I'd say you've got a choice to aim towards development or IT. Tony already touched on "The Cloud" which is true for either dev or IT - get yourself AWS and GCP accounts and play around. You can do this now from anywhere. Spin up a linux server hosting a simple web site. Set up DNS, load balancers and a database. It's not rocket surgery, it's the same thing you did with real hardware, there's just an API or CLI in front of it and someone else to fix it when it breaks. The pacific northwest has a Microsoft distortion field - AWS and Linux are the defacto standards in most of the rest of the world, and since you've already got linux admin skills I'd focus there.

Either IT or development are viable, but I've got direct hiring experience with developers, so I'll focus on that. Coming from a non-traditional background your best bet for getting your resume looked at is going to be a bootcamp. Some companies are more willing to hire bootcamp grads than others, but it's a way for them to know they're not going to be teaching you the basics of a modern software stack. I'm skeptical that bootcamps can take someone with no experience and turn them into a developer, but they can take someone with proximate experience and teach them the parts they don't know - and that's where it sounds like you are. Do your research here and talk to people. The bootcamp gold rush is winding down but there are still scams out there.

In either IT or development I'd recommend focusing on places that are willing to hire generalists. You're not going to become an expert in one specific thing in six months.

When you get to applying spend some time writing a good cover letter. Convey who you are (like the story you wrote above) and why you're interested in the company you're applying for. This might not be important if you're a direct pattern match for a job, but you probably won't be so spend some time explaining what you'll bring to the organization.

Your mileage will vary, good luck.