Cloud architect. Cloud engineer. Two exceptionally good careers. But if you want to be successful in
either one, you're going to have to choose one. If you want to know why, then this video's for you.
Hi, my name is Michael Gibbs, and I'm the founder and CEO of Go Cloud Architects. And
we're an organization that's dedicated towards building high-performance cloud computing careers.
Personally, I've been working in technology for over 25 years, and I've been coaching or mentoring
others to get their first tech job or get promoted in tech for over two decades. And today, we're
going to talk about why the cloud architect is not a cloud engineer. And these are both really great
positions and I want to make sure you understand that I like the cloud engineering position
and the cloud architect position. But these careers are so different, and I want you to
know why they must be so different and why the training must be so different. Because if you want
to get a cloud architect job or a cloud engineer job, you need to be competent for that job.
But why must these careers just be so different? See, it all starts out with our focus.
See, we cloud architects, our job, our focus is to transform an organization's business
through technology. And whether that's process redesign,
new web sites, it's technology that's our tool. But see, we architects are
really tasked with our focus is transforming our customer's business. So that must be our focus.
And focus is everything. Because if you're focusing on the wrong thing, you can't attack
the problem. So let's talk more about focus and let's really look at focus for just one minute.
I'm going to prove to you why you can't focus on two things at the same time.
I'd like you to go outside and look at something at a distance
and note it's going to be small, but you're going to have this big picture, big field of view. Now,
go take some binoculars, magnify it. Note the people and things you're going to look at,
they're going to be bigger cause your focus is on them, but you're not going to see as much
around you. Now, go take a telescope with 200 times magnification and go look at it.
You can see a smile on somebody's face. But guess what? You can't see much more than that. See,
you go from big picture to medium picture to laser-like focus. And focus changes everything.
So zoom in, you can work on all the details. Zoom out, you can see the big picture. So now,
let's talk about the architect focus. And I'll also talk about the engineer focus.
Because the focus, what we actually need to be focused on, will determine the job that we do.
An architect needs that big picture view. Whether you're designing a cloud architecture or hotel,
you need to look at the big picture. But let's say for an example, an architect is designing this
big, tall, beautiful hotel. It's going to be 1,000 meters tall. The architect is going to focus on
the design. Now, when the architect designs this big and beautiful building, sure, there's probably
going to be some grass and some lush gardens and some beautiful landscaping and flowers and things.
It's going to be part of the overall big picture. But the architect is not going to
be planting the grass. Why is the architect going to be focusing on this big, 1,000 meter building
and not the grass? See, it's not that the architect's too good to plant the grass, but
if you're staring at the grass, you can't see the building. So whatever you're focused on, that will
determine what you can affect. That will determine where your outcomes going to be, your focus.
So as an architect, we need to be big picture.
How do the parts fit together? What is the future state that we can envision?
How do we envision the people working? And how's the technology going to impact the workflow?
How did the technology make that business better? How will our technology affect user behavior? Can
we affect sales? What kind of things can we transfer? So then we need to think about those
goals and then how do we find technologies that'll do it. But for all this to happen, we need to be
not on that telescope. We need to be looking at that big picture. We need to be zoomed out,
big picture. Because the second we zoom in, we lose the vision, the focus of everything.
So an architect, by very nature, needs to be big picture. So now let's talk about a cloud engineer.
The engineer builds the design that they've been given. The cloud architect designs it, the cloud
engineer builds it. So the cloud engineer needs to be building these things. Now, let's go from where
we're looking at something in the distance. We can't see it. Because we can't see it,
we can't do anything with it. The cloud engineer needs to build it, so they need to zoom in.
When they're zoomed in, they can't see anything else, but you need to be zoomed in. And whether
you're a surgeon stitching up a patient or whether you're a cloud engineer, you need to be zoomed in.
You need to see what you're doing. So an engineer is focused on details. Engineers have deep, deep,
deep technical knowledge and they need to know those details. But remember, if you're focused
on details, you can't see the big picture. So now, let's talk about cloud architect training.
Cloud architect training is based upon training people for the big picture. It's big picture
thinking. It's strategy thinking. So, it's how do I design the end to end solution?
What talks to what, which talks to what, which talks to what, which talks to what?
Where does the connectivity need to be? That's big picture thinking. That's architect thinking.
What are our tools as architects? Our biggest tool is our ability to ask questions, our
communication skills. So what are we going to do? We have to learn how to ask the right questions.
Not knowing how to ask the right questions, we'll never get the right information.
So we have to learn how to ask the right questions. That is our tool. We have to learn
about the business. Remember, our whole point is to transform a customer's business. So we need
to focus on the business as a whole. But if we don't know business, how do we transform business?
So an architect needs business acumen because they need to transform the business. You can't
transform something you don't know. That is our acumen. That is our technical competency. We need
to know that business. Then, we'll be delivering presentations constantly. Presentations to
customers, board members, industry conferences, that's our world. And to do this, and to go
communicate with CEOs and CFOs and CTOs all day long, and CIOs, we need executive presence and we
need to train that for the architect. And we also need to be emotionally intelligent. And we need
to write and be CXO relevant. So this is cloud architect training because that's what we do.
Now, note most of these skills, in fact, all the skills that I said except end to end system design
are non-technical. Now, end to end system design, that is a very technical skill
and it's a deep skill. But all those other skills I listed are non-technical
because the focus of the architect is not on technical. It's on transformation.
The tech is just our way to achieve that. It's our vehicle. So, for we architects in our real world
lives, we don't configure anything. We don't build anything. And why? If we're planting the grass,
we can't see the skyscraper. So we're not going to be writing Python scripts. We're not going
to be doing maintenance after it's been built, that's cisubs. We're not going to be automating
software at least, that's devops. We're not going to code anything. We're going to be
mostly non-technical except for how are we solving those business problems with technology. And that
takes substantial technical knowledge. I don't want you to think I'm making light of it when
I say it's less technical, it's a very technical job, but it's 50% business and it's 50% technical.
Now, let's shift over to the cloud engineer. Because the way you would train a cloud architect
as an executive, as well as an end to end system designer with business acumen
and executive presence and communication skills, that's great for system design.
But what about someone who has to build things? The cloud engineer?
Well, this is not the right training for the cloud engineer. This is how you train a cloud architect.
The cloud engineer is trained a very different way because they have a different focus.
The cloud engineer, by very definition, needs to be zoomed into that telescope. Because you can't
build it when you're not focused. So let's look at this role. This mean the engineer is about how
much knowledge they have. But it's about their technical abilities. So the engineers need to
know the speeds, the performance metrics, all the idiosyncrasies, all the details.
Their life is focused on the details. Look, the architect gives big picture design,
but if somebody doesn't know those details and doesn't build with the details, it doesn't work.
That cloud engineer is that detail person. It's that super technical person.
So whether it's python scripts or whether it's bash scripts or whether it's other forms of
coding or infrastructures code or whether that be terraform or cloud formation or whether it
be the command line or the management console or the API, this is cloud engineer work. This deep
hands-on technical work because they have to be focused on building it. They have to be zoomed in.
Architect, zoomed out. Focused on business and the technology enabling the business. Engineer,
zoomed in. How do I build that? And that's why these two jobs are so different.
So if you want to get hired, you need to be what the industry needs, but you also need the brand.
See, when you look at two identical items, if one is a name brand and one is generic, people
will usually pay more for the name brand. When it comes to getting your first cloud architect job
or changing transitions, or even getting paid more in between jobs, the better your brand, the better
you're paid, whether there be a car or a computer, you build your brand. So what is the brand of a
cloud architect? It is a strategic consultant. It is a business consultant that's also a technology
expert. A business consultant that helps your organization be more successful with tech.
So a business consultant then that helps an organization be with tech.
So anything that's part of your brand needs to show you're good.
So if you've got some business acumen and it's out there and it's seen that's great,
anything that shows your ability to transform information or successful customers is great. If
you're giving presentations or writing books, this kind of thing is great for the cloud architect
brand. If you've got a small number of highly focused certifications, maybe a cloud networking
person, for example, a CCI like me, that's a Google professional cloud architect like me.
That's a very strong cloud architect brand, especially for a cloud network architect,
the highest networking certification in the world and probably one of the highest
equivalent of, of the cloud certifications that looks good for a cloud architect.
Why don't I have a thousand other certifications as an architect? Well, what is my brand? My
brand is a business strategist who's an [inaudible 00:11:30] technology. I have
two technology things. I'm not going to get 20 more certifications because if I do
it shows the customer that I am focused on certifications and not business transformation.
I'm going to do business things to make it as my brand. I'm going to present in front
of an audience. Maybe I get an MBA, which I did. This is the cloud architect brand,
the executive brand, the leader brand. So if you want to build your brand,
build your brand. If you want to be a cloud architect, don't get certifications that are not
in your brand. It will lower your value cause it will decrease people's ability to see you
as a business transformation specialist and they're going to see you for every other tech
career. Now let's say you're a cloud engineer, we need to build a different brand for you.
We need to build you that technical brand. We need to show that you've got deep technical knowledge.
So for the engineer, lots of certifications can be very beneficial. Now not too many because it
makes a career look unfocused, but you know, four or five certifications for an engineer
might be really good. Now for the engineer, if they have some of these architect skills,
the communication skills, the leadership skills, the emotional intelligence, the writing skills,
well that can have a big impact on the engineer's career. Very much over the long term,
either moving towards architecture careers, albeit with the change of focus, or moving up towards
leadership careers. But the key is when you're an engineer, you must be focused on the details
because if you're not, you can't be successful. So if you want to be a cloud architect or a cloud
engineer, I encourage you because these are some of the best careers in the world right now.
But when it comes to your training, know that the training must be different.
If you're a cloud architect, you must focus on the transformation. You must focus on
your business acumen, your communication skills, your leadership skills, your executive presence,
your end to end design skills, and that's what'll get you hired. And now if you're a cloud engineer,
you need to build all these things. So you need these strong engineering certifications. And on
top of that, you want to be on that command line and you want to be on that management consult,
and you want to be learning your Python and you want to be learning your brush scripts and you
want to be really good at Linux and infrastructure and coders, all these things. Why? Because that's
your job. So the key is plan for your job. So when people say, Mike, if I study all these engineering
things, why won't it make me a better architect than I say no, cause you're focused on one thing.
And then when the architects say, should I study more engineering things? I say no. Focus on where
these things that are more related to your transformation. But if an architect so wanted
to be an engineer, I'd say, well focus on those technology things. Because those deeper tech
and those technology skills are what matters. The point is
train for the career you want and you're are going to have it.
Be exactly ready for the job and you'll get it. So go out there and get the career dreams. This
is Michael Gibbs from Go Cloud Architects. I look forward to seeing you in another video, take care.
It was so nice having you join us for this video today.
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look forward to seeing you and I look forward to assisting you in your technology career.
Thank you so much. This is Michael Gibbs from Go Cloud Architects.