3 Ways Cloud Architects Can Increase Their Impact

Couldn't attend Transform 2022? Check out all the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Look here.

As cloud architects, we work for continuous improvement, both in accomplishing our day-to-day tasks and with the larger goal of accelerating our organization's journey to the cloud. We need to create both immediate and long-term value.

I've spent a lot of time architecting cloud systems, and I know that our job is all about applying technical knowledge to real business problems. However, not all the problems we face are technical, nor are the solutions.

Although the companies I have worked for are varied, they share similar challenges. So I've offered three key tips for maximizing impact that cloud architects can use to tackle complex business challenges, no matter the context.

Use what you have

When faced with a new software problem, we often go straight to the whiteboard and start scribbling. We trick ourselves into believing that each problem we face is unique. Often this is not the case. It's time to stand on the shoulders of the savvy developers who came before us and build a bridge between the past and the future.

Event

MetaBeat 2022

MetaBeat will bring together thought leaders to advise on how metaverse technology will transform the way all industries communicate and do business on October 4 in San Francisco, CA.

register here

Cloud architects often have to work within tight constraints (time, budget, team skills) while getting things done as soon as possible. We have to design with the constraints given to us.

The best way to manage these constraints is to leverage existing software services, including cloud application design and architecture development, and cloud management and monitoring, to see what works best. better. This may require institutional forensic analysis in past cases, to find out why successes worked and where failures failed.

Look for patterns of success and failure – both at the technical level and at the managerial and organizational level. Then pick the strongest building blocks for your current challenge and put your mental energy into other parts of the problem that don't lend themselves to out-of-the-box solutions.

It is a basic rule of economics that any business, or individual, strives for the most with the least effort. So start with what you have and build on it. No need to reinvent the wheel. Use the wheels you have and start driving today. You will be able to move faster.

Reframing the problem

Probably the key factor in any type of software development project is time to market. The clock is still ticking. The faster you develop a technological solution to the business problem, the happier everyone is. You want the best result with the least complexity, because complexity slows down projects.

A common complaint from cloud architects is that they think the tools they have are not sufficient to create the solution needed. In most cases, however, these are the only tools you will need to fix this problem. You can assume that means you'll have to sacrifice functionality. Instead, think differently.

Let me give you an example. In a previous job, I was tasked with scanning the organization's systems for malware, which included millions of machines across many networks. A giant task. It was not impossible, but close.

Then I realized that tracking down malware was like managing a system. You're looking for code or systems that do something they're not supposed to. With malware, it's intentional and destructive; with simple system management, this is not the case.

So we rephrased the problem with a simple question: what do machines do that's different from what they normally do? We began to track these differences - the d...