The DevOps landscape is constantly evolving, with new tools and technologies emerging at a rapid pace. If you visit the DevOps roadmap on roadmap.sh, a popular site that provides developer roadmaps, you'll come across a diagram outlining the tools and technologies used in DevOps. The sheer number of tools listed can be intimidating, leaving you wondering, "Do I really need to learn all of these to become a DevOps engineer?" The answer is no. While the DevOps landscape is indeed vast, there are certain essential tools that form the foundation of any DevOps practitioner's toolkit.

In this blog post, we'll cut through the noise and focus on the 10 essential DevOps tools that you should prioritize learning in 2024. These tools cover key areas such as containerization, container orchestration, infrastructure provisioning, infrastructure configuration, continuous integration and continuous delivery/continuous deployment (CI/CD), monitoring, logs management, GitOps, service mesh, and version control.

Before we list the tools, here are a few tips to help you make informed tool choices.

Choosing the Right DevOps Tools to Learn

Consider the following factors when choosing the DevOps tools to learn:

• Purpose and use case: Understand the specific needs of your organization and the goals you want to achieve with DevOps. 
• Ease of use and learning curve: Look for tools that are user-friendly and have a manageable learning curve in the beginning.
• Compatibility and integration: Consider the chosen tools’ compatibility with your existing infrastructure, technologies, and processes. Additionally, consider how well the tools integrate with each other to create a seamless DevOps pipeline.
• Scalability: Consider the scalability of the tools to accommodate your current and future needs. As your organization grows, the tools should be able to scale with you, supporting larger projects and increased workloads.
• Community and support: Evaluate the community around the tools and the availability of support. Active communities often provide valuable resources, plugins, and solutions to common issues, while reliable support is crucial for resolving any technical challenges.
• Security and compliance: Security should be a top priority when selecting DevOps tools. Ensure the tools adhere to industry standards and best practices for security and compliance, especially if you are handling sensitive data or operating in regulated industries.
• Cost and ROI: Consider the total ownership cost, including licensing, training, maintenance, and support. Evaluate the return on investment (ROI) the tools can provide in terms of time savings, improved quality, and faster time to market.

DevOps Tools You Should Learn in 2024

Let's now dive in and learn about the 10 Essential DevOps Tools You Should Learn in 2024.

#1. Docker

Docker is a containerization platform that has revolutionized the way we build, deploy, and manage applications. It allows you to package your application and its dependencies into a container, providing a consistent and reliable runtime environment.

One of the key benefits of using Docker is that it ensures your application runs consistently and reliably, regardless of the underlying infrastructure. Whether you're running your application on a developer's laptop, a testing environment, or a production server, containers guarantee your application will behave the same way. This eliminates the infamous "it works on my machine" problem and streamlines the development and deployment process.

Docker's ecosystem is one of its greatest strengths. It offers a wide range of tools and services that enhance the containerization experience. Some of the notable components include:

• Docker Hub: A cloud-based registry for storing and sharing Docker images.
• Docker Compose: A tool for defining and running multi-container applications.
• Docker Swarm: A native orchestration tool for deploying and managing Docker containers across a cluster of servers. 

The popularity and adoption of Docker have been steadily increasing over the years. Whether you're a developer or a DevOps engineer, learning Docker is a must. 

If you're looking to get started with Docker or deepen your knowledge, KodeKloud offers a range of Docker courses:

• Docker for Absolute Beginners (FREE)
• Docker - Swarm | SERVICES | STACKS
• Docker Certified Associate Exam Course (DCA)

#2. Kubernetes

While Docker provides a solid foundation for containerization, deploying and managing containerized applications at scale presents additional challenges. This is where container orchestration platforms come into play, and Kubernetes has emerged as the industry standard in this domain.

Kubernetes is a powerful container orchestration platform designed to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Since its introduction in 2014, Kubernetes has witnessed phenomenal adoption growth and has become the go-to choice for organizations of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.

The popularity of Kubernetes can be attributed to its robust feature set, which offers several key benefits, including:

• Automated scaling: Kubernetes intelligently scales applications in response to fluctuating traffic demands. When production systems experience spikes or drops in traffic, Kubernetes employs vertical or horizontal scaling strategies to automatically adjust resources. 
• Self-healing capabilities: Kubernetes continuously monitors the health of containers and can automatically restart failed ones, replace and reschedule containers when nodes experience issues, and terminate containers that fail to respond to user-defined health checks. 
• Seamless updates and rollbacks: Kubernetes enables rolling updates of applications in production, eliminating service disruptions. It gradually rolls out changes while ensuring the service remains available and stable throughout the update process. In case of issues, Kubernetes allows for quick and easy rollbacks to the previous stable version.

To fully leverage the power of Kubernetes, it's essential to have a solid understanding of its concepts and best practices. If you're looking to get started or are interested in diving deeper into Kubernetes, KodeKloud offers comprehensive courses to help you master this critical DevOps tool:

• Kubernetes for the Absolute Beginner
• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

#3. Terraform

In the world of DevOps, the mantra "automate everything" extends beyond just application deployment and management. The provisioning of Infrastructure, the foundation upon which applications run, also needs to be automated. This is where Terraform comes into the picture.

Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) tool created by HashiCorp. It allows you to define and manage infrastructure resources across multiple cloud providers using configuration files (code).

Key features of Terraform include:

• Declarative approach: Terraform uses a declarative language, HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), to define the desired state of your infrastructure. You specify the end state, and Terraform figures out how to achieve it, abstracting away the underlying complexities. 
• Platform agnostic: Terraform is platform-agnostic. This means you don't need to write different configuration files for different cloud platforms. This allows you to use a single tool to manage infrastructure across multiple cloud platforms, avoiding vendor lock-in.
• Infrastructure as code: By defining infrastructure as code, Terraform enables version control, collaboration, and reproducibility. You can store your infrastructure configurations in source control repositories, track changes, and collaborate with team members effectively.

As the adoption of IaC practices continues to grow, the demand for Terraform professionals is rising. Whether you're a seasoned DevOps practitioner or just starting your journey, adding Terraform to your skill set can open up new opportunities.

If you're ready to start your Terraform learning journey, KodeKloud offers a comprehensive Terraform course for beginners that will guide you through the fundamentals and help you gain hands-on experience.

#4. Ansible

Once the infrastructure is provisioned, the next step is to configure and manage it effectively. This is where infrastructure configuration management tools like Ansible come into play. 

Ansible is an open-source configuration management tool that simplifies the process of installing dependencies, setting up logging, and performing other configuration tasks across multiple servers.

Most Ansible environments consist of three main components:

• Control node: The central machine where Ansible is installed and executed.
• Managed nodes: The remote systems that Ansible manages and controls.
• Inventory: A list of managed nodes that are logically organized, allowing Ansible to target specific hosts or groups.

With Ansible, you create playbooks that define a series of tasks to be executed on the managed nodes. Each task in a playbook runs a module, a small piece of code that ensures a particular aspect of the system is in the desired state. Ansible ships with hundreds of built-in modules that cover a wide range of automation tasks.

Key features of Ansible include:

• Agentless architecture: Ansible does not require any agents or special software to be installed on the managed nodes. It leverages SSH and Python to communicate with the systems, making it lightweight and easy to set up.
• Push-based model: Ansible uses a push-based approach, where changes are pushed from the control node to the managed nodes. This allows you to have full control over when and how the changes are applied to the servers.
• Idempotency: Ansible playbooks are designed to be idempotent, meaning that applying the same playbook multiple times will result in the same state of the system. This ensures consistency and prevents unintended changes.

Whether you're a beginner or an advanced user, KodeKloud offers comprehensive Ansible courses to help you enhance your skills:

• Ansible for the Absolute Beginners
• Ansible advanced course

#5. Jenkins

In the world of modern software development, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) have become widely adopted practices. CI/CD automates the software development lifecycle, streamlining workflows from code integration to deployment. This approach reduces the time taken for each development cycle, enabling faster delivery of software to production.

Jenkins is a popular open-source tool used to build CI/CD pipelines. It helps automate tasks related to building, testing, and deploying software.

At the heart of the Jenkins build process are "pipelines." A Jenkins pipeline is a collection of stages chained together to form a complete workflow. Pipelines are typically defined in a file called Jenkinsfile. This allows you to define the entire build process as code, enabling version control, code review, and collaboration.

Jenkins offers several key features that make it a powerful tool for CI/CD:

• Extensive plugin ecosystem: Jenkins boasts a rich plugin ecosystem with over 1,900 plugins available. These plugins extend Jenkins' functionality, allowing you to integrate with various tools, platforms, and services commonly used in the DevOps workflow. 
• Distributed builds: Jenkins supports distributed builds, enabling you to dispatch build jobs across a large number of machines. This feature is particularly useful if you want to absorb spikes in build activity or run specialized build jobs in specific operating systems or environments.

Jenkins has stood the test of time and has become the most popular CI/CD tool in the industry. It has a large and active open-source community that continuously rolls out new features, bug fixes, and plugin updates. The extensive documentation and community support make it easy to find help and resources when needed.

Getting started with Jenkins is relatively straightforward, thanks to its low learning curve. You can have a basic Jenkins setup up and running in a matter of minutes. To build a solid foundation in Jenkins and master its advanced features, consider enrolling in KodeKloud’s Jenkins course.

#6. Prometheus

In the world of DevOps, monitoring is crucial for ensuring the health, performance, and reliability of applications and infrastructure. Prometheus, an open-source monitoring system, has gained widespread adoption due to its powerful features.

Prometheus is a metrics-based open-source monitoring system that collects data by sending HTTP requests to hosts and services on metrics endpoints. It provides a modern time series database, a robust query language called PromQL, and various metric visualization possibilities through integration with tools like Grafana. Prometheus also offers a reliable alerting solution for both traditional and cloud-native infrastructure.

Key features of Prometheus include:

• Pull-based model: Prometheus uses a pull-based model to collect metrics, which means it scrapes metrics from targets by querying their HTTP endpoints. This approach has several advantages: it simplifies the configuration by not requiring targets to know where to send their metrics. This allows for easier scaling as the number of targets increases and ensures that metrics are collected only when needed.
• Time series data storage: Prometheus excels at collecting and storing metrics as time series data, meaning that each piece of data is timestamped. This allows for precise tracking of how metrics evolve over time, making it easier to diagnose performance issues and understand trends. Its efficient storage format ensures that data can be queried quickly and effectively, even when dealing with large volumes of metrics.
• Flexible query language (PromQL): One of Prometheus’s standout features is its flexible query language, PromQL. This allows users to perform complex queries and retrieve data in a meaningful way. Whether you need to aggregate data, calculate complex rates, or simply filter results, PromQL gives you the power to extract exactly the information you need from your metrics.

Getting a Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA) certification demonstrates your understanding of best practices in monitoring cloud-native applications and infrastructure. Prepare for the PCA exam with KodeKloud's Prometheus Certified Associate course, which offers in-depth lectures and a hands-on lab.

#7. Grafana Loki

In addition to metrics, logs are a crucial component of observability. They provide valuable insights into the behavior and health of systems. Grafana Loki, a log aggregation system from Grafana Labs, has emerged as a popular choice for managing and analyzing log data.

Grafana Loki is designed to efficiently store and query logs from all your applications and infrastructure. It seamlessly integrates with Grafana, a powerful data visualization platform, allowing users to query and visualize log data alongside metrics and traces.

Key features of Grafana Loki include:

• Multi-tenancy: Grafana Loki is designed to support multi-tenancy, which means it can isolate requests and data for different tenants. This feature is particularly useful for organizations that need to manage logs from multiple teams or customers in a single Loki instance while ensuring that each tenant's data remains separate and secure. 
• Efficient storage: Grafana Loki employs a unique approach to log storage by indexing only the metadata of log entries rather than the full log contents. This method significantly reduces the cost and complexity of log storage and allows for faster querying. 
• LogQL query language: Grafana Loki uses a query language called LogQL, which is similar to Prometheus's PromQL. One of the powerful features of LogQL is its ability to create metrics from log data. This means that you can extract specific patterns or values from your logs and convert them into numerical metrics, which can then be used for monitoring and alerting purposes. 

To get started with Grafana Loki and learn how to effectively collect and analyze logs from your Kubernetes cluster and applications, check out KodeKloud’s Grafana Loki course. 

#8. Argo CD

GitOps has gained significant popularity in the DevOps community as an operational framework that applies DevOps best practices to infrastructure automation.  At its core, GitOps embraces Git as the single source of truth for infrastructure and application configurations. One of the most popular open-source GitOps tools today is Argo CD. It is a declarative GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes that automates the deployment and lifecycle management of applications.

Argo CD operates by continuously monitoring the Git repository for any changes to the manifests that define the desired state of your applications. It then compares this desired state with the actual state of the applications running in the cluster. If discrepancies are detected, ArgoCD can either automatically synchronize the state to match the desired configuration or allow for manual intervention to apply the necessary updates.

Key features of ArgoCD include:

• Automated deployment: ArgoCD automates the entire deployment process. Whenever application definitions are updated in the Git repository, ArgoCD automatically deploys those changes to the Kubernetes cluster without requiring any manual intervention.
• Multi-cluster deployments: ArgoCD can manage and deploy applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters. It provides a centralized control plane to manage deployments in different clusters and environments.
• Rollback and versioning: One of the standout features of ArgoCD is its ability to roll back to any previous application configuration committed in the Git repository. This ensures that you can quickly revert to a known good state in the event of deployment issues.

If you want to learn ArgoCD with practical hands-on exercises, check out KodeKloud's GitOps with ArgoCD course. It provides in-depth lectures and hands-on labs to help you master ArgoCD and GitOps principles.

#9. Istio

Modern applications are often designed as distributed systems composed of numerous microservices. As the number of microservices grows, managing the communication between them becomes increasingly complex, especially in large-scale deployments such as Kubernetes clusters. This is where a service mesh comes into play, simplifying the management of service-to-service communication. A service mesh acts as a network of roads, providing a way for different microservices to discover and connect to each other. 

Istio is an open-source,  platform-independent service mesh that provides a centralized point of control for managing the communication between microservices. While Istio can be used with any platform that supports containers, it is commonly used with Kubernetes, the most popular container orchestration platform.

Key features of Istio include:

• Traffic management: Istio's traffic routing rules enable fine-grained control over the flow of traffic and API calls between services. This allows operators to easily manage routing both within a single cluster and across multiple clusters, optimizing performance and enabling better deployment strategies. 
• Observability: Istio generates detailed telemetry data (metrics, logs, traces, etc.) for all communications within a service mesh. This telemetry provides deep insights into service behavior, enabling operators to effectively monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize their applications. Istio integrates with popular monitoring and visualization tools like Prometheus and Grafana, allowing for comprehensive visibility into the health and performance of the microservices.
• Security: Microservices are vulnerable to various security threats, and Istio offers a range of tools to protect services and data. It provides strong identity management, robust policy enforcement, and seamless TLS encryption for all service-to-service communication. 

To build a solid foundation in Istio, check out KodeKloud's Istio course, which covers the fundamentals and advanced concepts of this powerful service mesh.

#10. Git

Version control is a critical component of the DevOps workflow, and Git has emerged as the most widely used version control system. 

Git is an open-source version control system that allows you to track changes made to a project over time. It works by recording the modifications you make to a project, storing those changes, and providing a way to reference them whenever needed. This enables teams to collaborate effectively and manage different versions of their codebase.

Key features of Git include:

• Branching and merging: Git's branching model enables developers to work on features or bug fixes independently without affecting the main codebase. Branches can be easily merged back into the main branch when the work is complete.
• Distributed architecture: Git's distributed nature allows each developer to have a complete copy of the repository on their local machine. This enables offline work and eliminates single points of failure.
• Snapshots and versioning: Git stores data as a series of snapshots, ensuring the entire history of the codebase is preserved. This allows for easy tracking of changes and the ability to revert to previous versions if needed.

As a DevOps practitioner, mastering Git is a must. To get started with Git, consider enrolling in KodeKloud's Git course, which teaches the fundamentals using visualizations and animations. 

Conclusion

In this blog post, we covered ten essential DevOps tools you should learn in 2024. The tools we discussed—Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins,  Prometheus, Grafana Loki, ArgoCD, Istio, and Git—are important in the DevOps workflow and are considered must-learn technologies. These tools are well-established and widely adopted, making them indispensable for any DevOps practitioner looking to enhance their skill set and keep up with industry standards.

To help you navigate through the learning process, KodeKloud offers a structured and guided learning path for DevOps. The learning path is designed to keep you focused and on track, ensuring you don't get lost in the sea of ever-expanding DevOps tools. With hands-on labs and in-depth lectures, KodeKloud provides the resources you need to master the essential DevOps tools.