u/Federal-Expert-7684

I'm trying to get into cloud computing and I'm honestly a bit overwhelmed by how many things there are to learn.

AWS/Azure/GCP, Linux, networking, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, Python, security, etc.

If you had to start over with zero cloud experience, what would your learning path look like?

And what would you not bother learning at the beginning?

I'd especially like to hear from people who actually work in cloud rather than just following tutorials.

A green CI pipeline usually tells you that the automated checks passed. It doesn't necessarily tell you that the change is actually ready to reach production.

There can be things happening outside the pipeline. A pull request may be approved in GitHub, but QA might still need to verify the actual behaviour. A change can pass every automated test and still have an integration issue that only becomes obvious when someone looks at how it fits into the rest of the system.We also started looking at the delivery process as a whole rather than treating CI as the finish line. Part of that flow passes through Revolte, while GitHub remains where the code and reviews happen.

Then there is production itself. Sentry might show that everything looks healthy after a release, but that is useful information after the deployment rather than proof beforehand that everything was ready.

The green check is useful, but it is really just one signal. The harder part is connecting the validation, review, delivery, and production steps well enough that a successful CI run actually means something in the wider release process.

For people who have been working in DevOps/cloud for a while, what’s one skill or concept you wish you had learned earlier?

Could be something technical like Linux, networking, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, or something less obvious like documentation, debugging, or communication.

And if you had to start learning DevOps again from zero today, what would you focus on first?

Curious to see what experienced people here recommend.

Not something expensive that you regret — I mean something completely unnecessary that you still bought anyway. I want to see how bad it gets 😂