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What is a solutions architect? Enable Architect

They have the most solid understanding of the full CRM tech stack and how best to implement it. Here are some lessons learned from prior complex martech implementation projects that prove the importance of having a dedicated solution architect on the project team is essential. To be successful as a solution architect, you should be able to integrate any updated specifications and requirements into the systems architecture. An outstanding solution architect should be able to explain complex problems to management in layman’s terms.

solutions architect meaning

In your free time, read books on modern computing approaches, say, edge computing, chaos monkey, and service mesh technologies, for example. The reason I’m saying to do this is because you’re going to open your mind to other people’s conversation towards the advancement of their technology adoptions. The work of solutions architecture includes deeply technical and interpersonal skills. Take a look at the role through the eyes of someone who loves the work. This scope of work requires a particular set of skills that can make the process efficient and productive. The solution architect is the person responsible for the vision of the solution architecture, its refinement, and realization according to the business’ needs and goals.

Enterprise Architect Vs. Solutions Architect Role

These include high availability, replication, a management system, distributed storage, serverless capability, and automated backup. Like the managed computing collaboration, the company benefits by not needing to itself instrument, deploy, and manage these services. Software architecture can be intimidating, which is why at Svitla Systems, we do our best and beyond to remove the uncertainty and challenges out of your hands and create the best solutions for you from scratch. With a skilled team of software architects for your convenience, we can help you orchestrate success through software. Solution Architects are highly valuable assets in any enterprise, but their significance becomes more distinct in large-sized companies that require a robust solution architecture framework.

solutions architect meaning

The salary of an IT solutions architect varies a lot and depends on multiple factors. 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.

Clients receive 24/7 access to proven management and technology research, expert advice, benchmarks, diagnostics and more. They tend to be investigative individuals, which means they’re intellectual, introspective, and inquisitive. Some of them are also enterprising, meaning they’re adventurous, ambitious, assertive, extroverted, energetic, enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic. Communicate and consult with clients and internal stakeholders to develop appropriate solutions. Lead brainstorming sessions to develop potential solutions for business needs or problems.

Solution architect plays a central role in an organization’s efforts to introduce and successfully implement new technology solutions. Systems consist of single software tools or applications that people use to carry out their work. Solution architects rely on application architecture to create a map of all applications and how they interact with each other. The software as service culture has transformed the digital landscape and often demands a system overhaul. Solution architects use system architecture to design new software entities that automate processes.

What is an infrastructure architect?

If you’re already an IT architect, hopefully, you have a better understanding of your peers that are working hard to help put the systems you help create to good use. Personally, I get satisfaction when I see the solutions I recommended 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. To create, suggest, and contribute a COVID response solution is pretty amazing; because for many people at this time, getting government support seamlessly is very helpful. 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.

solutions architect meaning

You have more chances to impress investors if you know what product you’re making and what problem it’s going to solve. A solution architect will match product requirements with ways to implement them and explain everything in clear business terms. It must fit into the current enterprise architecture — the software the company’s been using before. For example, if you use legacy software, your brand-new admin plan should fit right in and communicate with that legacy system. Architects consider the existing company’s architecture to make sure the new product will work in the existing ecosystem. From an employee’s point of view, certification is mainly needed for a specific company.

Architecture and solution

It also considers all external factors that could have an impact on the development process. This way, digital projects are less likely to fail and there is a consensus between EA teams and development teams. SA can be seen as a support system that provides structure and reduces the scope of complexity when developing and rolling out new systems and applications.

solutions architect meaning

Ability to promote development best practice processes, improve code quality, and ensure delivery standards. ●In-memory data processing solutions like Qlikview need to be tested further for advanced reporting requirements, depending on the success and adoption of the new stack of technologies. Here, the term “architecture” designates a description, and more precisely a logical view, as opposed to the “solution,” which represents a technical reality. This distinction can be clearly seen in the terms “Architecture Building Block” and “Solution Building Block” . The logical specification of an element is an ABB, while its physical equivalent is a SBB. These two types of element are present in the architecture repository, which enables either the documentation or the physical component to be reused, according to the context.

To briefly recap, Demo Staffing Company Inc.’s business model is based on providing talented candidates to large corporate clients. Clients would approach the company with their needs and the company would leverage its network to match those needs with candidates. For its business to grow, the company must deliver utmost satisfaction to its clients to solidify its brand in a highly competitive industry. Machine learning and data analytics is one of four business processes that the company has identified as being key to achieving its goal. Solution Architects, primarily, have the invaluable ability to take a set of requirements and turn them into a full-fledged architecture and design that is the blueprint of a successful solution.

Turn every software project into a successful one.

The designs shown below are done using the ArchiMate modeling language. Each solution architect role is valuable for the overall working process of the IT system. There is no practice ignoring the roles and responsibilities solutions architect meaning in solution architecture development. One more role of solution architect may be included, such as the Software Development Life Cycle planning. From the other perspective, a solution architect is not a project manager .

In terms of software development, this is the goal behind solution architecture – to describe, design, and manage how things should be in order to achieve business goals and solve problems. The domain architect is the most technical of all the roles during an implementation, with a more narrow scope of expertise. The domain architect’s expertise lies in a particular tool, or domain, such as a specific CRM software or database technology. As the most in-depth of the architects, they are responsible for the technical structure of the respective systems and ensuring the proper implementation. The role of a solution architect is to ensure the product meets business requirements and requirements from other stakeholders.

  • So, having one or more credentials proves the expert’s proficiency in specific skills.
  • Not surprisingly, developing a target architecture requires an understanding of the entire organization and close collaboration with leaders and stakeholders.
  • Most importantly, however, pragmatic enterprise architecture is opportunistic.
  • Although a solutions architect is not directly involved in project development, they still need to ensure that project resources are being used efficiently and impactfully.
  • The rest of the development team will then use the information to implement the solution.

As the name already suggests, enterprise architecture paints a big picture of the enterprise that includes all business entities and their relationship to technology and applications. EA is particularly concerned with the lifecycle of applications and defining IT strategies. In solution architecture, the client needs are expanded to business needs that in one way or another are related to technology. These needs usually crystallize through re-assessing existing systems and finding out how they benefit or harm the organization in the long run.

Software Architect Interview Questions

However, for the sake of brevity this article will walk through the solution architecture for only one of the four , namely machine learning and data analytics. To clarify, solution architecture does involve other work as it relates to implementing applications into corporate environments. In many cases, it is the recommendation of solution architects based on their analysis of business requirements that will lead to the examination of specific enterprise applications for potential fit within the company.

Solutions architect salary

This will allow them to determine whether newly developed software will fit the existing enterprise environment. To carry out this task, a technology solution architect has to understand how all the processes, operating systems, and application architectures pull together. Knowing these aspects, they will be able to design a suited digital solution. Traditionally, small and mid-size businesses consider neither the practice of solution architecture nor the respective role justified.

As far as technical background, Solution Architects come from a variety of fields including computer science, information technology, software engineering, and other areas related to technology. The Solution architect has become one of the hottest jobs in IT right now, with high salaries and plenty of vacancies. Providing updates to stakeholders on product development processes, costs, and budgets. Business operations gather and employ the data, while IT obtains, stores, and derives that information from varied database resources.

Solution Architecture: A Practical Example

Solution Architects are often considered consultants who examine a system’s architecture, as well as business and technical aspects to suggest a solution. Thus, it’s important that Solution Architects hold a degree, certifications or provable experience in the IT field. You need to have a networking understanding, such as, how routes work, how software-defined networking works inside a cluster, the logging solutions, the cloud technologies — so, it does become a wide skills requirement. For me, coming from a sysadmin background, I already had a very strong base of Linux, networking, and programming.