Cloud Architect Salary, Certifications, Jobs & Career in 2024

Cloud computing is a revolution that has reduced costs in business operations. The cloud architect career path is one of the promising careers for cloud aspirants. 

Through this blog, you will understand topics such as “ what is a cloud architect?” “How to become a cloud architect?” “Cloud architect salary” and many more.

What is a Cloud Architect?

A cloud architect is an IT specialist who has knowledge of designing and forming structures. They play the lead role in cloud management by creating strategies, deploying applications, and many more. Since they handle the complete cloud architecture, they will directly report to senior-level management, such as the director, chief technical officer, etc.

What does a cloud architect do?

Cloud architects handle complete cloud technology, right from creating strategies, deploying applications, monitoring cloud activity, and designing and migrating applications to networks for cloud storage. They act as both technical leaders and management professionals.

Cloud Architect Job Description

Candidates aspiring to become a cloud architect can overview the job description provided below:

• Planning and designing a cloud environment
• Create a cloud strategy and manage the adaption process.
• Evaluate cloud applications.
• Monitor cloud privacy.
• Respond to technical issues and offer guidance.
• Maintain ownership of the systems 
• Delivery of expertise in complete infrastructure.
• Acknowledging the relevant systems 

Cloud Architect Skills

• Programming Knowledge.
• Interpersonal skills.
• Managerial skills.
• Leadership skills.
• Ability to design, implement, and deploy cloud infrastructure.
• Knowledge of IT ecosystems.
• Knowledge of tools such as Visual Paradigm, Cloudcraft, Arcentry, Azure, and Edraw is an added advantage.

Cloud Computing is a highly sought after domain. With its increasing demand, several people want to build a career in this domain. Cloud Computing has some popular role-based certifications, and one of the most popular certifications is Cloud Solutions Architect Certification. If you are someone wanting to pursue this certification and is wondering what skills you should acquire, then you have landed in the right place.

On metered usage, which can be accessed across the globe using the internet, all the resources are maintained and monitored by your vendor. This gives you ample time to focus on your business. Many popular vendors in the market offer on-demand services. These are, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, etc. These vendors provide services in 245+ countries and serve in different locations across the globe.

With metered usage, we can use the resources and services offered by these vendors on a Pay-as-you-use basis. That means we use a resource for N hours for N amount. Then, we will be charged only for the duration and size of the resource. These resources are delivered to you in highly secured models in different offerings in the form of service and deployment models.

What Skills you should learn as a Cloud Architect?

As a Cloud Solutions Architect, it is important you learn the following:

Operating System and Networking

You must know how operating systems work. As an architect, you may not be required to do hardcore coding. But you are still required to get your technical fundamentals in place. As an architect, you will be working in different technical environments. Hence, understanding how operating systems work becomes very important. Also, you may be supporting administrators so the knowledge is important. Knowing how Linux or Ubuntu work becomes very important.

Another important vertical you need to know about is networking. Since we are talking about Cloud Computing, it is important to have networking knowledge. This is because Cloud Computing is a domain that is nothing but a connection of servers across the globe, which happens via virtual networks. So, you must know how traditional and virtual networks work.

It is important you brush up skills and terms like,

• DNS
• TCP/IP
• HTTP
• CDN
• VPN

As a Cloud Architect, you won’t be required to know the exact port numbers. But having a knowledge of these domains, would definitely help. Because you would be working with popular cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and will be working with services like Route 53, VPC, etc.

Cloud Storage

Cloud offers plenty of storage options. Those can be cold storage, hot storage, file systems, Block and Bucket kind of storage. It is important as a Cloud professional to know how these storages work. With it, you can plan what storage will help you optimize costs on the cloud platform. Apart from this, we work with various big data applications for which the storage works differently. Understanding all these types of storages thus becomes important.

Security

Security is another important aspect of Cloud Computing. Many have perceived Cloud Computing of being unsafe. With outages in early 2010’s ,we often hear people saying that Cloud Computing is not secure. But Cloud ensures both physical and network security. Various services help govern network security for different cloud platforms. You must learn how to control identity and access management, learn how to govern network security with firewalls and encryption.

Service Selection

As an architect, you should know what services concern your project. Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud platform combines offer 400+ services. It is important you know what platform to use and what service to opt for, because these cloud platforms offer plenty of services, for almost every possible domain one can think off. As an Architect, you should know what is needed, what services will help optimize costs, what services will best fit in the platform requirements.

Arbitration

As a Cloud Architect, you will be responsible for communicating with the stakeholders, Cloud Developers and even Cloud Admins. You will be a central point of contact in all these cases. Hence, it is important that a Cloud Solutions Architect has good communication skills, and can articulate the idea of what needs to be created and what needs to be conveyed to all the endpoints.

This sums up all the important skills that a Cloud Solutions Architect should know. This brings us to the end of this article. We hope you enjoyed it and were able to gain some insights. In case you have questions, feel free to put those in the chatbox below, and our team would revert to you at the earliest. Happy Learning!

If you wish to learn more, you can upskill with Great Learning’s PGP Cloud Computing Course and unlock your dream career.

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How to Become a Cloud Architect?

To become a cloud architect, you need to be upfront with the following things:

1. A basic degree is a must.

The entry criteria for becoming a cloud architect is to get a bachelor’s degree. ( science background).

2. Get on-the-job experience

A cloud architect is usually a mid-level or mid-senior level position. So, getting experience is a must to start your career as a cloud architect.

3. Update your skills with certifications

A cloud architect isn’t just about getting experience but also about upskilling with the help of online courses such as AWS, Great learning’s cloud architecture course, AWZ certifications, etc. These certifications can validate your ability to design, network, storage and security.

Other certifications are: 

• Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Cloud Platform and Infrastructure.
• IBM Certified Cloud Solution Architect v2.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
• Microsoft Certified Azure Architect
• Google Cloud Platform Cloud Architect
• Salesforce Certifications.
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Architect Associate Certification.
• Red Hat Certified System Administrator in Red Hat OpenStack.
• CompTIA Cloud Essentials.
• VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization Exam.
  
• Apart from these certifications, engage yourself in reading books, some of the important books for aspiring cloud architect professionals are:

Designing Data-Intensive Applications

Designing Distributed Systems

SRE book and related reads

Kubernetes Patterns

Network+ and other CompTIA study guides

The Phoenix Project

The Illustrated Children’s Guide to Kubernetes

4. Start the job search!

Now that you’re trained, it’s time to look at the jobs to get experienced in this field. Some of the cloud architects jobs are listed below:

Cloud Architect Jobs 

Certified cloud architect with excellent skills are in huge demand, some of the job profiles are: 

• Azure Cloud Architect: An Azure cloud architect is an IT professional who helps in designing, building, and executing an Azure cloud environment. Azure Cloud Architect’s salary in the USA is $156,000 per year or $80 per hour.
  
• AWS Specialist: AWS specialist is a cloud professional who spends time implementing secure internet protocols and updating AWS security services and features.AWS Specialist salary in India starts from Rs. 6,07,000 per annum.
  
• Service Cloud Architect: The service cloud architect is responsible for Creating a well-informed cloud strategy, regularly evaluating cloud applications, developing and organising cloud systems, respond to technical issues in a professional and timely manner. Service cloud architect salary in the USA is about $118,266.
  
• Security Architect: Security Architect is responsible for reviewing current system security measures and recommending enhancements, conducting regular system tests and monitoring network security. Security architect salary in India is about ₹2,180,428 per annum.
  
• AWS Cloud Solutions Architect: AWS cloud solutions architect is responsible for deploying, and securing the AWS technologies.
  
• Senior IT Architect: Senior IT Architect is responsible for reviewing architectural plans with government codes, laws and regulations, and advises Subcontractors on the interpretation of plans. Senior IT Architect salary in India is about ₹2,759K  per annum.
  
• Solutions Architect: The solution Architect is responsible for Analyzing the technology environment, and enterprise specifics, documenting requirements, creating a solution prototype, and controlling solution development. Solutions Architect salary in India is about ₹ 1,900,000 per annum.

Cloud Architect Salary

Cloud architects often hold senior positions and earn over six figures. According to the pay scale, a senior cloud architects salary makes around Rs 2,500,000 per annum. A technical cloud architects salary is around 2,400,000 per annum. 

Cloud Architect Salary in India: Based on Experience

Experience	Salary
1- 4 years	4 LPA
5-9 years	20 LPA
10 -19 years	31 LPA

Cloud Architect Salary in the United States: Based on Experience

Experience	Salary
1- 4 years	$80k
5-9 years	$128k
10 -19 years	$167k

Are You Ready to Become a Cloud Architect?

We have covered all the basics of a cloud architect career path. However, the journey doesn’t end here, one must keep on updating their knowledge in cloud technology to enhance their skills as a cloud architect. Taking up online courses and getting certifications can help you access many job opportunities in renowned companies worldwide.

Become a Successful Cloud Architect

This ‘How to start your career as a Cloud architect?’ blog has offered you an in-depth understanding of who cloud architect professionals are, what they do, what tools they should learn, what skills they must require, cloud architect salary, what recruiters and companies expect from them, and more. Look into our PG Program in Cloud Computing course and fast track your career as a cloud architect!

Also Read:  Common Cloud Architect interview questions