AWS Bites Episode 138: How Do You Become a Cloud Architect?

Date: January 10, 2025
Hosts: Luciano Mammino (A), Eoin Shanaghy (B)
Theme: A practical guide to becoming a cloud architect, with insights from the hosts’ personal journeys, key skills, industry trends, and resource recommendations.

1. Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into what it takes to become a cloud architect, focused on AWS but broadly applicable to other cloud platforms. Hosts Luciano and Eoin share their personal stories, outline the key skills (both technical and soft), and give practical resources and steps for anyone aiming to enter or progress in this rapidly growing field. Their tone is friendly, realistic, and supportive, emphasizing that the path is non-linear and continuous learning is essential.

2. Why Become a Cloud Architect? ([02:43])

• Massive Industry Growth:
  The cloud professional services market was valued at around $22 billion in 2023 and is growing at 16% per year—driven by digital transformation, increased connectivity, and industries adopting AI and IoT.
  — "For aspiring cloud architects, this growth really leads to a booming demand for expertise, especially in large scale cloud deployments and customized solutions." – Eoin, 03:23

• Unique Career Opportunities:
  As more organizations initiate cloud projects, experienced guides are in demand. Choosing cloud architecture opens diverse career paths with future growth.

3. What Does a Cloud Architect Do? ([04:33])

• Beyond Platform Setup:
  The role involves designing, implementing, and managing cloud architectures that address present and future needs around scalability, cost, performance, and security.

• Specialization Matters:
  Mastering even one cloud provider (e.g., AWS) is already a huge scope, making it practical to focus deeply rather than broadly.

• Essential Skills:

  • Knowledge of distributed systems and traditional architecture
  • Solid grounding in one cloud provider’s services
  • Programming (especially scripting/automation)
  • Networking (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, CDNs)
  • Security (IAM, encryption)
  • Compliance/regulation basics
  • Operating systems fundamentals (especially Linux)
  • Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)
  • Data storage strategies (SQL, NoSQL, data lakes)

• Team Collaboration:
  Expertise is collective. Architects don’t work in silos; teams contribute varied perspectives. — "You will be working in a team and you'll be trying to draw expertise from all the components in your team." – Luciano, 07:53

4. The Importance of Soft Skills ([07:55], [33:08])

• Communication & Business Acumen:
  Ability to translate between technical and business stakeholders is pivotal. — "Can you talk technically with other technical stakeholders? But can you talk a little bit less technically with business stakeholders and make sure that you can bridge the gap between those two worlds?" – Luciano, 08:45

• Problem Solving:
  Architecture is fundamentally about solving business problems with technology.

• Collective Architecture:
  Everyone—developers, operators, product owners—should contribute to architectural decisions.
  — "You have to resist the idea of an ivory tower architect that makes the decisions and hands them down for teams to implement." – Eoin, 11:42

5. Personal Journeys to Cloud Architecture ([13:33])

Luciano’s Story ([13:40])

• Early Passion: Discovered coding in childhood, later got a CS degree.
• Worked through multiple roles: Web development, startups (including a failed one), freelancing.
• Took initiative in a small startup: Jumped into AWS with minimal experience, upskilling the team jointly and aided by external consultants.
• Continuous Learning: Increasing AWS complexity through hands-on work, content creation, speaking, and writing to hone communication skills. — "Throughout all this journey, I always looked for opportunity to do content creation... it kind of helped me to develop communication skills." – Luciano, 17:24

Eoin’s Story ([18:14])

• Programming Background: Also studied computer science, focus shifted from programming to architecture after seeing software repeatedly not make it into production.
• Industry Perspective: Became more pragmatic, focusing on delivering real value and flipping the “ratio” so more of his work had real-world impact.
• No Linear Path: Progress is ongoing; imposter syndrome is common, but making and learning from architectural decisions is key.
  — "There is no milestone really I can say I've reached at any different point. It's just after a bit of experience, you feel more comfortable doing all these roles." – Eoin, 19:35

6. Practical Steps & Learning Roadmap ([20:55], [34:29])

Core Suggestions

• If you’re already developing for the cloud: Keep broadening your exposure to various architectures.
• If you’re new or transitioning: Build strong foundations methodically—core concepts (architecture, databases, networking, security, programming) in manageable increments.
• Theory vs. Practice: Don’t get stuck in either; balance learning and doing.

Recommended Resources

• AWS Well-Architected Framework ([22:09])
  — Covers key pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost optimization, sustainability. — "This is a great resource, absolutely recommended, so go and check it out whenever you have time." – Luciano, 22:52

• Azure Cloud Design Patterns ([23:35])
  — Despite being Azure-specific, the design principles apply universally. — Lists common cloud fallacies and architecture patterns (anti-corruption layer, CQRS, orchestration vs. choreography, etc.)

• System Architecture Patterns & Books ([25:48]) — Messaging, event buses, idempotency, circuit breakers—learn the underlying principles, not just tools. — "Every problem might have a few different solutions. So you'll need to have a good understanding of different patterns and the trade offs..." – Eoin, 26:22

• Data Storage ([26:44])
  — Always dictated by business requirements; recognize there’s “no one-size-fits-all.” — Book: Designing Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppman

• Networking ([29:21])
  — Understand the full request cycle, from browser to server, including protocols and addressing.

• Operating Systems & Containers ([30:20]) — Docker Curriculum (free), How Linux Works by Brian Ward

• Programming & Security ([32:23]) — Stay hands-on with code; bolster security knowledge and know when/how to ask for deeper expertise

7. Developing Soft Skills ([33:08])

• Communication, Empathy, Self-Regulation:
  Increasingly included in technical degrees; essential for architects to function as bridges between tech and business.

• Book Recommendations:
  (Mentioned, specifics in the show notes)

8. Concrete Actions & Next Steps ([34:29])

• Iterative Learning:
  Small, repeated increments; combine practice projects with theoretical study.
• Project Ideas:
  Seek projects (even small ones) that touch on architecture—web apps, machine learning, cloud automation.
• Online Courses:
  Udemy, Coursera, A Cloud Guru—dedicate focused time to each fundamental topic, cycling through and deepening understanding iteratively.
• Programming Habits:
  Regular coding challenges to stay sharp, especially if your main job isn’t coding.
• AWS Exploration:
  Don’t aim for expertise in every service; learn core services (EC2, S3, IAM), then deep dive as required.
• Build a Portfolio:
  Showcase projects on GitHub, write about your experience—useful both for reflection and career advancement.
• Join the Community:
  Engage in AWS user groups (600+ worldwide and online), network and learn with peers.
• Commit to the Journey:
  — "Becoming a cloud architect is definitely not a get rich quick scheme. It's more like an ongoing adventure. You need to be patient and keep learning, growing, and constantly adapting to new changes." – Luciano, 35:38 — "We still feel we haven't reached the point where we could say, oh, we are the perfect cloud architect. We are still learning every day." – Luciano, 36:10

9. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "Cloud architecture fundamentally is like a game of trade-offs. And I think more experienced architects understand that there's always trade-offs in everything..." – Eoin, [12:28]

• "Try to find a balance [between theory and practice] and my suggestion would be learn something from the theory but in small steps and then try to have practical experience as quick as possible to consolidate those learnings." – Luciano, 21:40

• "Build a portfolio... All of that stuff is going to solve two purposes: help you to consolidate your ideas, but also if you ever need to showcase what you built, you already have it there." – Luciano, 35:00

10. Timeline of Key Segments

• 00:00–02:43: Introduction and scope of the episode
• 02:43–05:37: Market overview and definition of cloud architect
• 05:37–10:07: Key technical and soft skills
• 10:07–13:33: Architecture as a collaborative/team function
• 13:33–20:55: Personal journeys of Luciano and Eoin
• 20:55–25:48: Practical steps and suggested resources
• 25:48–32:23: Deep dives—system thinking, data, networking, OS, containers
• 32:23–33:08: Programming and Security
• 33:08–34:29: Soft skills and their growing importance
• 34:29–End: Concrete actions, building a portfolio, community, and ongoing growth

11. Final Takeaways

Becoming a cloud architect is a blend of gaining breadth and depth across technology and nurturing people skills, with an ongoing commitment to learning and adaptability. Both hosts reinforce that everyone’s route is different, and the title is just a milestone on a perpetual learning journey.

“We hope this episode has been useful and we look forward to hearing about your journey as a cloud architect. So don't be shy and reach out to us and let us know how it is going, how you are progressing and what are you thinking to do next. So thank you so much for hanging out with us today. And until next time, epic cloud architecting.” – Luciano, 36:50