Originally reported by Virtualization Review, based on the DevOps Institute’s 2020 Upskilling: Enterprise DevOps Skills Report.
Cloud Skills Join CI/CD at the Top of the DevOps Skills Hierarchy
The DevOps Institute has published its 2020 Upskilling: Enterprise DevOps Skills Report, surveying 1,260 DevOps professionals about the skills that matter most in modern enterprise environments. The headline finding: while CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) remains the single most important technical skill, knowledge of major cloud platforms—AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)—and cloud environments follows closely behind.
The DevOps Institute describes itself as a global association committed to advancing the human elements of DevOps by equipping practitioners with Skills, Knowledge, Ideas and Learning (SKIL). That focus on people, not just tooling, is reflected throughout the report’s findings.
“Understanding cloud platforms, being somewhat competent in the topics around APIs and possessing analytical skills are all must-have skills necessary in transforming organizations towards the digital business.”
— 2020 Upskilling: Enterprise DevOps Skills Report, DevOps Institute
The Real-World Impact of Cloud Adoption on DevOps Teams
Beyond identifying which skills matter, the report asked respondents directly about the personal impact of their organization’s move to the cloud. The most common answer was telling: practitioners reported significant impact, saying they were actively retraining to learn new tools and processes required to work effectively with cloud technologies. This signals that cloud migration is not simply an infrastructure concern—it is reshaping the day-to-day skill requirements of every engineer in the DevOps pipeline.
Key Findings: Must-Have Skills for 2020
The report surfaces several noteworthy findings about the skills practitioners and hiring managers prioritize in 2020:
- CI/CD toolchain knowledge is the top must-have technical skill.
- Cloud platform proficiency (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud environment knowledge rank immediately behind CI/CD.
- IT operations is the top must-have functional skill.
- Human skills appear in the top four must-have skill categories—a notable recognition that soft skills are inseparable from DevOps success.
- Collaboration and cooperation remain the leading must-have human skills.
- Interpersonal skills rose from third to second place in the human skills ranking year-over-year.
- Skills in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), value stream mapping, and performance tuning and management all gained ground in must-have votes.
- DevOps Engineering is the most popular job title used when recruiting DevOps specialists.
- More than half of respondents still find the DevOps journey challenging, though enterprise adoption has risen to 24 percent.
How the Landscape Shifted from 2019 to 2020
Because the DevOps Institute conducted a comparable study in 2019, the 2020 report is able to highlight meaningful year-over-year trends:
- Process skills and knowledge moved into first place in skill categories, overtaking automation skills which led in 2019.
- DevOps adoption, Agile practices, and SRE all increased their percentage of must-have votes.
- The DevOps Engineer role title has nearly doubled in popularity as a recruiting designation.
- External recruiting remains the predominant hiring model for filling DevOps roles.
- Governance, risk, and compliance/audit (GRC) skills increased their must-have votes by 4 percent, reflecting growing regulatory and security pressures in enterprise environments.
What This Means for DevOps Teams and Hiring Managers
The report paints a clear picture of where enterprise DevOps is heading. Technical depth in CI/CD pipelines and cloud platforms remains non-negotiable, but the rise of process knowledge, interpersonal skills, and governance signals a maturing discipline that demands well-rounded practitioners—not just tool operators.
For individual practitioners, the practical takeaway is straightforward: if you haven’t invested time in hands-on cloud platform experience across at least one of the major providers (AWS, Azure, or GCP), that gap is increasingly visible to employers. Equally, demonstrating collaboration skills, an understanding of compliance requirements, and familiarity with SRE principles can differentiate candidates in a competitive market.
For hiring managers and team leads, the continued reliance on external recruiting—despite the acknowledged challenge of the DevOps journey—suggests that internal upskilling programs remain an underutilized lever for closing the talent gap.
Accessing the Full Report
The 2020 Upskilling: Enterprise DevOps Skills Report is available for download directly from the DevOps Institute website upon free registration. Given the breadth of skill categories covered—technical, functional, process, and human—it is worth reviewing in full for anyone involved in DevOps hiring, team planning, or personal career development.