The Best Certifications for Agile-DevOps Infrastructure Automation Careers

In 2018, the average salary for development operations (DevOps) engineer was $112,000.

As we can see from the many cybersecurity attacks, DevOps engineers help your company. But when you’re looking to hire one, how do you ensure you’re getting qualified employees? 

The best way to be sure you are hiring great employees is to look for DevOps certifications.

But which certifications should your employees have? And how do you know which certifications will be best for your company? 

If these are questions you’ve found yourself asking, look no further. We’ve created a list about DevOps certifications your future employees should have.

Why are DevOps Certifications so Important?

DevOps certifications add a hefty amount of money to the salary of any employee you want to hire. DevOps training can be expensive and difficult to get for current employees.

Given this, it’s tempting to seek out employees that don’t have certifications. And to test their knowledge in other ways.

Resist this temptation. Certifications ensure that you’ve hired skilled dedicated DevOps who are knowledgeable about cybersecurity.

These certifications ensure that your employees are up to date on the latest tech and security information. Almost all certifications need continuing education, which is important in the tech industry where information is changing daily.

There are DevOps certification online programs and DevOps certification training. These make certification accessible to working employees.

Many organisations that give out certifications offer discounts. These reduce the cost of the test and certification renewals.

Certified Information Security Manager/CISM

Much of what DevOps engineers do involve cybersecurity. Making a CISM one of the best DevOps certifications your employee can have. CISM stands for Certified Information Security Manager.

This certification added in 2003 is by IASC or the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. This is an organisation dedicated to upholding high quality when it comes to audit as well as control of security management.

This DevOps certification is for IT managers who work in enterprise-level security oversight. The CISM shows that your candidate is competent in project development and security management. 

To get this certification, the candidate is required to complete a 150 question exam which covers 4 different areas in security management. These areas include information risk management, information security governance, information security program development and management, and information security incident management.

Once the candidate completes the test, they must agree to the ISACA ethics code. The professional ethics code covers obligations to shareholders and continuing education obligations.

This certification is specifically for IT professionals that have at least 5 years of experience in security before taking the test. After which, they have to continue their education. This includes completing 120 CPE or continuing professional education CPE credit hours every three years. 

On top of that, the certificate holder must pay a yearly fee that’s $45 for IASC members and $85 for non-members.

Certified Agile Service Manager/CASM

This DevOps certification helps ensure that your employee has the skills to advise the improvement of current it services. CASM certified DevOps are knowledgeable about Kanban, ITSM, and Lean as well as Scrum roles.

The DevOps Institute issues and accredits this certification. To become CASM certified, an applicant must pass a test with 40 multiple choice questions with a score of 65% in under an hour. 

Certified Ethical Hacker/CEH

Hackers get a bad rap and mostly for good reason, but they can put their hacking skills to good use for your company.

Good hackers or white hat hackers can work to try and find weaknesses and vulnerabilities in your security system that can be exploited by bad hackers of black hat hackers. These hackers test your security system to see what kind of improvements you need to make.

If you want to be sure that your business is getting a qualified white hat hacker, then look for the CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) or a CNDA (Certified Network Defense Architect) certification. 

This certification is administered by the EC-Council or the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants. Professionals with these certifications are usually well versed in areas such as viruses, footprinting, trojans, cryptography, and breaking through firewalls as well as many other areas.

The requirements for this certification are two years’ worth of IT experience and completion of an exam. 

There are some DevOps certification costs including a $100 fee and exam expenses of $950. In addition, every three years certification holders must complete 120 continuing education hours.

SANS GIAC Security Essentials/GSEC

This DevOps certification was created by the SANS Institute in 1999 and is one of the most sought-after certifications. The SANS Institute is a private company that specialises in it security training. 

The certification was designed for people with personal experience in cybersecurity. Though there are no requirements for prior work experience or training is recommended for the 5-hour long exam. This makes it a great beginner certification for people with work experience but only a little educational background. 

The test is 180 questions and has sections pertaining to audit, security administration, Software Security, forensics, and operations management.

The certification contains two levels. A silver level which consists of 90 multiple-choice questions and a gold level which is obtained by completing a research paper. 

Security+

If you want to ensure that you’ve recruited the best employees possible to your company you should look out for Security+ certification. Like most DevOps certifications administered by CompTIA, it guarantees your candidate knows about risk management, and cryptography.

Though the credential is a beginner level exam that requires two years of network security experience. This certification is also endorsed by the U.S. Department of Defense because it complies with Directive 8140/8570.01-M requirements.

To get this certification, a candidate must complete an exam focused on network architecture, risk management, and access management. The exam consists of 75 questions. And although discounts are available for CompTIA members, the exam usually costs around $339. 

The certification has undergone some major changes in the last decade. For example, DevOps that became certified before 2011 are permanently certified while those certified after must meet certain standards to maintain their certification.

To renew certifications, holders must complete the CertMaster CE online class. Or they can complete 50 CEUs or continuing education units before the end of three years. To complete these hours by blogging, teaching, and publishing articles on information security topics.

Certified Information Systems Security Professional/CISSP

The CISSP or Certified Information Systems Security Professional is the gold standard when it comes to certifications. This is an advanced level DevOps certification given out by the ISC2 or the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium. This organisation is one of the most well renowned in the world for its commitment to quality. 

This certification is especially for it professionals who are in top-level management positions that make major security decisions for their company.

Since this certification is so high level and meant for established IT managers, there are a lot of qualifications. Candidates have two ways of meeting these qualifications.

The first is a degree or an approved credential and four years experience in two or more of the ISC2’s Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) domains. The next is at least five years of experience in one of the ISC2’s domains. 

The ISC2’s domains include:

Candidates also have the option of CISSP having a specific concentration in one of three specific areas of IT security. These areas are:

1. Management
2. Architecture
3. Engineering 

Candidates may choose to focus on only one area or get multiple certifications. To get these DevOps certifications, applicants must already have an up to date CISSP license and pay $599 per exam. And agree to the ISC2 Ethics Code.

To maintain the CISSP, holders must complete at least 40 CPE or continuing professional education credit hours per year, and must have a total of 120 credit every three years. They must also pay an annual renewal fee of $85 each year. 

DevOps Test Engineering/DTE

If you want to ensure that your system is working, having a qualified DevOps engineer to test it is an invaluable service. 

The test’s target audience are:

This certification guarantees that your DevOps engineer understands things like:

The DevOps Institute offers DevOps training and certification for 90 minutes exam.

Make Sure You Hire a Certified DevOps Specialist

Hiring the right IT professionals guarantees your DevOps are running smoothly. But hiring managers with DevOps certifications is only the first step.

If you’re curious about what we can do for your company, just contact us!