Dream It, Build It, Run It:
Cultivating a DevOps Powerhouse
Amit Joshi
Solution Architect, DevOps
Leapfrog Technology
frog.ly/amit
Sparsha Dotel
Solution Architect, DevOps
Leapfrog Technology
frog.ly/sparsha
Building from the Ground Up
5
Years
back
3
Engineers
Starting team size
10+
Projects
Projects supported initially
The Dream
Build a "Khatra" (powerhouse) DevOps Team
A group of wizards capable of handling any and every need.
The What and Whys of DevOps powerhouse.
Why DevOps?
To accelerate software delivery and improve reliability.
Why Skilled?
To maximize the benefits of DevOps practices.
What is Skilled DevOps?
A blend of technical expertise, automation skills, and cultural awareness.
The Cultural Side
Collaboration
Cross-functional collaboration unlocks speed and quality.
Shared Responsibility
Everyone owns the entire delivery pipeline.
Innovation
A culture of experimentation and continuous improvement.
Culture is the bedrock of successful DevOps. Silos kill dreams. A cultural foundation matters for long-term success.
What Makes a Great DevOps Engineer
1
2
3
4
5
1
Automation Expert
Eager to automate.
2
Good Communicator
Collaborates across silos.
3
Rapid Learner
Enthusiastic about system visibility.
4
Balanced Executor
Delivers with both speed and safety.
5
Systems Thinker
Understands impact beyond their keyboard.
Their mindset: "If it breaks, I own it. If it's boring, I automate it."
The Build
Assembling Our DevOps Team
Expansion Startegy
Lateral Hiring
Bring in experienced DevOps professionals to lead the way.
Talent Incubation
Building the team from scratch through internship.
Building a DevOps team requires a strategic approach. Our approach was to fulfill company's requirement with 20% buffer in bench.
Lateral Hiring: Look Beyond Keywords
Mindset Over Toolset
Curiosity, resilience, and systems thinking are key.
Practical Tasks
Include simulations, not just trivia.
Cross-Discipline
Look for ex-developers, sys-admins, etc.
Solution Oriented
Not just years rather tangible solution provider.
Growing Talent: Interns to Engineers
Internship Programs
Build future-ready engineers.
Learning Roadmaps
roadmap.sh Leapfrog Curated
Mentorship
Every junior developer has a direct mentor
Real-World Projects
Shadow the mentor in projects
Leapfrog DevOps Internship Program
Even before starting the internship we were in a mission to learn
  • Explored Leapfrog's other internship program.
  • Identified what Leapfrog needs as foundation from Junior DevOps.
  • During lateral hiring we learned what is the gap between market availability and need.
Learning Roadmaps
1
Roadmap.sh Insights
Started with roadmap.sh but it became too in-depth, need to focus on foundation for the internship.
2
Leapfrog's Requirements
Needed to ensure interns are project-ready for Leapfrog's projects.
3
Experience-Backed Approach
Our Experience + Roadmap.sh Guidance + Leapfrog's Need = A comprehensive course.
4
Result
Course plan designed to build strong foundational knowledge in DevOps.
Additionally, also implemented roadmaps to every designation in DevOps.
The team is ready
  • We break the double digit members size (11).
  • Team consist of Junior to Principal Engineers.
  • Dynamic team of with knowledge of all the cloud and tool.
Mission Accomplished!
Was that enough?
Certainly Not!
No answer on "running it".
How to assure and maintain quality?
The Run
Ensure and maintain quality
Hows
  • Automated Testing: Use IaC, and CI/CD to enable quick, repeatable safe delivery.
  • Identify toil and eliminate it: provisioning, deployments, rollbacks.
  • Right Tooling: Tools that empower your teams, not that dictate process.
  • Ownership: Shift responsibility left—teams own their code in production.
  • Monitoring: Build feedback loops with logs, metrics, and traces.
  • Right Sizing: DevOps for one team is great, for 10 teams is a challenge—platform thinking helps.
  • Evaluation: Use DORA/SPACE metrics to guide improvements.
  • Evolution: Platform engineering/SREs/DevSecOps —DevOps as enablement, not gatekeeping.
Learn, Enhance, Iterate
Learn
  • New and upcoming technologies
  • Culture setting
  • Debugging skill is missing
  • Help from other team
Enhance
  • Reprioritize tech stack
  • Introduce coding training
  • More post training
  • Communication is key
Iterate
  • New hiring powered by learning from past.
  • Integrate internal training to internship course.
Automated Stability
1
Empower team
Learn to delegate and make room for new leaders.
2
Stable Team Size
Understand company's need and access stable size.
3
Introduce Team Segregation
DevOps → SysOps, DevOps, SecOps.
4
Solid Learning Path
Invest on tech that is core to the company, make it foundation of your team.
5
Sense of Belonging
Build a closely knit team through collaboration, learning, and welcoming environment.
Mantras
1
Technical knowledge is just the surface.
2
Communication is the dark horse.
3
Growth makes you stay, belonging makes it hard to leave.
4
Be an approachable leader.
5
Curate a welcoming culture.
6
Learning is never complete.
DevOps 101
Operating Systems
Linux is core of "almost everything" in DevOps. Managing Resources, Disks, Logs, Permissions, Users.
Networking
Networks, Subnets, Firewalls, CIDRs, DNS, VPNs.
Scripting
Bash, Python.
Web and App Servers
Nginx, Apache.
Virtualization, Containerization and Orchestration
Virtual Machines, Docker, Kubernetese.
Cloud Services
AWS, Azure.
VCS and CI/CD
Git, Github, GitHub Actions.
Logging, Monitoring, and Alerting
ELK, DataDog, Prometheus, Grafana.
Application Security
OWASP Top 10.
Above all "Understand the product".
Is our team complete?
We are still going strong.
If you have what it takes to be the part of this team?
We are Hiring!
  • Senior Software Engineer, DevOps
  • DevOps and SecOps Fellowship
THE TEAM
30+ strong group of wizards working as (Dev/Sec/Sys)Ops engineers.
Connect with us in LinkedIn
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