From SysAdmin to DevOps Engineer

Dipak PrasadDipak Prasad
2 min read

Table of contents

🧑‍💻 Introduction

Hi, I'm Dipak — a Senior System Administrator with over 9 years of experience managing hybrid infrastructure across Windows, Linux, and VMware. Over the past few years, I’ve been transitioning into the world of DevOps, Cloud, and Automation.

This blog is my way of sharing that journey — what I’ve learned, the challenges I’ve faced, and how I’m continuously upgrading my skills for the future of infrastructure.

⚙️ Why I Shifted to DevOps & Cloud

I’ve always enjoyed solving infrastructure problems — but manual configurations and repetitive admin tasks don’t scale. I started exploring Terraform, Ansible, and AWS Cloud to automate and modernize how we manage systems. That curiosity became a passion — and eventually, a career shift.

🧠 Skills I Carried Forward from SysAdmin Life

Coming from a sysadmin background helped me in many ways:

  • Deep understanding of Linux, Windows, and VMware

  • Strong troubleshooting mindset

  • Familiarity with networking and security principles

  • Real-world experience maintaining production systems

🚀 What I Learned to Transition to DevOps

I focused on learning and applying:

  • Terraform for infrastructure as code

  • Ansible for configuration management

  • AWS for cloud-native provisioning

  • CI/CD tools like Jenkins and GitLab CI

  • Docker and Kubernetes for containerization

  • Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana

I also built personal projects to test these tools in real-world scenarios — and yes, I made many mistakes and learned from each one.

🔧 Challenges I Faced

Some of the challenges included:

  • Getting used to version control and Git workflows

  • Thinking declaratively instead of manually

  • Balancing daily job duties while upskilling

  • Debugging Terraform errors at 2 AM 😅

🌱 What’s Next

My goal is to deepen my skills in DevOps, SRE, and Cloud-Native technologies.

Through this blog, I’ll be sharing:

  • Tutorials and automation tips

  • Real-world issues I solve

  • My thoughts on DevOps tools and practices

If you’re a sysadmin looking to transition, or a beginner in DevOps — I hope my experience can help you.

🙏 Conclusion

Thanks for reading!
If this resonates with you, follow me here on Hashnode — and feel free to connect on LinkedIn.

Let’s grow together 🚀

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DevOps Journeysysadmin

Written by

Dipak Prasad
Dipak Prasad

I'm a DevOps & Cloud Engineer with over 9 years of hands-on experience in managing and automating infrastructure across hybrid environments — from Windows and Linux servers to AWS cloud-native architectures. My journey started as a system administrator, and over the years I've evolved into a DevOps practitioner passionate about Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, containerization, and cloud automation. This blog is my space to share lessons learned, solutions to real-world infrastructure challenges, and practical tips on using tools like Terraform, Ansible, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, and beyond. Whether you're a fellow sysadmin transitioning into DevOps, or a cloud engineer solving problems at scale — I hope you’ll find something useful here.