DevOps is about Automation, the ‘A’ in the CAMS acronym so you really need to understand the following to make a success of it.
Data, Data, Data – metrics and instrumentation are key to planning, execution and understanding progress
Necessity is the mother of invention; if it ain’t broke don’t fix it <Powershell or bash might be the right answer>
Legacy businesses may be able to use existing automation tools as effectively as emerging tools for automation
Choreographing a service is more important than automating a server
Redressing the failures of historical behaviour is hard nee impossible; tread carefully with legacy
Open source changes rapidly; keeping current needs a process
Workflow ideas are emerging but confused in the Configuration Management community
You write positive actions when building something. Removing something needs a positive action too. Is an immutable infrastructure practical for you?
Physical infrastructure is harder than virtualisation which is harder than cloud
Community doesn’t replace your own expertise
It is all about infrastructure as code – consider your need for a UI and how your user experience will benefit | suffer
You can test from the inside out or the outside in; which is better is yet to be decided
Simply technology 