Ask HN: Where do I start in a potential transition to DevOps?

2 points by JFitzDela 11 years ago | 2 comments

Howdy! I keep hearing this damned buzzword, "DevOps," everywhere I turn, and it happens to come at a time in which I'm looking to refocus my career anyway, so I'm looking for some feedback and advice.

I own a very small software firm (1 subcontractor, a few clients, $120k-ish revenue), but I've quickly fallen "behind the curve" on the latest and greatest languages, platforms, and standards - I got busy with existing code bases, then spent more and more time on the business relationship side of things, then realized I was way behind when I started looking for more work.

It's okay, though, because I don't like contract software development anyway. I want to move to a two-fold situation. I want:

1) A "productized" service offering or two to build sustainable revenue and, 2) To develop and sell my expertise as a pure consultant in some field.

I have thoughts on how to approach #1, but I'm looking for that field in which I can shine for #2.

I love people, and I enjoy process, but I am an absolute neophyte when it comes to CI, testing, etc. (I know what Jenkins is... does that count?).

Where do I start? Any thoughts from people already working in the field?

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Way TL;DR:

I am a contract software developer looking to move into DevOps consulting, but I have no experience at all in CI or testing, much less automated testing. Where do I start?

Thanks!

mattbillenstein 11 years ago |

I think of devops as dealing with infrastructure to host some business application - and to that end, the mentality you need to have is to automate everything.

Software through APIs provided by cloud providers should be how you manage provisioning, deployment, and monitoring. Having a good one-button system for deploying code is essential to moving fast - you should be able to deploy any set of changes to your production fleet in under a minute with no fuss.

There are a variety of tools for helping with this, but at the core it's writing software to solve your problems instead of solving them directly manually.

staunch 11 years ago |

1. Check job descriptions (from good companies) for the position you'd like to be working in.

2. Learn the skills they list to an basic level of competence on your own through self-study.

3. Get hired at a company where you can learn from more experienced people.