DevOps Engineer in six months may sound ambitious, but it’s possible if you break it down into manageable steps.
By dedicating 2 hours a day, you can build the foundational skills required for a DevOps role.
Keep in mind, that this is a journey, and the key to success lies in consistency, adaptability, and focus on mastering the core principles.
This guide lays out a structured 3, 6, and 9-month approach, designed to ensure you cover essential topics and gain enough proficiency to land an entry-level DevOps job.
Throughout, you’ll also learn vital skills like system design, Python programming, and networking while ensuring you know both Linux and Windows environments.
But before diving in, let’s discuss the importance of finding suitable study times and what habits you need to stop to succeed.
Time Management and Eliminating Distractions
First and foremost, committing to studying for two hours a day requires discipline.
Finding a time that works best for you, whether early in the morning or late at night, ensures consistency.
Most importantly, eliminate distractions. This could mean cutting down on social media use, binge-watching TV shows, or excessive gaming. Treat these two hours as non-negotiable time—just like a part-time job.
Success depends on the ability to manage your time and focus.
It’s crucial to create an environment that promotes productivity. This means removing any distractions, setting clear goals, and holding yourself accountable. Now, let’s break down the learning process into manageable steps.
Month 1-3: The Foundation
In the first three months, you’ll be laying the groundwork. DevOps requires a broad range of skills, and this phase focuses on understanding essential concepts that are prerequisites for the field.
Here’s how to spend your time during this period.
1. Learn Linux and Windows
- Why it’s important: Both Linux and Windows are widely used in development and production environments, so knowing your way around both is a must.
- What to focus on:
- Learn to use the command line in both Linux and Windows.
- Understand the directory structure, file permissions, and basic commands like
ls,cd,mkdir,rm,chmod, andchownin Linux. - On Windows, get comfortable with PowerShell commands and basic file manipulation tasks.
- Recommended Resources:
You’ll need to be comfortable navigating and managing files on both platforms. The command line is your best friend when working in DevOps, and mastering it early on is crucial.
2. Get Comfortable with Networking
- Why it’s important: DevOps relies heavily on networking, as you’ll be managing systems that communicate with each other. Understanding basic networking concepts will enable you to troubleshoot issues quickly.
- What to focus on:
- TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS, and SSH.
- Understanding IP addressing, subnetting, and the OSI model.
- Learn how to configure network interfaces in Linux and Windows.
- Recommended Resources:
By the end of month three, you should understand how networking works at a fundamental level. This will prove invaluable as you move into the automation and infrastructure side of DevOps.
3. Start Learning Python
- Why it’s important: Python is the most popular language for automation and scripting in DevOps. It’s versatile, easy to learn, and widely used for everything from managing servers to automating repetitive tasks.
- What to focus on:
- Learn the basics of Python: syntax, data types, loops, conditionals, and functions.
- Write small scripts to automate everyday tasks, like file management or reading log files.
- Understand how to work with modules and libraries in Python.
- Recommended Resources:
Month 4-6: DevOps Fundamentals
Now that you have a solid foundation, you’ll dive into core DevOps tools and methodologies for the next three months.
By the end of this phase, you’ll have enough knowledge to apply for entry-level DevOps jobs.
4. Master Version Control with Git and GitHub
- Why it’s important: Version control is at the heart of DevOps practices. Git allows you to track changes in your code, collaborate with others, and manage multiple versions of your project.
- What to focus on:
- Understand the fundamentals of Git: repositories, branches, commits, and merges.
- Learn how to collaborate with others using GitHub.
- Set up your repositories and practice collaborating on open-source projects.
- Recommended Resources:
5. Explore Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Why it’s important: IaC allows you to manage your infrastructure through code, making deployments reproducible and automated. Tools like Terraform and AWS CloudFormation are key.
- What to focus on:
- Learn how to use Terraform to define and provision infrastructure.
- Understand how to set up and manage infrastructure in AWS using CloudFormation.
- Practice writing simple IaC templates for tasks like provisioning EC2 instances or setting up security groups.
- Recommended Resources:
6. Containers and Orchestration with Docker and Kubernetes
- Why it’s important: Containers have revolutionized software development, allowing you to package and deploy applications in a consistent environment. Kubernetes is the go-to tool for container orchestration, enabling you to manage and scale containerized applications.
- What to focus on:
- Understand the basics of Docker: creating containers, managing images, and Dockerfile syntax.
- Learn how Kubernetes works, focusing on deploying applications, managing clusters, and scaling services.
- Recommended Resources:
By the end of month six, you will be comfortable with the key tools and practices of the DevOps landscape.
You’ll have experience with Git, understand how to use Terraform and know the basics of Docker and Kubernetes.
Month 7-9: Going Beyond the Basics
Once you’ve reached month six, you’ll have enough knowledge to apply for jobs.
However, in this phase, you’ll focus on deepening your skills and becoming proficient enough to stand out in interviews.
7. Prioritize System Design
- Why it’s important: System design is crucial in DevOps roles, especially as you move into more senior positions. You’ll be expected to design scalable, reliable systems and understand the trade-offs of different approaches.
- What to focus on:
- Learn how to design systems that can scale, ensuring they are fault-tolerant and maintainable.
- Understand key concepts like load balancing, caching, and database design.
- Practice designing systems on paper and implementing them using cloud infrastructure.
- Recommended Resources:
8. Dive Deeper into Cloud Providers (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Why it’s important: Cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP are at the heart of DevOps workflows. You’ll need to know how to deploy and manage applications in the cloud.
- What to focus on:
- Get hands-on experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS is a good starting point).
- Learn how to set up and manage EC2 instances, S3 buckets, IAM roles, and security groups.
- Explore cloud-native services like Lambda, RDS, and SQS.
- Recommended Resources:
9. Monitoring and Logging
- Why it’s important: A core responsibility of DevOps is ensuring that applications are running smoothly in production. Monitoring and logging are essential for maintaining uptime and detecting issues.
- What to focus on:
- Learn how to set up monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana.
- Understand how to collect and analyze logs using tools like ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana).
- Set up monitoring for your cloud infrastructure and containers.
- Recommended Resources:
What Are the Various DevOps Career Paths I Can Reach?
Once you’ve built a strong foundation in DevOps, the career opportunities open up to a wide range of specialized roles.
The flexibility of DevOps allows you to carve out a path based on your interests, whether you’re more inclined toward development, operations, or systems architecture. Here are some key DevOps career paths you can pursue:
1. DevOps Engineer
This is the most common and broad role within the DevOps ecosystem. A DevOps Engineer bridges the gap between development and IT operations, ensuring that software is released quickly, reliably, and securely. You’ll work on CI/CD pipelines, manage infrastructure as code, and automate processes.
- Key skills: Automation, CI/CD, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), scripting (Python, Bash), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
2. Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
SREs focus on maintaining high availability and reliability in systems. This role is a hybrid between software engineering and IT operations, with a focus on automating system reliability. As an SRE, you’ll handle monitoring, incident management, and capacity planning, while also working on performance optimization.
- Key skills: Monitoring and alerting systems (Prometheus, Grafana), incident response, automation, system scalability, and troubleshooting.
3. Cloud Engineer
A Cloud Engineer specializes in designing, deploying, and managing cloud-based infrastructure. Cloud Engineers are in high demand with companies increasingly migrating to the cloud. You’ll work with public cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) to build scalable, cost-efficient infrastructure.
- Key skills: Cloud infrastructure, automation with Terraform/CloudFormation, cost optimization, cloud-native services (Lambda, RDS, etc.).
4. DevSecOps Engineer
Security is a critical aspect of DevOps, and the DevSecOps Engineer ensures that security practices are integrated into every development lifecycle stage. This role focuses on automating security checks and processes, ensuring compliance, and addressing vulnerabilities early.
- Key skills: Security automation tools, vulnerability scanning, cloud security, encryption, and compliance.
5. Release Manager
Release Managers oversee the software release process, ensuring that new features and updates are delivered smoothly without disrupting service. This role involves coordinating between different teams and managing schedules while ensuring the CI/CD pipelines are optimized for continuous delivery.
- Key skills: Project management, version control, CI/CD pipeline management, communication, and scheduling.
6. Automation Architect
An Automation Architect designs and implements automated workflows across the entire software development lifecycle.
They focus on optimizing processes to reduce manual tasks and make the system more efficient. This role often involves building automation tools, improving deployment strategies, and ensuring consistency across environments.
- Key skills: Infrastructure as code (IaC), scripting (Python, Ruby, Shell), orchestration tools (Jenkins, Ansible, Chef).
7. Infrastructure Engineer
Infrastructure Engineers design and manage the hardware and software supporting an organization’s IT operations. This can include both on-premises infrastructure and cloud-based environments. Their role is critical to ensuring the performance and reliability of systems that support applications and services.
- Key skills: Networking, system administration, virtualization, cloud platforms, load balancing, and database management.
8. Monitoring and Logging Specialist
In this specialized role, you’ll ensure that systems are continuously monitored and that logs are properly collected and analyzed. This position involves setting up monitoring systems, configuring alerts, and analyzing logs to detect issues before they affect production.
- Key skills: Monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana), logging systems (ELK Stack), system health tracking, and data analysis.
9. DevOps Consultant
As a DevOps Consultant, you’ll work with multiple organizations to help them implement or improve their DevOps processes. This role requires a broad knowledge of DevOps practices, tools, and methodologies, as well as the ability to advise teams on best practices and tool selections.
- Key skills: Broad DevOps knowledge, communication, problem-solving, client-facing skills, strategy planning.
10. Solutions Architect
A Solutions Architect with a DevOps focus is responsible for designing high-level solutions for development and operational teams. This role involves understanding the business requirements and translating them into technical solutions, often working closely with stakeholders to ensure alignment with business goals.
- Key skills: System architecture, cloud services, CI/CD, scaling solutions, understanding of both business and technical needs.
What About This NoOps Business? Does That Mean DevOps Is Over?
NoOps, short for “No Operations,” has been gaining traction as a concept in recent years. The idea behind NoOps is that through automation and serverless technologies, the need for a dedicated operations team would disappear entirely. Some might wonder: does this mean that DevOps is coming to an end? Is NoOps a replacement for DevOps?
What Is NoOps?
NoOps aims to remove the need for manual operations work by automating everything to the point where infrastructure is self-managing. In a NoOps environment, teams can develop and deploy software without worrying about provisioning servers, managing networks, or configuring environments. Serverless architectures, container orchestration tools, and fully managed services by cloud providers like AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Functions are examples of technologies enabling a NoOps approach.
Does This Mean DevOps Is Over?
The short answer is no—DevOps is far from over. While NoOps presents an ideal scenario for automation-heavy environments, it’s important to understand that NoOps is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it doesn’t negate the need for DevOps.
Here’s why DevOps is still highly relevant in a NoOps world:
NoOps Is Ideal for Specific Use Cases
NoOps works best in highly abstracted environments where applications can function without custom infrastructure needs, such as serverless or container-based systems. But many organizations—especially those dealing with complex systems, legacy infrastructure, or data centres—still require a blend of manual operations and automation. DevOps shines in environments where hybrid systems are the norm.
DevOps Focuses on Collaboration, Not Just Automation
While NoOps emphasizes automation, DevOps is about fostering collaboration between development and operations teams. The cultural and procedural changes DevOps brings—such as shared responsibility, improved feedback loops, and continuous delivery—are still critical in modern IT environments. NoOps doesn’t address these cultural aspects.
Infrastructure Still Needs Management
Even in highly automated systems, someone needs to ensure that the automation is working correctly. Whether you’re using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), monitoring systems, or configuring security policies, DevOps engineers are essential to maintaining and managing the underlying infrastructure that supports NoOps workflows.
NoOps Requires Strong DevOps Foundations
Ironically, to achieve a NoOps-like environment, you need solid DevOps principles in place. Automation, continuous integration, and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines and monitoring are key to making NoOps possible. These are all core DevOps practices.
Without DevOps, a NoOps strategy would struggle to get off the ground.
Not All Workloads Can Be “NoOps-ified”
NoOps works well for small to medium-sized applications that can be fully automated, but more complex systems—like large-scale enterprise applications, on-premises environments, or hybrid cloud setups—still require human oversight and manual intervention.
DevOps engineers are the ones who ensure that these systems run efficiently and securely.
DevOps and NoOps: Complementary, Not Competitive
Instead of viewing NoOps as a replacement for DevOps, consider it an evolution or extension of DevOps principles. NoOps can be seen as a specific implementation of DevOps where automation reaches its peak.
Many organizations adopt NoOps for specific workloads while maintaining DevOps for more complex systems.
NoOps doesn’t spell the end of DevOps—it’s just another step in the continuous journey toward more automation. DevOps engineers will continue to play a crucial role in building, managing, and optimizing the infrastructure and processes that allow organizations to innovate quickly and deliver high-quality software.
The Bottom Line
NoOps may represent the future of ultra-automated environments, but DevOps is here to stay.
DevOps continues to be the backbone of modern software development, ensuring that automation, collaboration, and infrastructure management work hand-in-hand.
Even in a world moving toward NoOps, DevOps skills are essential for creating the automation frameworks and operational strategies that make NoOps possible.
In short: NoOps is not the end of DevOps, but rather a specialized subset of it. The need for skilled DevOps engineers isn’t going anywhere—if anything, it’s growing stronger as companies seek to automate more and more of their operations.
Is it Possible to Become a DevOps Engineer in Six Months?
Yes, becoming a DevOps Engineer in six months with consistent effort and focus is possible.
By following this structured plan, you’ll build a strong foundation and gain hands-on experience with the key tools and technologies used in the field.
While six months is enough to land an entry-level position, remember that DevOps is a journey. There will always be more to learn, new challenges to overcome, and deeper expertise to develop.
The key is staying motivated, curious, and pushing your limits.
Good luck on your journey to becoming a DevOps engineer!
Don’t forget to check this DevOps Roadmap by Dr Milan Milanović. It’s a great roadmap.