What is a Cloud Engineer? A Cloud Engineer is a relatively new position that was created for individuals that manage and operate public cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP. It evolved as an offshoot from the traditional system administrator and system engineer roles. In the early days, managing the public cloud fell under the system administrator team.
Today, a lot of organizations are investing more money into the public cloud. This has created a whole new position and a separate team to manage public cloud resources. So how do you become one? That’s the question and I’ll walk through the seven steps.
Step 1: Learn Linux
Learning Linux is one of the core skills that every IT professional should learn. If you have worked as a system administrator then it’s likely you have some Linux experience. If not, have no fear. There are tons of resources on the internet for learning Linux.
Linux is so important because almost everything in the data center and in the cloud runs on Linux. Most open source-based tools run on Linux. So having basic Linux knowledge is fundamental and a requirement in my opinion if you want to be a Cloud Engineer.
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Step 2: Learn a Cloud Platform (AWS or Azure)
This is a no-brainer but learning a public cloud platform is a requirement when it comes to the day-to-day job of a Cloud Engineer. AWS is by far the market leader in this space. So starting with AWS will make you immediately more marketable.
After AWS, I would focus on Microsoft Azure. Azure is gaining ground on AWS and has the advantage of being a traditional IT vendor. This is because almost every company out there has a Microsoft footprint.
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Step 3: Learn Containers
Containers got their start with Google and other webscale companies on the internet. They built their entire infrastructure using containers. They allowed these companies to rapidly scale-out software resources based on demand.
In the enterprise, containers are still an emerging technology but they are starting to rapidly embrace them and will continue to do so in the coming decade.
What makes containers so popular? They are extremely lightweight in nature. This means that containers are highly portable and can be easily be moved between different clouds or data centers.
A Cloud Engineer needs to have a solid understanding of containers by learning platforms like Docker and Kubernetes which are the most popular.
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Step 4: Learn Basic Programming Concepts
The public cloud was designed with software developers in mind. However, this doesn’t mean that a Cloud Engineer needs to become a developer but having basic knowledge of programming will help you develop scripting skills.
Scripting is beneficial for all IT professionals in my opinion. Scripting is a powerful tool that allows you to automate tasks which can help you be more efficient at your job.
Python followed by Powershell is a good place to start.
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Step 5: Learn DevOps Methodologies and Tools
DevOps started in the cloud. So understanding DevOps conceptually is important and how it benefits an organization. DevOps is an organizational strategy that lays the groundwork for being more agile. When an organization has fully embraced DevOps from the leadership level down the chain. It allows IT infrastructure and software teams to deliver IT-related services more quickly to their users.
DevOps movement has created a whole new set of tools. Getting experience with these tools like Git, Ansible, Terraform, Jenkins, and Travis CI are beneficial because they enable you to gain hands-on experience.
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Step 6: Understanding APIs
Having some basic understanding of REST-based API is needed in order to become a Cloud Engineer. APIs are the foundation of today’s internet.
Being able to understand data formats like XML, JSON and YAML can be very useful. These different data formats allow APIs to share data among dissimilar systems by abstracting the complexities of larger applications.
Now a lot of IT infrastructure is embracing REST APIs to make these devices more programable which enables automation and orchestration.
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Step 7: Understand Basic Networking Concepts
Just because an organization has moved to the cloud doesn’t mean that networking isn’t important anymore. If anything, networking is more critical to an organization’s public cloud strategy than ever.
A cloud engineer has to help ensure that the network is properly configured and secured for its users. This is no different than how we managed networks inside a data center.
Also, there is more reliance on the internet and networks we don’t manage but we still need to make sure that we have optimal connectivity between our users and applications that reside in the cloud.
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Conclusion
In my opinion, today is the most exciting time to be in the Information Technology field. The amount of change and growth that we have experienced in the last decade will be surpassed by this upcoming decade.
I hope this gives you a basic plan on how to become a cloud engineer and I wish you good luck in your future career journey.
