2021 Trends in DevOps Online Training

Amidst the chaos of rapid change, it’s critical that we pause to reflect back on where we’ve come from to build a foundation for where we want to go.

At Skillsoft, our market-leading consulting customers have earned more than 150,000 DevOps badges since February 1^st 2021. This alone is an incredible testament to the rising importance of DevOps skills, but the really interesting insights come when we dig into the specific courses being taken, and the badges they have earned. These companies are at the forefront of the DevOps movement and exploring their learning trends tells us a lot about where the industry is headed – and the work our teams need to do to stay relevant.

DevOps Foundations and DevOps Tools dominate early learning cycles, but more nuanced topics are quickly gaining adoption demonstrating the depth of expertise required to operate in a DevOps environment across all customer industries.

It’s not an accident that 20 of the top 50 courses are related to SRE. SRE is not an entirely new concept, but it is a growing area of focus. SRE was developed to bridge the gap between the primary job functions of an IT operation & administration team and the developers who write code.

1. The Language of DevOps: DevOps Tools & Processes
2. Jenkins for DevOps: Jenkins Configuration for DevOps
3. Automated Software Testing
4. Using Docker for DevOps: Introduction to Docker
5. Software Testing for DevOps: DevOps Test Tools
6. DevOps Agile Development: DevOps Methodologies for Developers
7. The Language of DevOps: DevOps Principles & Practices
8. Jenkins: Introduction
9. IT Infrastructure Automation: Getting Started
10. DevOps Agile Development: Agile Processes for DevOps
11. Site Reliability: Engineering
12. DevOps Mindset: DevOps Principles & Implementation Approach
13. DevOps Security Considerations: DevSecOps Principles
14. SRE Troubleshooting Processes
15. SRE Emergency & Incident Response: Responding to Emergencies
16. SRE Troubleshooting: Tools
17. Site Reliability: Tools & Automation
18. SRE Emergency & Incident Response: Incident Response
19. Jenkins: Creating Application Builds
20. Jenkins: Testing & Continuous Integration
21. Site Reliability Engineer: Managing Overloads
22. Basic Concepts of a Microservices Architecture
23. Site Reliability Engineer: Managing Cascading Failures
24. SRE Postmortums: Blameless Postmortem Culture Creation
25. DevOps Corporate Impact
26. Jenkins: Administration
27. Software Testing Foundation 2018: Fundamentals
28. Introduction to Bash Scripting
29. Introduction to Git
30. Working with GitHub
31. Best Practices for the SRE: Automation
32. Site Reliability Engineering: Scenario Planning
33. Best Practices for the SRE: Use Cases for Automation
34. Automation Using Bash & Expect
35. Software Testing Foundation 2018: Test Process Fundamentals
36. SRE Simplicity: Simple Software Systems
37. SRE SImplicity: Software System Complexity
38. Cloud and Containers for the SRE: Containers
39. Cloud and Containers for the SRE: Implementing Container Solutions
40. Distributed Reliability: SRE Critical State Management
41. Introduction to Automated Testing with Selenium
42. SRE Load Balancing Techniques: Front-end Load Balancing
43. Distributed Reliability: SRE Distributed Periodic Scheduling
44. SRE Load Balancing Techniques: Data Center Load Balancing
45. Design Thinking for Microservices
46. Techniques and Tools
47. Software Testing Foundation 2018: Testing & The Software Development Lifecycle
48. Jenkins: Getting Started
49. Best Practices for DevOps Implementation
50. Software Testing Foundation 2018: Test Types & Maintenance Testing

The SRE is an important function on the DevOps team that is difficult to staff because it requires at least some knowledge of both development and IT operations; skillsets that are often hard to find in a single resource. The need to develop these multi-functional employees has become more urgent as infrastructure is increasingly moving to the cloud. As a result, we see SRE learners earning multiple badges more often than in other disciplines.

Two of the top five badge earning courses are focused on testing demonstrating the essential role it plays in DevOps operations. (Top 5 DevOps badge earning courses February 1^st – June 24^th 2021)

1. The Language of DevOps: DevOps Tools & Processes
2. Jenkins for DevOps: Jenkins Configuration for DevOps
3. Automated Software Testing
4. Using Docker for DevOps: Introduction to Docker
5. Software Testing for DevOps: DevOps Test Tools
   

It comes as no surprise to see testing a central focus. The more agile we become, the more essential an automated and disciplined testing process becomes to avoid disruptions to our operation. We can’t move fast, if we lack confidence in the updates being made. A broader understanding of testing principles are essential skills the most productive DevOps teams are making.

Research shows that companies with full security integration in the software delivery process can remediate critical vulnerabilities more quickly than those who operate in silos.

As a result, cross-functional DevOps teams need all their members to skill up with both generalized and specific security training. Yet, we aren’t yet seeing security be a priority for learners.

Security doesn’t make the top 10 and appears only once on the Top 50 list of badges earned, with only "DevOps Security Considerations: DevSecOps Principles" appearing.

Those organizations that want to get a leg up on optimization and closing security vulnerabilities will make closing this gap a priority.

At Skillsoft we’ve made it a priority to simplify the process of upskilling your DevOps team. Our robust library of courses, practice labs, and resources will help your team objectively master new skills and put them into practice.

Want to explore the full DevOps course library?