One common question I’ve gotten a lot lately is to give some recommendations on training options. Now the internet is your oyster generally when it comes to this stuff. But when we are looking at expanding from Developer to DevSecOps, I do have some thoughts.
As solutions in the cloud continue to evolve the boundaries between the role of Dev Engineer and DevOps Engineer are at this point paper thin. And if you find yourself in the position of having to expand into the world of DevSecOps, here’s some training material that can help:
Enterprise Skilling Initiative:
Microsoft has provided a tool called the enterprise skilling initiative. Which can help any organization to work through a wealth of training contents to support efforts like this: Enterprise Skills Initiative: Welcome.
Understanding DevOps:
Starting with the “What is DevOps?” question, here’s some good background training options
- DevOps foundations: The core principles and practices AZ-2008 – Training | Microsoft Learn – A good introductory template for the concepts and principles around DevOps.
- Designing and Implementing Platform Engineering – Training | Microsoft Learn – A newer term to this space, Platform Engineering is the practice of building platforms that abstract concerns and align to key business and organizational goals.
- Introduce DevOps Dojo: Create efficiencies that support your business – Training | Microsoft Learn – A great path for identifying the core concepts of DevSecOps, and what it means to “build this muscle” and orient thinking that direction.
Understanding the Azure Cloud Environment:
If you are going to start working in this space, it’s important to break down and understand the different components that are involved in architecting for the cloud and specifically azure:
- Describe the core architectural components of Azure – Training | Microsoft Learn – This course walks you through the basics of the azure environment.
- Describe features and tools in Azure for governance and compliance – Training | Microsoft Learn – Along with those tools comes the importance of governance and compliance, and here’s a great module for walking through that.
- Describe Azure identity, access, and security – Training | Microsoft Learn – Every cloud-based system starts with Identity, Access, and Security. So it’s important to understand what’s available in this space.
- Describe cost management in Azure – Training | Microsoft Learn – And everything comes back to managing your costs in the cloud. Here’s a great module for learning more about that in azure.
Architecture:
In addition to the learning paths, there are lots of great options for learning about how to architect for the cloud:
- Azure Architecture Center – Azure Architecture Center | Microsoft Learn – Fantastic resource that shows and walks through various cloud architectures and how / why they are built the way they are.
- Azure Well-Architected Framework – Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework | Microsoft Learn – The “Well Architected Framework”, provides a process for architecting to address key concerns in cloud solutions moving forward.
- Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure – Cloud Adoption Framework | Microsoft Learn – Provides a framework for adopting cloud as an organization.
Certification Paths:
If you are interested in certifications, I can recommend the following, even if you aren’t interested in the test, going through this training can be hugely beneficial.
- AZ-400: Development for enterprise DevOps – Training | Microsoft Learn – Provides a great overview of Azure DevOps and using the tools to manage your devops work and workflows through boards, pipelines, and the Azure Cloud.
- Azure Infrastructure on Microsoft Learn | Microsoft Learn – A collection of learning paths related to Azure Infrastructure and training.
- Digital & App Innovation on Microsoft Learn | Microsoft Learn – A collection of learning paths related to developing for the azure cloud.
Infrastructure-as-Code:
A key part of building for the cloud, is Infrastructure-as-Code, and this ability to build, and maintain the “single source of truth” with regard to automation to improve security, consistency, etc.
- Fundamentals of Terraform on Azure – Training | Microsoft Learn – Great starter path for learning how to use terraform to manage your infrastructure in the cloud.
- Azure | Terraform | HashiCorp Developer – Getting started information for Terraform and Azure.
- Getting started with Terraform and Azure Government – Code-Workbench – Blog post I did for getting started with terraform on azure government.
Security:
A key part of any solution in the cloud is security, and the following are some good training options for security in the cloud:
- Threat Modeling Security Fundamentals – Training | Microsoft Learn – A learning path on what it means to do “Threat Modeling,” and why this practice is important to doing DevSecOps work in the cloud.
- Develop a security and compliance plan – Training | Microsoft Learn – A good learning path on what it means to build a plan around the security and compliance goals for an organization.
Monitoring / Resiliency:
A key part of building these systems is Site Reliability Engineering:
- Develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy – Training | Microsoft Learn – A good learning path for figuring out what SRE means and how to build a strategy.
- Improve your reliability with modern operations practices – Training | Microsoft Learn – A great starting course on what it means to build with reliability in mind from a practical perspective.
- Monitor hybrid virtual machines, containers, and network resources – Training | Microsoft Learn – A good learning path for figuring out what monitoring in cloud and hybrid scenarios looks like.
As I said, there is a wealth of training materials out there. And this is just me scratching the surface and providing a map to follow for you to get started.