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# #90DaysOfDevOps - The DevOps Learning Journey

Michael Cade proves DevOps is a cultural shift, not just a job title. Discover his 90-day open-source roadmap to bridge IT operations and cloud-native platform engineering.

- **Speakers:** Michael Cade
- **Event:** WeAreDevelopers LIVE
- **Published:** April 18, 2023
- **Duration:** 44:42
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/548-90daysofdevops-the-devops-learning-journey

## Summary

The presentation outlines the 90DaysOfDevOps initiative, a structured learning journey designed to bridge the gap between traditional IT operations and cloud-native platform engineering. Faced with the overwhelming landscape of open-source tools and cloud-native concepts, Michael Cade embarked on a project to document his shift-left transition in public. By dedicating 90 days to learning and writing about a specific module each week, the project evolved from personal notes into a massive, community-driven resource that demystifies core DevOps principles. A major takeaway is that DevOps is not merely a job title, but a cultural principle bridging development and operations, demanding professionals to be a versatile "jack of all trades" who focus on the application as the highest piece of the operational puzzle.

The curriculum tackles 12 foundational areas, emphasizing hands-on practicality over pure theory. It begins with adopting a programming language like Golang—chosen for its prevalence in projects like Docker and Kubernetes—before cementing core Linux usability and networking fundamentals. The journey progresses through mastering a single cloud provider to grasp broader concepts, leveraging Git for version control, and utilizing Docker and Kubernetes for robust containerization and orchestration. Crucial automation practices are addressed through infrastructure as code using Terraform and configuration management with Ansible. Furthermore, the narrative cleanly separates CI and CD methodologies, stressing that they serve fundamentally distinct purposes and should utilize specialized tools, ultimately culminating in observability networks driven by Prometheus and Grafana.

Beyond technical upskilling, the initiative serves as a powerful blueprint for "learning in public." Documenting educational steps openly not only reinforces personal understanding but fosters massive open-source collaboration, demonstrating that valuable project contributions extend far beyond writing code to include documentation cleanup and language localization. As the ecosystem continually transforms, grasping foundational mechanisms remains more critical than chasing every new tool. Uncovering insights like "version control is not a backup," the narrative highlights the enduring need for dedicated data protection and disaster recovery regardless of modern infrastructure. Ultimately, embracing open-source software and sharing discoveries ensures sustained growth for both the individual and the wider engineering community.

**Keywords:** cloud-native platform engineering, infrastructure as code, kubernetes container orchestration, golang programming fundamentals, linux system administration, observability and monitoring, ansible configuration management, terraform deployment automation, cicd pipeline separation, open-source community contribution, version control practices, cloud provider architecture, shift-left transition, kubernetes data management, devops learning journey

## Chapters

1. **Establishing the 90 days of DevOps learning project** (00:00) — Establishing a structured study plan remedies missing foundational knowledge regarding modern automation tooling.
1. **Career transition into cloud native and data management** (02:14) — Transitioning from traditional systems administration into platform engineering requires learning distributed cloud native architectures.
1. **Structuring a public GitHub repository for continuous learning** (03:58) — Documenting technical experiments on an open repository accelerates personal comprehension while helping the broader community.
1. **Defining DevOps and navigating the ecosystem landscape** (08:00) — Managing an overwhelming open source landscape means adopting an application-first methodology to bridge development and operations.
1. **Choosing a programming language for infrastructure management** (14:16) — Reading source code for tools like Kubernetes becomes easier by studying foundational compiled languages like Go.
1. **Experiencing core Linux capabilities for DevOps administration** (16:29) — Gaining tactile comfort with Linux distributions prepares engineers to configure actual production servers safely.
1. **Grasping core networking and infrastructure automation components** (19:09) — Automating programmatic network interactions starts by grasping core routing primitives and domain name structures.
1. **Understanding cloud service models and abstraction patterns** (20:41) — Separating vendor abstractions like platform services reduces cognitive load when learning initial cloud concepts.
1. **Adopting Git tracking for widespread version control** (22:25) — Navigating massive collaborative projects relies on rigid version histories instead of treating source control as absolute backups.
1. **Running lightweight executions with Docker application containers** (24:19) — Removing deployment friction involves bundling code runtimes and isolated dependencies into immutable transportable images.
1. **Orchestrating container distribution across high availability nodes** (26:03) — Orchestrating distributed computing architectures allows resilient workloads to autonomously recover from isolated node outages.
1. **Enforcing repeatable configuration with infrastructure as code** (27:00) — Eliminating manual configuration errors requires defining desired infrastructure states through consistent declarative provisioning syntax.
1. **Separating continuous integration from production deployment actions** (28:22) — Scaling feature delivery dictates splitting code integration testing mechanisms from discrete user release actions.
1. **Operating critical stack observability and service monitoring** (28:55) — Preventing silent service degradation demands embedding centralized metrics dashboards that parse operational telemetry signals.
1. **Guaranteeing application data integrity and recovery patterns** (29:36) — Protecting stateful architecture persistence guarantees that critical business functions can recover during destructive database incidents.
1. **Augmenting DevOps roadmaps with security and runtime defense** (30:25) — Securing an iteration lifecycle demands pushing threat detection and secret management deeply into continuous integrations.
1. **Exploring community collaboration in documentation translation mechanisms** (32:58) — Expanding accessible educational pathways occurs when community volunteers translate complex administrative guides into varied native languages.

## Related Moments

- [Transitioning from software engineering into a DevOps trajectory](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/547-how-to-gitops-your-cluster-with-flux) (from "How to GitOps your cluster with Flux")
- [Shifting to a DevOps career from non-technical backgrounds](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/545-my-journey-into-devops-world-how-it-all-started) (from "My journey into DevOps world - How it all started!")
- [Introduction to cloud native infrastructure and platform engineering](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/885-platform-engineering-vs-devops-why-not-both) (from "Platform Engineering vs. DevOps Why not both?")
- [Interactive audience exercise exploring devops and production operations](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/730-migrating-half-a-million-users-to-a-new-payment-service-provider) (from "Migrating half a million users to a new payment service provider")
- [Mapping the maturity roadmap for scaled devops adoption](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100018-from-devops-to-scaled-devops-how-we-re-rebuilding-continuous-delivery-as-a-platform) (from "From DevOps to Scaled DevOps: How We’re Rebuilding Continuous Delivery as a Platform")
- [Origins of adopting DevOps and overcoming infrastructure bottlenecks](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/338-demystifying-devops-pros-cons-dos-don-ts) (from "Demystifying DevOps—Pros, cons, dos & don'ts")

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