Most people know that a "developer" writes code. And an "admin"? That’s the person who manages the servers.

But what about everything in between? And where does DevOps fit into all this?

That’s exactly what we set out to discover in this interview with one of our colleagues – a contractor in Quanti, Sebastian Uhlík, who works full-time in DevOps.

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What does DevOps actually mean? How would you explain it to someone outside the field?

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DevOps is a kind of bridge between a developer and an admin. When a developer writes the code and an admin takes care of the servers, DevOps is about making sure that code gets out into the world. In other words – building, testing, deploying.

Thanks to cloud platforms like Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, you don’t necessarily need to be a network engineer anymore – a lot of things are automated. But you do need to understand how infrastructure works, and at the same time, think like a developer.

DevOps people often write scripts, configure cloud infrastructure, handle monitoring, and deal with outages. But most importantly – they make sure developers don’t have to wait and that everything runs smoothly.

It’s a relatively new field – about fifteen years old – but today it’s absolutely essential for any company doing software development at scale.

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How did you get into it?

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It started in 2021 when I joined Quanti. I originally came in to do C# backend development in a team called Cirqus.

But at the interview, they told me: “Hey, we also need someone for Azure. Would you be up for that? You’ll learn on the go.” And I said, why not. At the time, I honestly had no idea what DevOps even was.

I was lucky to meet Jirka Ludvíček, who introduced me to the Azure Cloud. He showed me how it works, how to build infrastructure, how to write pipelines. It was all new, but I was hooked – and I still am.

I didn’t really understand what DevOps meant in full until later, when I learned more from Vojta Svoboda and the rest of the admin team. Until then, I only knew Azure.

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What do you enjoy most about it?

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That I get to see what’s happening behind the scenes. One way to look at it is: the developer writes code, it runs “somewhere,” and then it “somehow” works. But knowing where and how exactly – that’s not a given. I enjoy making sure everything is set up right. Preparing the infrastructure, building the pipelines, bringing the applications to life.

I also love that you can fine-tune and improve things. Automate them, speed them up, redesign processes, and find out why something isn’t working. It’s like a puzzle – piecing everything together so it runs seamlessly.

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How has AI changed DevOps?

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Massively. We used to do everything manually. Today, you can generate parts of your work with ChatGPT or a specialized model. Take a simple YAML pipeline for example. You just describe the language your code is written in, that you want to build it, run some tests, and deploy it – and AI can generate the basics for you.

You don’t have to create a template from scratch or look up every function – you just review what AI gives you, adjust it, and go. You can even train the model to follow your code style or naming conventions. It saves a ton of time.

A DevOps engineer or developer is no longer just someone who writes everything by hand. AI shifts us more into a quality assurance role – you’re not writing every line, but checking that it works. From being a “builder,” you become more of a “controller.”

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Why do you think there are so few DevOps people?

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Honestly? You rarely learn it at school. Not at Matfyz (Charles University) or CTU (Czech Technical University) – at least not from what I know. There might be a single overview course. So the best way to get into it is to get a chance at work – which requires an enlightened boss – or to start learning on your own.

YouTube, tutorials, online courses – ideally with hands-on exercises. You need to know basic tools like Git, Docker, and CI/CD tools like Azure DevOps, GitLab, or Jenkins. Understanding cloud computing and trying out a cloud platform on your own is also essential. Without that, you won’t get far.

In general, DevOps isn’t something that’s taught systematically. Unlike development, where you have tons of courses and materials, DevOps is still mostly learned through real-world practice – building infrastructure, handling live project needs. And schools can’t really offer that. Most people only discover it once they stumble into it at work.

But I believe that if it clicks for you, you’ll stick with it – because it’s such an exciting field. You gain a broader understanding of how the entire IT ecosystem works – not just writing or testing code.

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What advice would you give to someone considering a career in DevOps?

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Don’t be afraid of it. But do expect that you probably won’t learn it at school. So the best way is either to try it out yourself – play around with Git, Docker, CI tools, maybe set up something in the cloud. A lot of tools and services have free tiers.

Or find a company that’s willing to give you space to learn on the go.

And if you have someone around you who’s already doing DevOps and can show you the ropes – that’s a huge advantage.

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