Content
Below are six examples that illustrate what solution architecture can achieve in a relatively short time. Get to know everything about what solution architecture is, the differences between solution architecture and enterprise architecture, and the benefits. Prior to considering solution architecture, we recommend exploring https://globalcloudteam.com/ enterprise architecture frameworks that combine both solution and enterprise levels. Software or technical architect is mainly in charge of engineering problems and software architecture. We have a detailed article describing the role of a software architect and the importance of this position to the company’s success.
For example, in the US an expert can get between $142K – 238K yearly whereas in Ukraine a professional with the same qualifications can get between $68K – 90K per year. Moreover, the salary is also based on years of experience, technical skills, seniority, and soft skills as well. It’s a well-recognized set of qualifications that consists of 5 different levels to fit different experiences and seniority levels.
Solutions architect vs. project manager
A solutions architect needs to be very attentive to those details, as overlooking something may hinder the development process, lead to breakdowns, or make the software solution inefficient. They also should be able to understand the technical specifications of many different software solutions and hardware and perform analysis of different business layers. The solutions architect is also responsible for the project context from the very beginning to the current moment.
It’s not really easy to find and hire a well-matching IT solution architect as the market demand for accomplished specialists is enormous. If you want to hire an in-house member the search process will take a while as you have limited access to professionals in your area. However, if you are open to new opportunities and can consider hiring a remote team member you will increase your chances of hiring the right person.
Who is an IT solution architect?
Thus, the successful launch of digital projects requires a set of guidelines that align business interests with new IT solutions. There’s no universal tool set, but there is modeling software for solution architects like ABACUS. Each of these terms includes multiple aspects that we’ll discuss in the article.
To better understand the role of solution architecture in the context of software development, you first need to think about what a solution is. Even though this might seem quite basic, it illustrates why solution architecture is one of the most important processes when re-designing your IT landscape. In the corporate world, this means evaluating client needs or problems and addressing them with systems that replace or improve the existing system. ITIL is the industry-recognized set of qualifications that includes 5 levels. The highest credential is the ITIL Master for those professionals who work in IT service management and have extensive experience with ITIL practices. In a rapidly changing technology environment, organizations face the need to transform their processes and systems to meet emerging business requirements.
” And while sketching is certainly a part of an architect’s job, there is plenty more to this role. Evaluate and select suppliers – Solution AEs evaluate each supplier’s technical and cultural fit and provide input to the selection process. For example, they might assess the supplier’s Continuous Integration practices and ability to support the solution’s continuous delivery objectives.
- Solution AEs create a vision for the solution’s CDP and ensure the solution is architected to support it, including the ability for teams and ARTs to Release on Demand.
- There’s no universal tool set, but there is modeling software for solution architects like ABACUS.
- These include high availability, replication, a management system, distributed storage, serverless capability, and automated backup.
- Refers mainly to software architecture, technical engineering, and implementation practices.
- Digital transformation requires businesses to reconsider either how they deliver value to their customers or what they will eventually deliver.
- To get a better idea of what a solution architect does in practice, it’s helpful to look at common solution architecture use cases.
- This person needs to ensure that the new solution fits into the existing enterprise architecture from technical, business, user, and other perspectives.
They must be focused on business results and understand how to achieve them according to the given timeframes and resources. While the practice can be managed in-house, there are companies that provide solution architecture consulting as a specific set of services. Solution architecture is the practice of designing, describing, and managing solution engineering to match it with specific business problems. For example, protecting customer data under GDPR and other privacy regulations is a business-level problem. Solution architecture defines how those requirements would translate into the way a given software operates. More senior solution architects may not be required to think about granular coding details as they progress through their career because they’ll often shift their focus toward higher-level software architecture design.
What is a software or technical architect?
For complex integrations, spanning across several systems, this SAD section gives the end to end view and key design decisions arising from it. Section 4documents significant constraints, assumptions and requirements that influence the architecture of the solution. The event triggers an application process that is served by an application service called “Candidate and role selection”. AWS certifications are valid for 3 years after which the credential holders have to go through recertification to prove their continued expertise and knowledge of the latest AWS technologies and best practices. There are a lot of IT architect certifications available, with most of them being vendor-specific, i.e., focused on mastering a specific technology. Provide specifications according to which the solution is defined, managed, and delivered.
A Solution Architect seeks to balance various aspects of the project, from safety to design. Additionally, a Solution Architect researches advanced technologies and approaches regarding best practices in the field. Solution architect plays a central role in an organization’s efforts to introduce and successfully implement new technology solutions. They formulate clear guidelines that help manage technical teams and outline the development stages of a project from start to finish. To facilitate the use of an e-commerce website, a solution architect can propose a structure that makes the navigation intuitive and user-friendly (e.g., reducing the number of clicks needed to get from A to B).
Latest Software Engineering Jobs
Track technology across the supplier landscape – Solution AEs continually track technology innovations across the broad domain of vendors and assess their value to accelerate business needs. If you’re excited to be part of a winning team, Example Co. is a great place to grow your career. Describe the structure, characteristics, behavior, and other aspects of the software to project stakeholders. Now, you probably want to know what the salary of a qualified Solutions Architect is. According to job search sites, the average salary for a Solutions Architect role can vary widely depending on the location, education, certifications, additional skills, the number of years in the profession, etc.
Traditionally, small and mid-size businesses consider neither the practice of solution architecture nor the respective role justified. Addressing solution architecture problems is delegated and shared across other roles within a product team. Software architecture and systems integrated into it are numerous details that work together.
Design and Evolve the Technological Solution
We’d recommend choosing the second option as solution architects and enterprise architects mostly focus on different goals. If you must present a future product to investors and stakeholders, a solution architect will suggest the technologies that will match product requirements and communicate the reasoning in plain and clear business terms. A solution architect is necessary for projects where many technology risks are present, uncertain requirements can appear, multiple products must be implemented at once, or the underlying technologies aren’t approved yet.
Solution architect skillset and background
They take the business requirements and turn them into new software solutions that use a company’s emerging technology. In contrast, enterprise architecture, which also includes the aforementioned four types of architecture, operates at the strategic level and its scope and span is the enterprise rather than a specific business problem. As an integral part of an enterprise ecosystem, a solutions architecture has an immense impact on your company operations in general. An optimal, well-structured architecture of your enterprise solutions will account for excellent operational efficiency, increase time-to-value, and will give your company an indisputable competitive advantage. With this regard, the importance of a solution architect in an organization becomes paramount. Some organizations don’t need to hire in-house experts and can leverage third-party solution architecture consulting services or have the solution architect functions split between other people on their team.
Although experience is not always required, several years of network administration experience is beneficial. The overarching goal of an enterprise architect is to ensure that the company has smooth development lifecycles and uses available resources for every enterprise application effectively. This certification targets professionals of different levels of seniority who work with AWS technologies while developing apps and systems. The exam lasts 130 minutes and requires a registration fee depending on the exam type. The minimum experience needed for this test is at least 1 year working in the field. The certificate is valid for 3 years and requires recertification once expired.
Fig 1 – Strategy layer showing IT organization resourceWhile discussing the solution architecture for the machine learning and data analytics business process, we will very briefly cover the strategy layer. The motivation layer that usually precedes the strategy layer will not be included but instead is discussed in detail in the reference architecture. The strategy layer here is highly abridged showing only the one resource element. This is solely to show which resource the business process to be discussed in this solution architecture is assigned.
Superior CommunicationBeing able to communicate effectively with stakeholders, project managers, developers, and software vendors involved in the software development process is essential for a solutions architect. As the architect has a central role in any project and leads every team on it, ineffective communication can lead to big bottlenecks. So, a solutions architect should be able to clearly explain, understand everyone’s point of view, listen, advise, solution architect definition and influence. A good solutions architect looks at the existing environment and analyzes what technologies are available and what software product must be developed to provide the best solution for the problem that needs to be solved. From there, the solutions architect creates an overall strategic technical vision—not unlike an architect designing a blueprint for a building. They develop a budget for producing a software product based on that vision.
Work with project managers and senior business stakeholders to understand the business problem and landscape in which they need to operate. We offer a wide range of services starting from software, mobile, and web app development to outstaffing and IT consulting services. Intellectsoft has extensive experience across various industries such as healthcare, logistics, construction, fintech, and others. Solution architecture, term used in information technology with various definitions such as; «A description of a discrete and focused business operation or activity and how IS/IT supports that operation».