Understanding the Responsibilities of a Cloud Solution Architect

Cloud computing has its roots in foundational capabilities, available as early as the 1950s. Because of these enabling technologies as well as more recent advancements, the need for an architect to design workload solutions optimized for the cloud is a highly demanded skill set today. This architect’s role started as a solution architect (SA), but as time evolved and cloud computing continued to mature, a new type of architect was needed to address the new paradigm of cloud computing. The last 10-15 years have created an opportunity for architects to specialize in cloud-native (cloud only) and hybrid cloud architecture. This role became known as a cloud SA (CSA).

To understand the current role of a CSA and what it takes to become one, we need to do some level-setting. In this chapter, we will learn what a CSA does by first providing a brief history of cloud computing and its relationship to the increasing demand...