For more senior roles, you may need more experience or education, including a master’s degree. Depending on the role, you might also need experience in specific IT areas, such as networking administration, development, customer service, or other relevant areas. Solutions architects are a vital role in any organization that wants to align its business goals and needs with IT services, products, software, and infrastructure. Most businesses rely on a deep and wide technology stack that’s interconnected and integrated. Here’s what to know about a solutions architect’s salary, needed skills and how to become one.
The workplace of a solution architect can vary depending on the organization they work for and the nature of the projects they are involved in. Solution architects may work in various settings, including corporate offices, IT consulting firms, and software development companies. The process of forming solution architecture, and solidifying the technical vision of the solution, is the job of a solution architect (or enterprise architect or computer network architects). Solutions architects early in their career report earning an average salary of $94,000 per year. As experience rises to mid-career, the average reported salary ranges from $115,000 to $137,000 per year.
IT Cloud Architect (w/m/x)
In their conceptual model, they also determine the placement and behavior of each software component. Personally, I get satisfaction when I see the solutions I recommended solutions architect definition get implemented and see people using them. I work with government agencies and one of the solutions we’re currently working on is a COVID response project for New Zealand.
The costs for this exam, as well as for training, depend on the country. Having a clear vision for the project and a clear understanding of the client’s business needs, a solutions architect maps out the parts that will constitute the software solution and how they are going to work together. Architect is how to deal with different people, and their feelings, and the human psychology of navigating a given situation. On the customer side, there will be different types of architects that you’re talking to, including me, and some mid-level managers to c-levels that are — we can call them agents of change.
The benefits of solution architecture
If you want to learn more about the solutions we have already delivered, we welcome you to check our top client cases and see the level of our expertise in various industries, including yours. When it comes to building from scratch, changing, or upgrading your software solution – the earlier, the better. An architect must be capable of analyzing and identifying potential short and long-term risks that may cause technical issues and impede business operations in the future. These specialists start very early in the project, laying out what is to come. Their tasks usually begin with choosing the right technology for the business problem(s) and managing architectural concerns to ensure more productive and effective outcomes.
You’ll also find solution architects within tech firms who need to position their software with customers during the sales cycle and aid implementation through ad-hoc projects. Technical architects generally play the role of solution architects with less focus on the business aspect and more on the techology aspect. Solution architecture is a description of a specific solution that comprises business-related, informational, and technical points of view.
What Is a Solutions Architect (and How Do I Become One)?
Therefore, they have to possess a clear understanding of the client’s vision and goals to achieve productive and effective outcomes. This exam will be suitable not only for solutions architects but also for any experts dealing with Google Cloud technologies. According to Google’s recommendation, it’s better to take this exam with at least 3 years of experience. In addition, it’s also crucial to do the recertification every 2 years. To get a better idea of what a solution architect does in practice, it’s helpful to look at common solution architecture use cases.
For people who have never worked in a very large organization (or have, but it was a dysfunctional one), “architect” may have left a bad taste in their mouth. However, it is not only a legitimate role, but a highly strategic one for smart companies. A person running a business is making choices based on business needs, affordability, and time constraints, with the ultimate goal of enhancing business processes or creating business value. They enable businesses to manage information and processes better, more efficiently, so that businesses can realize financial and operational success. The main indicator of the quality of work of a good solution architect is the stability of the IT infrastructure and the speed with which it can adapt to the ever-changing business requirements of the market.
Business Hours
These specialists are responsible for the project vision that underlies the solution and translates that vision into reality. They are defined by individual business processes, workflows, and operations, but these components must work together to make the solution as a whole run smoothly. Describing these applications and how they behave and interact with each other is defined in solution architecture. The overall goal of an architect is to ensure a smooth development lifecycle and efficient use of available resources in building enterprise architecture for each application. As the job title implies, this specialist primarily focuses on solution-level decisions and evaluation of their impact on a client’s overarching business objectives and outcomes. An enterprise architect has a much larger scope of work compared to other architect specializations.
- There was an extensive number of personnel, all of whom were trying to keep track of all details required and regulated by government rules and HIPAA compliance.
- This is a daunting task that requires experience with different technologies and highly relevant assessments.
- This person is responsible for figuring out the best possible way of bringing together business needs and technological solutions.
- But what if there were such a person who was not only a subject matter expert on a certain product or solution but also had your best interests at heart beyond the purpose of selling?
The solution architect is MVP when it comes to deciding how the ins and outs of the project are going to work. Analyze the impact of the solution on the state of the business’ goals and direct outcomes of solution implementation. For example, if we talk about integration with existing solutions, then a new project must be created using particular technologies to comply with the corporate system. Solutions architect knows programming, integrating, and testing software systems and related devices. Some of these are specific architect responsibilities that are discussed further in this article.
Microsoft 365 Solutions Architect (f/m/x)
Senior technical consultants are 5.7% less likely to earn their Master’s Degree and 0.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree. Most senior system administrators achieve a lower degree level compared to solutions architects. For example, they’re 12.9% less likely to graduate with a Master’s Degree, and 0.5% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.
Solution architectures help developers define the requirements and strategies needed to successfully implement a software solution. The best way to become a solution architect is by gaining experience in the field. It’s important to learn how different technologies interact with each other, understand their limitations, and understand what works well together. You can write your own blog, contribute to open-source projects or start building something yourself.
Key Processes in Solution Architecture
While the two careers have a salary gap, they share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both solutions architect and lead consultant positions are skilled in java, digital transformation, and azure. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to get the top-quality, effective, and cost-efficient solution from our solution architects and other software development professionals working here at Intellectsoft. Our software development services include web and mobile solutions development, product engineering, UI/UX design, as well as QA and testing. Additionally, we offer comprehensive IT consulting and outstaffing services like dedicated teams. As the process is always heavy on the budget and highly risky, every company should have an architect to implement new solutions and scale them successfully.