concerns.<\/p>\n

As enterprises move to distributed systems to ensure scalability and resilience, maintaining secure and efficient communication among these systems becomes even more challenging. Subtle misconfigurations or missing security patches can lead to significant vulnerabilities or performance bottlenecks.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there\u2019s been a shift from traditional, hardware-based networking to software-defined networking (SDN). SDN allows for dynamically programmable and adaptable network configurations powered by automation\u2014so it\u2019s a boon to scalability and agility. However, it also means that networking is no longer just about physical connections but also about code and software, further intertwining DevOps and networking.<\/p>\n

This shift requires DevOps practitioners to understand networking principles more deeply, ensuring that applications function effectively and communicate efficiently and securely within the broader network ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The craft of writing software tests<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Writing software tests is equal parts art and science. Writing sound tests requires a thorough understanding of the system you\u2019re testing and the ability to foresee and simulate potential failures. And as the DevOps approach embeds testing throughout the development lifecycle, the task may become challenging.<\/p>\n

When testing, it\u2019s crucial to strike the right balance between different types of tests to maintain the rapid development lifecycle that DevOps aims to achieve:<\/p>\n