Are you ready to flex your mental muscles? Maybe you want to learn something new or sharpen your skills. Or perhaps you want to further your career or your company is implementing new technologies to your infrastructure and you want to get ahead. 

Whatever the case, there are plenty of online courses available to satisfy your quest for knowledge. 

As internet usage continues to rise and companies become even more integrated into online platforms and cloud-based systems, it’s a good idea (if not crucial) to stay ahead of the curve if you’re in the SaaS industry. 

That’s why we’ve curated these advanced courses to help you along on your perilous, technical adventures. Remember, it’s up to you to protect your network and systems from The Dark Lord of Outages.

These courses are all free (or come with a free trial) and you can take them at your own pace, so you really have nothing to lose.  Well, maybe your time, but investing in your growth and development is never a waste.

Advanced LinkedIn Courses for DevOps and IT Professionals

Cloud Architecture: Advanced Concepts

If you’re wanting to learn more about new cloud architecture technologies and how they fit in with your current network, this is the course for you. The main focus of this class is cloud computing and design, containers and microservices, DevOps integration, and finding high-performance solutions to computing storage and power.

This is a LinkedIn Learning course and can be completed in just over an hour. It’s broken down into short, easy-to-digest chapters, and you receive a course certificate upon completion, which can be displayed on your LinkedIn profile, added to your resume, downloaded, shared, or printed as needed.

Source: LinkedIn

Instructor: David Linthicum, Chief Cloud Strategy Officer at Deloitte Consulting

Time Investment: 1hr 15min

Exercise Files: No

Not ready for this one yet? Try your hand at Cloud Architecture: Core Concepts first to get the basics down.

DevOps Foundations: Site Reliability Engineering

Another LinkedIn Learning course, DevOps Foundations: Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) delves into the inner workings of software engineering as it applies to the cloud in a business environment. It covers release engineering, change and incident management, postmortems, and more, as well as ideas on troubleshooting and management strategies for teams.

Like other LinkedIn courses, this can be watched in short clips or all at once. And if you aren’t concerned about receiving a certificate of completion, you can skip around and watch only the ones of interest or that pertain to your position the most.

Source: LinkedIn

Instructors: Ernest Mueller, Engineering Manager at Verica, and James Wickett, Security Engineer and supporter of rugged software and DevSecOps

Time Investment: 1hr 20min

Exercise Files: Yes

DevOps Foundations: Chaos Engineering

Just about any DevOps team member would agree that downtime creates sheer chaos. This LinkedIn Learning course discusses how to mitigate and address unexpected system failures using chaos engineering. Learn to test your network’s resilience and identify weaknesses in your infrastructure so that you can prevent the madness that often ensues from natural disasters or cloud outages. In just 36 minutes, you’ll be better equipped to prepare and protect your organization’s systems from disaster.

Source: LinkedIn

Instructors: Mike Smith, R&D architect

Time Investment: 36min

Exercise Files: Yes

"You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have." - J. R. R. Tolkien

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Bonus Intermediate DevOPs Courses

DevOps Culture and Mindset

While considered intermediate and not advanced, this highly-rated Coursera course is helpful for anyone on a DevOps team. It requires a larger time investment than some of the aforementioned courses, but it provides valuable insight into the current culture of DevOps teams. From feedback loops and collaborative efforts to risk management and dealing with the unexpected, you’ll be sure to gain some new insight into your field and be inspired by processes you can integrate into your daily routine.

Source: Coursera

Instructors: Courtney Kissler, Vice President, Nike Digital Platform Engineering

Time Investment: 15hrs

Exercise Files: Yes

Fundamentals of Kubernetes Deployment

If you’re interested in auto-scaling and automating the deployment of application containers in your infrastructure, you want to learn Kubernetes. This course assumes you have a basic understanding of Kubernetes and aims to develop what you know into practical and usable knowledge. Plan for approximately eight hours to complete this course. If you are new to Kubernetes, here’s a fun link that explains it in story-book terms to get you started!  

Source: Coursera

Instructors: Jim Sullivan, Master Trainer and Technology Practitioner

Time Investment: 8hrs

Exercise Files: Yes

If you’re looking for some good DevOps beginner courses to get you started, check these free classes. --#3 linkedin link doesn’t work in our beginner course blog

Supplementary Learning: Books to Grow Your Skills

Can’t get enough learning? Here’s a list of highly recommended books you’ll love!

• The Phoenix Project - Get a deeper look into the DevOps culture through the story of this fictional company on the brink of failure.
• The DevOps Handbook - A practical "sequel" to The Phoenix Project that focuses on agility, reliability, and security.
• Google's Site Reliability Engineering - Learn how Google’s engineers build, deploy, monitor, and maintain their systems.
• The Site Reliability Workbook - This workbook is a companion to Google's Site Reliability Engineering and provides greater insight into the art of engineering. 
• The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data - Another insightful follow-up to The Phoenix Project focusing on culture, focus and flow, ideas for improving daily routines, and more.
• DevOps for Dummies - Don't let the name fool you. This book is full of inspiration and methodology that can help you step up your tech game.
  
  

Be a Leader in Your Field by Keeping Your Mind and Skills Sharp

No matter your position, making personal and professional growth a priority should be a cardinal rule, but this is especially important in the tech industry. Technology is always evolving—it never stays the same for long. 

Continuing education courses on platforms like LinkedIn and Coursera are convenient and economical ways to build upon what you already know, improve your skills, and learn new things. From beginner to advanced courses, there’s something out there for everyone. It’s also your chance to stand out at work by showing initiative and willingness to grow.

If you want to learn more about DNS-related topics, we’ve got you covered! We offer a plethora of tutorials on just about every DNS subject you’ll need.