Part of the confusion stems from the close relationship between the two. For example, DevOps software doesn’t have to be placed in the cloud, but it often is. And DevOps and CloudOps are both tied to parts of IT that rapidly change and often overlap.

That rate of change — plus the hype and fluidity surrounding these types of roles — creates a moving target for the career-minded person, making it hard to zero in on the necessary skills and training for cloud vs. DevOps roles. What’s talked about at one shop can be completely different from the next, with little rhyme or reason as to why. This can be maddening for someone trying to get a foot in the door.

DevOps

DevOps combines the development and operations of the term and reflects a set of practices that focuses on collaboration. The goal is to streamline the process of getting software from the programming stage to the deployment stage, with a quicker pace and a higher quality than more traditional software deployment stages.

You might think a DevOps role is entirely new and wholly different from a programmer or operational role, but that’s not the case. DevOps personnel needs to know how to do both, plus a little bit of automation and orchestration.