Lessons from One Year as a Microsoft Cloud Solutions Architect
Author’s note: this story was written in August 2021 and is re-published in March 2022.
This past week marked my first anniversary as a cloud solutions architect. 🥳
In many ways, the role was completely new to me when I first joined. I come from a nontraditional background (statistics and humanities) and previously worked as a product manager at a B2C startup. A cloud architect was not a role I’d ever heard about in college. So, with the eagerness that recent college grads are especially gifted with, I dove into all there is to learn bout being an effective cloud solutions architect.
💡 What is a cloud solutions architect?
As cloud computing becomes more and more prevalent in the tech landscape — the cloud infrastructure market shot up by 38% in 2021 alone — more companies are willing to train cloud solutions architects with little to no experience.
Yet the cloud architect role is not one many people have likely heard of. Traditionally it’s been a role reserved for more experienced workers in the tech industry. In the past, cloud architecture has been an area for software engineers to transition into because of the high-level technical knowledge required.
The role is rather unorthodox in that it draws on both technical and people-oriented skills — it involves programming as well as strategizing with internal and external teams. The “solutions architect” part of the title refers to designing cloud infrastructure for products created by company partners. After discussions about business requirements, proof of concepts (POCs) and mockups solidify the architecture design before delivery to engineering teams for implementation. Usually, it takes years of experience for individuals to develop the skills needed to create solutions at a technical high-level and deliver them to key stakeholders.
📚 Key learnings
Looking back on the first year, I was challenged in new ways to work more effectively and efficiently. I had to develop several habits (and kick several old ones to the curb) in order to help partners go to market with their products more quickly.
1. Discover with questions
Often before hosting architecture design sessions (ADS) with customers, we have a discovery call where I can better understand their business use case and requirements.
The tricky part about these calls is that sometimes customers need help articulating how I can help them. Because they are working with intellectual property before a product is released (and sometimes they’re working with other cloud providers as well), sometimes not all of the information I need is shared upfront.
My experience conducting user interviews as a product manager came in handy in the effort of learning more about their goals and blockers. It helped to ask the “why” and “how” about certain technology when customers requested to utilize it. In doing so, sometimes we realized that the coolest technology wasn’t always relevant or necessary for the solution.
2. Co-create and collaborate
Architecture design sessions require a lot of preparation, including scoping out the solution and understanding the partner’s current state such as their tech stack and teams’ expertise. But while you need to understand where the partner is starting from, you also need to strategize the solution that will help solve their problem as well as how to lead them to that solution.
I quickly learned that, while counterintuitive, it’s not always the most effective (or fun) to enter the conversation overprepared. If you come in with a diagram mapped out end to end, sure, you might come across as brilliant and proactive, but you also might end up alienating your customer by monopolizing the time with your thought process.
A more effective approach I found was to enter the session with a rough sketch of the diagram with missing pieces for the customer and I to fill in during our discussion. That way, the process is more collaborative, productive, and successful as the design gets built iteratively.
3. Make time for upskilling
As a cloud architect, you’re often asked highly technical questions about services. It’s my job to be the trusted advisor with the expertise to guide the customer to a stage where they can begin building out the solution.
Setting aside time on the job to continue learning is an encouraged way to prepare for specific questions. One piece of advice I received from mentors was to block out time on my calendar to go deep into a specific technology or solution area.
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) such as Coursera and Udacity as well as technology-specific textbooks helped me fill in knowledge gaps I was missing. One particularly helpful book was Tensorflow for Deep Learning. Microsoft Azure also has several YouTube channels (Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Developer, for example) with a variety of explainer videos on all things cloud.
Here’s an example of a walk-through of a medical imaging use case with Azure Computer Vision:
Although cloud certifications are a way to provide a legitimized proof of knowledge, I found a lot of value out of experimenting directly with the technology and services by building independent projects and testing out use cases in my own workspace. Students can even get $100 in free Azure credit to explore and create their own projects. It’s something I wish I had taken advantage of in college to spin up my own personal projects.
When I led a team of data scientists, many of whom had PhD backgrounds and years of experience under their belts, through a weeklong hack through Azure Machine Learning, I sure was grateful for the time I had spent understanding deep neural networks.
4. Stay up-to-date with the industry
The cloud computing industry is a fast-moving one. There are constantly new products and features pushed out that sometimes it’s hard to keep up. In addition, policies around product usage change often.
You don’t want to be caught in a scenario where a customer asks you about a new development and it’s the first time you’re hearing about it.
I followed distribution lists about products and industry newsletters specific to my company and others. Company conferences were also sources for learning about new releases.
5. Build reusable assets
Part of my role is evangelizing available cloud services. This past year I delivered presentations at introductory and advanced technical levels during partner engagements and conferences. These presentations often included demos, which can be priceless for both developers and companies alike.
Your peers are also likely eager to be able to use the same material in their partner engagements.
Sometimes partners need to also upskill their teams when working with cloud providers for the first time. I also help partners strategize the skills needed to improve on.
6. Overcommunicate with partners and collaborators
I interface regularly with partners’ various teams and our own internal strategist teams. Messages can sometimes get lost in the crossfire. I learned to move beyond my concern that I was bombarding collaborators while trying to iron out details leading up to an engagement.
One of the adages I’ve since begun implementing more in my workflow is Brené Brown’s “Clear is kind.” When expectations and goals are specified from the get-go, less is left to guesswork, which in turn makes plans at peace. Confidence through clarity is better than any second-guessing about whether I should send a follow-up email for clarification.
7. Show up for others
As mentioned earlier, cloud architects should serve as trusted advisors to customers, answering business, product, and technical questions. Some tend to specialize in specific technologies and domains rather than covering all types. With that said, the Cloud Solutions Architect is a highly collaborative role that allows you to lean on the expertise of others to join conversations.
Networking is hugely important to being successful so you can draw on various experts while building a solution with the customer. I like to put in good karma by helping out others — whether it’s providing insight on training and deploying a model, sharing recorded demos I created to save someone else time, or sitting in on someone else’s ADS to answer questions beyond their area, the hope is that they’re more likely to give you a hand in the future when you need it. In turn, it helps to build your brand as the expert on that subject.
✒️ Final thoughts
I’ve really enjoyed my first year as a cloud architect. Without knowing what the role would look like on an everyday level, I entered the experience with an open mind. The tradeoff is that I’ve learned how to be more effective through trial and error. I’m lucky that I was able to bounce my ideas and thought processes off of mentors and peers.
A cloud architect wears many hats, so it takes some core skills (productivity, technical, and communication especially) to deliver well.
