Would you like to know how to get your first cloud architect job, or your first cloud engineering
job? If so, this video is for you.
Hi, my name is Michael Gibbs, and I'm the founder and CEO of Go Cloud Architects. We're
organization dedicated towards building high-performance cloud computing and networking careers. Personally,
I've been working in tech for a long time, 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 go talk about the cloud architect versus the cloud engineer. See,
we love these two positions. They're some of the best cloud computing career, but these
positions are so very different. Here's what we find. People are training to be cloud engineers
and they try and apply to a cloud architect job and they can't get hired, or some people
want to study architecture and then they want to be a cloud engineer instead, and they're
also not prepared. So you have to train for the job you want and the cloud architect job
and the cloud engineering job are just so different.
Let's talk about how do you become a cloud engineer, and what are the skills that you
really need to be a cloud engineer? Because when it comes to getting hired, it's a question
of your technical competency, your attitude, your enthusiasm, your motivation, your capabilities,
your soft skills, your presence, and a few other factors. But we've got to get technical
competency, and in this video, we're going to talk about cloud architect technical competency
and cloud engineer technical competency. Let's begin with the cloud engineer.
Remember the cloud engineer is a system builder, which means engineers build things. So because
the cloud engineer is a builder, they have to have a deep building skillset. What does
that mean? It means the cloud engineer must know all about the cloud services from a cloud
provider. If we're saying AWS, for example, the cloud engineer must know everything about
AWS S3. Now, while S3 is just a form of object storage, they could look at Google cloud storage,
as well as Azure Blob, and they're all pretty much comparable, but the cloud engineer will
be an expert on how to configure it, they'll be an expert of the components of the service,
and they're going to be builders.
So for a cloud engineer, you must get lots of hands-on experience, experience with the
command line interface, experience with the management console, experience scripting,
experience even using the API, because it's a cloud engineer, you're going to be doing
these things. See, cloud engineers are builders, so they're going to have to have strong scripting
skills, Bash, PowerShell, Python, probably some node JS, and even being comfortable working
with YAML templates. This is a cloud engineer, because they are builders and this is a very
hands-on skill. So the cloud engineer needs to understand software coding and scripting.
Now the cloud engineer, because they're probably going to be doing some automation and some
build, probably needs to be good with automation tools too, such as Terraform cloud formation
templates. Because remember, the cloud engineer is a builder, they are a configurator, they
take the designs that the architect has designed and they go build them. So lots of hands-on
experience and extreme depth of individual services for the cloud engineer. That's the
tech recipe for technical competency. Be technically competent and you're on your way to getting
your first cloud engineer job.
Now we just discussed how to become a cloud engineer, but how to become a cloud architect
is extremely different. These jobs are so different you couldn't even compare them.
Let's talk about the cloud architect. The cloud architect is a design expert. That's
what we architects do, we design systems. So this per needs to be an expert on what
is the cloud, which the cloud is really nothing more than a virtualized network and a virtualized
data center. For the cloud architect, you must become an expert in the network and the
data center. Here's the reasons, the same systems that exist in the network in the data
center exist in the cloud for the most part, and most of what we do is cloud architects,
so we take these systems from the network in the data center and we move them to the
cloud, which is now a virtualized network in the data center. And you can't design an
end-to-end solution to meet customer requirements if you don't understand what you're moving.
The cloud architect needs to become an expert in the network and the data center. I'll give
you some things. This means the cloud architect needs to have good understanding of BGP, interior
gateway protocols, such as OSPF, routing and how routing works, switching and how switching
works, spanning tree, VLANs, VLAN trunking, VLAN tagging, and all of its use cases. It's
far more than just connecting to the internet. Route filtering traffic engineering, just
to name a few. That's just on the network side.
On the data center side, a good cloud architect has to have good knowledge of servers and
server virtualizations and containers and Linux, Apache, MySQL and knowledge of PHP
and the entire lamp stack, knowledge of firewalls, which are security appliances, IDS, IPSS systems,
load balancers, storage. And of course we, cloud architects, do end to end design. We're
still dealing with applications, so we have to understand how they work, databases, machine
learning, applications and libraries, just to know how they work and how the pieces and
parts fit together. See, we are not going to be doing these things as the architect,
we're going to be designing these things. And once we design it, we're going to hand
these things over to the cloud engineer to build. These are the technical components
that become what you need to be an architect, but being an architect is not all tech.
In fact, I wish I could say this, but it's true, more than 50% of your job as a cloud
architect or a solutions architect is non-technical, it's leadership. So as a solutions architect
or a cloud solutions architect or a cloud architect, this is where we need incredible
amounts of executive presence, emotional intelligence. We have to be relevant to the chief executive
officer, the chief information officer, the chief financial officer, the chief technology
officer, et cetera, et cetera. We've got to be relevant because we're going to be presenting
to them and selling to them. We have to be masters of written in verbal communication,
sales skills, leadership skills, and presentation skills. See, we cloud architects are going
to spend 50% of our time documenting and presenting, so we've got to be a master at this.
Remember, the cloud architect is not a cloud engineer. The cloud engineer builds. The cloud
architect designs. The cloud engineer builds. The cloud architect sells. The cloud engineer
builds. The architect leads a team of people to go build it, or help design it. So now,
you know the difference between a cloud architect versus a cloud engineer. Now that you know
what a cloud architect is versus a cloud engineer, you know how to build your cloud competing
career development plan so you can learn what you need to be great at your job and get hired
today.
This is Michael Gibbs from Go Cloud Architects, thanking you for your time today, thanking
you for watching this video. We at Go Cloud Architects will do anything we can to help
your cloud computing or networking career, and I look forward to seeing you in another
video take.
It was so nice, having you join us for this video today. Let me tell you a out some free
services we do for the cloud community. Twice per week, we have a free how to get your first
cloud architect job webinar, where we tell you all the things you need to do and no to
get your first cloud architect job. In addition to that, once per week, we actually have a
free question and answer session on live on YouTube. We can come and ask us any question
you want about building your career related to cloud computing or networking, and we'll
answer them in real time for you, because we want to get you to your goals.
Several more times per week, we have guests from industry, industry experts that I've
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it live, because we want you all to have the best skills for the best career. So please
subscribe and hit the bell. I 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.