With the growth of DevOps culture within organizations, new roles are emerging, including the DevOps architect. But what exactly is this role? What is its purpose? Its mission? Its skills? Its future prospects? Find all the answers in this article.
What is a DevOps architect?
Before understanding the skills and responsibilities of a DevOps architect, it’s important to revisit the concept of DevOps. Originally, it’s more of a corporate culture that emphasizes collaboration between development teams and IT system administrators.
The idea is to integrate operational concerns from the software design phase, rather than as an afterthought. By doing so, the product delivered to users is deployed more quickly with optimal quality.
Gradually, this culture has given rise to new roles, including DevOps architects. Their role is to design and implement the software infrastructure to facilitate the work of developers and operational teams. To do this, they must possess essential skills.
What skills does a DevOps architect need?
To assist the development team in designing web applications, a DevOps architect must first have advanced technical skills. They should be proficient in:
1. Operating systems such as Linux or Windows.
2. Programming languages like Python, Go, etc.
3. Containerization and virtualization tools like Docker or Kubernetes.
4. Automation solutions.
5. Continuous integration and deployment tools like GitLab or Bitbucket.
In addition to mastering computer systems, a DevOps architect should possess certain soft skills:
1. Agility: Since DevOps culture is deeply rooted in Agile methodology and continuous improvement principles, the DevOps architect must be highly adaptable and flexible. The goal is to design, test, and improve architectures for application development.
2. Communication: As they collaborate with development teams and operational teams, excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a team are essential.
3. Curiosity: To continually enhance the IT infrastructure, a DevOps architect should regularly conduct technology and competitive research. This allows them to strengthen the software architecture and enable developers to add new features.
What does a DevOps architect do?
As mentioned earlier, the role of DevOps architects is to assist developers in creating new applications. To do this, they build bridges between development teams and operational teams.
In this capacity, they must:
1. Construct Different Environments: These environments (IaaS, PaaS, etc.) allow developers to quickly test what they have produced.
2. Gather User and Business Requirements: This includes understanding the needs of both the users and the business, both from an IT development and operational perspective.
3. Automate Integration, Delivery, and Deployment Processes: This is achieved through the definition of a DevOps pipeline, which streamlines the software development lifecycle.
4. Define Monitoring Tools: DevOps architects are responsible for selecting and implementing monitoring tools to track DevOps activities and ensure optimal performance.
5. Documentation: They also document the DevOps architecture, providing clear guidelines and information for the development and operations teams to follow.
Why become a DevOps architect?
With the growth of the DevOps culture, DevOps architects are no longer confined to IT-specialized companies. Indeed, regardless of the industry (finance, telecommunications, aerospace, healthcare, etc.), companies may need to develop new applications or software.
The presence of a DevOps architect becomes essential in such cases. Choosing this profession allows you to work in diverse environments.
Moreover, today, the demand for technical profiles far exceeds the supply. The DevOps market is experiencing significant growth and is expected to reach $15 billion by 2026. Therefore, the role of a DevOps architect has a promising future ahead.
What is the average salary of a DevOps architect?
In addition to promising future prospects, DevOps architects can command high salaries. In France, the median salary is around €5,042. However, this figure encompasses various situations, particularly based on experience.
For example, right after completing their training, DevOps architects can expect an annual salary of around €50,000. However, after several years of experience, they can increase their salary expectations, with an average of €80,000 per year.
What training do you need to become a DevOps architect?
Since DevOps architects are responsible for building platforms and frameworks to simplify the management of applications and infrastructures, they must have a deep understanding of DevOps culture and software development. This knowledge is typically acquired through several years of experience. Often, recent graduates become architects after gaining initial experience as web development engineers.
Therefore, one should start with specialized training to acquire all the necessary skills to pursue this exciting career. At DataScientest, we offer various training programs aimed at educating DevOps engineers and future architects. To learn more about this learning journey, explore our specialized programs.
