What is a Cloud Architect? The Difference Between a Cloud Architect and Cloud Engineer

7 min readAug 5, 2021

In this article, we’ll go over the differences between a cloud architect and a cloud engineer. Both are fantastic careers, but they are very different careers and require completely different skillsets. Because they are such different careers, they require very different training. We find many people are confused regarding these roles, which causes them to learn the wrong skillset, which prevents them from getting the career they desire.

Who am I?

Hello! My name is Michael Gibbs, CEO and Founder of Go Cloud Architects . I’ve been working in technology for well over 25 years. We dedicate ourselves to building high-performance cloud computing careers that get you your dream cloud job and growing career. I’ve been working in technology for over 25 years, and I’ve spent 20 years of my career doing the following:

Networking
Security
Cloud computing
Teaching
Coaching
Mentorship

At Go Cloud Architects our goal is to help individuals achieve their dream career in cloud computing. We achieve this by focusing on technical competency, soft skills, emotional intelligence, business acumen, and all the skills requisite for an elite cloud computing career. Whether the individual’s desire is to work in cloud architecture, cloud infrastructure, cloud security, machine learning, or any of the multitude of other cloud jobs; we help our students succeed. Our students are guided to find the best fit for their individual learning paths; and their training focuses on a combination of cloud computing skills, technical skills, soft skills, and certifications training.

To assist the cloud computing community, we provide many FREE resources and content on Blog and our YouTube Channel, which you can find here. We cover both technical content as well as career coaching and soft skills-related content. We even provide complete free AWS certification training, which can be found at the bottom of this article.

Also, at the bottom of this article, you can find information on our Cloud Architect Career Development training program, which you can find here. And we also provide links to our weekly FREE webinars for the community.

The Primary Difference Between a Cloud Architect and Cloud Engineer

When you’re trying to get your first cloud job, whether it’s as a cloud architect or as a cloud engineer, you need to be what the employer desires. Let’s go over the primary differences in the roles. The first difference between an architect and an engineer is the actual job. First and foremost, cloud architects and architects in general design things. Cloud engineers and engineers, in general, build and configure things. There’s a big difference between designing something and building something. If you want to train to design, train to design; and if you want to train to configure and build, train to configure and build.

Cloud architect training, therefore, revolves around end-to-end system design. By comparison, cloud engineering training needs to revolve around building and configure services on the cloud. Typically, certification training revolves around the name of a cloud service, and how to configure the service. This type of training is great for a junior-level implementation engineer but is completely insufficient for a cloud architect or solutions architect.

A cloud architect’s training should encompass the following:

End-to-end systems design
Networking
Datacenter
Executive Presence
Emotional Intelligence
Communication Skills
Sales Skills
Business Acumen
Presentation Skills
Negotiation Skills
Writing Skills

As you can see many of these skills are business-related. This is because the cloud architect role is truly a hybrid business/technical role. A cloud architect systems designer. Cloud architects do not configure, code, automate, or operate the systems they design. This is a design position. The cloud architect needs to have detailed knowledge of how all the systems in the network and datacenter work. It would be impossible to design an end-to-end solution without deep technical knowledge of how the parts all work together as a complete system. This should not be confused with knowing the details of how to configure services.

Cloud architects look at the business goals, legal and regulatory requirements, current systems, and develop a solution to improve the business’s performance. As you can see there is almost no relationship between the role of a cloud architect and AWS certifications. That is why architects require very different training than cloud engineers. For cloud architects, AWS (or comparable) certifications are only 10% of the training needed.

While the cloud architect may not configure or code, it is a completely different story for the cloud engineer. The cloud engineer will be constantly building and configuring services. In addition to configuring services, cloud engineers may be involved in automation with terraform, cloud formation, python scripts, bash scripts, and other shell scripts. Cloud engineers will constantly be on the command line interface and the management console. They will spend most of the day behind a desk while a cloud architect/solutions architect could spend half of their time in customer meetings.

What Does This Difference Really Look Like?

Let’s look at regular activities for a cloud architect:

Phone calls with clients
Lunch/Dinner with clients (relationship development)
Meetings with clients’ executive
Meetings with clients’ technical teams
Presentation with clients
Design and document solutions
Solicit feedback on proposed designs from client
Work on interdisciplinary teams (ie engineers, architects, security, etc.)
ROI modeling for clients
Leading teams and mentoring others
Obtaining internal resources to assist with solution design and deployment

Let’s look at regular activities for a cloud engineer:

Some meetings with management and clients, specific to technical requirements and troubleshooting
Extensive time at the computer (80% of the day)
Configuring systems through command line interface and management console
Writing automation scripts
Document configurations as deployed

Summary

As you can see the cloud architect is a hybrid between a technical professional and a business executive. Conversely, the cloud engineer is a hands-on technical role.

Now that you understand the architect is more about knowing the overall package of how the pieces integrate, and the engineer is more about the detailed configuration; you know how to focus your training for the role you desire.

If you want to be an architect, learn:

System Design
Virtualization
Containers
Storage (file, windows, Linux, block, object)
Load Balancers
DNS
Networking
Security
Executive communication skills
Leadership Skills
Presentation Skills
Emotional Intelligence
Executive Presence
Business Acumen

If you want to be an engineer, learn:

Vendor services, such as AWS/GCP/Azure etc.
Develop excellence in configuring these services
Scripting (Python/shell)
Automation tools (such as Terraform and Cloud Formation)
Linux knowledge and system administration
Learn the details and idiosyncrasies of all the above

Now you know the difference between these great careers. Focus your time and effort on obtaining the skills and knowledge for your goal career. Train hard, train fast, and train smart. Go after your dreams, don’t let anything hold you back. And celebrate your success.

How Can We Help You With Your Cloud Career

Career Development Programs

At Go Cloud Architects our goal is to improve the cloud computing community as a whole, by developing individuals to succeed in their roles. Our Career Development Programs are designed to help you get the best career at the fastest speed possible. These programs not only provide technical training, but also the much overlooked soft skills and emotional intelligence that determine whether an individual can reach that dream career. In these group training programs, we provide a combination of live group training sessions, on-demand web-based content, and extensive labs. We also provide server access to our students, to build their own cloud architectures from the ground up. You can find more information on the programs by clicking the button below.

Cloud Architect Career Development Program

Our FREE Offerings Every Week

Mondays and Thursdays

“ Go Cloud Architects offers the How to get your first cloud architect job” webinar twice a week on Monday at 9:00 AM EST, and Thursday at 12:00 PM EST. You can register for the next call here. We conduct a presentation in the beginning and afterward, participants can ask any questions they want. We will even help build a career plan LIVE on these free calls. We will talk about:

What employers desire
How to build a perfect resume
How to get your name out to the community
How to get hired
Things to do on your interview

Register for the How to Get Your First Cloud Job Webinar

Tuesdays

Every Tuesday at 9:00 AM EST we have a “ Cloud Architecture Design Challenge” about getting actual cloud architect experience and competency from home that employers desire to help you get hired. You can register for the next call here. In these sessions, we provide a real-life scenario, and participants design a cloud solution in real-time. Afterward, we address any cloud architect career questions, and help you learn what you need to do to get your first cloud architect job!

Register for the Cloud Architecture Design Challenge

With Our Compliments

Go Cloud Architects is truly excited to offer multiple FREE resources for AWS Certification training. These include:

FREE AWS Certified Solution Architect eBook
FREE AWS Certified Solution Architect Associate complete online course on our YouTube channel.
FREE Architecture Based AWS Certified Solution Architect Professional complete online course on our YouTube channel
FREE AWS Advanced Networking complete course on our YouTube Channel
FREE 4 Hour Subnetting Workshop to boost your networking knowledge

We look forward to you joining our Go Cloud Architects community!

Originally published at https://gocloudcareers.com on August 5, 2021.