I’ve done that in my career many times with the aim that I’m going to be a Solution Architect or an enterprise architect in the future. An infrastructure architect is much like a technical architect but with a focus on a corporate on-premises server or cloud systems employed by an organization. This means that an infrastructure specialist helps grow and maintain the production side of a corporate software ecosystem, rather than software development itself. These specialists oversee the existing IT systems and networks, and explore and integrate new ones, making sure that they meet all requirements in regard to resilience, security, performance, availability, etc. In terms of software development, this is the goal behind solution architecture – to describe, design, and manage how things should be in order to achieve business goals and solve problems. A technical architect is a role that focuses on the technical aspects of the solution, such as the infrastructure, platforms, tools, frameworks, and technologies.
The ITIL Expert certificate is a prerequisite for gaining this credential. The candidate is also required to have over 5 years of experience in leadership, managerial, or high-level advisory roles. Once these conditions are fulfilled, the hopeful will have to register with PeopleCert (the approved Axelos Examination Institute), fill out the application, and present their CV. Next, the proposal for a business improvement has to be submitted together with the work package that shows the candidate’s practical skills in applying the ITIL principles in real-world business cases. After that, the applicants will have to successfully pass an interview with an assessment panel where they will be questioned on their experience.
What does a Solution Architect do?
Solutions architect knows programming, integrating, and testing software systems and related devices. To ensure that the future solution is built as efficiently as possible, architects study the current system architecture and work with the commercial and technical staff. At this level, the architecture describes how a business’s infrastructural segments communicate and interact with each other, as well as what their purpose is and how they can provide business value.
Technical architects generally play the role of solution architects with less focus on the business aspect and more on the techology aspect. As a solutions architect, you’ll want to get certified in any relevant skills or technologies for your industry or field. The skills and knowledge that you’ll need can vary depending on the role, but you can always find certifications and courses for individual skills required for the job such as Java, AWS, Azure, or Apache Kafka.
Solutions Architect
Without the guidance and expertise of a solution architect, projects may fail to meet their objectives, may not be scalable, secure, or maintainable, and may not provide the expected return on investment. Most solutions architects have a deep understanding of the technologies involved in information networks and software development and are capable of providing technical leadership within the organization. There is no one set path to becoming a successful solutions architect like there is for other define solution architect professions. Successful solutions architects come from a variety of technical backgrounds including information technology, computer science, and software development. If you are a sysadmin and you’re just focused on making yourself awesome on bash scripting, for instance, that’s not going to elevate your career in the long run. You will always get an opportunity if you’re working for an enterprise as a junior sysadmin to understand a problem, design a solution, and implement said solution.
Solutions architects are a vital role in any organization that wants to align its business goals and needs with IT services, products, software, and infrastructure. The solution architect is the person responsible for the vision of the solution architecture, its refinement, and realization according to the business’ needs and goals. In a way, it is the ultimate form of a developer’s evolution (pokemon final form). The former sees the entire enterprise ecosystem from a bird’s-eye view.
What Is Cloud Application Development?
Most of the certification platforms, besides the exam itself, offer training courses, learning materials, and practice tests. Other resources can also be helpful to prepare and practice such as Udemy, Coursera, or MeasureUp. However, the exam can be taken without previous preparation — all that is required is deep knowledge of the architecture concepts and principles and a vast hands-on experience in the industry. For instance, a product is built with technologies that must suit the requirements of its particular modules. Project scope is a part of software documentation that defines specific goals, tasks, features, and functions.
- It’s also worth mentioning that the role of a solution architect is not limited just to ideation.
- Since we’ve discussed high-level goals of solution architecture adoption, let’s break them down into specific responsibilities and underlying skillsets.
- This article will provide solutions architect job description, how their role is different from other similar positions, and what kind of projects require input from these specialists.
- As the process is always heavy on the budget and highly risky, every company should have an architect to implement new solutions and scale them successfully.
- An enterprise architect is a role that defines and governs the overall architecture of an organization, across multiple domains, systems, and solutions.
- This specialist can be introduced to a company’s enterprise structure through software architecture consulting services.
- This is why a good solution architect is critical to your company’s success.
If you understand operating systems, programming, networking, and the latest and greatest in technology, even better. If you’re authentic and strive to act as an advocate for the change your customer is wanting to achieve, that’s a nice touch, too. You need to approach your career with a vision of what you want to do in the next 5 to 10 years. If you want to be a Solutions Architect, widen the reach of your skill sets. In your free time, read books on modern computing approaches, say, edge computing, chaos monkey, and service mesh technologies, for example. The reason I’m saying to do this is because you’re going to open your mind to other people’s conversation towards the advancement of their technology adoptions.
Meeting the requirements of all stakeholders
Going from paper trail to automated digital trail, which automated formerly manual processes and better defined their day-to-day operations, helped this business cover almost all issues they’re experiencing. Each system is different, driven by the process definition and related workflows designed for fulfilling specific operations. When it comes to building from scratch, changing, or upgrading your software solution – the earlier, the better. This specific exam will be suitable for specialists working with Microsoft Azure and possessing advanced knowledge of Azure infrastructure. It would be lovely to know everything you needed to know about any big life decision.
The solution architect’s job focuses on solution-level decisions and analysis of their impact on the overall business goals and outcomes. So, we can say that the product of a solution architect’s job is the set of technological solutions and the strategy of their implementation. The work of a solution architect begins with the very first stage of product development, which is to formulate business goals and design the software architecture. He must clearly understand business processes, target audience, plans for future development, and possible integrations with existing products and, in general, with the company’s IT ecosystem. The solution architect works very closely with the product manager, and in some teams, these roles may even be combined in one person. In other situations, the architect is more responsible for the engineering side of the issue.
What is a Solution Architect: Responsibilities and Role on a Project
Simply put, solution architecture is a high-level description of a software product in the context of the problems it solves. In other words, solution architecture shows how a system and its specific features help a company reach its determined business goals. Software architecture and systems integrated into it are numerous details that work together. An architect needs to be very attentive to those details, as overlooking something may hinder the development process, lead to breakdowns, or make the software solution inefficient. They also should be able to understand the technical specifications of many different software solutions and hardware and perform analysis of different business layers. Architects are also responsible for the project context from the very beginning to the current moment.
While most of these responsibilities require a leadership role from a solution architect, this person just supports PM activities to ensure that resources, risk recognition, and planning stay aligned with the solution goals. While these aspects are constraints in themselves, each of them has its own limitations. The solution architect must understand all these constraints, compare them, and then make a number of technological and managerial decisions to reconcile these restrictions with project goals. Each of these terms includes multiple aspects that we’ll discuss in the article.
Solutions Architect vs. Enterprise Architect vs. Technical Architect
They cooperate with all the teams involved in the development process and need to know how every product and service works in solution architecture. These professionals need all their knowledge to oversee the successful delivery of a quality end product to its end users. The concept of a solution architecture is rather complex and includes many aspects required to create a custom software solution with a specific purpose.