Kubernetes

Platform engineering used to be the title on a few job adverts at Spotify and Netflix. In 2026 it is the default shape of any infrastructure team larger than a dozen people. The shift is worth understanding, because it is not just a rebrand of DevOps - it is a different operating model, with different tools, different incentives, and a different relationship to the developers it serves. This post is a plain-language walk through what platform engineering actually is, why the industry has converged on it, and how the arrival of AI agents is reshaping the discipline mid-flight. ...

Homebrew is the package manager that makes a Mac genuinely usable as a development machine. The list below is the working set of packages I install on a new laptop, organised by what they do rather than alphabetically. Most can be installed in one command: brew install <package>. For graphical applications, see the companion Mac Applications and Utilities page. Essential bat - Cat alternative with syntax highlighting and Git integration fzf - Fuzzy finder for CLI (command history, file search, etc.) glow - Markdown reader in the terminal htop - Interactive process monitor with colors and mouse support jq - JSON query and manipulation tool (sed for JSON) pyenv - Python version manager python - Python (3.11+) ripgrep (rg) - Fast, recursive grep alternative terraform - Infrastructure as code provisioning tfswitch - Switch Terraform versions easily (warrensbox/tap/tfswitch) tree - Display directory structure visually wget - Command-line file downloader yq - YAML/JSON/XML processor and querying tool Cloud & Container Tools awscli - AWS Command Line Interface docker - Container platform and runtime gcloud - Google Cloud CLI helm - Kubernetes package manager k9s - Interactive Kubernetes resource viewer and manager kubectl - Kubernetes command-line tool kubectx - Switch between Kubernetes clusters and namespaces minikube - Run Kubernetes locally in a VM Development Languages & Frameworks django - Python web framework go - Go programming language nvm - Node.js version manager npm - Node Package Manager pytorch - Machine learning framework for deep learning rbenv - Ruby version manager rust - Rust programming language tensorflow - ML library for machine learning and AI DevOps & Infrastructure Tools ansible - Configuration management and automation consul - Service mesh and service discovery hashicorp/tap/vault - Secrets management tool packer - Machine image builder prometheus - Metrics collection and monitoring System & Network Tools bottom - System monitor (process, memory, disk, network) dust - Disk usage analyzer (better than du) exa - Modern ls replacement with colors and icons fd - Fast find alternative lnav - Log file analyzer and explorer mtr - Network diagnostic combining ping and traceroute speedtest-cli - Test internet upload/download speed tldr - Simplified man pages with practical examples File & Directory Tools midnight-commander - Full-screen file manager (mc) ncdu - Disk space usage analyzer ranger - Terminal file manager with preview support Productivity & Utilities direnv - Load environment variables based on directory httpie - HTTP CLI client (curl alternative) jupyter - Interactive notebooks for data science navi - Interactive cheatsheet and command browser task - Task management and todo app tmux - Terminal multiplexer (multiple sessions/panes) Database & Data Tools postgresql - PostgreSQL database client redis-cli - Redis key-value store client sqlite - Lightweight embedded database Additional Utilities neofetch - System information display snappy - Compression library for fast compression/decompression youtube-dl - Download videos from YouTube and other sites Related Pages Mac Applications and Utilities - graphical applications to pair with this CLI toolkit DevOps Best Practices

Cheatsheets are one of the most under-rated learning tools in the DevOps toolbox. When you are three hours into debugging a broken pipeline, you don’t want a 400-page book - you want the one page that reminds you which flag does what. This page collects quick references I keep within arm’s reach. Cloud Computing A concise summary of the core cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), deployment patterns, and the shared responsibility model is a good starting point for anyone new to cloud infrastructure. ...

Most of what makes a productive DevOps engineer is not hidden inside vendor portals - it lives in open source, on GitHub, and it is free. The projects below are the ones I return to most often, whether for learning, daily tooling, or reference implementations of patterns that would otherwise take weeks to work out alone. DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Resources to calibrate what good looks like in the discipline. ...

Amazon Web Services (AWS) AWS Associate Level Exams A Cloud Guru AWS Certified Developer (Associate) AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (Associate) Introduction to Amazon Cognito CBT Nuggets AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (Associate) CloudAcademy AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) Certification Preparation for AWS Pluralsight AWS Certified Developer (Associate) AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (Associate) Whizlabs AWS Certified Developer (Associate) AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate) AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (Associate) AWS Professional Level Exams A Cloud Guru AWS Certified DevOps Engineer (Professional) AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Professional) Pluralsight AWS Certified DevOps Engineer (Professional) Command-line Interface (CLI) Pluralsight Mastering AWS Command-line Interface Operations Continous Integration / Continous Deployment (CI/CD) Pluralsight Continuous Delivery and DevOps with Azure DevOps: Source Control with Git Getting Started with Jenkins Practicing CI/CD with AWS CodePipeline Whizlabs Deploying Microservices to Kubernetes using Azure DevOps Advanced Azure DevOps and AKS Patterns for Scalable Solutions Cost Optimization CloudAcademy AWS Cost Management and Customer Support Data & Databases Pluralsight Big Data on Amazon Web Services Foundations of Document Databases with MongoDB SQL on Hadoop - Analyzing Big Data with Hive General CBT Nuggets AWS Technical Essentials CloudAcademy Introduction to Amazon Web Services (AWS) How to Move Your Website to AWS with PHP, MySQL, and Apache High Availability CloudAcademy How to Architect with a Design for Failure Approach Lambda CloudAcademy AWS Lambda Networking A Cloud Guru AWS Certified Advanced Networking Specialty Pluralsight AWS Networking AWS Networking Deep Dive: Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) AWS VPC Operations Introduction to Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Storage CloudAcademy Automated Data Management with EBS, S3, and Glacier Storage Fundamentals for AWS Whitepapers Blue/Green Deployments on AWS Development and Test on Amazon Web Services Introduction to DevOps on AWS Practicing Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery on AWS Running Containerized Microservices on AWS Azure CloudAcademy Getting Started With Azure Virtual Machine Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Pluralsight Microsoft Azure Fundamentals CompTIA Pluralsight CompTIA Storage+ Part 1: Storage Fundamentals CompTIA Storage+ Part 2: Network Storage & Data Replication CompTIA Storage+ Part 3: Data Protection & Storage Docker & Containers CloudAcademy Docker in Depth Coursera Containerized Applications on AWS DataCamp Introduction to Docker KodeKloud Docker Certified Associate Exam Course Docker – SWARM | SERVICES | STACKS – Hands-on Docker Training Course for the Absolute Beginner Pluralsight Docker Deep Dive Docker Fundamentals for Developers Udemy Docker Mastery: with Kubernetes +Swarm from a Docker Captain Docker and Kubernetes: The Complete Guide Git Codecademy Learn Git & GitHub Coursera Introduction to Git and GitHub GitOps KodeKloud GitOps with ArgoCD Google Cloud Platform (GCP) CBT Nuggets Developing Solutions for Google Cloud Platform CloudAcademy Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) Pluralsight Visual Studio Data Tools for Developers Infrastructure-as-Code A Cloud Guru HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate HashiCorp Packer KodeKloud HashiCorp Certified: Consul Associate Certification HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate Certification HashiCorp Certified: Vault Associate Certification Pluralsight Hands-on Ansible Whizlabs HashiCorp Certified Consul Associate HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate Certification HashiCorp Certified Vault Associate Kubernetes A Cloud Guru EKS Basics Istio in Kubernetes Kubernetes Essentials Kubernetes Deep Dive Kubernetes the Hard Way Coursera Architecting with Google Kubernetes Engine Specialization GitHub Open Source Curriculum for CNCF Certification Courses Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA) Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA) Killer Kubernetes Exam Simulator KodeKloud Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) Helm for Beginners Istio Service Mesh Kubernetes Challenges Kubernetes for the Absolute Beginners – Hands-on Tutorial Kustomize Lens: Kubernetes IDE Linode: Kubernetes Engine OpenShift 4 Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA) Ultimate Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Mock Exam Series Ultimate Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Mock Exam Series KubeCampus: Free Kubernetes Training Pluralsight Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Certified Kubernetes Application Developer: Services and Networking Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) Getting Started with Kubernetes StackSimplify Kubernetes for Absolute Beginners on AWS EKS Udemy Docker and Kubernetes: The Complete Guide Learn DevOps: The Complete Kubernetes Course Whizlabs Deploying Microservices to Kubernetes using Azure DevOps Tutorials EKS Workshop Kubernetes The Hard Way Articles Kubernetes Failure Stories Linux CBT Nuggets CentOS System Administrator Prep Pluralsight Getting Started with Ubuntu LPIC-1: Linux Administrator (101-500 and 102-500) LPIC-2: Linux Engineer (201-450 and 202-450) Manage Linux with sed and awk Red Hat Enterprise Linux Shell Fundamentals RHCSA: Red Hat Certified System Administrator (EX200) Udemy The Complete Ubuntu Linux Server Administration Course ! Networking CBT Nuggets Building a Network Design OpenStack Pluralsight Getting Started with OpenStack Introduction to OpenStack Programming CBT Nuggets Python Programming Language Pluralsight Python: Beyond The Basics Python Desktop Application Development Python Developers Toolkit Unit Testing With Python Search Pluralsight Getting Started With Enterprise Search Using Apache Solr Security CBT Nuggets CompTIA Security+ Security Threats, Attacks & Vulnerabilities Virtualization Pluralsight Introduction to Versioning Environments With Vagrant Archived These are no longer available ...

A working DevOps engineer draws from several disciplines at once - distributed systems, operating systems, network engineering, software development, and the organisational side that keeps it all moving. The books below are the ones I have either read cover-to-cover or regularly pull off the shelf to reference. I have added a one-line note on why each one is on the list. Culture and Practice The hardest problems in DevOps are usually not technical. ...

This is the set of re:Invent 2022 slide decks I found most useful when they were published, grouped by topic. Each entry links to the official AWS-hosted PDF and carries a short, plain-language note about what the session is useful for in practice - so you can decide which decks are worth reading before committing the time. For the full session video recordings, see the AWS Events channel on YouTube. DevOps Amazon’s approach to high-availability deployment The practices Amazon’s own delivery teams use to reach near-zero deployment failure rates. Most of the value is in the guardrail patterns - pre-production gates, automated rollback triggers, and how to design a release process that protects itself from human error. ...

CI/CD is the plumbing that turns a commit into running software. The tools below cover the full spectrum - from fully managed SaaS that you never have to operate, to self-hosted automation servers you tune yourself, to GitOps controllers that treat your Kubernetes cluster as the deployment target. How to choose A few questions that tend to cut through the vendor noise: Is your code in GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket? Staying in-ecosystem reduces integration effort dramatically Do you deploy to Kubernetes? GitOps tools like Argo CD and Flux are often a better fit than traditional pipelines Do you want to operate the control plane yourself? Jenkins gives you maximum flexibility and maximum operational burden How many parallel runners will you need at peak, and who pays for them? Hosted CI/CD platforms Low operational overhead, tight integration with their source-control parents, and usage-based pricing. ...

Conferences are an inefficient way to learn a specific skill and an excellent way to discover what the rest of the industry is struggling with this year. The ones below are the events I either attend or watch closely, grouped by focus area. Large vendor conferences These are the flagship events run by the major cloud and software vendors. Content is partly marketing, but the architectural talks and customer case studies are genuinely useful. ...