What Does a DevOps Engineer Do? A Comprehensive Guide

Being an active participant in the DevOps community, I frequently face the question, “What does a DevOps engineer do?” A DevOps engineer performs various duties. In this article, I will explain the scope of work and typical tasks of a DevOps engineer and describe them by giving real-life cases and personal instances. 

In this comprehensive guide, you will read about the key responsibilities of a DevOps engineer and at the same time, gain more insights that will make the reader comprehend why this position is critical in several contemporary IT setups.

Who is a DevOps Engineer?

Before knowing ‘what exactly a DevOps engineer does’, we have to know who a DevOps engineer is. A DevOps engineer is an employee who deals with development and operations to improve organizational efficiency in the provision of services. With the assistance of synchronizing automation, CI, CD, and monitoring solutions, DevOps engineers are capable of enhancing the business value of different processes and products. 

They fulfill the role of intermediaries between developers who create application codes and system administrators who are responsible for applications’ operations. This position is quite peculiar, so the person who will hold the position should have profound knowledge of both developmental processes and IT facilities.

Key Responsibilities

Let’s learn about a DevOps engineer: what they do. The key responsibilities of a DevOps engineer are as follows: 

• Automation: Using tools and scripts in performing routine activities to reduce the workload.
• Continuous Integration/ Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Setting up proper pipelines so that the changes in the codes are always tested and deployed.
• Monitoring and Logging: Monitoring solutions to know how well the application is performing and its overall health.
• Collaboration: Working closely with development and operations teams to align goals and ensure smooth delivery of applications.

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What Does DevOps Do for Organizations?

Let’s discuss what DevOps actually do for organizations. In organizations, DevOps engineers have a tremendous impact on the speeding up of delivery of software products. They assist in putting into practice measures that seek to enhance operations arising from the high reliability and scalability of the software. 

For example, in my experience at a mid-sized tech company, adopting DevOps practices reduced our software release cycle from months to weeks, significantly improving our time-to-market.

Enhancing Efficiency

• Through most of the processes, repetitive work is eliminated, and this saves time that could otherwise be spent on other tasks by the developers and operations teams by the DevOps engineers. 
• For instance, implementing infrastructure as code (IaC) allows for consistent and repeatable provisioning of environments, reducing the time it takes to set up new servers from hours to minutes.

Also Read: What is observability in DevOps?

Improving Collaboration

• DevOps principles encompass approaches that improve communication between the development and operations personnel. This cultural attitude assists in the socialization of people hence eradicating the issue of producing a ‘tunnel’ effect that leads to everyone developing his or her speck and working independently. 
• Some of the practices implemented by DevOps engineers and teams are meeting at a fixed time, division of responsibilities, and process interconnectivity.

Ensuring Reliability

• These activities involve constant monitoring and keeping of logs, with the help of which DevOps engineers ensure that applications are always up and running. 
• For instance, in my previous workplace, my group incorporated automated techniques for testing and monitoring to decrease the number of defects and consequent system failures. Such a proactive approach to monitoring allows for catching the problems before they affect the end customers when everyone wants the services to be highly available and reliable.

Also Read: What is Devops Engineer?

Why Do Organizations Require DevOps Engineers?

To explain ‘what DevOps engineers do’ we have to know why organizations require DevOps engineers. It becomes necessary for organizations to have DevOps engineers to effectively cope with the current rapidly evolving technological market. DevOps engineers help in:

• Automating Workflows: This cuts down work that relies on hand operations and hence minimizes mistakes that may be made by individuals.
• Enhancing Collaboration: By closing the gap between a development and operations team.
• Improving Product Quality: Depending on the results of the test itself and constant supervision of the results.

Real-World Example

For example, at a previous workplace, our team designed a software test automation and monitoring mechanism that significantly minimized the number of bugs and system crash incidences. This active approach guaranteed that all our services were available for customers. This greatly contributed to the improvement of the customer’s satisfaction levels and the overall customer loyalty levels.

Cost Efficiency

While explaining ‘what does a DevOps engineer do? we can not avoid this point. They play an essential role in cost reduction through increasing the efficiency of operations and enabling teams to get through the time-challenged processes, such as feature roll-out, faster. 

Many issues can be solved automatically, thereby cutting down the use of time and effort. This also significantly reduces the scope of making errors. This efficiency makes its operation cheaper most of the time hence increasing the rate of returns on investment.

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What Exactly Does a DevOps Engineer Do in Real-Time?

In real-time, DevOps engineers are involved in various activities such as:

• Creating CI/CD Pipelines: Analyzing that code changes are tested and deployed. 
• Infrastructure Management: Utilizing tools like Terraform or Ansible to manage infrastructure as code.
• Monitoring and Logging: For performance and health checks of the system, tools like Prometheus and Grafana can be installed and integrated within the system.

Detailed Activities

Let’s explain the detailed activities of a DevOps engineer to understand ‘what does a DevOps engineer do in simple terms?’ 

• CI/CD Pipeline Management: The CI/CD tools are one of the most critical areas that a DevOps engineer will work on for the majority part of the time. This includes the combination of various tools and services that must guarantee the construction, testing, and deployment of code changes to the production environment.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): DevOps engineers use various source code that entails different infrastructure which includes Terraform, Ansible, or even CloudFormation. This can be used for version control and even automation where setting up the environment can be done easily and quickly. 
• Monitoring and Logging: Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) are some of the famous application/infrastructure monitoring tools. This is useful for flagging and eliminating problems before they are conveyed to the general public.

During a major product launch, I was responsible for setting up a CI/CD pipeline that enabled us to deploy new features rapidly and reliably, ensuring a smooth launch without significant issues. Pursuing a DevOps course can greatly aid in acquiring the skills needed to perform these tasks effectively and efficiently.

Understand the DevOps Applications which a DevOps Engineer must know

What Might a Typical Day Look Like for a DevOps Engineer? Day-to-Day Responsibilities

What a DevOps engineer does differs from a traditional schedule where a worker performs activities according to the set plan. It is more related to a problem-solving function where the worker faces tasks with varying levels of repetitiveness throughout the day. Here's a breakdown of what different levels of DevOps engineers might focus on: 

Beginner DevOps Engineer Day-to-Day Duty

A beginner DevOps engineer might focus on:

• Learning and Implementing Automation Tools: Like Jenkins or GitLab CI.
• Basic Scripting: Using elements to prepare scripts for automating plain actions.
• Monitoring System Health: Utilizing software solutions like Nagios or websites like New Relic.

Senior DevOps Engineer Day-to-Day Duty

A senior DevOps engineer often:

• Architects Complex CI/CD Pipelines: For dealing with several microservices. 
• Manages infrastructure: Utilizing advanced tools like Kubernetes or Docker Swarm.
• Leads the DevOps Team: Providing guidance and mentoring to junior engineers.

Experienced (More Than 8 Years) DevOps Engineer Day-to-Day Duty

An experienced DevOps engineer typically:

• Designs Large-scale Systems: Making it possible to achieve scalability and reliability.
• Implements Security Best Practices: Introducing security as a strength into CI/CD practice.
• Drives Organizational Change: Managing and facilitating the change into DevOps culture in the organization.

How Do I Be a Good DevOps Engineer?

To be a good DevOps engineer, focus on:

• Continuous Learning: Learn the tools that are current with the market and practices to be adopted.
• Collaboration: Coordinate often with both the development and operations groups.
• Problem-solving: In striving for good client relations be sure to be on the lookout for any problems that may arise.

Skills and Attributes

• Technical Skills: Advanced knowledge of automation tools (Jenkins, GitLab CI) and scripting languages (Python, Bash) as well as Infrastructure management tools (Terraform, Ansible).
• Soft Skills: Despite having a supervisory role it is quite necessary to be a good communicator besides it is important to communicate with different teams.
• Adaptability: Flexibility to new processes and tools is very essential in the DevOps practicing field since the field is continuously evolving.

Personal Experience

From my personal experience, the constant striving for new knowledge and self-development seems to be the most important. To be precise, attending conferences, participating in online courses, and engaging with the DevOps community through forums and meetups have all contributed to my development as a DevOps engineer.

Conclusion

To sum up, ‘What does a DevOps engineer do?’  involves many tasks. They are used in the automation of processes, improvement of cooperation, and critical elements of dependability and producibility in software products. If you're interested in a career in DevOps, consider pursuing a DevOps Course, obtaining a DevOps Certification, or enrolling in DevOps Training to build the necessary skills and knowledge.

FAQs

1. What is the role of a DevOps engineer?

A DevOps engineer works in between a development team and operations team, making various processes automatic and mainly focusing on the uninterrupted delivery and integration of software.

2. What skills does a DevOps engineer need?

Competencies that work in a DevOps engineer role are automation tools mastery, scripting, CI/CD pipeline knowledge, and collaboration abilities.

3. Does a DevOps engineer do coding?

Yes, the operation is executed by a DevOps engineer. They can also write scripts and work on infrastructure code but are not involved in creating application features.

4. Is DevOps tough for freshers?

As indicated, freshers face many challenges in pursuing DevOps since the career entails the acquisition of several skills in the provision of services. The first thing that is important for a person who wants to enter this particular profession, or work with DevOps specialists, is to know ‘what does a DevOps engineer do’. The position is versatile and includes a balance of technical and interpersonal skills for enhancing the proper and effective distribution of software products.