- [Instructor] So, now let's talk about the skills you need
to be a cloud computing architect.
And it's a fairly complex topic.
So, what's important here is that architects
have an eclectic array of skills.
So, ultimately this is about you understanding storage,
this is about you understanding compute,
this is about you understanding networking,
and different platform features and programming
and DevOps and all these sorts of things
that really kind of make up an enterprise architecture
and also a cloud architecture.
Have to remember that a cloud computing architecture
is a mixture of new public cloud computing systems
as well as existing on-premise legacy systems.
And so, your ability to have a wide array
of skill sets to understand the different
platforms is going to be very important.
This is about understanding things holistically.
This is not about you getting into the details
of a particular platform.
And in many instances,
cloud computing architects can be derailed
because they're focused on something
specific that they happen to know.
They may be a database person or a network person,
and they focus so much on the database
or the network or the programming systems
that they're not focusing on the holistic architecture
and making sure that the architecture
meets the needs of the business.
So, this is about you being
a jack-of-all-trades and master of some,
your ability to kind of understand things holistically.
And that's typically why people
become architects later in their career,
because they get a great deal of experience
in understanding different aspects of IT,
and they're able to employ those skills
in terms of them being an architect.
This is about a journey of learning.
So, going forward,
you have to understand that you have to continue
to update your skills going forward,
have to go to conferences, have to read books,
have to watch videos,
and have to really kind of question
what's coming down the road
and what you need to understand
and what you need to learn.
Keep in mind that you're not doing your employer
any service if you don't understand
the new and important technology
that you really should be applying
in this particular instance.
In some instances, we can get a shiny-objects syndrome
and chase things that are very hyped,
but you need to understand
the value that it's able to bring
and make sure that new things are considered;
and therefore, you're always going to be learning.
So, you need to understand legacy technology;
cloud technology, of course;
security approaches and technology;
DevOps, development and operations;
methodologies, or approaches or procedures
in how you do something;
governance, or the ability to put guardrails
around the way in which we use systems,
ensuring that rules are going to be met
and policies are going to be enforced.
So, you're a jack-of-all-trades.
And ultimately, I think, people who understand that
and are able to, in essence,
thrive in that kind of environment,
are going to be successful
at becoming a cloud architect.
So, going forward, keep that in mind.
This does not mean that you have to understand everything,
but this does mean you have to have
a little knowledge of a lot of things
to make sure you're considering everything
that's coming into an architecture
to allow you to be successful.
So, we need to know the tools, security,
governance, DevOps, performance,
office automation, design, and collaboration.
So, tools out there are plentiful.
And you're going to find any number of tools
that fits in these categories,
or sometimes other categories as well.
There's IoT tools and edge-based computing tools,
thing like that.
Don't become overly enamored
with the tools, they're just that.
They're ways in which you can practice your craft,
ways in which you can solve problems.
But they're not necessarily
always going to be the end goal
for you to pick and deploy as many tools as you can.
And I think architects have a tendency
to fall down that well,
because it's easy to focus on tools,
and it's easy to focus on things that are likely
to automate a solution for you.
However, tools are really just endpoint analytics,
their ability to build things,
the ability to deal with databases,
the ability to deal with networks.
And you're going to deal with hundreds of them in your career.
But don't get enamored with them.