Cloud Platform Engineer vs DevOps: What is the difference?

Cloud Platform Engineer vs DevOps: What is the difference?

Introduction

The terms 'cloud platform engineer' and 'DevOps' are becoming increasingly popular in the tech industry. However, many people do not know what these roles entail, or how they differ from one another. In this article, we'll take a look at what each of these jobs does (and doesn't) entail, so you can decide for yourself which is better for your organization's needs.

What Does a Cloud Platform Engineer Do?

Cloud Platform Engineering is a hybrid role that combines the skills of a Cloud Engineer and DevOps engineer. It’s a fairly new role, but you can expect to see it in more and more companies.

The Cloud Platform Engineer is responsible for building out the infrastructure that supports applications running on AWS or GCP (Google Cloud Platform). They use tools like Terraform to automate deployment procedures so software engineers can focus on coding rather than automating repeatable tasks like deploying new versions of an app or managing cloud resources at scale.

As more and more companies adopt DevOps culture, this role will become even more important in helping teams deliver better software faster than ever before!

What Does DevOps Do?

DevOps is a software development methodology that focuses on the collaboration and communication of software developers with other members of the project team. DevOps also emphasizes automation, continuous integration, and testing but these are all aspects of a larger whole.

The Case for Cloud Platform Engineers

You’re a cloud platform engineer. You are responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of your company’s cloud platform. Your job is to ensure that all systems are running smoothly or at least as smoothly as possible. You are also responsible for the deployment of these systems and making sure they work well together in order to provide a seamless experience for users who access them.

As an engineer, you have several responsibilities:

  • Designing and implementing your company's cloud platform
  • Deploying new features on top of existing ones to improve their usability
  • Assuring the stability of each individual component

The Case for DevOps

DevOps is a software development methodology that aims to improve the collaboration between software developers and information technology operations professionals. It combines practices from both development and IT operations (IT Ops).

DevOps means different things to different people, but at its core, it’s about automating everything. This can mean automating everything in your infrastructure or just some of it. But what it really comes down to is having everything automated so you can focus on other things like feature development, testing, etc.

It is apparent that businesses seeking to optimize their processes will benefit from adopting a hybrid approach, where the roles of CPE and DevOps are combined.

Businesses seeking to optimize their processes will benefit from adopting a hybrid approach, where the roles of CPE and DevOps are combined. A cloud platform engineer can manage services, software frameworks, and applications while providing vision and direction for how they should be deployed.

Meanwhile, a DevOps engineer can manage assets such as infrastructure or VMs while executing recommendations made by cloud platform engineers.

Such an arrangement enables businesses to enjoy the best of both worlds: CPEs can focus on the big picture while DevOps engineers focus on the details; CPEs provide direction and guidance while DevOps engineers execute; it is apparent that businesses seeking to optimize their processes will benefit from adopting a hybrid approach where the roles of Cloud Platform Engineers (CPEs) and DevOps Engineers are combined

Related: DevOps 101 - Understanding DevOps Guide

Conclusion

Cloud Platform Engineers (CPEs) and DevOps are two of the most important roles in the IT industry, especially in cloud computing. If you’re looking for someone to manage your company’s infrastructure, it’s important that you know what job title each candidate has and what their responsibilities entail so that you can ensure that your team is as effective as possible.

We hope this article helped clear up some confusion about which role is right for you or your business.

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