DevOps Daily Tasks: What DevOps Engineers Actually Do in Their Companies

If you're considering a career transition into DevOps or simply curious about what DevOps engineers actually do day to day, you're not alone. The DevOps role remains one of the most ambiguous yet crucial positions in the tech industry. Unlike traditional software development roles with clearly defined responsibilities, DevOps tasks can vary dramatically between companies, making it both exciting and challenging for newcomers.

For a comprehensive breakdown of specific DevOps responsibilities and daily workflows, you can also explore this detailed guide on DevOps engineer daily tasks which provides additional insights into the practical aspects of the role.

The Reality of DevOps Work

DevOps is fundamentally about bridging the gap between development and operations teams, but in practice, it's become the catch-all role for anything related to automation, infrastructure, and getting code from development to production. As one experienced DevOps engineer puts it, "It's basically whatever the company needs from an internal tooling perspective to help get the product out the door."

This ambiguity means that DevOps engineers at two different companies might have completely different skill sets and daily responsibilities. At one company, you might focus entirely on AWS serverless infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines, while at another, you could be managing observability, alerting systems, and working closely with development teams on their infrastructure needs.

Core DevOps Daily Tasks

CI/CD Pipeline Management

One of the most consistent DevOps tasks across organisations is building and maintaining continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines. This involves:

• Setting up Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or other automation tools
• Creating and maintaining build configurations
• Troubleshooting failed builds and deployments
• Ensuring code moves smoothly from development through testing to production

Infrastructure Management

Modern DevOps work heavily involves cloud infrastructure across platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Daily tasks include:

• Managing EC2 instances, S3 buckets, RDS databases, and other cloud services
• Implementing Infrastructure as Code using tools like Terraform or CloudFormation
• Monitoring resource usage and optimising costs
• Handling scaling requirements and performance issues

Automation and Scripting

A significant portion of DevOps work involves automating repetitive tasks:

• Writing scripts to automate deployment processes
• Creating configuration management systems using Ansible or similar tools
• Developing internal tools to improve developer productivity
• Automating monitoring and alerting systems

Security and Compliance

Security has become increasingly important in DevOps roles:

• Managing access permissions across various systems
• Implementing security scanning in CI/CD pipelines
• Handling vulnerability patching and updates
• Ensuring compliance with industry standards and company policies

The Challenging Reality

While DevOps can be rewarding, many practitioners highlight the challenges. The role often involves being the go-to person for everything infrastructure-related, which can be overwhelming. As one engineer describes: "People expect you to know everything, and I hate it... someone has an issue in build pipeline with a node linter. They ask you for help. Your boss assigns you to a ticket to make a network connection between the new environments and legacy environments, while your colleagues are asking you why AWS RDS metrics are not persisted to NewRelic."

This "jack of all trades" expectation means DevOps engineers frequently context-switch between different technologies and problems throughout the day. You might start the morning debugging a Kubernetes networking issue, spend the afternoon writing Terraform code, and end the day in meetings about security compliance.

Typical Day-to-Day Activities

Based on real experiences from practising DevOps engineers, here's what a typical day might look like:

Morning

• Check monitoring dashboards for any overnight issues
• Review failed CI/CD pipeline runs and investigate causes
• Respond to alerts from production systems
• Update ticketing systems with progress on ongoing issues

Mid-Day

• Attend stand-up meetings with development teams
• Work on infrastructure changes or improvements
• Review and approve pull requests for infrastructure code
• Collaborate with security teams on compliance requirements

Afternoon

• Troubleshoot production issues as they arise
• Work on automation projects to reduce manual tasks
• Update documentation for processes and procedures
• Plan and implement system upgrades or patches

Evening

• Handle any urgent production deployments
• Review system performance metrics
• Plan tasks for the following day
• Participate in on-call rotations for critical systems

Skills You'll Need to Develop

Technical Skills

• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
• Container technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Configuration management (Ansible, Chef, Puppet)
• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation)
• Scripting languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell)
• Version control systems (Git)
• Monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack)

Soft Skills

• Problem-solving under pressure
• Communication between technical and non-technical teams
• Project management and prioritisation
• Continuous learning mindset
• Patience and persistence when debugging complex issues

Career Progression and Specialisation

As you advance in DevOps, you might find yourself gravitating towards specific areas:

• Site Reliability Engineering (SRE): Focusing on system reliability, monitoring, and performance
• Platform Engineering: Building internal developer platforms and tools
• Cloud Architecture: Designing and implementing large-scale cloud solutions
• Security Engineering: Specialising in DevSecOps practices and security automation

Getting Started in DevOps

For those transitioning from other technical roles like mobile development, your existing coding skills provide an excellent foundation. The key is to start learning the infrastructure and automation tools used in DevOps while understanding the principles of continuous integration and deployment.

Consider starting with:

1. Learning a cloud platform (AWS is often recommended for beginners)
2. Practicing with Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform
3. Setting up simple CI/CD pipelines for personal projects
4. Familiarising yourself with containerisation using Docker
5. Understanding monitoring and logging concepts

The Bottom Line

DevOps engineering is a dynamic field that offers variety, challenges, and good compensation. However, it requires adaptability and a willingness to continuously learn new technologies. The role sits at the intersection of development, operations, and increasingly, security, making it both demanding and rewarding.

While the ambiguity of the role can be frustrating, it also provides opportunities to work with cutting-edge technologies and make a significant impact on how organisations deliver software. For those who enjoy problem-solving, automation, and working at the intersection of multiple technical domains, DevOps offers an exciting career path with strong growth prospects.

Remember, every company's DevOps needs are different, so focus on building a strong foundation in core principles while remaining flexible about specific tools and technologies. The field is constantly evolving, and successful DevOps engineers are those who embrace continuous learning and adaptation.