What Is a Cloud Architect?
Building, maintaining and securing a cloud environment is a complex task.
An ever-growing number of firms are being drawn to the cloud for its low initial investment and straightforward infrastructure setup.
Though it is possible to get rid of on-premises hardware by using the cloud — where someone else is responsible for taking care of the servers — we still need experts who can keep things running properly.
WHAT IS A CLOUD ARCHITECT?
A cloud architect is responsible for designing, developing, implementing and maintaining a company's cloud computing strategy.
"An architect is responsible for the design of buildings and the creation of plans that detail how to construct them; a cloud architect performs these same duties, but in relation to cloud-based structures," explained Meg Srdjan, a cloud engineer with Uncomn.
The role of a cloud architect is to help a company develop, implement and maintain its cloud computing strategy.
Cloud architectures that utilize more than one cloud platform and/or on-premises hardware are designed by cloud architects to be resilient, scalable, and secure. Tedrick, though not a cloud architect herself, works closely with them in the course of helping clients with cloud adoption and migration.
"An architect designs buildings and develops plans for their construction; a cloud architect does that in the cloud."
She stated that the role of cloud architect necessitates comprehensive technical understanding of cloud computing and associated fields like computer networking, data, and security.
A cloud architect is a professional responsible for the design, planning, and implementation of a company's cloud computing strategy. For example, a cloud engineer's responsibilities may include implementing the designs and plans developed by a cloud architect.
Tedrick said that the reason for the many title variations and overlap within the cloud architect role is because it has evolved so rapidly due to the increasing popularity of cloud technology.
"There are often subspecialties within the field of architecture, so firms will frequently combine the responsibilities of architects with those of engineers or technicians," she said.
Not Just Interacting With the Cloud
A cloud architect's duties include leading technical discussions, validating that a cloud solution will meet a company's requirements, developing architecture diagrams, and helping to develop proof of technologies and proof of concepts for clients.
As a solutions architect for Zscaler, a cloud-based information security company, Frank Dagenhardt's days often involve educating others about the cloud.
"Our primary goal is to ensure that our internal teams and partners are able to effectively use our solutions to meet customer needs."
Dagenhardt spends a lot of his time meeting with customers. During these meetings, he and his team talk about what the customer needs and how to best achieve them. Often, these meetings will result in ideas for ways to improve Zscaler's products or services, be it through customer requests or the team identifying common features that could serve the customers better.
"We may suggest new features to our business unit if there are gaps that we don't currently address or if this is what customers are looking for," said Dagenhardt.
Cloud architects must have excellent communication skills to be successful in their roles, as they often have to interact with a variety of stakeholders including developers, network engineers and managers.
At Uncomn, Srdjan has learned a great deal about networking infrastructure and how to deploy it. However, much of her recent work has revolved around infrastructure as code. Consistency is key when expanding infrastructure - she explained.
Learning Is Part of the Everyday Routine
It is a common experience for cloud architects to need to learn new things and teach themselves new technologies.
"The conditions of the field vary each day," Srdjan explained. "It is one of those areas where if an individual does not make an effort to learn, they will lag behind."
Dagenhardt said that the speed at which cloud technologies are advancing is one of the things that keeps him up at night.
It is important to stay up to date with the options, how customers might leverage new technologies, and the best practices that might go into keeping them secure.
"I have always found dedicating some of my time for personal advancement and improvement to be helpful," he said. Srdjan discussed the importance of getting certified and continuing your education, but she also said that it is valuable to learn from the people around you.
"If you're not learning, you're falling behind."
"You learn from each other, especially shortcuts or tools that make life easier," she said, mentioning Visual Studio Code and ShellCheck as examples of resources she's learned from coworkers.
However, she stated that it is more than simply collecting useful tools that can make the day more convenient. There is also the collaborative element of getting to observe different perspectives on how to utilize or implement different technologies.
"When you work by yourself, you lack outside perspective on your code quality and best practices," Srdjam said.
When a cloud architect doesn't have colleagues to learn from, Srdjan recommended seeking out places like Reddit, where people in the tech community can ask each other questions about the best resources for different situations.
“You have a list of recommended tools and you get other people’s opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of those tools,” she said. “So even if you don’t have colleagues to guide you, you can still see different points of view.”
Security Concerns in a Fast-Growing, Multi-Cloud Field
Dagenhardt advised that those wishing to become cloud architects have a mix of perspectives when it comes to cloud platforms, as this is where he sees the future of the field going.
“What we’ve seen in the cloud industry is that customers usually start by using one cloud vendor, but eventually move to a multi-cloud set-up, where they have some of their resources in one or more clouds,” said [ speaker ]. He also said that there is a shift from infrastructure as a service to containers or even serverless technologies.
Cloud diversification is a trend that will keep the role of cloud architect in vogue, according to Tedrick. This means that employers looking for cloud architects will want to know which cloud platforms the architects have hands-on experience with.
“We’re going to have a reckoning in the security world, that’s for sure.”
The safety of this increasingly nebulous environment is and will continue to be a top priority for those who work with the cloud.
"There will be consequences in the security world," Srdjan said. "There are a lot of people who want to get into the field and they learn the basics, but they don't learn the security behind it."
Srdjan states that the cloud has "the lowest barrier to entry for anybody who needs to set up their infrastructure."
"The cloud provides an infrastructure that is easy to spin up servers on and get running quickly," she said, adding that many of the default settings within a cloud environment can be insecure. "Cloud computing is a way to get operational quickly, but security must be taken into account."
Dagenhardt is questioning future security risks associated with the increasingly fast progression of cloud technologies.
"We still have older, more legacy technology that we must be able to accommodate," he said. "How do we protect the traditional environment as well as the cloud environment, while ensuring it is manageable and not creating double the work for customers?"
How to Become a Cloud Architect
If you are constantly learning and adapting to the shifting needs of customers and the evolving cloud landscape, there are some pieces of advice to keep in mind. The most important among those is that cloud architects must know and understand cloud computing well beyond the basics, said Tedrick.
Enterprise cloud security, governance, cost optimization, hybrid cloud architecture, and multi-cloud architecture are all important for students to learn.
For people who cannot find on-the-job cloud work, Tedrick recommended online lesson platforms such as A Cloud Guru and Pluralsight to give users first-hand experiences with various cloud platforms.
When applying for a cloud architect role, Srdjan said that job seekers should not get discouraged if a posting includes requirements which they do not have, or if it involves tasks with which they are not familiar. She also pointed out that job postings are sometimes not written by technical experts, and as such might ask for the impossible; such as requesting more years of experience in a product than it has existed.
She offered advice that if you want to get into the field, you shouldn't let one thing stop you from applying for a position that you have most of the skills for.
Srdjan also encouraged those looking to get into the field of cloud architecture to create a coding portfolio that showcases their skills and evolution over the years. She pointed to Github or other platforms where users can host code as great places to get started.
Potential cloud architects should seek out certifications to improve their chances of success. These certifications can come from vendors or be general and vendor-agnostic. The more general certifications may provide some helpful information about clouds and best practices, but Dagenhardt says that the vendor-specific certifications are often more useful because they go into detail about specific products and best practices for those products.
According to Tedrick, holding certifications from major vendors such as Microsoft, AWS, Google, and IBM can make you more hirable.
However, she was quick to add that "the focus should be on gaining skills and experience rather than acquiring certifications, as the certification will only get you so far. Great architects are born through trial, error, and time."
