Learning DevOps.

I am a Frontend developer and in building applications, I realized my limitations in handling certain projects. I had no idea about automating, and testing applications. I had thought that as a frontend developer, I do not need to know how DevOps work but unfortunately, these limitations affected the tasks my employers would assign to me and my growth capacity in tech.

So, on that note, I decided to learn cloud technologies with SheCodeAfrica. The internship is a three months program to equip ladies in the field of DevOps. I chose DevOps because I want to do more and be able to manage projects efficiently.

This is what I hope to achieve at the end of the internship:

- To fully understand the concept of DevOps and the tools needed to build a scalable and efficient system.

- To successfully deploy, scale and automate applications.

- Network and be involved in teamwork.

The Journey So Far

In the first month, I learned the concept of DevOps, basics of Linux and Vagrant. With Vagrant I could use the Linux terminal in my Windows PC; I later installed Ubuntu VM because I needed a GUI(Graphical user interface). I learned Bash scripting, Ngnix, Containerization, and Virtualization.

I encountered some challenges configuring Ngnix as a reverse proxy for HTTPS. I surfed for resources to clear my blockers and my mentor was also helpful.

At the end of the month, I was able to use the Linux terminal and commands well enough, I wrote bash scripting functions, I successfully deployed a containerized application using docker and ran Nginx in a Docker Container as a reverse proxy.

For the second month, I learned Networking on the cloud using VPC, Cloud services(IaaS, SaaS, PaaS), CI/CD tools (Jenkins, Circle CI), Immutable Infrastructure with Terraform, Packer, and Ansible, Infrastructure Provisioning.
I deployed a NodeJS Application with MongoDB to illustrate Platform as a Service(PaaS) . I set up a Jenkin server on Linux and deployed a NodeJS App with Jenkins for CI/CD.

It’s the last month of the internship already and learning is coming on smoothly. I have learned a lot within a short period of time and I am better than when I started. I still do have gray areas but I trust with continuous practice I will get the clarity I need.

I appreciate SheCodeAfrica and supporting partners for making this possible. I am sure that at the end of the internship I would achieve my goals.