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DevOps is a cultural paradigm that promotes automation and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) via team communication and collaboration. Organizations use DevOps practices to streamline development workflows and minimize the frequency of erroneous deployments.
In recent years, DevOps has become an integral part of IT organizations and a flourishing career for many. Due to the high market demand, many IT professionals are switching tracks to join the DevOps profession. One way to break into the field is by completing DevOps certifications, especially, those offered by reputable online institutes and organizations.
Essentially, certifications are crucial to ensuring career progression, salary increments, and staying up-to-date with the latest technology trends. This blog explores some of the best DevOps certifications that can help you advance your career provided by some of the most reputable organizations.
Table of Contents
Why are Certifications Important for DevOps Engineers?
Top DevOps Certifications for Career Growth in 2023
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional Certification
Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer - Expert Certification
Google Cloud DevOps Engineer Professional Certification
Cloud Native Certified Kubernetes Administrator Certification
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate Certification (002)
DevOps Institute: DevOps Leader (DOL) Certification
Gitlab Certified DevOps Professional Certification
Why are Certifications Important for DevOps Engineers?
New frameworks and development methodologies are released daily in the software world. With this pace of development, certifications have become an integral part of any professional’s career, and in some cases, even more important than college and university degrees.
With this in mind, a DevOps certification holds several benefits for professionals. Primarily, they can;
- Offer an entry point into the field of DevOps for young students or those looking for a career change
- Validate the skills of practicing DevOps Engineers by supplementing professional courses and degrees
- Help you gain a competitive edge over other professionals in the job market by building trust and credibility with employers.
- Help you remain up-to-date with the latest technologies and developments.
- Boost career growth and allow you to obtain senior leadership roles and higher compensation.
Regardless of your current position, adding a DevOps certification is an important part of your portfolio. They help you grow technically and professionally and make your profile stand out.
Top DevOps Certifications for Career Growth in 2023
For this article, we have gathered some of the best DevOps certifications covering the most in-demand skills to help you take your career to the next level.
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional Certification
Price: $300
The AWS Certified DevOps Engineer is a certification intended for professionals with more than 2 years of experience. This certification’s curriculum focuses on the creation, operation, and management of distributed application systems on the AWS platform.
The exam will test your ability to work with AWS technologies like;
- EC2
- CloudFormation
- Cloud Development Kit
- CodeDeploy
Furthermore, certified professionals can implement and automate security and governance protocols on the AWS platform.
The exam consists of 75 multiple-choice or multiple-response questions and is available in several languages.
Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer - Expert Certification
Price: $165 (United States fee)
This is an expert-level DevOps certification created for professionals who are familiar with the core fundamentals as well as hands-on experience in DevOps practices. It has two prerequisite options, of which at least one should be completed. To take the exam, you need to have either completed the Azure Administrator Associate or the Azure Developer Associate certifications previously.
The course content of this certification covers the implementation of DevOps practices on the Azure Cloud, such as;
- Implementation of CI with Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions.
- Development of a releasing management strategy.
- Implementing security best practices and code base validations in CI/CD pipelines.
Google Cloud DevOps Engineer Professional Certification
Price: $200 + taxes
The Google Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer certification assesses your proficiency in fundamental concepts to advanced techniques and methodologies. Google recommends that you should have at least three years of industry experience and at least more than a year designing and managing production systems using Google Cloud.
Some of the topics covered by this DevOps certification include:
- Implementing DevOps methodology.
- Creating and managing a Google Kubernetes Engine cluster.
- Automating infrastructure on GCP with Terraform.
- Logging, Monitoring, and Observability.
Cloud Native Certified Kubernetes Administrator Certification
Price: $395
The Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification is an initiative of the Cloud-Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). CNCF established the program for Kubernetes administrators to certify their competence and ability.
The exam for this certification lasts 2 hours and is conducted in a command-line environment. It covers topics such as:
- Cluster Architecture, Installation, and Configuration.
- Workloads and Scheduling.
- Networking.
- Storage.
The CKA certification holds immense value for employers. This is down to the fact that, for an organization to become a Kubernetes Certified Service Provider (KCSP), it must employ at least three CKAs.
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate Certification (002)
Price: $70.5 + locally applicable taxes
The Terraform Associate certification is offered by the HashiCorp organization for Cloud Engineers specializing in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform. Consequently, Professionals that use Terraform in their daily work should be able to complete this certification easily. The exam content covers:
- IaC definitions and patterns.
- Terraform basics and hands-on CLI knowledge.
- Understanding Terraform modules.
- Generating and modifying configurations.
The exam is 1 hour long with multiple choice questions, and the certification remains valid for 2 years.
DevOps Institute: DevOps Leader (DOL) Certification
Price: $245
The DevOps Leader certification by the DevOps Institute is an excellent all-in-one certification for beginners. The certification does not target any specific platform but focuses on general and fundamental concepts of the DevOps culture.
Prerequisites to take up this certification include knowledge of common DevOps terminologies and any related work experience. The course material focuses on previous unlearning methodologies and the understanding and implementation of the DevOps culture.
The 60-minute exam consists of 40 multiple choice questions, has a 65% pass criteria, and the certificate remains valid for 2 years.
Gitlab Certified DevOps Professional Certification
Price: $500 (Technical Certification Bundle)
The Gitlab DevOps Professional certification is offered by Gitlab Professional Services. This is an advanced certification developed for highly experienced individuals. To earn this certification, you must first complete four required certifications, which are;
- Gitlab Certified Git Associate Certification
- GitLab Certified CI/CD Associate Certification
- GitLab Certified Project Management Associate Certification
- GitLab Certified Security Specialist Certification
The exam content covers the basics of Gitlab and CI/CD functionality implementation with complete testing and security protocols. The certification enables learners to demonstrate the fundamental DevOps capabilities of GitLab, from CI/CD to project management and security.
Conclusion
Certifications are a vital part of a DevOps engineer's professional profile. They validate your skills, talent, and dedication to your field. Not only do they showcase your qualifications, but they also help build trust with the employers and within your current organization. DevOps certifications also help put you in a good position in terms of career advancement because they are a huge factor in considerations for senior leadership roles and salary raises, in addition to giving you an overall competitive edge in the job market. Furthermore, certifications are a great way to learn modern developments and stay on top of emerging trends and practices in your field.
It is important to note that going for those offered by reputable organizations such as Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS DevOps Certifications equips you with skills that are consistent with the most used technologies in the current job market.
You may also be interested in:
AWS vs Azure: Which is Better for Cloud Computing
An Introduction to the Top 16 Azure Certifications for 2023
An Introduction To AWS Certificates: The Top 11 You Need to Know
The Top 9 Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Certification Courses for 2023
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