Top 12 Infrastructure Analyst Skills to Put on Your Resume

Crafting an impressive Infrastructure Analyst resume means showing sharp, real-world skills and the judgment to run complex systems without flinching. Below, the essentials—twelve core areas hiring teams scan for, fast—and how to sharpen them so your experience stands up under scrutiny.

Infrastructure Analyst Skills

1. AWS
2. Azure
3. VMware
4. PowerShell
5. Python
6. Cisco Networking
7. Active Directory
8. Linux
9. Windows Server
10. Docker
11. Kubernetes
12. SQL

1. AWS

AWS is Amazon’s cloud platform spanning IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. It delivers on-demand compute, storage, databases, networking, and a deep toolbox for automation, observability, and security—ideal territory for building resilient, scalable infrastructure.

Why It's Important

For an Infrastructure Analyst, AWS offers elasticity, global reach, and guardrails to run workloads securely and cost-effectively—while keeping operations observable and repeatable.

How to Improve AWS Skills

Focus on cost, reliability, security, and speed. Then wire it all together with automation.

1. Performance and Reliability: Design multi-AZ by default. Use load balancers and autoscaling. Pick the right storage classes and instance families. Cache aggressively.

2. Cost Control: Tag everything. Right-size with monitoring data. Prefer Savings Plans over ad‑hoc Reserved Instances for flexibility. Turn off nonproduction when idle.

3. Security First: Lean on IAM roles and least-privilege policies. Isolate with VPCs and security groups. Record with CloudTrail, assess with Config and periodic Well-Architected reviews.

4. Data and Backups: Use managed services where sensible (RDS, Aurora). Schedule backups and test restores with automated runbooks.

5. Infrastructure as Code: Standardize with CloudFormation or Terraform. Bake golden AMIs or container images. Enforce changes via pipelines and peer review.

6. Operations Visibility: Centralize logs and metrics with CloudWatch and alarms. Track SLIs/SLOs. Alert on symptoms, not just infrastructure noise.

Done well, your environment gets faster, safer, and cheaper—without hand-tuned snowflakes.

How to Display AWS Skills on Your Resume

2. Azure

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform covering compute, storage, networking, identity, data, and DevOps tooling—built to run hybrid and enterprise workloads with tight integration to Microsoft ecosystems.

Why It's Important

It delivers scalable resources, strong identity and governance primitives, and polished hybrid patterns—key for analysts shepherding mixed on‑prem and cloud estates.

How to Improve Azure Skills

Tighten governance, automate everything, and keep an eye on spend and posture.

1. Cost Discipline: Use budgets, tags, and cost analysis. Right-size and schedule noncritical resources. Choose reserved capacity or savings plans for steady loads.

2. Security and Compliance: Use Microsoft Defender for Cloud for posture management and threat protection. Enforce policy and guardrails with Azure Policy and role-based access control.

3. Automation: Build pipelines with Azure DevOps or your preferred CI/CD to deploy ARM/Bicep or Terraform consistently. Bake images with Image Builder or Packer.

4. Reliability: Design across availability zones. Replicate with Azure Site Recovery. Back up critical data and validate restores.

5. Observability: Aggregate telemetry in Azure Monitor and Log Analytics. Create alerts tied to SLOs. Use Application Insights for app-level depth.

6. Governance at Scale: Manage subscriptions with Management Groups and Blueprints (or template specs). Standardize landing zones.

Small guardrails prevent big fires. Put them in early, keep them in always.

How to Display Azure Skills on Your Resume

3. VMware

VMware provides the virtualization stack behind countless data centers: vSphere, vCenter, vMotion, DRS, and more to consolidate hardware, isolate workloads, and run them efficiently.

Why It's Important

Virtualization lets you squeeze more value out of physical kit while keeping availability and manageability high. It’s the backbone for many hybrid designs.

How to Improve VMware Skills

Trim the waste, harden the edges, and plan for failure like it’s inevitable.

1. Performance: Keep VMware Tools current. Right-size CPU and memory. Balance storage with Storage I/O Control and watch latency like a hawk.

2. Security: Follow hardening guides. Segment networks, apply microsegmentation where possible, and patch hosts and guests promptly.

3. Availability: Enable HA and DRS. Test vMotion and storage vMotion paths. Use Site Recovery Manager (or equivalent) for orchestrated DR runs.

4. Monitoring and Capacity: Use VMware Aria Operations for forecasting, right-sizing, and proactive alerting.

5. Automation: Standardize provisioning with VMware Aria Automation or your automation tool of choice. Golden images are your friend.

6. Skills Growth: Invest in official training and labs. Drill failover and recovery regularly.

Healthy clusters don’t happen by accident; they’re engineered and continuously tuned.

How to Display VMware Skills on Your Resume

4. PowerShell

PowerShell is Microsoft’s automation and configuration shell, now cross‑platform. It’s built for administrators who want repeatability, speed, and fewer manual mistakes.

Why It's Important

It glues systems together. Bulk changes, audits, reporting, config drift checks—PowerShell cuts through tedious work and leaves logs to prove it.

How to Improve PowerShell Skills

Build fluency, then build modules. Test what you script. Ship your automation like software.

1. Foundations: Master core cmdlets, the pipeline, objects over text, and error handling. Prefer PowerShell 7+.

2. Editor and Tooling: Use Visual Studio Code with the PowerShell extension, linting, and debugging. Snippets save time.

3. Scripting Practices: Write advanced functions with parameters, help, and logging. Package reusable modules. Version with Git.

4. Remoting and Desired State: Use PowerShell Remoting for scale. Apply Desired State Configuration or equivalent to enforce configuration baselines.

5. Quality: Test scripts with Pester. Guard secrets with SecretManagement/SecretStore. Add CI to validate modules on commit.

6. Real Workloads: Automate AD, Azure, M365, VMware, and OS tasks. The more you apply it, the faster you get.

Automation that’s readable and tested is automation you can trust.

How to Display PowerShell Skills on Your Resume

5. Python

Python is a versatile language great for orchestration, data wrangling, API work, and quick utilities—exactly the glue many infrastructure teams rely on.

Why It's Important

It speeds up repetitive jobs, parses mountains of logs, and integrates cleanly with clouds, network gear, and CI/CD. Less tedium, more insight.

How to Improve Python Skills

Keep it practical: scripting, APIs, and data handling you can ship today.

1. Core Proficiency: Get comfortable with functions, classes, typing, packaging, and virtual environments.

2. Systems and Networking: Use subprocess, pathlib, logging, requests, and paramiko. Talk to REST APIs confidently.

3. Data Handling: Parse and analyze with pandas and numpy. Turn raw logs into crisp reports and alerts.

4. DevOps Integration: Drive Ansible, interact with cloud SDKs, and script container and Kubernetes workflows.

5. Quality and Distribution: Test with pytest, lint with flake8/ruff, format with black. Package and version your tools.

6. Habit: Automate small daily tasks. Momentum compounds skill.

Write once, reuse everywhere. Good Python unlocks whole days on the calendar.

How to Display Python Skills on Your Resume

6. Cisco Networking

Cisco networking spans switches, routers, wireless, security, and software management that holds enterprise networks together. It’s the fabric your services run across.

Why It's Important

Stable, secure networks keep apps reachable and data flowing. Analysts who can design, segment, and troubleshoot confidently are gold.

How to Improve Cisco Networking Skills

Design well, automate wisely, and validate continuously.

1. Keep Current: Track platform updates and new features. Practice on lab gear or simulators to lock in knowledge.

2. Design Discipline: Apply hierarchical design, redundancy, and clear addressing. Standardize with templates and golden configs.

3. Security: Enforce segmentation, ACLs, and identity-based access. Keep firmware current. Monitor for anomalies.

4. Automation and Orchestration: Use Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNA Center) APIs and templates or your chosen automation tool to reduce drift and speed rollouts.

5. Observability: Leverage assurance and telemetry to detect issues before users do. Measure latency, loss, jitter, and path changes.

6. Certify and Share: Pursue CCNP/CCIE tracks if relevant. Engage communities to trade patterns and pitfalls.

Good networks are quiet. Design them so you hear about changes on your terms.

How to Display Cisco Networking Skills on Your Resume

7. Active Directory

Active Directory centralizes identity, authentication, and authorization for Windows domains, tying users, groups, computers, and policies into one managed plane.

Why It's Important

It’s the gatekeeper. When AD is clean, monitored, and locked down, the rest of the environment breathes easier.

How to Improve Active Directory Skills

Reduce standing privilege, monitor relentlessly, and prepare for the worst.

1. Access Hygiene: Enforce least privilege. Use Privileged Access Workstations and tiered admin models. Rotate credentials with LAPS and prefer gMSAs for services.

2. Threat Detection: Deploy Microsoft Defender for Identity (replacing legacy ATA) for lateral movement and credential theft detection. Alert on risky changes.

3. Hardening: Turn on advanced audit policies. Restrict legacy protocols. Secure domain controllers aggressively and separate admin accounts by role.

4. Lifecycle and Cleanup: Disable and remove stale users, computers, and groups. Use automation to enforce naming and OU placement.

5. Resilience: Back up system state and AD regularly. Rehearse forest recovery and authoritative restore. Document the steps and keep them offline.

6. Modern Identity: Integrate with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) for cloud apps, conditional access, and MFA. Sync thoughtfully with scoped, secure connectors.

AD complacency is expensive. Discipline pays dividends in uptime and security.

How to Display Active Directory Skills on Your Resume

8. Linux

Linux powers servers, containers, and clouds. It’s stable, scriptable, and everywhere once you look under the hood.

Why It's Important

Reliable services, lean resource usage, and first-class automation support make Linux a natural home for critical workloads.

How to Improve Linux Skills

Instrument it, secure it, and script away the paper cuts.

1. Performance Insight: Use top/htop, iostat, vmstat, sar, and perf to find hotspots. Read systemd-analyze to speed boot paths.

2. Kernel and Networking: Tune with sysctl where justified. Prefer nftables on modern distros. Trace with tcpdump and dig into eBPF tools when you need surgical clarity.

3. Filesystems: Match workloads to ext4, XFS, or others appropriately. Align mount options and tune queues for throughput or latency as needed.

4. Security: Patch often. Enforce least privilege with sudo policies. Enable firewalls, SELinux/AppArmor as policy dictates, and auditd for evidence trails.

5. Automation: Standardize with Bash, Python, and tools like Ansible or Puppet. Idempotent playbooks beat tribal knowledge every time.

6. Backup and Recovery: Use rsync, Borg, Bacula, or Amanda. Test restores, not just backups.

7. Documentation: Keep living docs for configs, runbooks, and topology. A simple internal wiki works wonders.

Measure, then change. Linux rewards curiosity backed by data.

How to Display Linux Skills on Your Resume

9. Windows Server

Windows Server hosts identity, files, apps, and services across enterprises. Current, supported releases (such as 2019, 2022, and 2025) bring stronger security, hybrid features, and management tooling.

Why It's Important

It’s the anchor for many Microsoft-heavy environments. Solid configuration and monitoring translate directly to uptime.

How to Improve Windows Server Skills

Treat it like a product: secure defaults, monitored baselines, and automation from day one.

1. Stay Updated: Apply security updates reliably with maintenance windows and automated patching. Track lifecycle and end-of-support dates.

2. Performance: Use Performance Monitor and Resource Monitor to pinpoint bottlenecks. Set baselines and watch for drift.

3. Security Baselines: Enforce least privilege, Credential Guard, and Defender settings. Harden RDP and remote access. Audit success and failure events.

4. Encryption: Protect data at rest with BitLocker and secure key handling.

5. Backups: Back up system state and application data. Practice restore procedures. Don’t find gaps during an outage.

6. Firewall and Network: Configure Windows Defender Firewall with clear rules and logging. Segment services and roles.

7. Automation: Use PowerShell and Desired State to standardize builds and changes. Review via source control and CI.

8. Admin Center: Centralize management and health checks. Surface issues early with dashboards and alerts.

Predictable servers are a choice. Baselines and policy make it so.

How to Display Windows Server Skills on Your Resume

10. Docker

Docker packages applications and their dependencies into containers so they run the same way everywhere. Consistent, portable, quick to deploy.

Why It's Important

It smooths out environment drift, scales cleanly, and shortens delivery cycles. Operations gets predictability; developers get speed.

How to Improve Docker Skills

Smaller images, safer defaults, and clean orchestration win the day.

1. Lean Images: Use multi‑stage builds and minimal bases (distroless or Alpine when appropriate). Strip build tools from the final image.

2. Build Performance: Enable BuildKit. Cache dependencies smartly. Pin versions for reproducibility.

3. Security: Scan images (e.g., Trivy). Run as non‑root, read‑only filesystems, least capabilities, and a tight seccomp profile. Keep secrets out of images.

4. Resource Control: Set CPU and memory limits and reservations. Avoid noisy neighbors taking down the host.

5. Compose and Environments: Use docker compose v2 for multi‑container apps. Parameterize with env files and per‑environment overrides.

6. Storage and Networking: Prefer named volumes for persistence. Choose the right network driver and keep ingress/egress rules explicit.

7. Observability: Standardize logging drivers and centralize logs. Export metrics and trace slow paths.

8. Currency: Keep the engine and base images current for fixes and features.

Containers reduce surprises—if you keep them disciplined.

How to Display Docker Skills on Your Resume

11. Kubernetes

Kubernetes orchestrates containers—scheduling, scaling, healing, and rolling out changes across clusters so applications stay healthy.

Why It's Important

It automates the tricky parts of running distributed systems, giving you consistent deployments and better resource usage.

How to Improve Kubernetes Skills

Secure the platform, automate delivery, and watch the signals.

1. Observability: Install metrics-server and a monitoring stack for cluster and app metrics. Add tracing and centralized logs for context.

2. Security: Enforce RBAC and least privilege. Apply Pod Security Standards. Use network policies via your CNI. Add admission controls with Gatekeeper or Kyverno.

3. Scaling and Efficiency: Use Horizontal Pod Autoscaler v2, consider Vertical Pod Autoscaler, and run Cluster Autoscaler on node pools. Set requests/limits and quotas.

4. Reliability: Spread workloads across zones. Take regular etcd snapshots. Validate graceful rollouts and rollbacks. Test disruption policies.

5. Storage: Use CSI drivers, Persistent Volumes, and StorageClasses with clear performance tiers and backup plans.

6. Delivery: Standardize with Helm or Kustomize. Bake GitOps or CI/CD to make changes auditable and repeatable.

7. Runtime and Images: Prefer containerd-backed nodes, signed images, and pinned digests. Keep base images lean and patched.

Clusters don’t drift if your pipelines don’t.

How to Display Kubernetes Skills on Your Resume

12. SQL

SQL is the language of relational databases—creating schemas, shaping queries, and safeguarding the data applications depend on.

Why It's Important

It powers reporting, troubleshooting, and performance tuning. The right query makes problems obvious; the wrong one hides them.

How to Improve SQL Skills

Think like the engine. Then write like someone will maintain it later.

1. Foundations: Solid grasp of normalization, indexing, constraints, and transactions. Know when to denormalize for read patterns.

2. Query Craft: Master joins, subqueries, window functions, and CTEs. Prefer set-based logic over loops for clarity and speed.

3. Optimization: Read execution plans. Create the right indexes (covering, filtered). Parameterize queries and avoid accidental full scans.

4. Concurrency and Integrity: Understand isolation levels, locking, and deadlocks. Choose optimistic vs. pessimistic patterns deliberately.

5. Operational Tasks: Plan backups, test restores, automate maintenance (statistics, index health), and monitor long‑running queries.

6. Scale Patterns: Partition large tables, archive cold data, and profile workloads before you scale up or out.

Readable SQL is maintainable SQL. Performance follows structure.

How to Display SQL Skills on Your Resume