I've worked in IT infrastructure for several years, mainly with Linux systems, databases, production support, and enterprise applications. I'm now trying to choose a long-term specialization between DevOps and SAP Basis.
DevOps offers a broad ecosystem involving cloud platforms, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, automation, observability, and SRE. It seems applicable across many industries and may offer strong international and remote opportunities. SAP Basis appears more specialized, with fewer professionals and potentially strong demand in large enterprises, especially for people who move into SAP HANA, cloud, BTP, or architecture.
My main priorities are long-term growth, salary potential, opportunities to work abroad, and choosing a field that should remain relevant over the next 10–15 years. I'm willing to spend the next few years learning seriously, so I'm more interested in the better long-term return than in whichever path is easier.
For people with experience in either field, which direction would you choose from a Linux and infrastructure background, and what drawbacks or less obvious realities should I consider?
4 Answers
I moved from SAP administration into general systems work and eventually cloud and SRE. My experience was that SAP was much more niche and often less enjoyable to operate than broader infrastructure platforms. It can provide stability and decent compensation, but the work is concentrated in large, traditional enterprises and can involve maintaining expensive legacy processes for many years.
DevOps gives you more freedom to change industries and employers later. Even companies that use SAP usually need Linux, cloud, networking, automation, and deployment expertise elsewhere in their environment. That portability would matter a lot to me if international mobility and a 10–15 year career horizon were priorities.
One thing to be realistic about with DevOps is that you may feel behind constantly. The tools change quickly, and the role can involve development, operations, security, networking, incident response, and architecture. You need to be comfortable as a broad generalist and keep learning.
That isn't necessarily a reason to avoid it. The durable skills are more important than any single product: automation, reliable system design, CI/CD, cloud fundamentals, observability, and good operational practices. Those are likely to remain valuable even when the specific tools change.
SAP Basis can pay well and should remain relevant for quite a while because large companies are deeply invested in SAP systems. However, it is a narrower market: your opportunities are mostly with organizations that run SAP, and getting started can be difficult without an employer willing to provide formal training or let you work on real systems.
The field is also changing as SAP moves toward cloud services, HANA, BTP, and managed offerings. That means a modern Basis career increasingly overlaps with cloud, automation, and DevOps anyway. I would only choose it if the SAP work itself genuinely interests you or you already have a credible path into training and hands-on experience.
Your existing experience transfers very naturally into DevOps or platform engineering. Linux knowledge carries over directly, database experience helps with cloud and stateful workloads, and production support gives you the troubleshooting and reliability mindset that SRE teams need. You probably aren't starting from zero.
The main challenge is that DevOps is very broad, so it helps to choose an anchor instead of trying to learn every tool at once. For example, build solid skills around one cloud provider, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, containers, and observability before expanding into Kubernetes or platform engineering. Those practices are useful across industries and are less tied to one vendor.
I don't have direct SAP experience yet, but a potential employer is willing to provide training, so that may make the entry barrier less of a problem. I'm still trying to decide whether the narrower market is worth it.