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Tag: DevOps training

  • Training and Certifications: Get It, Don’t Sweat It

    Training and Certifications: Get It, Don’t Sweat It

    At my company, we’re pretty big on continuous learning. It’s not so much which corner of tech you are learning about, as that you are expanding your professional horizons. Knowing that many of you are the same way, I thought I’d offer some insight into the state of online education and online certification in the wake of COVID-19.

    As luck would have it, just as COVID-19 was gearing up, my company purchased a CBTNuggets subscription for me. This is a sweet benefit if you like to learn about areas of IT that you don’t normally work in, or brush up on bits you do work in but want to get more out of. The only reason I prefixed this with “as luck would have it” is because COVID-19 has brought a lot of change to the training and certification market—most of it for the good of users.

    Pearson Vue is now offering online proctored exams. For those who sponsor the certifications, they have a choice about whether to participate with online examinations or not. Some do, some don’t, both for good reasons. Check if the exam you’ve been waiting for is available online now. Considering CompTIA testing is included in Pearson’s options, this is worth checking out. Note that Microsoft is also a VUE client, so an increasing number of MS exams are available online. This was in-process before, but is accelerated due to the current situation.

    DevOps Institute has long done online exams, and offers a worthy collection of certifications to look into. In fact, there is a lot of free (or registration-only) training on the DevOps Institute’s sight, not just certifications. It is definitely worth checking out.

    Cisco has expanded online testing for many of its exams. Now might be a good time to take that exam you just couldn’t get to a testing center for.

    We paid a fair amount for CBTNuggets, but if learning (as opposed to certification) is your goal, it’s worth the money if you/your employer are willing to shell it out. To the point, the fee is one-off. Use all the training you want for the annual fee, so the value is limited only by your available time and motivation.

    Some of us in IT really don’t have that much free time right now, as supporting a suddenly huge remote workforce is a surprise burden, but if you are one of the lucky ones that isn’t struggling with an unexpected expansion, now is definitely a good time to enhance your skills and learn some new things. The CompTIA Linux courses are a good place for Windows fans to start, and the introductory Windows Admin courses are a good place for Penguins to start. But you all know that.

    Note that there are a few organizations out there that do not want to participate in online proctoring or testing because they worry about cheapening the exam because leaks of exact questions are far easier in an online setting. Don’t be too hard on them, they want to preserve the value of their certifications for those who have earned them–a worthy goal, whether you think it wise in the current environment or not. I know of two organizations that fit this category, so I thought I’d mention it.

    Stay safe, keep rocking it and hopefully you have some time to pick up some training or certifications.

    Note: This list is just things I am aware of. Please leave any other training options as a comment and help your fellows out.

  • DevOps Institute Cert Exams Now Available for Open Testing

    DevOps Institute Cert Exams Now Available for Open Testing

    DevOps Institute recently announced a new Open Testing program that removes the requirement of formal training to take one of its extensive portfolio of DevOps certifications. This approach is similar to those of other major certification programs in the market today.

    Make no mistake: We still strongly believe that the structured training offered by our Global Education Partners is the best learning experience for the individual and the organization. The dynamics of the classroom encourages dialogue among learners and, particularly in a corporate setting, promote better empathy and collaboration among teams. However, we also understand that today’s Humans of DevOps may learn in many ways from many sources.

    Some of you may scoff at certifications for being commoditized. Commoditization isn’t bad if it means that everyone has access to knowledge. That spirit lies is at the heart of DevOps Institute’s Open Testing program. We want to remove the barriers of entry to our certifications for any individual who believes they have acquired the skills, knowledge, ideas and learning (SKIL) to pass one of our certification examinations. Certifications are a source of pride and accomplishment that shows that an individual learned, internalized and studied knowledge. Why it be so wrong to have a whole army of certified professionals that share a common language, common practices and a common mission?

    Under the Open Testing program, individuals can purchase and schedule online-proctored DevOps Institute certification examinations directly through DevOps Institute or through a participating Global Education Partner. There are no prerequisites to taking any of the examinations.

    Examinations now available for Open Testing include:

    Registered exam candidates will receive the exam requirements document, sample exam and glossary of terms to help them prepare by defining the scope of the examination. Successful candidates will receive a digital badge and certificate from the DevOps Institute acknowledging their achievement.

    — Jayne Groll

  • Five Tips for Solving the Technology Skills Gap

    Five Tips for Solving the Technology Skills Gap

    The insightful, and sometimes breathless, predictions regarding digital transformation are everywhere. We are right to be mindful of both the potential and the challenges posed by digital transformation. Digital transformation is increasing the rate of change in every business, in every line of business and even in every role.  

    Digital transformation requires new development practices, organizational culture changes, customer intelligence and focus, empathy and, above all, new ways of thinking. Only when everyone is committed to improving the way work gets done, can an organization thrive in a competitive environment. As organizations continue to grapple with how to prepare their workforce for an increasingly digital world, they have a technology skills development problem.

    Below are five considerations for bridging the technology skills gap brought on by digital transformation.

    Identify the Skill or Development Problem You Are Trying to Solve

    It’s essential that the technology skills development program be aligned in purpose and design with the intended business objective. That may sound obvious, but organizations have a way of accelerating beyond the original scope and intentions. 

    Ultimately, what you are trying to do will determine the combination of tools, content and even organizational commitment needed to be successful. For instance, are you trying to deepen technical knowledge for a set of employees? Or, are you tasked with improving specific performance objectives in data, DevOps and/or security?

    Before investing in training, it’s important to establish the targeted employees, the range of competencies to be covered, the degree of proficiency required and the time frame to complete the initiative. In all cases, build a program that can solve the problem in a time frame that meets the business needs.

    Establish the Performance Objective 

    For nearly all technology skill problems, the goal is performance: the target learners becoming sufficiently competent to perform at the required level. Understanding what the performance standard or measure of success is or will be helps focus all stakeholders on the same goal.    

    If specific performance objectives are required, monitoring a specific key performance indicator (KPI) can be the most valuable approach to determining training success or impact. If the KPIs are not available, using post-assessments can be a useful measure of knowledge gained and can help demonstrate the impact of the training.   

    Leverage Authoritative Content

    It’s important to understand the sources used to create the course material as well as who authored or collaborated on the material. This matters not just because the learning content should be accurate, but also because adult learners are sensitive to the credibility of the source material. Especially in technical areas, IT professionals expect to be provided with material from authoritative sources.

    IT professionals consider current practitioners, or well-known consultants the most authoritative voices on how to use technology. In some cases, industry associations or trade groups have established themselves as authoritative sources in their specific technical areas. Regardless, the source material should be highly reputable and authoritative. 

    Put User Experience First 

    Making learning as convenient for the target learner as possible is essential to a successful learning program.  

    Convenience has often meant anytime/anywhere learning—learners can take courses at home, while commuting, from their desk or wherever they work. This experience should be much like watching a movie on Netflix or Hulu: Learners should be able to start the course at one location, on one device and continue it at another time on a different device from just the right point in the course. 

    Training can also be seamlessly incorporated into the workflow of some applications. Think of it like a more sophisticated, less annoying version of “Clippy,” the Microsoft assistant that provided in-context help for Microsoft Office through the mid-2000s. For some types of applications and technical roles, having a context-sensitive learning engine that can identify and serve up nuggets of learning appropriate to the task can be very useful. 

    Offer the Right Mix of Push Learning and Pull Learning 

    Employers are beginning to realize the benefits of pull learning where IT professionals identify and select their own learning paths. This model allows motivated professionals to acquire skills, gain more responsibilities and, in some cases, promotions and new job opportunities. Employers have realized that when employees self-select a course, it is a strong indicator of self-motivation, and a strong predictor of professional dedication and success.  

    But pull learning isn’t appropriate for every problem to be solved. For example, maybe you need a group to learn the same thing about cloud security or compliance. In such situations, it’s not practical to wait until the target learners are motivated to take the specific courses. It makes more sense to solve these challenges by assigning specific courses to the right groups of target learners, assigning completion dates and monitoring progress.  

    Depending on what problem you are trying to solve, either push learning or pull learning may be more appropriate. 

    Setting Your Organization Up for Success

    Ultimately, successfully navigating digital transformation requires a team with well-aligned IT roles and skill sets. People are the make-or-break element of a high-performing IT organization. There is simply no replacement for people with the right skills, attitudes and traits. CIOs don’t have the luxury of hiring a totally new roster of people with “the right stuff,” so they will have to be creative in using a combination of hiring, mentoring and training, contractors, and partners to create the needed mix of capabilities. 

    Once you have hired and trained the talent in your organization, what’s your plan to help them continue their learning journey for the duration of their career?

    — Mike Hendrickson

  • Free DevOps Training at DOI’s Global SKILup Day

    Free DevOps Training at DOI’s Global SKILup Day

    The DevOps Institute (DOI) is hosting a global training day called Global SKILup Day on Dec. 10, 2019. It’s a free virtual event and they have arranged for some of the brightest minds in the DevOps space to speak/train during the course of the day.

    Why global? They truly are planning on a follow-the-sun approach to training, with courses going on in each of the different regions throughout the day. In total, the event will run for 18 hours and span the globe–meaning where ever you are, free training is available to you.

    The SKIL (Skills, Knowledge, Ideas and Learning) part of this free training day is DOI’s training methodology for the next phase of DevOps. They have been conducting SKILup Days around the globe for a while now, and this appears to be a virtualized extension of that effort.

    “What type of training,” you ask? Well, here’s a list of topics broken down by DOI.

    No matter what your interest and/or needs are, there will be something that you can pick up at this training.

    As of this writing, there are 15 speakers to cover 18 hours in three regions, so while I am not party to their internal planning, this author would guess they are still filling out the engagements. Considering we’re nearly two months away, that’s not terribly surprising. What is surprising is the list of speakers contain a high percentage of recognized experts. That’s good for the training, because superstars who can’t present generally don’t have the name recognition these presenters do. And a huge chunk of effective of training is presentation.

    So go sign up! Grab a spot, set the systems to do long builds and learn something new. I like to go to these type of events simply because our little lab is set in its ways, and getting exposed to new methods/ideas keeps things from getting to stale. I won’t be taking up space at DOI though, as I’d rather leave it for all of you when space is limited.

    Since my current responsibility is for a testing lab, this is more important for those of you who are running public facing systems that represent your organization. If I were, the big one for me would be AIOps, because it kind of snuck up on me while working on continuous test and integrating new tools into the DevOps toolchain. In fact, my recent piqued interest in the topic came from looking at an integration and the tool was big on AIOps–though CI/CD Reference Architecture would be cool too. Attempts to standardize are interesting, because even though some parts have stabilized, we still very much live in the land of flux.

    Pick something you don’t think you care too much about along with things you do. You just might find a good reason to care, and it will help you continue to rock it.

    Disclaimer: I have contracted for DevOps Institute in the past (through Ingrained Technology), but I am not currently engaged by them. I shared this because it is free training, and who doesn’t want to know about that?

    — Don Macvittie

  • How to Transition to Become a DevOps Engineer

    How to Transition to Become a DevOps Engineer

    You’ve either heard the buzzword or you’ve seen the extensive list of rewarding aspects that come with being a DevOps engineer. Whatever the reason you’re here, this guide should help with taking the right steps toward becoming a DevOps engineer, whether this is your first job after graduating or an opportunity to reskill leveraging your prior industry experience.

    Immerse Yourself

    Learn the fundamentals, practices and methodologies. Understand the why behind DevOps before jumping into the tools. I believe the key goal of any DevOps engineer is to increase speed and maintain or improve quality across the entire software development life cycle, in order to provide maximum business value. Read articles, watch some YouTube videos and go to one of your local Meetup groups or conferences–it’s useful to become a part of the welcoming DevOps community where you’ll learn from the mistakes and successes of those that have been here before you.

    Your Background

    There are likely two key times where you’ll be transitioning into the role of DevOps engineer; either reskilling during your career or as your first job after graduating. You may have prior experience in technology, such as working as a software developer, systems engineer, systems administrator, network operations engineer or database administrator, all of which will bring broad insights and useful experience for your future role as a DevOps engineer. If you’re starting your career, maybe you’ve finished your degree in computer science or any other STEM field which will give you some of the basic stepping stones you’ll need in this transition.

    I think it’s important to breakdown the broad spectrum of what DevOps engineer roles entail. Most enterprise companies today will use DevOps engineers in three different positions.

    • DevOps Engineers, with a Dev Bias: Work in a software development role, building software applications. The key point is they leverage CI/CD, shared repositories, cloud and containers as part of their everyday work, but they are not necessarily responsible for building or implementing tooling. They will understand infrastructure and in a mature environment, will be able to push their own code into production.
    • DevOps Engineers, with an Ops Bias: Could be compared to systems engineers or systems administrators. They understand software development but do not spend the core parts of their day building software applications. Instead, they are more likely to be supporting software development teams to automate manual processes and increase efficiencies across the human and technology systems. This could mean breaking down legacy code and using less cumbersome automation scripts to run the same commands or it could mean installing, configuring or maintaining infrastructure and tooling. They ensure the right tools are installed and available for any teams that need them. They enable teams with learning how to leverage CI/CD and other DevOps practices.
    • SREs (Site Reliability Engineers): Think of site reliability engineering as having software engineers solving operations and infrastructure problems. SREs focus on creating scalable, highly available and reliable software systems.

    In the ideal world, DevOps engineers will understand all the above, which is the norm at some mature technology companies. However, if you knock on the door of top tier banks or many Fortune 500 companies you’ll realize oftentimes these roles do usually have biases towards dev or ops.

    Operating Systems

    Whichever background you’re coming from, you should start with the fundamental technologies you’ll need to use and understand as a DevOps engineer. Linux is most likely the operating system you’ll be using daily, although some of you might be using Windows. This is where everything runs, and fundamental knowledge is important. You can install Linux at home where you’ll be able to break as much as you want and continue learning along the way.

    Scripting

    Next up you’ll need to pick a scripting language. There are many to choose from, such as Python, Go, Java, Bash, PowerShell, Ruby and C/C++. I suggest starting with Python, it’s one of the most popular for a reason, it’s easy to learn and interpret. Python follows the fundamentals of object-oriented programming and can be used for web development, software development, creating desktop GUI apps and even business applications.

    Cloud

    After Linux and Python, my next pick would be cloud, where you could choose from Amazon Web Services, Azure or Google Cloud Platform. I’d start with AWS, as they have an extensive collection of free learning tools available to  take you down any track from learning about AWS as a developer to operations and even the business facing components. In fact, you might even be overwhelmed by how much is on offer when you first get setup with AWS. Maybe start with EC2, S3 and VPC and see where you want to go from there.

    Programming languages

    For those of you with a passion for software development. You should keep on improving your programming skills. Some good languages commonly used in this role include Python, Go, Java, Bash, PowerShell, Ruby and C/C++. You should also become familiar with tools such as Jenkins and Git/GitHub which you’ll be using frequently as part of the CI/CD process. Infrastructure is no longer left to the operations guys so you’ll need to have some exposure to a cloud platform such as AWS, Azure or GCP.

    Containers

    Finally, start learning about containerizing code using tools such as Docker and orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes. All the above have extensive online learning resources for free and most cities will have local Meetup groups where you can turn up and learn from experienced people in a friendly environment.

    For those of you with less experience in development, you can still get involved using your passion for automation, increasing efficiency, collaborating with others and a never-ending desire to improve on your own work. I would still suggest learning the tooling outlined above, but with less emphasis on the coding/scripting languages. It will be useful to learn about Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, cloud platforms and Linux. You will likely be setting up the tools and learning how to build systems that are resilient and fault-tolerant while writing your own code.

    Reskilling

    If you’re transitioning into a DevOps role during your career, you should start within your company to explore opportunities. Can you reskill by working with an existing team? There might be an option for you to shadow other team members, ask for advice and reskill without even leaving your current job. This might not always be possible and some of you will need to move into another company.

    If you can learn some of the practices, tools and technologies listed above, you’ll be in a good position to demonstrate relevant knowledge during interviews. The key is to be honest and to not set yourself up for failure. Most hiring managers understand you don’t know all the answers but if you can show what you’ve been learning and explain you’re open to learning more, you should be in with a good chance.

    Starting Your Career

    You can apply to direct open opportunities at companies who are hiring junior DevOps engineers. You will often find these companies say they’re looking for more experience and you should apply back in future when you’ve gained some commercial experience. It’s the typical, frustrating scenario of “we want more experience” but nobody is willing to give you the first chance.

    It’s not all gloomy though, there are a few companies focused on training and upskilling graduates directly out of the university. MThree, where I currently work, delivers exactly that. We hire fresh graduates and train them for eight weeks in our Alumni Academy. Training covers everything from theory through to hands-on projects with Python, Jenkins, Git, Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes and AWS. By the end of the training you’ll have some solid exposure to the entire software development life cycle and a good understanding of how this applies in a Fortune 500 environment. The best part is once qualified, our teams then leverage their extensive list of clients to provide job opportunities for junior DevOps engineers. MThree pays these associates on a full-time salary with benefits for the first 18-24 months before they join the client as direct employees at the end of the agreement. This is a great way to bridge the gap from university into your technology career.

    In summary, there are many ways to transition to become a DevOps engineer. This is a very rewarding career route which will likely keep you engaged and challenged as well as increasing your earning potential.

    — Conor Delanbanque

  • Embracing the Product Development Cycle

    Embracing the Product Development Cycle

    Nowadays, a truly successful product calls for purposeful investment in the people that will ultimately use it in their specific environments.

    We all know technological development is hyperactive and unpredictable. Ultimately, we want to be able to create cutting-edge tech, deploy it wherever it’s needed and have it operated by skilled staff that understand all the nuances. We need to be able to move fast, adapt on the fly and do so with security mechanisms that fire on all cylinders–irrespective of environment.

    The best way ahead is to actively engender a more informed user base that can apply experience and context. There are big benefits to be had by doing this. With the right investment and infrastructure, the aim is for informed and confident end users to form symbiotic relationships with the vendor, helping to guide product and solution development on an ongoing basis. Operational challenges are not static, so the technology in place to meet them certainly shouldn’t be.

    Vendors need to embrace the mindset that a product’s lifecycle needn’t be clunky, disrupted by diversions or constrained by boundaries. It is all about continually engaging and listening to every contributor to a product’s existence: customers, partners, engineers, support staff–the whole ecosystem. Collaborate, innovate, feedback, improve and repeat. The future is a dynamic continuum of constant innovation and improvement.

    As part of F5’s transformation to a multi-cloud application services company, we had to train hundreds of engineers around the world with a new set of foundational skills in cloud, automation, orchestration and DevOps methodologies. Essentially, the process entails developing training content to test with a selection of key users. Areas of improvement are identified, and these are then built into the product. The cycle is repeated.

    It may sound simple but you’re not going to get the substantive, actionable feedback you need without instilling the right culture. For this, you need a lot of training and documentation. You need to guide the way with strategic credibility and maintain confidence. Above all, you need to be patient and listen.

    At F5, we’re constantly building out the mechanisms for how we train in conjunction with our development efforts. A big part of that is integrating adequate feedback loops—both on the training and products front. If a customer hits a wall, what did we learn? How can we contribute via open source? How do we leverage what we learned to make our products and people better?

    We’re not just building automation and orchestration solutions. We’re aligning to the methodology around DevOps and the software process. We’re designing as if it were a giant distributed software project that happens to run on and integrate with the F5 platform. All of this gives us the means to start a new conversation with customers, one that is entirely based on how to achieve successful outcomes. Sometimes we may assent to, for example, the introduction of a new feature. Sometimes, we’ll push back. We will always be agile, adaptable and collaborative. It is never anything less than an eye-opening journey. It needs to be. We have no interest in directionless wheel-spinning, nor do our customers.

    Another major benefit of our approach is it explicitly and effectively helps NetOps become a true partner of DevOps. This means projects are no longer bounced around in silos, bottlenecks are eliminated and the results speak for themselves. Going through this process and making these shifts have fundamentally changed F5’s ethos and identity. We had to change in order to fully engage with the bleeding edge, with the way container ecosystems are built, the way microservices are built or the way software is developed in the modern age.

    — Hitesh Patel

  • DevOps World | Jenkins World 2019 Training is Best in Class

    DevOps World | Jenkins World 2019 Training is Best in Class

    Do you work on Jenkins pipelines? Are you responsible for implementing CloudBees tools in your development environment? Do you manage a DevOps team? Is your organization ramping up DevSecOps capabilities?

    If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should be attending the training sessions coming up at DevOps World | Jenkins World, a premier global event for Jenkins users and DevOps practitioners. The event is devoting two full days to educating attendees on the finer points of these topics listed above. The conference itself is taking place Aug. 12-15 in San Francisco’s Moscone Center and the training is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday (August 12 and 13).

    Conference attendees will have plenty to do throughout the week. The final two days will feature an agenda packed with keynotes, industry-focused thought leader sessions, an awards ceremony and, if that’s not enough, an after-party with a superhero theme. In-between sessions, there will be time to walk the expo floor, to get a glimpse of the latest and greatest technologies in the space and do some networking with some of the other 2,000 enthusiasts attending the conference.

    Training will be front and center early in the conference. Professionals with varying levels of experience—those just getting started and those with a substantial background in their subjects—can take advantage of trainings targeted just for them. They can sharpen their skills, gain new perspectives and walk away with certifications that will help them advance in their careers.

    Anybody who’s been in the business for a while will confirm: Well-trained teams are a big asset in DevOps. The field is expanding rapidly and changing every year, and DevOps practitioners need to devote themselves to continuous learning to keep pace with modern software development. At DevOps World | Jenkins World, they can learn about best practices ranging from authorization to security, build management and interfacing with cloud services.

    While training sessions are available to purchase at a nominal cost, attendees can receive a free Jenkins certification exam voucher—a $150 value—for the Certified Jenkins Engineer (CJE) and Certified CloudBees Jenkins Platform Engineer (CCJPE) exams. Attendees can choose to sign up for an onsite exam at the conference or use it at a later date.

    For a full rundown of the conference’s training offerings, check out the Training and Certification page.

    Now, let’s take a quick glimpse at what’s being offered.

    Jenkins Training

    Jenkins, the world’s leading open source automation server, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. A lot has changed during that time. A community has grown around the technology resource, adding new tools, new plugins and new best practices year after year.

    While the community dedicates itself to sharing information and educating its members, the DevOps World | Jenkins World conference provides the perfect setting to get the targeted training members to get the most out of Jenkins in their work environments.

    DevOps World | Jenkins World has four separate certification courses designed to build attendees’ Jenkins skills. There are introductory and intermediate courses that will position them to become more proficient in specific areas important to their own career development. Attendees can learn about Jenkins pipeline fundamentals—everything from the structure of a declarative pipeline to the use of features to finish the pipeline. They can also take advantage of an intermediate session with lectures about shared libraries and Docker agents and follow-up lab exercises. Jenkins Admin courses get learners started on the Jenkins dashboard and configuration practices and then branches out to cover more advanced concepts such as scaling Jenkins, managing different functions and more advanced uses of Docker and Kubernetes.

    There’s a second track that covers concepts connected to continuous delivery with Jenkins X. The Jenkins X project, introduced by CloudBees, provides a resource to educate community members on cloud-native processes. This course explores ways to take advantage of Jenkins X, showing attendees how to create a fully operational continuous delivery pipeline using containers, Kubernetes, Jenkins X and many other tools.

    CloudBees Training

    If you work with CloudBees technologies in a DevOps environment, the CloudBees Core Fundamentals course is a great place to advance your skills. Attendees need to take Jenkins Admin Fundamentals and Intermediate classes to really leverage the concepts covered here. They’ll learn how to optimize the CloudBees Core product suite to successfully scale CD and DevOps in their organizations. They’ll also learn about key proprietary features in CloudBees Core to enhance the capabilities of Jenkins, including enhancements for authorization and security that provide the control and administration needed to master key aspects of the pipeline.

    DevOps Training

    This course is more advanced—a certification for DevOps leaders of all kinds. To take the course, you don’t have to be an official leader of a DevOps team. Teams need leaders of all kinds. Whatever your position on the team—be it tactical of strategic, as a designer, implementer or motivator—you can play a leadership role. This course will teach the finer points of managing people and situations in a DevOps environment. It will build leadership skills—showing how to align and collaborate to break down silos and evolve the organization. It will present real-life scenarios and case studies to prepare team members to thrive in a fast-paced DevOps and Agile environment. Completion of this certification positions learners to complete the DevOps Leader exam successfully.

    DevSecOps Training

    It took a while for organizations to start integrating security into DevOps environments. Security was once considered an afterthought in—or even a hindrance to—DevOps processes. But now, DevSecOps is taking hold, and organizations need to build the skill levels to make the discipline successful.

    This course offers attendees the training they need to gain a DevSecOps Engineering Certification. It outlines DevSecOps as a concept, reviews key best practices DevOps teams need to adhere to and explains how DevOps security practices differ from other security approaches. The course will teach practical steps on how to integrate security programs into DevOps practices and highlight how professionals can use data and security science as the primary means of protecting the organization and customer. Completion of the course positions attendees to successfully pass the DevSecOps Engineering Certification exam, which is offered on the last day of class.

    Learn more about the training and workshops available. Then register with code DWJW20 and get 20% off your registration.

    — Jason Farmer

  • How DevOps Training and Certification Benefits the Team

    How DevOps Training and Certification Benefits the Team

    Cisco Systems recently announced sweeping changes to its training and certification programs to increase the real-world value of both. Cisco’s move demonstrates a trend by organizations that provide training and certification to place more value on the practical aspects of educating technology professionals—which, in turn, should have a major impact on those looking to build DevOps teams.

    “Advances in network technologies have enabled new applications and business models—converged IP networks enabled voice over IP, 3G networks enabled mobile applications and 4G networks enabled mobile video,” said Susie Wee, senior vice president and CTO of DevNet at Cisco Systems. “DevOps has become a key factor for bringing those new networked applications to life. Training and certifications for network professionals and software developers have become a must. The goal here is to bring enhanced software skills to networking, enabling application developers to write applications that leverage the full capabilities of the network.”

    Cisco’s realization that real-world knowledge brings demonstrable value to businesses has culminated in new DevNet Certifications, which are designed to demonstrate an individual’s ability to bring software skills to evolving network technologies. “The only way to fully leverage the capabilities of the network is to build DevOps teams with both networking and software skills that can address the intricacies of both software-defined networking and physical networking solutions,” Wee added.

    Cisco is not the only company pursuing a change in training and certification processes. Industry group CompTIA recently revamped its certification programs. For example, the latest version of the CompTIA Linux+ exam has been redesigned to validate the competencies and skills required of early career IT professionals supporting Linux systems.

    “For certifications to have real value today, people must immerse themselves in the technology,” noted James Stanger, CompTIA chief technology evangelist. “The new Linux + certification uses performance-based testing that presents candidates with real-world scenarios, meaning that achieving certification demonstrates the ability to function in the real world.”

    CompTIA may very well be one of the leaders in the movement to bring real-world relevance to the certification process. The company has been using performance-based testing and has been embracing certification pathways to build teams. “For DevOps teams, critical skills, including project management, both agile and waterfall, are important. Developers will need to know the operating systems they are developing in, so they’ll need to understand Windows and Linux,” Stanger said. “The idea is that for DevOps, you need to get deep into the guts of operating systems and understand them well. You can specialize in one area, but you’ll also need to understand databases, relational databases and object-oriented databases.”

    Cisco also understands the importance of educating DevOps professionals. “Our new Cisco Certifications, with new DevNet Certifications, are designed for training and certifying network professionals and software developers, so they can bring software skills to networking,” Wee noted. “This new education process teaches application developers how to write applications that leverage the full capabilities of the network, and it helps build IT teams with network skills and expertise and software skills and expertise so they can leverage the full capabilities of the network, helping to support the DevOps process.”

    Cisco is also investing in the idea of building a community in the form of the company’s DevNet offering. DevNet was created some five years ago to help network engineers and application developers take full advantage of the revolutionary changes shaping the industry. The company is now focusing its efforts on what it sees as its customers’ biggest problem—network automation—and has created the DevNet Automation Exchange, a community-based developer center where networkers and developers can learn to “walk, run and fly” with network automation using Cisco’s products and the full capabilities of the new network.

    According to Wee, those three processes can be broken down into:

    • Walk: Get visibility and insights into their networks in a read-only way. This enables use cases such as gathering telemetry and insights from running networks and performing audits to ensure the ongoing security of the network.
    • Run: Activate policy and intent across different network domains. This enables use cases such as providing self-service network operations that comply with security policies and operational guidelines.
    • Fly: Proactively manage applications, users and devices with DevOps workflows. This enables use cases such as deploying applications in continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines while configuring the network in accordance with new application policies.

    Wee noted Automation Exchange has been seeded with more than 50 code repositories, many contributed by Cisco’s engineering teams and SEs. Now, she said, the company is inviting DevNet community members to submit code that solves their use cases.

    Updated certification and training resources from the likes of Cisco and CompTIA will go a long way to helping build DevOps teams that can hit the ground running.

    — Frank Ohlhorst

  • Will There Be a Fast Path to ITIL V4?

    Will There Be a Fast Path to ITIL V4?

    The Feb. 28 release of the ITIL Foundation ITIL 4 Edition book illustrates that big changes are coming to ITIL, bringing fear, uncertainty and doubt to those who have invested in ITIL and achieved certifications.

    It all comes down to how far along someone is in the ITIL V3 certification process. For those that have achieved a level of ITIL V3 Expert, the fast path to ITIL V4 may consist of simply taking the ITIL Managing Professional Transition class (once it is released) and then passing the associated MP exam. However, both the class and the exam may not be available until the third quarter of 2019.

    Under ITIL v3, candidates garner two credits for passing the ITIL V3 Foundation exam. Continuing on a certification track means taking intermediate classes to earn more credits. However, the ITIL v3 intermediate tracks are divided into two different paths, Lifecycle and Capability. The Lifecycle track addresses the readiness aspects of adopting ITIL, while the Capability track focuses on actual ITIL processes. Lifecycle classes reward candidates with three credits and capability classes are four credits. A candidate must take a combination of classes and pass the associated exams to earn the prerequisite 17 credits before taking the Managing Across the Lifecycle (MALC) exam to become a recognized ITIL Expert.

    ITIL V4 uses a different scheme when it comes to certification, which introduces some confusion into the certification situation. ITIL V4 starts with ITIL V4 Foundation, but the tracks change to ITIL Managing Professional (MP) and ITIL Strategic Leader (SL) paths. However, very little information has been released regarding these tracts or the associated courses.

    How much of a rush, then, should certification candidates be in to garner a ITIL V4 certification? Should they continue on their ITIL V3 certification path and then transition to V4 after they have become a V3 expert? Or should those candidates put everything on hold until more of the V4 training and exams come to light?

    Currently, as far as ITIL V4 is concerned, the only class and exam available in the near future is for ITIL V4 Foundation, so those who are on the V3 Intermediate track may have to wait and see what training and exams become available. Some ITIL pundits are recommending that those who already have achieved V3 foundation certification and earned six or more credits on the ITIL V3 Intermediate path stay the course and continue to take ITIL v3 Intermediate classes until earning at least 17 credits. Once that accomplishment is achieved, candidates should move on to taking the Managing Professional Transition module.

    Nancy Van Elsacker Louisnord, president of TOPdesk USA, offered some sage advice: “There are several changes introduced in ITIL V4, all of which impact the core guiding principles. Learning skills such as how to focus on value, adopt collaboration, improve iterative progression and working holistically will be critical for fully understanding ITIL V4. Embracing those changes and leveraging new educational resources as they become available will become the key to moving forward on any ITIL journey.”

    While there is still much uncertainty around when additional ITIL V4 training and certifications will become available, one thing is certain, and that is change. ITIL practitioners will want to get ahead of that change to maintain their skill sets and increase their market value, while also acquiring the skills to work in a world that is quickly becoming more agile and DevOps-orientated.

    — Frank Ohlhorst

  • Jenkins World, Training and Infostretch

    Jenkins World, Training and Infostretch

    I’ve talked to a fair number of vendors about Jenkins World 2017, and I’ve spent a decent amount of time lately supporting DevOps training initiatives at a variety of vendors.

    The thing is, the DevOps world is changing fast enough and there are enough options out there that training is not something you need only before moving to DevOps. During one recent project, I ended up learning about a particular topic as I was developing support materials for a training session on that topic. And I’m pretty steeped in the DevOps world.

    So, while I don’t write about every vendor I’ve talked to about Jenkins World, Infostretch‘s new training program is worth talking about. Infostretch is unveiling an array of training solutions to help companies not only get a handle on DevOps needs, but also to grow their DevOps maturity.

    Among the offerings will be a DevOps maturity assessment and new Jenkins training programs. In conjunction with its visit to Jenkins World, Infostretch will be offering a free 90-minute webinar on adopting Jenkins 2.0.

    Demands of the job will keep me from attending Jenkins World, but if you’re there, it might be worth checking out Infostretch’s booth (#415) to see what there is to learn. If you do, feel free to drop me a line—I’m intrigued to learn more about the training and how it fits in with other available offerings. As an added bonus, the company is giving away “Game of Thrones”-themed DevOps Journey Maps marking various stages of DevOps journey and the “happy flow” of DevOps, and including the various tools available in the market for each stage. So you can snag that while stopping by for me to learn about Infostretch’s training.

    The other thing that interested me was a presentation. Sanil Pillai, director of Infostretch Labs, will be presenting a 15-minute demo titled, “Auto-Convert Your Freestyle Jenkins Jobs to Coded Pipeline” on Wednesday, Aug. 30, at 10:45 a.m. at the Sponsor Theater, in the Expo Hall. The variety of scripts that can make up the components of a Jenkins build environment are a problem many of us have struggled with; while better than what we had because they’re part of an automated process, the components are still technical debt with variable maintenance requirements. Someone, please go see the talk/demo and report back. It would be cool if Infostretch has an answer for this problem.

    I Reiterate: Training is Imperative

    It is human nature to make a large change and settle in with the known new world. DevOps is not designed to be that way. It is still growing and changing, so don’t get complacent. Challenge yourself and seek out training, tool enhancements and opportunities to improve. As others have said repeatedly and well, DevOps is a journey, not a destination. Learn, get better, find better ways and tools and keep improving.

    And, keep rocking it. Eliminating IT as a bottleneck is a huge step to improving product development and being more in sync with the business.

    Of course, now that I’ve written out the reasons why Infostretch’s plans for Jenkins World interested me, I am tempted to dig into some of the other offerings. Or to try and figure out how to go to Jenkins world without missing important things at work.

    You may be hearing more of Jenkins World from me before it arrives.

    — Don Macvittie