Between 2010 and 2021, the cloud industry is estimated to have grown from about $25 billion to over $150 billion. Helping to drive this growth are the many people working in cloud-based software and information systems. One important and advanced cloud role is that of the cloud architect, whose responsibility includes focusing on cloud planning and systems design.
What Is a Cloud Architect?
A cloud architect is a cloud-computing professional in charge of converting business requirements into a system architecture, design, and project plan to guide the final software product(s). In other words, when an organization wants to build a cloud-based solution, the cloud architect determines how it will be accomplished and executed from a technical perspective. In larger teams, there may be multiple cloud architects working together on any given solution.
What are the Roles and Responsibilities of a Cloud Architect?
The roles and responsibilities of a cloud architect can vary significantly depending on the organization. For example, on some teams, the architect is the main champion of cloud adoption. In businesses with more mature cloud usage, the architect may be focused primarily on how to successfully expand the existing cloud solutions. Some common responsibilities of a cloud architect include:
- Establishing policies, guidelines, and best practices for using cloud-computing resources
- Planning the technical architecture and design of solutions to be built in the cloud
- Exploring business problems and potential solutions/opportunities in the cloud
- Championing the cloud-adoption culture within the organization
- Developing the team’s cloud strategy and setting a plan for adopting new resources
- Setting privacy handling policies and incident response procedures related to the cloud
- Estimating cloud-related costs and ensuring on-budget delivery of cloud infrastructure and resources
In many organizations, the cloud architect is the senior-most technology professional specializing in cloud computing. However, this may not be the case for organizations that have in-depth usage and established cloud computing practices. Consequently, the roles and responsibilities of a cloud architect can be very far-reaching. Typically, the majority of the architect’s work is focused on planning and managing cloud solutions.
What Are the Skills Needed To Be a Cloud Architect?
Someone working as a cloud architect must master a wide variety of skills. Typically, someone filling this role will have many years of experience working in other software and cloud-computing roles. Therefore, a cloud architect is likely to have a well-established skill repertoire. Common required skills include:
- Systems Architecture: The architect should know how to put together a system to create a desired result. Ideally, this should include an understanding of how to plan and document the system as well as first-hand experience with implementation.
- Programming: Although cloud architects are not often directly tasked with programming, it is important to have a strong grasp of general programming concepts, ensuring that crafted code in a program is executed correctly. Additionally, the architect should have a reasonable understanding of the computing languages being used as well as be aware of the language capabilities.
- Networking: The cloud is built on networking and the internet. A cloud architect should understand general networking concepts as well as how they specifically apply to cloud computing.
- Security: Cyber security is a critical component of cloud solutions. While some teams may have cloud security specialists, the architect needs to understand the general concepts being applied. This may include encryption, network security, and access management.
- Business: Cloud architects are responsible for ensuring cloud solutions achieve the desired strategic goals. Therefore, the architect should be versed in business. Additionally, architects often need to set and maintain budgets.
Learn the Skills You Need for a Career in Cloud Computing
Are you interested in a career as a cloud architect? INE offers hundreds of in-depth courses on cloud computing which include introductions to the fundamentals of the cloud to specialist classes intended for cloud architecture professionals.