6 months into an Infrastructure/Technical Support role — should I take a 2-year HPE commitment or move toward Cloud/DevOps?

[u/Less_Let_4216]

I'm looking for some honest career advice from people who have experience in infrastructure, cloud, DevOps, networking, or enterprise IT.

Vadodara,I'm \~6 months into my first job at a System Integrator (SI) company. My current salary is INR ₹25,000/month.

My educational background is a Bachelor's in Cyber Security, but my current work is mostly infrastructure-focused.

In the last 5–6 months, I've worked on things like:

* HPE servers (DL360, DL380, ML350)
* VMware ESXi and vCenter
* Hyper-V
* Veeam Backup & Replication
* RAID configuration and server firmware
* HPE SimpliVity
* Windows Server
* Linux (basic/working knowledge)
* Networking: VLANs, trunking, STP, HSRP, L2/L3 switching
* Extreme Networks switches
* Palo Alto firewall/VPN troubleshooting
* Microsoft 365 troubleshooting/investigation
* Barracuda email security
* Storage/NAS troubleshooting
* Customer deployments, remote support, onsite support and vendor escalations

Because we're an SI, I get exposure to different customers and different technologies. My work involves deploying solutions, troubleshooting issues, coordinating with vendors, and sometimes helping with surveys/BOQs.

For example, I've worked on VMware/vCenter issues, Veeam backup problems, HPE server deployments, storage issues, network troubleshooting, firewall cases, etc.

My concern is that most of my work is still implementation/support-oriented. A lot of the work follows documentation or established procedures. I'm learning a lot, but I don't always feel like I'm solving highly open-ended engineering problems or designing systems myself.

Recently my manager told me the company is considering spending around ₹3–4 lakh on HPE training and professional certifications for me. In return, they want a commitment of around 1–2 years (exact duration and terms are still being discussed).

This has made me seriously think about my long-term direction.

# Option 1: Stay and take the HPE path

I could spend the next 2 years becoming much stronger in:

HPE + VMware + servers + storage + networking + backup/DR + enterprise infrastructure.

The potential benefit is that I could become a proper Infrastructure/Virtualization/Data Center Engineer instead of staying at the support level.

But I'm worried that this could make me too vendor/infrastructure-specific, and after 2 years I may still have limited exposure to cloud/automation/DevOps.

# Option 2: Stay for a few more months, then switch

I could continue getting infrastructure experience while spending my own time learning:

Linux → Python/Bash → Git → Ansible → Terraform → Docker → CI/CD → AWS/Azure

and then try to move into Infrastructure/Cloud/DevOps/Platform roles around the 1-year experience mark.

I'm interested in these technologies even though I haven't worked professionally with them yet. Linux and cloud are things I genuinely enjoy learning, and concepts like CI/CD, automation and Terraform are very interesting to me.

# Another thing affecting my thinking

I have a few friends working as SWEs at companies like Microsoft and Google, and seeing their compensation has made me question whether I should be aiming for software engineering instead of infrastructure.

I don't necessarily love programming enough yet to say that SWE is what I want, so I don't want to make a decision purely because of salary.

I'm trying to figure out what kind of engineer I actually want to become.

# What I would really like advice on

For people who have worked in these fields:

1. **How valuable is 2 years of SI experience in HPE/VMware/infrastructure compared with moving earlier into Cloud/DevOps?**
   
2. **Does enterprise infrastructure experience provide a good foundation for eventually moving into Cloud/DevOps/Platform Engineering?**
   
3. **If I take the HPE certification + 2-year commitment, what kind of roles and salary range could I realistically target after \~2.5 years total experience?**
   
4. **Would you consider HPE/VMware/Storage a good specialization in 2026, or would you prioritize cloud/automation?**
   
5. **For someone with my current background, is it realistic to transition into DevOps/Cloud without taking a step backward in salary/title?**
   
6. **How different is infrastructure work in a large MNC from SI work? Is MNC infrastructure engineering generally deeper, or can it also become repetitive L1/L2 support?**
   
7. **Would you recommend staying in the SI environment for another 6–12 months to build infrastructure fundamentals before switching, or moving sooner?**
   
8. **Most importantly: how do I determine whether I actually want to become a Cloud/DevOps engineer versus an Infrastructure/Virtualization engineer?**

I'm not looking for a “follow your passion” answer. I'd really appreciate practical advice from people who have actually worked in these roles and understand how the career progression looks after 2–5 years.

Thanks!