Updated at: 07-04-2023 - By: Eden Wise

Overview

The success of your DevOps career depends on your choice of DevOps certification. The right certification can help anyone, from newcomers to seasoned DevOps professionals, learn the skills they need to advance in their field. This guide will help you choose the best DevOps certification for your needs by ranking and reviewing the available options and providing my personal recommendations.

Latest trends in Linux, cloud computing, Containerization, Infrastructure automation, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Continuous deployment, DevSecOps, observability, and configuration management are the basis for this guide.

There is no one credential that guarantees proficiency in every facet of DevOps. However, I will assist you in selecting the appropriate certification in light of your career trajectory and objectives. In my guide to becoming a DevOps engineer, I go into greater detail about the value of certification.

Best Devops Certification

Best devops certification

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer — Professional

This training is meant to certify the knowledge of working DevOps professionals in the areas of AWS distributed application provisioning, operation, and management. To become certified, you will need to pay $300 and pass two exams (one multiple-choice and open response).

You can review everything you need to know before taking the exams in less than three hours thanks to Amazon’s comprehensive course materials.

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

You can get a head start on your DevOps career by completing this highly regarded certification program. DevOps rely heavily on Kubernetes, an open-source tool for automating deployments.

Everything related to Kubernetes administration (setup and networking included) is covered in this certification. In order to get it, you’ll have to take and pass a series of challenging command-line practical tests.

The Linux Foundation Professional Certificate in Introduction to DevOps: Practices and Tools

This course from The Linux Foundation is offered on EdX for those who want formal education and recognition in their field.

The course is taught by professionals over the course of seven months, and each week’s workload averages two to three hours. It discusses fundamental DevOps ideas and the nuts and bolts of implementing them with popular tools like Kubernetes and Docker.

LinkedIn Learning DevOps Course

This course is ideal for those who are unfamiliar with DevOps and would like to learn the basics before investing in a certification.

The course was developed by DevOps veterans Ernest Mueller and James Wickett and is now hosted on LinkedIn Learning. It can be done in slightly under three hours.

DevOps Institute DevOps Leader Course

This course, designed by the DevOps Institute, offers a realistic perspective on DevOps and transformative management. There are also sample exercises and a total of 16 hours of online instruction time dedicated to the management and leadership aspects of DevOps.

The exam is 60 minutes long and consists of 40 multiple-choice questions. This credential shows that you can steer your company through the transition to DevOps, despite its lower emphasis on systems than competing credentials.

Puppet Certified Professional

Puppet Certified Professional

Puppet is used by DevOps teams for process automation, allowing for faster infrastructure change delivery and higher quality software development. Puppet is a system management tool that facilitates server configuration automation and management.

The Puppet Certified Professional exam is a test of your technical knowledge and practical experience using the Puppet IT automation software. Classification strategies, coding issues in Puppet, module writing, orchestration, tasks, environments, language, and administration are all things you should be familiar with and able to apply.

Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert

This certification, formerly known as the “Azure DevOps Engineer Expert,” attests to your mastery of DevOps practices, such as “working with people, processes, and technologies to continuously deliver business value.”

Your ability to create instrumentation plans, site reliability engineering plans, and security and compliance plans will all be evaluated. You’ll also get the chance to demonstrate your proficiency in areas like source-control management, communication and collaboration facilitation, and the application of strategies for continuous integration and management.

Azure DevOps Solution Certification Exam

Azure DevOps Solution Certification Exam

Microsoft Azure is a cloud service that operates similarly to Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Web servers, email servers, database servers, file storage servers, virtual machines, user directories, and more are just some of the services it provides. Accelerating and streamlining the entire DevOps process, resulting in more consistent and rapid deployments, is made possible by integrating Azure and DevOps. This means that the certification is among the best DevOps certifications, and is highly sought after by Azure professionals working as DevOps engineers.

The Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certification is one option for verifying a candidate’s proficiency in Azure DevOps among the many available certifications. A perfect job for these Azure experts would be as DevOps engineers, responsible for designing and implementing DevOps best practices for version control, build, release, compliance, testing, and infrastructure as code using Azure technologies.

Architecting With Google Cloud Platform

To understand cloud computing and its supporting infrastructure, one must be technologically advanced. Through a focus on Google Cloud Platform’s Compute Engine, this specialization introduces students to the platform and support services available from Google Cloud. It’s useful to have an appreciation for the Google Cloud Platform’s global and dependable infrastructure and platform services. The Cloud Solutions Architect and DevOps Engineer certification is open to anyone who wants to learn more about using Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to build on top of existing systems and infrastructure. This collection of video lectures and interactive labs allows you to dive deep into the inner workings of the cloud, including its network, application services, and more.

Practical solutions such as securely connecting networks, using encryption keys provided by customers, managing access, setting usage caps, and keeping tabs on available resources are all covered in this course. The typical students of this course are Cloud Solutions Architects, DevOps Engineers, or Compute Engine users.

All the pieces of the infrastructure are discussed, as well as the basics of GCP, and there are many exercises to help cement the material and answer any questions that may arise. Every concept receives the laboratory attention it deserves.

Learn DevOps: Infrastructure Automation With Terraform

Automation is expected to play an important role in the technologies of the future. If you want to have the upper hand in this situation, this is the right course to take. You’ll learn the ropes of using Terraform for infrastructure automation. Get started with the easy stuff and work your way up to the challenging stuff. Gain exposure to real-world scenarios and apply what you’ve learned in a meaningful way.

Instructions and explanations are provided for setting up and using the necessary tools. The lectures are regularly revised to reflect the state of the art in the respective fields of study. In order to automate your infrastructure, you can find many code samples online.

Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS)

Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS)

A DevOps engineer can benefit from knowing how to administer Linux systems. The Linux Foundation offers a Certified System Administrator (LFCS) exam for those who wish to demonstrate their proficiency in Linux system administration. LFCS is looking for applicants who are just starting out in open source or Linux system administration. Candidates must have completed Linux system administration courses.

In response to the growing demand for qualified Linux system administrators, the Linux Foundation established LFCS. The test includes performance-based questions that are designed to mimic the kinds of situations and responsibilities that actual system administrators face. CentOS 7 or Ubuntu 18 is available as options for candidates.

Certified Linux system administrators can plan, install, configure, and manage your system with ease. Important topics like the application lifecycle, troubleshooting, logging and monitoring, API object primitives, and the ability to create simple use cases for end users will be familiar to them.

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

Candidates who pass the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exam demonstrate their expertise in designing, developing, and deploying Kubernetes-based cloud-native applications.

This credential is designed for IT professionals who are responsible for building, deploying, and configuring cloud-native applications on Kubernetes.

The Linux Foundation and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) have developed CKAD to facilitate the growth of the Kubernetes ecosystem via standardized training and certification. This proctored online test consists of a series of performance-based activities (problems) that must be solved using the command line.

A Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) is able to design, develop, and deploy cloud-native apps on Kubernetes. A CKAD can define application resources and use Kubernetes core primitives to deploy, configure, expose, and monitor scalable applications. Knowledge of microservice architecture and container runtimes is assumed for the test.

Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)

By the end of the course of study, a Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) will have mastered a wide range of techniques for securing Kubernetes platforms and container-based applications at every stage of their lifecycles.

Certified Kubernetes Security Specialists (CKSs) are Kubernetes experts who have earned the CKA credential and have demonstrated mastery of a variety of security best practices for Kubernetes platforms and container-based applications at all stages of development, deployment, and operation.

The Cloud Security Knowledge Exam (CKS) is a simulation-based test of candidates’ Kubernetes and cloud security knowledge. Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) certification is a prerequisite for taking the CKS exam.

A CKS demonstrates that an individual possesses the knowledge and abilities to build, deploy, and operate Kubernetes systems with a focus on security for containerized applications.

Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)

The Certified Kubernetes Security practitioner (CKS) program emphasizes safe application deployments using Kubernetes. The certification material is structured so that you gain familiarity with all of the ideas and resources related to container security on Kubernetes.

Additionally, you need a current CKA certification to sit for CKS. Like CKA and CKAD, it is a performance-based test that lasts for two hours. When compared to CKA and CKAD, CKS is the more difficult exam. You should prepare thoroughly for the test.

HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate

My preferred certification for Infrastructure as Code is that of a HashiCorp Terraform Associate.

Professionals who wish to demonstrate their proficiency in using Hashicorp Terraform for the provisioning, management, and maintenance of any cloud or on-premises infrastructure can take the HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate exam. The certification exam tests your knowledge of the fundamentals of Terraform and how to use it to provision infrastructure.

Webassessor is a neutral third-party that proctors the Terraform Associate Exam. There are 70 multiple-choice questions and 2 hours to complete the test. To pass and become certified, candidates need a score of 70% or higher.

Two years from the date of passing are all you need to reap the benefits of your Terraform Associate certification. Associates in Terraform must retake the exam before it expires in order to keep their status active. The Terraform Associate Exam can be taken by anyone.

Infrastructure automation is crucial to the practice of DevOps. The provisioning of infrastructure is one area where terraform has found extensive use. Therefore, the Terraform Associate certification is the pinnacle of cloud automation credentials.

Conclusion

Which DevOps certification you pursue depends on factors like your career goals, level of education, and areas of interest. DevOps certifications can be obtained from a wide variety of sources, such as Red Hat, HashiCorp, the DevOps Institute, MIT, Linux, Jenkins, and many others.

Many of these credentials center on teaching candidates about cloud computing, configuration management, and networking; these are all areas where DevOps places a strong emphasis. You should look into getting a certification based on your preferred role in the development cycle and the systems you have experience with.

Pay for DevOps professionals in the United States increased by 93% from 2019 to 2020, with 95% earning more than $75,000. Certification in multiple DevOps architectures is a great way to bolster your resume as the demand for DevOps professionals has increased over the past few years.

You can demonstrate your mastery of the processes involved in developing, testing, integrating, and releasing software by earning a DevOps certification. As a result of your certification, you may be considered for higher-level leadership roles within your company.