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Solutions Architect's Handbook
Solutions Architect's Handbook

Solutions Architect's Handbook: Kick-start your career as a solutions architect by learning architecture design principles and strategies , Second Edition

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Profile Icon Saurabh Shrivastava Profile Icon Neelanjali Srivastav
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NZ$94.99 NZ$105.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4 (96 Ratings)
eBook Jan 2022 590 pages 2nd Edition
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Profile Icon Saurabh Shrivastava Profile Icon Neelanjali Srivastav
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4 (96 Ratings)
eBook Jan 2022 590 pages 2nd Edition
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Solutions Architect's Handbook

The Meaning of Solution Architecture

This book will be your first step in the solution architecture world, acting as a comprehensive guide to learn all about solution architecture, and allowing you to become a professional solution architect. In this chapter, we will explore the meaning of solution architecture, and how it is the foundation of solution development in an organization. A robust solution architecture design helps successful software application development in a complex organization, covering all aspects, from IT infrastructure, application security, and reliability, to operational aspects in production.

For successful application development, defining the solution architecture should be the first step, which then lays out the foundations and the robust building blocks of implementation. Solution architecture handles critical, non-functional requirements such as scalability, high availability, maintainability, performance, and security while keeping business requirements in mind.

A solution architect is a person who is responsible for designing solution architecture by collaborating with and across stakeholders. The solution architect analyzes the functional requirements and defines non-functional requirements in order to cover all aspects of the solution—and avoid any surprises. Each solution has multiple constraints, such as cost, budget, timeline, and regulatory constraints, so the solution architect must consider them while selecting technology during the application design process to solve a given business problem.

The solution architect develops a proof of concept and prototype in order to evaluate various technology platforms, and then chooses the best strategy for solution implementation.

They mentor the team throughout solution development and provide post-launch guidance to maintain and scale the final product.

In this chapter, you will learn about the following topics:

  • What is solution architecture?
  • The evolution of solution architecture
  • Why is solution architecture important?
  • The benefits of solution architecture
  • Solution architecture in the public cloud

By the end of this chapter, you will have learned about the benefits of solution architecture to every aspect of an enterprise application. You will evaluate solution architecture in the public cloud and develop a cloud-native approach to architecture design.

What is solution architecture?

Asking this question to a variety of professionals may lead to ten different answers for the definition of solution architecture. In fact, they may all be correct, within the context of a given organization's structure. Each organization may see solution architecture from a different perspective, based on their business needs, organizational hierarchy, and solution complexity.

In a nutshell, solution architecture can be described as defining and foreseeing multiple aspects of a business solution, from both strategic and transactional perspectives. "Strategic" means that a solution architect defines a long-term vision for a software application to ensure it stays relevant, regardless of future changes, with possible extensions to address increasing user workload and additional feature demand. "Transactional" means an application should handle the current customer workload and address daily business challenges without any issues.

Solution architecture is not just about providing a software solution. It covers all aspects of a system, which includes, but is not limited to, system infrastructure, networking, security, compliance requirement, system operation, cost, and reliability. As can be seen in Figure 1.1, there are many aspects that a solution architect may need to address.

Figure 1.1: Circle of solution architecture

A good solution architect addresses the most common aspects of the software solution in an organization:

  • Globally distributed teams: In this age of globalization, almost every product has users distributed across the globe, and stakeholder groups to take care of customer needs. Often, the software development team has an onshore-offshore model, where a team works across different time zones to increase productivity and optimize project costs. Solution design needs to consider a globally distributed team structure. This means solution development and operation should not be people-dependent but utilize tools to scale and collaborate regardless of team members' work locations and time zones.
  • Global compliance requirement: When you are deploying your solution globally, each country and region has its laws and compliance regulations, which your solution must adhere to. Some examples are as follows:
    • The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and Department of Defense Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (DoDSRG) for the USA
    • The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for Europe
    • The Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP) for Australia
    • The Center for Financial Industry Information Systems (FISC) for Japan
    • The Multi-Tier Cloud Security (MTCS) standard for Singapore
    • The G-Cloud for the UK
    • The IT-Grundschutz for Germany
    • The Multi-Level Protection Scheme (MLPS) Level 3 for China
  • Compliance requirements are different between industries; for example, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 (which is primarily for healthcare, life sciences, medical devices, and the automotive and aerospace industries), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for finance, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for healthcare. Solution architecture needs to consider any compliance adherence in the design phase. You will learn more about compliance in Chapter 8, Security Considerations.
  • Cost and budget: Solution architecture gives a good estimation of the overall cost of the project, which helps to define a budget. This includes capital expenditure (CapEx), which is the upfront cost, and operational expenditure (OpEx), an ongoing cost. It helps management to create an overall budget for human resources, infrastructure resources, and other licensing-related costs.
  • Solution implementation component: Solution architecture provides a high-level overview of different implementation components of the product beforehand, which helps to plan execution.
  • Business requirements: Solution architecture considers all business requirements, both functional and non-functional. A functional requirement addresses the application features that an end user will directly interact with. Non-functional requirements are not directly related to customer-facing feature enhancement, but impact the overall application in terms of critical factors, including performance, scalability, and availability. It ensures that business requirements are compatible, allowing them to be converted into the technical implementation stage, and strikes a balance between stakeholders.
  • IT infrastructure requirements: Solution architecture determines what kind of IT infrastructure is required to execute the project; this includes computing, storage, network, and considerations, and helps to plan the IT resources more effectively.
  • Technology selection: During solution design, a solution architect creates a prototype, which considers the corporate requirements, and then recommends the right technology and tools for implementation. Solution architecture aims to build in-house rather than third-party tool sourcing while defining software standards across the organization.
  • End user requirements: Solution architecture pays special attention to the requirements of the end user who will be the actual consumer of the product. It helps to discover the hidden requirements that a product owner may not be able to capture. During implementation and launch, the solution architect provides a standard document and standard language structure in order to make sure that all of the requirements have been met to satisfy the user's needs.
  • Solution maintenance: Solution architecture is not just about solution design and implementation, but also takes care of post-launch activities, such as solution scalability, disaster recovery, and operational excellence.
  • Project timeline: Solution architecture designs the layout details of each component with their complexity, which further helps to define the project milestones and timeline by providing resource estimation and associated risks.

An industry-standard and well-defined solution architecture addresses all business requirements within a technical solution and makes sure to deliver the desired result in order to satisfy the stakeholders, as per their expectations in terms of the quality, availability, maintainability, and scalability of the solution.

The initial design of a solution architecture may be conceived at a very early stage during the pre-sales cycle, such as the request for proposal (RFP) or the request for information (RFI), and is followed by the creation of a prototype or proof of concept, in order to discover any solution risk. The solution architect also identifies whether to build a solution or to source it. It helps to identify the appropriate technology, while also keeping an organization's critical security and compliance requirements in mind.

There are two primary situations for creating a solution architecture:

  • First, enhancing technology for an existing application, which may include hardware refresh or software re-architecting.
  • Second, creating a new solution from the ground up, where you get more flexibility to choose the best fit of technology to address a business requirement.

However, while re-architecting an existing solution, you need to consider the minimal impact on the current environment. Solution architects may decide to completely rebuild if re-architecting the existing solution is not worth it, and a better solution can be provided through a full rebuild approach.

Put simply, solution architecture is about looking at all the aspects of the system in order to generate a technical vision, which provides steps to implement the business requirements. Solution architecture can define an implementation for a project, or a group of projects in a complex environment, by putting together all of the different pieces that are related to data, infrastructure, networking, and software applications. A good solution architecture not only satisfies the functional and non-functional requirements but also addresses system scalabilities and maintenance in the long run.

We have now briefly covered the role of solution architecture and its different aspects. In the next section, we will look at the evolution of solution architecture.

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Key benefits

  • Turn business needs into end-to-end technical architectures with this practical guide
  • Assess and overcome various challenges while updating or modernizing legacy applications
  • Future-proof your architecture with IoT, machine learning, and quantum computing

Description

Becoming a solutions architect requires a hands-on approach, and this edition of the Solutions Architect's Handbook brings exactly that. This handbook will teach you how to create robust, scalable, and fault-tolerant solutions and next-generation architecture designs in a cloud environment. It will also help you build effective product strategies for your business and implement them from start to finish. This new edition features additional chapters on disruptive technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT), quantum computing, data engineering, and machine learning. It also includes updated discussions on cloud-native architecture, blockchain data storage, and mainframe modernization with public cloud. The Solutions Architect's Handbook provides an understanding of solution architecture and how it fits into an agile enterprise environment. It will take you through the journey of solution architecture design by providing detailed knowledge of design pillars, advanced design patterns, anti-patterns, and the cloud-native aspects of modern software design. By the end of this handbook, you'll have learned the techniques needed to create efficient architecture designs that meet your business requirements.

Who is this book for?

This book is for software developers, system engineers, DevOps engineers, architects, and team leaders who already work in the IT industry and aspire to become solutions architect professionals. Existing solutions architects who want to expand their skillset or get a better understanding of new technologies will also learn valuable new skills. To get started, you'll need a good understanding of the real-world software development process and general programming experience in any language.

What you will learn

  • Explore the various roles of a solutions architect in the enterprise landscape
  • Implement key design principles and patterns to build high-performance cost-effective solutions
  • Choose the best strategies to secure your architectures and increase their availability
  • Modernize legacy applications with the help of cloud integration
  • Understand how big data processing, machine learning, and IoT fit into modern architecture
  • Integrate a DevOps mindset to promote collaboration, increase operational efficiency, and streamline production

Product Details

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Publication date : Jan 17, 2022
Length: 590 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781801819060
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Publication date : Jan 17, 2022
Length: 590 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781801819060
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Table of Contents

21 Chapters
The Meaning of Solution Architecture Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Solution Architects in an Organization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Attributes of the Solution Architecture Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Principles of Solution Architecture Design Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Cloud Migration and Hybrid Cloud Architecture Design Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Solution Architecture Design Patterns Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Performance Considerations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Security Considerations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Architectural Reliability Considerations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Operational Excellence Considerations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Cost Considerations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
DevOps and Solution Architecture Framework Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Data Engineering for Solution Architecture Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Machine Learning Architecture Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
The Internet of Things Architecture Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Quantum Computing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Rearchitecting Legacy Systems Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Solution Architecture Document Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Learning Soft Skills to Become a Better Solution Architect Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4
(96 Ratings)
5 star 75%
4 star 8.3%
3 star 4.2%
2 star 6.3%
1 star 6.3%
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Piotr Mokry Jun 18, 2024
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Feefo Verified review Feefo
Krishna Neeraja Jan 24, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book has been structured and sequenced more like a text book to assist anybody who is zero with their knowledge on subject to making them get a clear knowledge and well equipped to play the role.I felt like I was going through a academic book making sure students understand each of the topic easily.With the advent of all cloud technologies every organization is pushing all their deep skilled resources to pursue or upgrade themselves to cloud technologies and also the cloud projects to handle.My personal favourites are Hybrid cloud architecture which is the most realistic situation we face day in day out ,solution architect design patterns and performance considerations.All and all a guide every new SA should have handy
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Lynn Feb 02, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The book walks you through the patterns and strategies that will help you prepare for a role as a Solutions Architect. The 2nd edition of Solutions architect’s handbook added new chapters on emerging technology such as AI, Machine Learning, IoT, Quantum computing while expanding on new topics like blockchain and various big data design patterns including data mesh, lake house, data lake, streaming data with the reference architecture. Each chapter refreshed, keeping the latest industry trend such as the cloud in mind with new topics like defining multi-cloud strategy approach, cloud-native architecture, Cloud DevOps and mainframe modernization, etc. The key takeaway for me, to grow as a solution architect, you need to have the breadth and depth of technology and soft skills to work at all levels of the organization, from engineer to C-level. You also need to have the strong business acumen to drive ROI while defining overall enterprise IT strategy. Solution architect has a critical role in accelerating enterprise digital journey by helping them upgrade to a more efficient tech stack and introducing emerging technology to help them stay ahead of the competition. I will recommend this book to anyone looking to embark on a solution architect role.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
John rider Jan 29, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The media could not be loaded. A book worth of every penny. Very comprehensive guide on building cloud architecture. A must-have guide for solutions architects. This book focuses on an effective transition from a current IT role to a Solutions Architect. It explains the steps to embark on that journey in a very logical manner. It starts with a simple, relatable explanation of what this role entails and how it differs from a few other similar types of profiles. Next, it goes into the technical skills and knowledge needed to be a successful Solution Architect. It begins with fundamental design pillars and architectural principles (like high availability, reliability, performance, security, and cost optimizations), followed by a dive deep into each one of those. The book also covers some key concepts around cloud-native architectures, DevOps, data engineering, and machine learning domains, which are the cornerstone of any modern-day architecture. The latest revision of the book included very insightful details on Machine Learning/MLOps, Internet of Things (IoT) Architectures, Data architecture best practices, and Quantum computing. All these areas are slowly becoming pivotal to the enterprise IT landscape, and hence Solutions Architects need to be aware to stay ahead in the learning curve.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amogh Joshi Apr 25, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
For anyone interested in becoming a Solution Architect, this book is an excellent resource. I personally liked the chapters on Attributes of Solution Architecture(Chapter 3), Principles of Solution Architecture Design(Chapter 4), and Solution Architecture Design Patterns(Chapter 6). From definitions, roles, and duties to solution design, performance, cost, and operational factors, the writers cover it all. The writers highlight several architectural ideas and provide instances of when to employ them in Chapter 6, which I found to be really helpful. Specialized solution architect responsibilities, such as Data Engineering, Machine Learning, and DevOps, are covered in detail in the book. Despite a few grammatical errors and typos (example: Page 89 image), the technical jargon is easily understood. Overall, I believe the book is a worthwhile read for aspiring Solution Architects and a useful resource for passing the AWS Solution Architect Exam.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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