The resources you need to prepare for a DevOps certification are also readily available. If it's a certification offered by a cloud provider or tool vendor, read through the company's white papers and technical resources to understand how the company approaches DevOps and which best practices it recommends. For general-purpose certifications, follow the latest news and conversations about DevOps to keep yourself up to date with current trends, tools and methodologies.
When you're ready to start your certification or training, consider one of the following offerings:
Course details: The DevOps Foundation offers a free introductory course that provides an overview of core DevOps principles and practices with a focus on foundational knowledge for beginners. Because it is taught by the highly respected DevOps Foundation, it provides access to high-quality resources and expert insights.
Who should take this course: Beginners looking for a primer on DevOps.
Prerequisites: Some familiarity with software development is helpful but not required.
Duration: Depends on the specific topics the student chooses to study.
Course details: DevOps Culture and Mindset teaches the underlying principles of DevOps, focusing on culture and mindset. You'll learn how DevOps, which is founded on Lean principles, can help developers and operations teams collaborate better. The course is free, but for a fee, you can purchase a certificate that lets you access all course materials, including graded assignments.
Who should take this course: Engineers who know how to use technical tools but want a primer on the DevOps philosophy.
Prerequisites: None, but the course assumes some familiarity with technical tools and processes.
Duration: Three weeks, 14 hours.
Course details: The fundamentals needed to implement CI/CD workflows using the Jenkins automation server. The LinuxFoundationX: Introduction to Jenkins course is free, but for a fee, you can purchase a certificate that lets you access all course materials, including graded assignments.
Who should take this course: Beginning to intermediate practitioners who understand basic DevOps concepts but want to get started building a CI/CD pipeline.
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of the software development lifecycle and software configuration management tools, such as Git.
Duration: 12 weeks, two to three hours per week. Price is $189.
Course details: The Kubernetes: Getting Started course introduces Kubernetes at a high level, including what it does and how to administer it. You'll learn why a good container orchestration engine is necessary and why Kubernetes is the one to use. From there you will learn what Pods are and how to use them. Although this free course doesn't focus on DevOps specifically, it can be useful for DevOps engineers who need a fast way to learn about Kubernetes.
Who should take this course: DevOps engineers, developers, administrators or anyone interested in learning about Kubernetes.
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of YAML syntax, Linux commands, Docker and containers. Google Cloud is a plus but not mandatory.
Duration: Five sections with 13 lectures running just under four hours.
Course details: The Docker Essentials course offers an in-depth understanding of containers and Docker. You'll create and run multi-container applications using Docker Compose and learn how to manage Docker Swarm Clusters.
Who should take this course: IT students, professionals and teachers; DevOps engineers and enthusiasts; system administrators; software engineers; computer engineers; and software developers.
Course details: The Getting Started with DevOps on AWS course explains basic DevOps concepts and how to apply them in the AWS cloud. The training is free, but it can be a first step toward preparing for a paid certification, such as AWS Certified DevOps Engineer.
Who should take this course: Developers, IT operations engineers, IT professionals, IT leaders, cloud practitioners, solutions architects and DevOps engineers interested in learning the basic concepts of DevOps on AWS.
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of the software development cycle, general IT and cloud computing.
Duration: One hour.
Course details: The Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud DevOps Engineer Professional Certificate course teaches you the skills to move forward in your career as a data engineer. It's one of the courses that prepares you for the industry-recognized Google Cloud Professional DevOps Engineer certification. Free to audit; certification requires a fee.
Who should take this course: Data engineers, experienced practitioners who want to learn more about DevOps tools and services on Google Cloud Platform.
Prerequisites: Familiarity with cloud computing and DevOps practices; more than three years of industry experience, including more than one year managing solutions on Google Cloud Platform.
Duration: Five courses in one month at 10 hours per week.
Course details: This extensive training program covers a variety of DevOps topics, including source control, continuous integration, security and testing. The Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert course focuses on Microsoft- and Azure-related technologies, but it also touches on core DevOps concepts that apply to any type of environment. Online training is free, but the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification exam has a fee.
Who should take this course: Developers, site reliability engineers and Azure administrators.
Prerequisites: Certification in one of two courses: Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate or Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate. An individual must have basic familiarity with both Microsoft Azure development and administration and have strong skills in one of these areas. Candidates should also be familiar with Azure DevOps and GitHub.
Duration: Approximately 60 hours.
Course details: Delivered as a set of videos, this Red Hat course teaches you how to combine different tools and frameworks into a microservices architecture that fits the needs of your organization. The Developing Cloud-Native Applications with Microservices Architectures course touches on a variety of DevOps tools, including Docker, Spring Boot, NodeJS, .NET, OpenShift, Jenkins, Kubernetes and more.
Who should take this course: Java developers and individuals interested in OpenShift and Kubernetes.
Course details: IBM's Introduction to DevOps course explores the essentials of DevOps, a brief history of DevOps and how to build a business case for DevOps. You'll learn that to adopt DevOps, organizations need to break down silos and combine development and operations teams into one team that works together.
Who should take this course: Individuals new to DevOps and those who want to enhance their knowledge of DevOps.
Course details: DevOps Foundation Certification Training by KnowledgeHut is a two-day course that teaches developers how to incorporate regular DevOps methods into their company, helping to reduce time to lead, deploy faster and create better quality software.
Who should take this course: Individuals and managers looking to introduce the DevOps concept to their company.
Prerequisites: None.
Duration: 16 hours of live Instructor-led training, including case studies and activities and comprehensive exam support.