As someone who is passionate about professional development in the ever-changing world of technology, I recognize the highly important but under-served element of DevOps training.  DevOps culture is not just about the integration of development and operations teams to speed up the software delivery lifecycle; DevOps has become an essential part of how modern IT and software teams operate.  In the 2020 State of DevOps Report by Puppet, it’s stated that 69% of organizations are using DevOps practices — this stunning statistic is attributed to the increased value, which includes 208 times more frequent code deployments, 106 times faster lead time from commit to deploy, and vastly improved system reliability. 

Though the benefits of DevOps and continual job demand are undeniable, DevOps is still a difficult field to break into for many aspiring professionals. Many aspiring professionals face barriers of entry, from a steep learning curve, to insufficient and outdated practices, expensive quality training, and lack of mentorship. Issues like these are very discouraging for talented people to pursue or even complete their opportunity in DevOps. I share this concern not only as a professional, but on behalf of many professionals like me in the tech community who want to learn, but perhaps do not have the tools or support to take the next step.

The lack of access mentioned above is not merely a personal loss, but a loss to the tech industry. When we do not develop future-ready DevOps professionals, we miss out on enhancing collaboration, efficiency, and innovation across all organizations.

In order to overcome the accessibility challenge, we call on each organization that sits within the ecosystem of educational institutions, training centers, tech companies, or government organizations to do their part in closing this gap. Here's what we believe can happen:

Open subsidized or free DevOps training programs that will facilitate ease of access to higher quality education for students, job seekers, and career changers.

Formulated in ways, such as the DevOps Course in Pune, that do not just teach theory, but also provide detailed, hands-on training environments that help to bridge that theoretical knowledge to real-world practice principle.

In the end, learning DevOps should not automatically feel like a privilege; it should be available to all. As we live in a world driven by software, we will need more developers and more operations people that know how to work together, automate, and scale systems. For this to happen, we need quality education; open, affordable, and accessible education. 

We invite you to be part of this movement. If you are a software or tech enthusiast, a hiring manager, or an advocate for equal opportunity, we encourage you to support the development and delivery of DevOps learning opportunities that are accessible to everyone.