Do you desire to be a cloud architect, solution architect, or enterprise architect?
If so, this video is for you. We have an exciting announcement coming Monday,
November 1st. So, please make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel
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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
and networking careers. I've been working in technology for over 25 years and I've been
helping others get their first tech job or get promoted in tech for more than two decades. And
it's my absolute favorite thing in the world when someone says, "Hey Mike, I just got cloud-hired."
Today, we're going to talk about architect positions, most specifically, the cloud architect,
the solutions architect, and really the enterprise architect. And the reason we're going to spend so
much time talking about these cloud architect type of roles is there are so many people
that desire to be cloud architects and solution architects today. And for good reason, there's
an incredible demand for these jobs. The people that can actually do it are in such short supply
that the price or the salary paid to these architects is very high. And it's not just
that they have a good average salary. The key is, if you're really good at architecture, you
can earn two to three times that average salary easily. So, there's plenty of career advancement,
plenty of opportunity, and there's a lot of money to be made in the architect world,
provided you have the real architect skills. But real enterprise architect skills, or real
cloud architect skills, or real solution architect skills are very different than engineering skills.
And people come to me to help get their first cloud architect job or their first solutions
architect job. And for us, it's very easy because we know the cloud architect job,
but let's talk about the role of the architect. The key thing to remember is the architect is not
a builder. They're not an engineer. The architect is a cross between a business
executive and a technology professional. And our role as architects is really one thing,
to transform the business. That's right. I'm going to say it again.
The role of the architect is to transform the business. See, the role of the engineer is to
build something. The role of the architect is to transform the business. So I want you to think
about this from another perspective, and then we're going to get a lot more into architecture.
No business buys technology because they like technology, other than tech
people like us, well, we buy because it's cool. Businesses don't buy technology because it's cool,
businesses buy technology to transform the business or to gain a competitive advantage.
Remember that, businesses buy tech to gain a competitive advantage.
How does the architect improve the business? The architect tunes,
or they design an architecture or a design that optimizes the company's people,
processes and technology. So, I'll say it again. The architect tunes the organization's people,
and process and technology. And to do that, that's how the architect transforms the organization.
That's the strength of the architect. So now, you might ask, "Why are so many architects working on
the cloud?" See, the cloud itself is a tool. It's a tool like any other tool we architects use,
whether it be the network, or the data center or now the cloud, which is a virtualized network
in the data center. But the cloud is a tool and we architects love the cloud.
Why is the cloud one of our favorite technology tools? Well, first let's look at the cloud. Speed,
the cloud is just so agile. So with technology, if you can outpace and have
better technology than your competitors, it can be a competitive advantage to the organization.
So now with the cloud, we architects can come swoop in and we can do things in minutes or weeks
that could have taken months or years. So the cloud is a huge tool for we, cloud architects,
because it's fast and agile. Now, what else? When it comes to optimizing business performance, at
some point, whoever's got the bigger, better, more powerful systems, ultimately wins the competition.
Now, when we go to the cloud, the cloud has near unlimited scalability. So think about it,
now we can bring an organization's system to the cloud and fast, we can deploy things and they can
grow in an almost unlimited factor. It's kind of a dream for a business. Now, let's say why else
we're on the cloud. Look, architects like me have been designing end-to-end systems for a long time.
We've been designing the network in the data center, which is amazing,
but these are complicated systems. I mean, just the routing protocols. I mean literally speaking,
to become the CIO like me, I read 75,000 pages of reading just to learn the routing,
meaning just the network part of the data center.
On the cloud, it's so simple. The cloud provider does all the routing. They do all the switching
for you, they maintain all the infrastructure. Pretty much all you have to do is manage your
own virtualized environment. So, the cloud is simple and the simplicity facilitates more speed.
Now, I'm not the biggest fan of serverless, architecturally speaking, because I like the
flexibility and the control to get on and off of the cloud and cloud providers. But serverless,
again, is transformational. The ability to just take your code, upload it to a cloud provider
and just have it running without even thinking about servers or managing operating systems,
again, huge transformation for the business. And also, the cloud enables you to automate a lot of
things. So think about it, speed of deployment, unlimited scalability, simplicity and elegance,
serverless and automation. Of course, we're moving to the cloud.
The cloud can be extremely transformational.
So, the strength of the architect is to transform the business. So we have to have
that business knowledge, and with that business knowledge combined with the technology knowledge,
now we know how we can create a global technology solution to transform that business, to improve
that business's metric. We, cloud architects are all about the business transformation. So,
how are we going to do that? First, we're going to have to be CXO relevant. Meaning,
we're first going to have to get the information as the cloud architect from the executive team,
the C-level executives, which means we're going to have to speak their language and be able to
listen to what they tell us. We're then going to have, to have sufficient business acumen to
be able to understand their business metrics to transform their business. Not only are we going
to have to know enough about the business, we're going to have, to have the executive
communication skills to convince the executives that our technology solution's going to work,
but also to go back to our organization and get us the resources necessary.
We, to design an architecture, may need 30 or 40 engineers or more and we're going to have,
to have the communication skills and the leadership skills to get them,
both from the customer who may need their help and from our own internal teams. Now,
the architect is going to have to present these designs and you're going to have to get the
buy-in of the engineers at the company, the architects at the company, the executives
at the company, assuming you're selling the product. And even if you worked at the company,
you're still going to have to convince your management team they need the technology.
So this is why, as architects, we need need so much business skills. We also need to understand
business processes, but we also as architects need to understand the legacy technologies,
the old stuff. The stuff that is going to go from the networking data center to the cloud.
We can't design something to move something, if we don't know what it is, what we're moving.
And of course, we have to understand the new technologies, but it's not just the
cloud stuff we need to know. We need to know all the other things that can help an
organization. Are there sensors that are out there? Are there industry tools,
industry things? So for us, as architects, it's all about transformation. Now, I want you to think
about how much that is to learn. We need to be experts on the business, experts on the business,
experts on the communications skills. See, this is a very hybrid role, it's an executive and a
tech role. Now, mind you how much you need to learn. So as you can see, you can have your work
cut out for you, and you can learn these roles and it is a great job. The cloud architect job,
the solution architect job, the enterprise architect job, these are amazing jobs.
Now, when people say to me, "Mike, I want to be an architect, should I learn to code?" I'm like,
"Of course not, we architects don't code." We don't script, we don't configure,
we don't build. We design, we, the architects transform the business through the design.
There is a lot to learn. And when the engineering type say, "Mike, if you don't know how to code,
how can you be worrying about the technology?" And, I try to always give the answer. We are
not worried about the technology, we are worried about transforming the business. That is what we
do as architects. The technology for us is merely a tool to achieve the business transformation. So,
we need to be experts at our tools and not someone else's. Now, let's compare that
digital transformation that we talked about, as the architect with the actual cloud engineer,
because the cloud engineer is another very good job, but it's a very different job.
And most people that try to get architect jobs or solution architect jobs fail,
because they have cloud engineer skills. Now, if you want to be a cloud engineer,
that's great. What are these cloud engineer skills? If we architects design them,
somebody has to build the things that we design, that builder is the cloud engineer. So the cloud
engineer by comparison can get away with much less business acumen and much less
communication skills, because that's not where they're going to spend their time.
They're going to spend their time building the things that the cloud architect design.
The cloud engineers have to have good understanding of coding and scripting things,
whether they'd be Bash scripting, whether they'd be Python scripting or other tools.
Cloud engineers need to be experts at deployment things, so things like such
as infrastructure's code like Terraform or [inaudible 00:10:25] for a cloud engineer.
Now, the cloud engineer is going to be a builder, so they're good behind the computer.
So as you can see, these jobs aren't related in very much, many ways at all. The cloud engineer
is the implementer, the builder, the deep, deep, deep, deep technology professional.
The architect is this hybrid business/technology professional. The architect is more concerned
about transforming the business and business metrics. The engineer is more concerned about the
actual tech. So when you understand the difference between a cloud architect and a cloud engineer,
it becomes much simple. So, why is it hard to get a cloud architect job? The answer is
it's not. People struggle to get cloud architect jobs or a solution architect job, because they
train cloud engineer skills. And if your goal is business transformation and you show up on a cloud
architect interview and you've got good Python scripting skills, and good bash scripting skills,
and good Redux skills and good configuration skills, but no transformation skills, no business
acumen, the lack of the executive presence, or the emotional intelligence, or the ROI modeling,
people are going to look at you as an engineer.
And that's okay if you want to be an engineer, because these are engineering skills.
And if a cloud architect like me, with lots of business acumen, and communication skills
and executive presence, we're going to go apply for a cloud engineer role, where I needed to do
scripting and programming. Again, my resume, my interview, it would a mismatch. So what
we're saying is, we're not saying one career is better than another, we're saying both the cloud
architect and both the cloud engineer are critical people. There is no transformation without both.
But if you want to be a great cloud architect, or a great solution architect
or a great enterprise architect, focus on the transformation. And that is your secret weapon,
that is your special secret, that is what makes you valuable. If you're an engineer,
focus on your ability to build and your depth of knowledge, that is what makes you valuable.
This is Michael Gibbs. I'm the founder and CEO of Go Cloud Architects, and we're so happy to come
at you with free cloud computing for education almost every day. Thank you so much and I look
forward to seeing you in another video. It was so nice having you join us for this video today.
Let me tell you about 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 know 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, where you
can come and ask us any questions 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 have known for
decades that are movers and shakers that have changed the world that can give you information,
so you can build the best career. I invite them periodically, they are on my show.
If there's a chance to do some free training on our channel,
we'll do it live because we want you to 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.