Unpacking the Cloud Architect Role: From Solutions to Code
As you can see from the title of this channel, I am personally a cloud architect in my “real life” job.
As im sure you know, just code is not enough these days to make full solutions to real world customer problems at scale. most enterprise grade solutions are a combination of cloud computing solutions, third party SAAS product, open source tools, as well as custom code stacks that require robust, scaleable hosting solutions. A cloud architect researches any variety of technology solutions and makes plans to combine these different tools to solve business specific problems.
I think one of the most confusing things about the “architect” title is that there are different types of architects. the two types of architects you hear about most often are cloud architects and solutions architects. so to understand what a cloud architect does, i think its easier to compare and contrast with a solutions architect.
solutions architects generally work for a cloud solutions provider. for example, you will find solutions architects at AWS, GCP, Azure or really any vendor that sells their software as a service to other companies or consumers. solutions architects are at the end of the day still trying to help companies build solutions, but most of the time their role is to suggest a solution using the product the company they work for sells. I really like to think of solutions architects as an extension of sales for SAAS companies.
in comparison, cloud architects generally work for the company that is potentially buying the product from that vendor. In my role as a cloud architect I will often find myself in meetings evaluating solutions from cloud vendors that have been proposed by solutions architects. my job is to compare the many different solutions offered and be the technical advisor for my employer.
being a company’s technical consultant
After evaluating the proposed solutions, i make a technical recommendation on the approach that i feel will work best, keeping in mind all of the business objectives my employer has. including long term maintenance, performance expectations and licensing costs.
communications
but being a cloud architect is more than just reviewing solutions and designing interconnected systems. Cloud architects need to also be able to take their plans and communicate them in multiple ways. Personally, i think communication skills might actually be more important than technical skills in this role. i mean, what good is an amazing plan and awesome architecture diagrams without having others in the company have any idea what the heck any of this stuff is?
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