Because of its all-encompassing nature, it’s natural to feel confused about DevOps at first. Initially, hiring a DevOps engineer may seem like a counterproductive measure, but once you understand the benefits, you’ll realise it’s a valuable investment.
DevOps is a comprehensive approach that involves collaboration between development and operations teams throughout the entire service lifecycle. It ranges from ideation and idea sketching to actual production of the service and encompasses all stages in between.
Despite using the same technology, the lack of effective communication between development and operations teams is apparent. DevOps aims to bridge this gap by bringing these two traditionally separate engineering domains together, enhancing communication and collaboration between them.
DevOps aims to promote automation and monitoring at all stages of software development, from integration and testing to deployment and infrastructure management. The goal is to reduce the time and effort required to complete a product while improving the overall efficiency of the process.
A cohesive team is vital for businesses, yielding substantial benefits. According to a survey by automation tool vendor Puppet, companies utilising DevOps strategies can deliver code up to 30 times more frequently than those that do not, with 50% fewer failed deployments. This underscores the significance of having a unified team for operational efficiency.
The evidence suggests that your team can boost productivity, efficiency, and speed of delivery by hiring a DevOps Engineer. By working collaboratively, the process of program completion is accelerated, leading to increased value and the promotion of innovative ideas.
DevOps Engineer vs Build and Release Engineer
Functions of a DevOps Engineer
Given the ever-changing job market, it’s challenging to define the precise responsibilities of a DevOps engineer. These professionals generally have diverse IT backgrounds, resulting in non-exclusive job roles.
DevOps Engineers endeavour to streamline the software development process by amalgamating crucial stages such as design, testing, integration, and deployment into a single, efficient operation. Their core responsibilities include ensuring businesses have requisite cloud infrastructure in place.
DevOps Engineer’s Key Responsibilities:
- Establishing and organising the essential infrastructure and development tools.
- Devising improved automation and release management techniques.
- Evaluating other team members’ code through code inspections.
- Identifying technical problems and offering solutions.
- Foresee software development initiatives.
- Performing code, process, and deployment tests to lessen errors.
- Conducting gap analysis and suggesting measures to enhance performance.
Reasons to Hire a DevOps Specialist
Although the statistics speak volumes, let’s delve into why hiring a DevOps engineer might be advantageous.
Uniformity and Consistent Advancement
When the development and operations teams work in silos, a distinct assessment criteria is employed to evaluate their performance. Developers are acknowledged based on their ability to meet the set benchmarks in terms of updates and new features provided to customers. Conversely, the operations team is evaluated on how proficiently the system manages the application and its uninterrupted functionality.
Incorporating a DevOps Engineer fosters teamwork to not only enhance the system, but also ensure its optimal maintenance. With Continuous Integration, Automated Deployments, and Test-Driven Methodologies, the codebase can be kept efficient and current through close collaboration among team members collaborating on the same code.
Improved Efficiency and Better Customer Service Quality
The primary goal of any software development or maintenance project is to create a polished product that users will find enjoyable to use. By implementing DevOps methodologies, you can decrease errors and boost the performance of your software, leading to an enhanced user experience.
Incorporating DevOps methodologies can greatly benefit your clients. They can enjoy continuous software delivery, timely issue resolution, and heightened staff involvement, resulting in increased sales and customer satisfaction. This sets your business apart from competitors and guarantees customer delight with the services they avail.
It’s crucial to note that team productivity increases with reduced wait times for information from other teams regarding a system or application. This not only leads to financial loss due to idle workers, but also adds to employee frustration as they cannot utilise their time productively.
Boost Your IT Department’s Performance
If you’re seeking to augment your team, a DevOps Engineer could be an ideal addition. Such a professional is immensely versatile and can aid in various tasks, such as standardising procedures and practices, ensuring efficient software operations, and identifying errors in team members’ code.
Hiring a remote DevOps Engineer has tremendous potential in benefitting any organisation, with cost savings and access to the best talent from across the globe. If you’re looking to recruit an engineer but are limited by local hiring options, why not consider sourcing from a country with lower costs of living? This could unlock a world of opportunities for your IT team.
Key Interview Topics for a DevOps Engineer
It’s evident that DevOps presents multiple benefits. However, hiring a DevOps Engineer can be challenging as there is no set path to this role. Additionally, since this role requires a high level of expertise, the pool of highly qualified DevOps Engineers is limited.
Before hiring a DevOps Engineer, let’s consider some questions you may ask to ascertain their expertise.
How is DevOps distinct from Agile?
However, Agile primarily concentrates on production methodologies, particularly those used in software engineering, and software created under Agile principles may be limited to certain contexts like testing. Nevertheless, with the incorporation of DevOps practices, your team can deploy software to the production environment with greater ease and security.
While Agile prioritizes code quality, DevOps additionally guarantees reliable software deployment.
Kindly elaborate on the widely used DevOps tools and the ones you have experience working with.
Numerous DevOps tools are available, but some of the more prevalent ones include:
- Git, a tool for version control of files,
- Jenkins, a technology for continuous integration
- Selenium, a tool for continuous testing.
- Puppet, Chef, and Ansible, which are tools for configuration management and deployment.
- Nagios, a tool for continuous monitoring.
- Docker, a tool for creating containers
It is not unexpected that a significant factor behind DevOps strategies is automation. Improved automation results in fewer errors and allows engineers to dedicate more time to the critical aspects of their work.
Therefore, when hiring a DevOps engineer, it is crucial to ensure their proficiency in most, if not all, of these widely-used technologies.
Demonstrate how all the components connect
With the growing demand for DevOps Engineers, organizations expect them to possess both a broader perspective of their role and an eye for detail. To succeed in their role, these Engineers must comprehend how each component of their work contributes to the overall objective. This will enable them to collaborate efficiently with the development and operational sides of the business.
As per Edureka’s suggestion, asking this question ensures that everyone understands their responsibilities and available resources. This crucial process may vary in detail between companies, depending on their specific goals and objectives.
- Developers write code which is then saved in a Git repository and managed using Version Control System (VCS) tools.
- The development team uploads all code changes to a central repository and each member commits them.
- Jenkins uses the Git plugin to fetch the source code from the repository and compile it using various tools, such as Maven.
- Puppet or any other configuration management tool can create and set up testing environments. Once done, Jenkins can place the code in the staging area, ready for testing. Selenium, among other software tools, can be used to conduct the required tests.
- Upon completion of testing, Jenkins sends the necessary data to the production server for deployment. Likewise, Puppet and alternative configuration management technologies are in charge of providing and handling the production server.
- Nagios performs continuous monitoring once the deployment is done.
- With Docker containers, your team can now test features in repeatable scenarios.
Why is DevOps important?
DevOps provides a variety of technological benefits, including early identification and quick resolution of problems, simpler system management, and the ability to provide software to users in a consistent manner. DevOps also delivers business perks such as better work environment, increased collaboration, and improved communication among team members.
What role does configuration management play in DevOps?
Configuration Management is an essential tool for organizing changes across numerous systems. It simplifies the administration of multiple servers and standardizes resource configurations, ensuring that resource configurations are consistent and effective. This simplifies the administration of multiple servers significantly, making it more manageable.
What are the key DevOps tools?
Git, Jenkins, Nagios, Docker, Selenium, and Puppet or Ansible are among the most widely used technologies in the realm of Configuration Management and Deployment for DevOps. Git is a version control system tool, Jenkins is a continuous integration tool, Nagios is a continuous monitoring tool, Docker is a containerization tool, Selenium is a continuous testing tool, and Puppet or Ansible are Configuration Management and Deployment tools.
How can I view a complete log of all files impacted by a particular commit?
- By using the -r option, the program provides an extensive list of every file.
- The commit hash indicates the files that were added or modified during a specific commit.
How are updated versions of essential plugins deployed?
This is the process for launching an updated version of an essential plugin:
- Store the .hpi file in the plugins directory located in your $JENKINS HOME.
- Delete the directory that contains the plugin’s source code.
- Create a new plugin file that is blank.
- Restart Jenkins.
When It Comes to Hiring a DevOps Engineer, Trust Works for a Hassle-Free Experience
Finding and hiring a skilled DevOps engineer can be challenging. The ideal candidate must possess a blend of skills in both DevOps processes, as well as vast industry knowledge, flexibility, and agility in learning new ideas. Instead of investing your time and resources in a futile search for the perfect candidate, connect with us. We will designate a thoroughly scrutinized, highly proficient DevOps engineer to assist you. You can trust that this dedicated professional will ensure that your upcoming software will receive the benefits of having a DevOps engineer onboard.
