Required cloud architect skills and knowledge

Cloud architects are responsible for communicating with vendors when negotiating contracts for hardware, software, and other cloud technologies. This is a constantly evolving field, so work requires staying on top of the latest technological trends.

“A cloud architect must have a variety of technical and non-technical skills, but above all, he must have excellent interoperability skills to empower, linking individual elements to a number of other architectural solutions in your organization into a coherent whole,” said a Gartner analyst.

While strong communication skills and the ability to remain flexible are critical for a cloud architect, there are many other technical and intellectual skills required to get the job done. Some of them, according to Gartner: aws solutions architect

Application architecture

Automation and orchestration

Manual

I&O

Integration architecture

ITSM / ITOM

Outsourcing and cloud hosting

Security

Communication and collaboration

Interaction along the corporate vertical

Delegation

Experience in finance and law

Procurement management and supplier control

Strategic management

Leadership mindset and initiator of change

How to Become a Cloud Architect?

There are many paths to becoming a cloud architect. If you are still early in your career, you may need a formal training program. But for those with experience in IT, there is also an opportunity to change direction. Gartner expects IT professionals with the following specializations to have the fastest transition to a new profession:

· Enterprise Application Architects: The cloud architect role is the “new form of the enterprise application architect role” and is the easiest transition from Enterprise architect to cloud architect. The report notes that those with “real hands-on development guidance” are best suited.

· I of & About (virtualization):  those who have experience in virtualization, or work with the construction of IT-infrastructure is often a good fit for the role of cloud architect, as "many cloud-based programs start with simple IaaS projects and best virtualization architects understand the technical nuances of" virtualized environment ".

· Integration architecture (network, identity, services and data): Many of the biggest challenges with cloud adoption stem from integration challenges. Integration architects know how to work with complex systems, and they tend to be able to work in different departments.

· Business connections.  Employees who are known to rock the boat and expand horizons with new technologies can be valuable contributors to the cloud adoption process.

You may even find that a business unit has an “extremely tech-savvy” person who has the right skills and experience to be useful in implementing the corporate cloud philosophy. If your organization is having a hard time finding the right person outside of the company, there might be someone well-suited for the role from a different business unit who can become a cloud architect with a small investment in training. This type of certification is available from many cloud leaders such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect, and IBM Cloud Computing Solution Architect.