DevOps is EXTREMELY popular. With more organizations adopting it, professionals can’t afford to stay behind. Therefore, THIS may be the best time to learn everything about it and gain a DevOps certification which vouches for your knowledge and skill.

Still Need Reasons to Get a DevOps Certification?

DevOps offers a holistic approach for the software development process which helps in reducing the errors and complexities of a product. As a certified professional, you can prove your ability to deliver the following advantages to your organization.

Early-Stage Error Detection

DevOps helps prevent majority of development failures at the end of a project. This is possible through the detection of problems at an early stage.

This is especially important for programming errors, which are considered the major cause of project failures. With Dev and Ops working together, issues with the code will be detected at the initial stage rather than after software is rolled out.

Emphasis on Automation

DevOps directs the focus of developers towards automating processes to increase the efficiency of their processes. It emphasizes on the use of tools to accelerate the development process, especially to ensure faster code compilation, a scalable infrastructure, and parallel workflow process.

Involvement of Stakeholders

It’s important for team members to be on the same page as other stakeholders. By effectively communicating with stakeholders, DevOps professionals ensure seamless development cycles, quick error discovery/resolution, and faster route to market.

High Quality Product Development

Adopting DevOps effectively reduces the instances of unplanned work. The involvement of the whole team further results in reducing (and dare we say eliminating) design and security issues at the end of the project.

Shorter Production Time Periods

DevOps help the development and operations team collaborate and work together. This, in turn, reduces the duration of the production cycle while improving the operational efficiency of the development team.

But all of these are just the benefits your organization gets from you becoming certified. Don’t worry; you too have many advantages to reap including the following three.

• Career Growth – As you’re upgrading your knowledge and skill, expect your career to reach new heights. Especially since a DevOps certification testifies to your knowledge on theories and tools alike which can increase overall efficiency.
• New Opportunities – You can go beyond development to take on important roles in your organization, including DevOps architect, automation engineer, integration specialist, and release manager.
• Competitive Salary Package – On average, a DevOps release manager earns $92K while a DevOps Engineer $115K.

The DevOps Certifications You Can Pick From

So, now that you know why you can’t afford skipping becoming DevOps certified, let’s talk about the options available for you.

DevOps Institute Certifications

DevOps Institute offers several certifications which help DevOps practitioners grow professionally.

The initial level of certifications is DevOps Foundation. This certification proves your knowledge and skill related to –

• DevOps objectives and vocabulary
• Benefits to the business and IT
• Principles and practices including Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, testing, security, and the Three Ways
• DevOps relationship to Agile, Lean, and IT Service Management
• Improved workflows, communication, and feedback loops
• Automation practices
• Scaling DevOps for the enterprise
• Critical success factors and key performance indicators

After achieving this certificate, you can opt for more advanced DevOps certifications such as –

• DevOps Leader (DOL)^®
• DevSecOps Engineering (DSOE)^SM
• Continuous Delivery Architecture (CDA)^SM
• DevOps Test Engineering (DTE)^®
• Certified Agile Service Manager (CASM)^®
• Certified Agile Process Owner (CAPO)^®

PeopleCert DevOps Fundamentals

With the PeopleCert DevOps Fundamentals certification, you can begin your journey towards becoming a certified professional. This certification vouches for your knowledge on the following –

• Key concepts of DevOps
• Business value of DevOps
• Concepts underlying C.A.L.M.S., The Three Ways, continuous delivery, and the scope of the full stack
• DevOps culture, transformational leadership and DevOps structure and teaming
• Evolution of the DevOps Practices and the 15 essential practices of DevOps
• Agile project management and Scrum methodology
• Key concepts of cloud technology and virtualization, automation for deployment pipeline, and architecting for continuous delivery

Upon achieving this certification, you can opt for the more advanced PeopleCert DevOps Leadership certificate. This certificate indicates your knowledge on –

• How to lead an organization through a DevOps transformation
• Establishing the need for urgency for DevOps
• Clarifying and aligning business objectives
• Creating a vision and strategy for transformation
• Identifying and influencing vital stakeholders
• Leading a culture of self-organized, cross-functional teams
• Gathering, broadcasting and Implementing feedback
• Enabling flow across the value stream
• Breaking work into iterations to accelerate learning and experimentation
• Leading for continuous delivery, continual improvement, and innovation
• Improving organizational resilience and sustainability

EXIN DevOps Foundation

The EXIN DevOps certification program helps professionals by equipping them with the skills they need to manage a multidisciplinary team while improving the speed and reliability of product delivery.

The program comprises three levels: DevOps Foundation, DevOps Professional, and DevOps Master.

The Foundation certification proves your proficiency on –

• DevOps Basics
• DevOps Principles
• DevOps Key Practices
• Practical Application of DevOps

The Professional certification is for intermediate practitioners as it vouches for their knowledge and skill on –

• DevOps Adoption
• The First Way: Flow
• The Second Way: Feedback
• The Third Way: Continual Learning and Experimentation
• Information Security and Change Management

As for the DevOps Master certificate, its holders are considered skilled in –

• DevOps adoption
• Planning, requirements, and design
• Development and deployment
• Operation and scaling
• End-of-life

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

Offered by AWS, this certification is recommended for DevOps engineers with at least two years of experience provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments.

If you opt for this certification, it’ll validate your knowledge and skill on –

• Implementing and managing continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS
• Implementing and automating security controls, governance processes, and compliance validation
• Defining and deploying monitoring, metrics, and logging systems on AWS
• Implementing systems that are highly available, scalable, and self-healing on the AWS platform
• Designing, managing, and maintaining tools to automate operational processes

Microsoft Certified – DevOps Engineer Expert

Like AWS, Microsoft has ventured into the world of DevOps and now offers this credential which proves your ability to:

• Develop an instrumentation strategy
• Develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy
• Develop a security and compliance plan
• Manage source control
• Facilitate communication and collaboration
• Define and implement continuous integration
• Define and implement a continuous delivery and release management strategy

How to Choose the Right DevOps Certification

With so many certifications available, you may wonder which of these is the perfect fit for you. The following factors can help you make the right selection.

Area of Focus

Each DevOps certification focuses on different aspects of DevOps. For instance, EXIN DevOps Foundation focuses on the bare basics whereas PeopleCert DevOps Fundamentals expands on these to cover intermediate concepts.

You may want to consider your current employer’s requirements while assessing your upcoming certification. That way, you can provide them value while advancing your career in the right direction.

Tool Specific Certifications

There are several tool-specific certifications which you can choose from, including:

• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
• The Docker Certified Associate
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

Each of these certifications proves your ability to use a certain tool to implement DevOps. So, if your organization uses any of these, getting a tool specific DevOps certification may be a good option.

Exam Cost

While it may not be the most important factor, cost is still one of the aspects practitioners consider while selecting certifications.

Here are the costs of the most popular DevOps certification exams.

• DevOps Foundation costs USD 245
• EXIN DevOps Foundation costs USD 207 (VAT included)
• Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert costs USD 165
• AWS Certification Cloud Practitioner Exam costs USD 100
• PeopleCert DevOps Fundamentals costs USD 338
• Docker Certified Associate (DCA) costs USD 195

This cost may differ according to your region, so make sure to visit the official exam provider.

Your Location

You may need to analyze your region’s requirements before selecting a certificate.

For instance, PeopleCert DevOps Fundamentals is comparatively more popular in US and Europe. On the other hand, DevOps Foundation from the DevOps Institute is recognized globally.

Now Let’s Get You DevOps Certified

Ready to become certified? LearningCert has you covered.

We offer both PeopleCert DevOps Fundamentals and Leadership training to not only help you pass the certification exams, but to also advance your career with the skills you need the most to remain competitive.

Get in touch with our Training Advisors to determine how we can help you with your DevOps career.