How I learn new technologies as a DevOps Engineer (without being overwhelmed)
Challenge: Constant pressure to learn new technologies and tools, knowing which to use.
Use these tips as a process to learning
Separate concepts and tools
Section titled “Separate concepts and tools”Understand concepts first and processes, then how tools solve problems.
Understand goals, challenges, processes, problems of concepts before tools
Section titled “Understand goals, challenges, processes, problems of concepts before tools”Examples of concepts:
- Source code management
- Package management
- Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment
- Example: why it is used such as goal of automation and continuous improvement, then look at tools
- Container orchestration
- Cloud
- Infrastructure as Code
- Continuous Monitoring
Determine what problems tool solves and use for real use case
Section titled “Determine what problems tool solves and use for real use case”Most tools solve 1-2 use cases, know how they do it, learn alternatives
- Use tool, apply in a real project, but simple use case
- Use tutorials and manual for specific steps of use case and combine for your project
- Example, docker - containerize a real application, publish, and run
it
- Expand use case with other use cases
- Example, terraform - create a infrastructure for an application
Be patient with Tool
Section titled “Be patient with Tool”Build a foundation of knowledge, don’t rush, otherwise you can get easily confused
Do Continuous Learning
Section titled “Do Continuous Learning”Know concepts to check new tools or tool features