It was just about a year ago that we announced the formation of the DevOps Institute (DOI) here on staging-devopsy.kinsta.cloud. Wow, what a difference a year makes! Some folks thought that formal training and testing for DevOps knowledge was sacrilegious, others thought it a joke, others that it was pre-mature. But here we are a year later and the idea of DevOps training seems to have taken root. So much so that even some of the old warlords of the traditional IT training space are trying to muscle their way into DevOps training as well.
We are launching a DOI neighborhood here on staging-devopsy.kinsta.cloud to feature content related to DevOps training, the DevOps Institute, their partners, reps and students. We welcome your input. If you would like to contribute you can write me at editor@devops.com.
I wanted to take a moment though and return to this past year and the state of DevOps training. I think much of the initial resistance we encountered in some quarters was to the idea of certifications of DevOps training. In fact, I would say much of it was resistance to the idea of certification in IT period. Over time the market and certainly we here at the DevOps Institute realized that while certification is something that is important for some employers or career paths, it shouldn’t take away from the real aim of the DOI’s mission.
The DOI’s mission is to gather information, evangelize and educate the market about the emerging practices in DevOps. Notice I did not say best practices. This is because we believe that we have not had really recognized or perfected best practices. We are seeing emerging practices and watching closely to see which ones continue to emerge and offer the best state-of-the-art in DevOps training and education.
In the meantime, we are seeing DevOps training offerings coming out of the woodwork. Many of the tools vendors are developing and putting out training and certification specific to their tools. I think this is essential for employers to be confident that an employee has the expertise with a given tool set. Practitioners are going to want this training and certification to prove their proficiency on a given tool. I would like to see us incorporate some of these tool classes as part of the DOI offerings in the coming months.
Some of the traditional IT training folks are taking matters into their own hands and developing one-off DevOps classes. As with everything else, some are better than others. In digging in you will find some are a quick money grab and some are actually pretty good.
As I mentioned earlier, some of the older stakeholders behind ITSM, ITIL and Scrum training are trying to jump on the DevOps bandwagon. They promise openness, but their business models are all but open for the most part. There is more to DevOps training then putting logos on a website. In the meantime, one thing we have learned for sure is lets not repeat the mistakes of the past with some other types of IT training.
The IT industry and IT training are well evolved global industries. It is a for profit industry obviously. My advice is, buyer beware, your mileage may vary when choosing a DevOps training provider. DevOps is not ITIL, not ITSM and while Agile is tangential, it is not exactly the same either. In fact while Scrum Agile training is pretty well developed, it is not the same as DevOps training per se. Their are Agile methods and lessons that DevOps classes can take, especially the DevOps for Ops type of classes. But lumping DevOps and Agile together is not the right path either.
At the DevOps Institute we have a world-wide network of registered education partners who are offering our tried and vetted DevOps Foundation class, as well as our other two classes. If testing and certification are important to you, our global partner PeopleCert will administer and deliver it for you.
We are also hard at work to deliver the next generation of DevOps training classes. I don’t want to talk out of school, but we have spent the last year listening to the hundreds of people who have taken our classes, our partners, speaking with the leading lights in the DevOps world, I think what we have in store will once again set the bar in DevOps training and education.
In the meantime, check here at the DOI neighborhood often. There will be a steady stream of good content related to DevOps education from many different sources. You may just learn something 😉
Indeed the first year of the DOI has been quite a ride, but buckle in because things are really going to pick up now.
