Four key Linux skills in 2017

    What important skills will you upgrade in the new year?


    Translation
    Posted by Shawn Powers
    Published January 3, 2017




    Illustration: Internet Archive Book Images . Edited by Opensource.com. CC BY-SA 4.0

    One of the problems in becoming a Linux expert is that determining who a Linux expert is is constantly changing. When I came to the Linux world, to become a professional you should have been able to build the kernel yourself. Why, to be just a Linux user on a laptop, you also had to build your own kernel. Nowadays, compiling your kernel is usually a waste of time. This does not mean that this skill is no longer important, but in the world of open source software we are developing on the basis of the achievements of others, and Linux distributions already provide us with OS kernels that work well. Not always radical, but the requirements for IT professionals change every year. Below are four key skills for a Linux professional in 2017.

    1. Security


    I do not mean security experts or consultants in this area. These specialties and services are undoubtedly important, but with integrated devices penetrating all aspects of our lives, we must remember safety when making every decision. This year my wife and I bought a washing machine and a refrigerator, and both devices are equipped with Bluetooth receivers. The idea that hackers can crack the spin cycle may look silly, but any such thing is already a potential vector for attack.

    When we activate any system at work, at home, in our pocket, we must understand what security threats this can carry. And due to the fact that any device such as a toaster connected to the Internet is unlikely to receive a firmware update on time, we must design our remaining systems around, given that household devices can be compromised. More than ever, we need to think about attacks originating from within the perimeter of our firewalls. Do not let your own blender crack your file server!

    2. DevOps


    DevOps is no longer just a new concept. Over the past two or three years, we have encouraged people to study DevOps so that they succeed in the employment market. This was good advice, but it does not mean at all that we should fully rely on automation tools in our work. Chef, Puppet, Ansible, Salt Stack and other similar tools are great, but we need to understand what happens behind the scenes so that if something goes wrong, we know how to fix it.

    With the DevOps programming approach to computing, we still need specialists who can service, repair and understand systems that operate below the level of program code. Without Linux experts, cloud computing would be a scary place to live, even if the cloud is your own backend.

    3. Development


    As a system administrator with 20 years of experience, I never had time to learn programming. It may sound like an excuse, but it's true. All my development skills came down to writing scripts that helped me do my work faster. These days have passed. While we need system administration skills in the DevOps world, we also need system administrators with programming skills.

    If you are an old-mode system administrator like me, you probably have adapted to DevOps and use it in your daily work. However, if you really want to succeed, you need to learn how to solve programming problems and not think of Chef or Puppet code as just configuration files. Every IT professional should have at least an understanding of the concept of programming, because every aspect of IT becomes abstract at least by DevOps.

    4. Communication skills


    Often in our careers we think of the so-called communication skills as a last resort, and yet it is these skills that are most likely to determine your success. Whether you are looking for a new job or trying to adapt to the changing landscape in your current job, communication skills are vital.

    The boundaries between different areas of IT are gradually blurring and the ability to communicate will turn these blurred boundaries into an advantage, instead of a stumbling block. We live in a world in which developers are deployed by servers, support teams write Ruby code to support server farms. These are new bright ideas in IT and without people capable of interdisciplinary communication, the workplace will become hated very quickly. Plus, IT professionals have always needed effective communication with people in other areas of the business. So, this skill is now in demand as never before.



    Note. I don’t agree with the author about everything, but it’s always useful to listen to someone else’s opinion, especially in the context of article 4 ;-)

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