Are you interested in building a career in cloud computing and architecture? Then buckle up and continue reading.
Cloud Computing is a revolutionary technology. Using this technology, most of the companies have reduced their costs and achieved good results in their core business operations. They have entirely hosted their computing infrastructure on the cloud.
What exactly is the Cloud?
Basically, the cloud is the internet. Specifically defined is all the data that you can access over the internet. When something is in the cloud, it means that it is stored on the Internet servers instead of your computer’s hard drive.
What is a Cloud Architect?
Cloud Computing Architecture is the combination of components such as a network, front-end and back-end platforms along with cloud-based delivery.
A Cloud specialist is an IT specialist whose job is the development and implementation of organization cloud services typically the optimization of costs and security policies. Their main focus is to ensure that the data on the cloud is readily available to the users and secure from hackers or miscreants.
They are the experts in cloud computing and mainly work on monitoring of company’s cloud activity, design and migration of applications with their deployment in the organization’s cloud and leading a team while building strategies.
Workplace of Cloud Architects
They are employed in technology and manufacturing companies, design firms, IT service providers and other firms that utilize the cloud computing technology. They report directly to the senior-level management like director, Chief technical officer, CEO etc.
Cloud Architect’s responsibilities
- Conversion of technical requirements of a project into suitable architecture and design that guides the final product.
- Assessment of business goals of an organization and develop accordingly the cloud computing services.
- Bridging the gaps between complex business problems and solutions in the cloud.
- Work with other professionals like Developers and Engineers of the organization to ensure that the built technology is right.
- Ensuring that there is a smooth operation in the cloud by using resources like firewalls, routers, servers, switches, virtual machines etc.
- Planning and designing the cloud environment by researching and studying the organization’s needs.
- Selecting the right vendors for the business and maintaining the system’s ownership.
- Estimation of cloud infrastructure costs and staying within the budget allotted.
- Adopting the APIs and the standards that the cloud environment must abide by.
- Creating automated scripts and systems using available open-source technologies and defining the cloud architecture’s parameters.
- Interact with customers and sales managers for the handling of pre and post execution services.
- Provide reports on successful cloud deployments.
- Proper integration of components acquired from various suppliers.
Required Education and Certifications
- Interested candidates in cloud computing should complete their bachelors in computer sciences or a related discipline.
- Masters in computer sciences and business administration is desirable by some employers.
- They are typically not an entry-level job; it’s a mid-level or mid-career job. So you should have proper IT experience.
- Get certified for enhancing your skillset. The top certification programs are:
- AWS certified Solutions for Architect Associate.
- Microsoft Certified Azure Architect.
- Google Cloud Platform for Cloud Architect.
- Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Cloud Platform and Infrastructure.
- IBM Certified Cloud Solution Architect v2.
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Architect Associate Certification.
- Red Hat Certified System Administrator in Red Hat Open Stack.
How Cloud architects begin their career
After completion of their education, the cloud architects may enter into one of the following entry-level IT jobs:
- IT support technician
- Cloud support associate
- Web developer (back-end, front-end, or full-stack)
- Cloud engineering intern
- CMS manager
- Web editor
Top 5 tools of Cloud Architects
The cloud architects need the software tools for making diagrams of the company’s infrastructure. The top 5 tools are:
- Visual Paradigm
- Cloud Craft
- Azure
- Arcentry
- Edraw
Skill set of Cloud Architects
- Experience in AWS and other cloud providers.
- Expertise in My SQL database.
- JAVA programming skills along with awareness of open source tools like Kubernetes, Docker.
- Data Storage and security skills with network administration experience
Jobs
Certified Cloud Architects are in huge demand for their excellent skills. Some job profiles are:
- Azure Cloud Architect
- AWS Specialist
- Security Architect
- Service Cloud Architect
- AWS Cloud Solutions Architect
- Senior IT Architect
- Solutions Architect
Salary and Career outlook
Cloud Architects hold senior positions. According to PayScale, a senior cloud architect salary is Rs 2,50,000 yearly and salary is Rs 2, 40,000.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated a good 5% growth for cloud architects.
– Samiya Firdous
