Becoming a Cloud Engineer

Becoming a Cloud Engineer

This guide on how to become a cloud engineer will cover the cloud engineer role, essential skills, and the average salary offered in the industry.

Step 1: The Role

On a high level, a cloud engineer is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining an organization's cloud computing infrastructure and systems.

Step 2: The Fundamentals

Don't skip the Fundamentals!

Learn:

  • General Cloud Computing
    • Networking
      • Operating systems
        • Virtualization
          • Security

            Step 3: Selecting a Cloud Provider

            It is beneficial to have experience with multiple cloud providers as a cloud engineer.

            If you are starting, I would highly recommend concentrating on one cloud provider first: AWS, Azure, or GCP.

            Step 4: Acquiring programming knowledge

            As a cloud engineer, it is important to understand at least one programming or scripting language say Shell scripting and Python, especially for automating tasks and provision resources in the cloud.

            Know your way around Git and a product like GitHub or Gitlab.

            Step 5: Learning DevOps principles & tools

            DevOps is a set of practices that aims to improve collaboration between development and operations teams and increase software delivery speed and reliability.

            Know:

            • CI/CD
              • IaC
                • Monitoring & Logging
                  • Collaboration & Communication

                    Step 6: Gaining Hands-On experience

                    Seeking opportunities to gain practical, hands-on experience with cloud technologies is essential to becoming a successful cloud engineer.

                    The first step is to create an account with one of the big cloud providers, AWS, Azure, or GCP.

                    Step: 7 Earning Certifications

                    Obtaining a certification can be beneficial for several reasons:

                    • Validation of skills
                      • Improved job prospects
                        • Professional development
                          • Increased earning potential
                            • Fun challenge

                              To become a successful Cloud Engineer, you need to have a mindset focused on delivering scalable, reliable, and secure solutions.