As a Cloud Solutions Architect, the goal should not be just to replicate what a client is asking for, but to deeply understand the client's business needs and provide solutions that add value and enable them to leverage the full capabilities of the cloud. This often involves a consultative approach and might require a shift in mindset, both for the architect and the client.
A Cloud Solutions Architect should aim to understand the business context, workflows, constraints, and future ambitions of the client. This will allow the architect to design a tailored solution that addresses both immediate needs and future growth.
Let's consider an example:
Scenario: A client approaches a Cloud Solutions Architect with a request to migrate their existing on-premise customer relationship management (CRM) system to Azure, using Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). They specify the number and types of VMs they want, based on their current on-premise setup.
Traditional Approach: The architect designs a solution based on the client's request and sets up the specified VMs in Azure, essentially replicating the on-premise environment in the cloud.
Consultative Approach: Instead of directly translating the request, the architect first seeks to understand the business better. They discover the company wants to improve system reliability, gain scalability, and reduce operational overhead, which are not directly addressed by a simple "lift and shift" migration.
With these insights, the architect proposes an alternative approach:
Use of Managed Services: Instead of running the CRM system on VMs, they suggest using Azure's Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings such as Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database. This would reduce the management overhead and increase scalability and reliability.
Microservices Architecture: They propose refactoring the CRM system into microservices and running it on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This provides even greater scalability and flexibility.
DevOps Practices: They suggest incorporating Azure DevOps and Azure Pipelines for continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), improving deployment speed and reducing error rates.
By taking a step back and understanding the client's business problem, the Cloud Solutions Architect is able to provide a solution that not only fulfills the client's request but also addresses their underlying needs and future-proofs their system.
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