RISE to ensure system reliability.
Master monitoring, incident response, and observability
Ensure reliability and performance of production systems. Master SLI/SLO/SLA, monitoring tools, incident response, and build world-class observability platforms.
RISE START: Foundation (3-6 months)
Learn SRE principles, monitoring basics, and incident response
Core Skills to Master
Recommended Courses
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate (SOA-C02): Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation
By Faye Ellis
Exam objectives: SOA-C02 — Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate (SOA-C02): Reliability and Business Continuity
By Faye Ellis
Exam objectives: SOA-C02 — Reliability and Business Continuity
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate (SOA-C02): Cost and Performance Optimization
By Faye Ellis
Exam objectives: SOA-C02 — Cost and Performance Optimization
Terraform - Getting Started
By Ned Bellavance
Exam objectives: Terraform Associate — Getting Started
Certified Kubernetes Administrator: Kubernetes Foundations
By Anthony Nocentino
Exam objectives: CKA — Kubernetes Foundations
Certifications to Pursue
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Essential cloud knowledge for DevOps engineers. Validates understanding of AWS services, pricing, and cloud concepts. Great starting point.
- Stephane Maarek's Udemy course (above)
- AWS Official Training (Free)
- Tutorials Dojo Practice Exams ($12)
- AWS Whitepapers: Well-Architected Framework
Linux Foundation Certified IT Associate (LFCA)
Validates Linux fundamentals. Useful if you're transitioning from Windows or need formal Linux credentials.
View CertificationHands-On Projects
Dockerize a Full-Stack Application
Take a web application (frontend + backend + database) and containerize it using Docker. Create Dockerfiles, docker-compose.yml, and deploy locally.
Build a CI/CD Pipeline with GitHub Actions
Set up automated testing and deployment for a simple web app. Trigger builds on commits, run tests, and deploy to a cloud platform.
Deploy Application on AWS EC2 with Nginx
Launch EC2 instance, configure security groups, install dependencies, set up Nginx as reverse proxy, and deploy a web application.
Bash Script for System Monitoring
Create a bash script that monitors CPU, memory, disk usage, and sends alerts when thresholds are exceeded. Schedule with cron.
Recommended Learning Path (4-6 months)
Linux & Command Line Mastery
- Learn Linux basics and command line
- Master shell scripting with Bash
- Practice with WSL or Linux VM
- Complete basic Linux projects
Git & Version Control
- Master Git fundamentals
- Learn branching strategies
- Practice GitHub workflows
- Contribute to open-source projects
Docker & Containerization
- Learn Docker fundamentals
- Build and manage Docker images
- Master docker-compose
- Containerize real applications
CI/CD & Cloud Basics
- Build your first CI/CD pipeline
- Study for AWS Cloud Practitioner
- Deploy apps on AWS EC2
- Complete all hands-on projects
- Start applying for junior DevOps roles
RISE GROW: Professional Development (1-3 years)
Master observability tools, SLO implementation, and on-call practices
Skills to Develop
Recommended Courses
HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate
By A Cloud Guru
Exam objectives: Terraform Associate
Implementing Terraform with AWS
By Ned Bellavance
Exam objectives: Terraform Associate
Hands-on with Terraform on AWS
By Broadus Palmer
Exam objectives: Terraform Associate
AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C02): Identity and Access Management
By Chris Jackson; Andru Estes
Exam objectives: SCS-C02 — Identity and Access Management
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02): Deployment, Migration, and AI
By Faye Ellis
Exam objectives: CLF-C02 — Deployment, Migration, and AI
Professional Certifications
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
The most valuable certification for DevOps engineers. Proves you can design, deploy, and troubleshoot Kubernetes clusters in production. Required for most senior DevOps roles.
- Mumshad's CKA course (above) - ESSENTIAL
- Killer.sh practice exams (included with exam)
- Official Kubernetes documentation
- Practice with minikube and kubeadm
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate
Validates Infrastructure as Code expertise. Terraform is the industry standard for multi-cloud IaC. This certification proves you can manage infrastructure efficiently.
View CertificationAWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
Essential for DevOps engineers working with AWS. Validates ability to design distributed systems and architect cloud solutions.
View CertificationAdvanced Projects
Deploy Microservices on Kubernetes (EKS/GKE)
Build a microservices application, containerize each service, create Kubernetes manifests (Deployments, Services, Ingress), and deploy to a managed Kubernetes cluster.
Infrastructure as Code with Terraform (AWS/Azure)
Provision complete cloud infrastructure using Terraform: VPC, EC2 instances, RDS databases, load balancers, S3 buckets. Use modules, variables, and remote state.
Complete CI/CD Pipeline with Jenkins
Build end-to-end CI/CD pipeline: code commit triggers Jenkins, runs tests, builds Docker images, pushes to registry, deploys to Kubernetes with automated rollback.
Monitoring Stack with Prometheus & Grafana
Deploy Prometheus for metrics collection, Grafana for visualization, Alertmanager for notifications. Monitor Kubernetes cluster and applications with custom dashboards.
RISE MASTERY: Senior Specialist (3-5 years)
Architect reliability platforms and implement advanced observability
Advanced Skills
Advanced Courses
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03): Miscellaneous Services
By Andru Estes; Ryan Kroonenburg
Exam objectives: SAA-C03 — Miscellaneous Services
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional (DOP-C02): Introduction
By Craig Arcuri
Exam objectives: DOP-C02 — Introduction
Storage for CKA
By Antonio Jesús Piedra
Exam objectives: CKA
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional (DOP-C02): Security and Compliance
By Craig Arcuri
Exam objectives: DOP-C02 — Security and Compliance
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional (DOP-C02): Conclusion
By Craig Arcuri
Exam objectives: DOP-C02 — Conclusion
Expert Certifications
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)
Advanced Kubernetes security certification. Proves you can secure containerized applications and Kubernetes platforms during build, deployment, and runtime. Required for senior DevOps/Security roles.
View CertificationAWS Certified SRE & Observability - Professional
Expert-level AWS DevOps certification. Validates advanced technical skills in provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments. Highly valued in enterprise.
View CertificationCertified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
Complements CKA. Focuses on application development and deployment on Kubernetes. Useful for full-stack DevOps engineers.
View CertificationSenior-Level Projects
Multi-Region Kubernetes Cluster with Istio Service Mesh
Deploy highly available Kubernetes across multiple regions, implement Istio service mesh for traffic management, observability, and security. Configure automatic failover.
GitOps Platform with ArgoCD and Helm
Build a complete GitOps platform: manage multiple environments (dev, staging, prod), implement app-of-apps pattern, automated promotion workflows, and RBAC policies.
Complete Observability Stack (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Tempo)
Implement full observability: metrics (Prometheus), logs (Loki), traces (Tempo), dashboards (Grafana). Set up alerts, SLIs/SLOs, and on-call rotations.
DevSecOps Pipeline with Security Scanning
Build secure CI/CD pipeline with automated security checks: SAST (SonarQube), DAST, container scanning (Trivy), secrets detection, compliance as code (OPA).
RISE LEADERSHIP: Architecture & Management (5+ years)
Build SRE culture and lead reliability engineering teams
Leadership Skills
Leadership Resources
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02): Monitoring, Security, and Pricing
By David Blocher
Exam objectives: CLF-C02 — Monitoring, Security, and Pricing
AWS Certified Data Engineer - Associate (DEA-C01): Introduction
By Noreen Hasan
Exam objectives: DEA-C01 — Introduction
AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C02): Infrastructure Security
By Andru Estes; Chris Jackson
Exam objectives: SCS-C02 — Infrastructure Security
AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C02): Management and Security Governance
By Andru Estes; Chris Jackson
Exam objectives: SCS-C02 — Management and Security Governance
AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C02): Security Logging and Monitoring
By Andru Estes; Chris Jackson
Exam objectives: SCS-C02 — Security Logging and Monitoring
The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
By
Professional development course for devops engineer
Leadership Initiatives
Enterprise DevOps Transformation
Lead company-wide DevOps adoption. Define strategy, implement CI/CD across all teams, establish platform engineering, measure DORA metrics, reduce deployment time by 80%.
Build and Scale DevOps Team (5→30+ engineers)
Hire, mentor, and grow DevOps team. Establish career paths, technical standards, on-call rotations, and blameless postmortem culture. Create internal DevOps academy.
Platform Engineering: Internal Developer Platform (IDP)
Build self-service platform for developers. Infrastructure provisioning, deployment pipelines, observability, security scanning - all automated. Reduce deployment complexity by 90%.
Present DevOps Strategy to C-Suite
Communicate technical strategy to executives. Justify platform investments with business metrics: faster time-to-market, reduced downtime, improved developer productivity, cost savings.
Additional Learning Resources
Essential Books
Communities & Forums
YouTube Channels
Ready to Start Your SRE & Observabilitying Journey?
Master SRE principles and observability tools, implement SLOs and monitoring, reduce toil, and build toward a $220K+ career in site reliability engineering.
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