Recently, I was promoted to a Cloud Architect role. Before my first day, I found it surprisingly hard to clearly define what my new responsibilities would be. Starting a career as a technology architect can be a confusing journey, especially when you are beginning in a completely new workplace.
Because of this, I decided to do some research, read a few books, and learn from other people’s experiences in this role.
I’d like to start a series of articles about how I prepared myself during the week before starting my new job.
One thing that naturally comes to my mind is the “big picture” of what a Technology Architect looks like — someone who is competent in both AWS cloud infrastructure and AWS cloud-native application architecture. Then I think about what pieces of that puzzle I need to find, learn, and understand within the limited time and effort I can invest.
Luckily, based on the TEDx Talk “The First 20 Hours — How to Learn Anything” by Josh Kaufman , I realized that I can build this big picture by spending just two or three days reading as much as I can and teaching myself with whatever resources are available to me. This helps me shape a clearer understanding of the architect role and set realistic boundaries for my preparation.
My personal experience
Preperation for AWS Cloud Solution Architect Role
`Preperation`:
1. AWS 6 Architectural Pillars
The AWS Well-Architected Framework helps you understand the pros and cons of decisions you make while building systems on AWS. Using the Framework helps you learn architectural best practices for designing and operating secure, reliable, efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable workloads in the AWS Cloud. Link
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/the-pillars-of-the-framework.html
2. Hybrid on-prem and cloud architecture
3. Org layer, Foundations layer, Platform layers, Service layer
4. Platform and DevOps