Cloud Architect

Cloud Platforms and Services
Cloud Providers: Expertise in major cloud platforms such as:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, or other niche providers.

Cloud Services: Familiarity with a wide range of cloud services, including:

• Compute: EC2, Azure Virtual Machines, Google Compute Engine.
• Storage: S3, Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Storage, Cloud File Systems.
• Networking: VPC, VPN, Load Balancing, DNS, CDN, and IP management.
• Databases: Managed databases (e.g., Amazon RDS, Azure SQL, Google Cloud SQL) and NoSQL solutions (e.g., DynamoDB, Azure Cosmos DB).
• Serverless Computing: AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions.
• Containerization and Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, Google GKE, Azure AKS.

Architecture Design And Implementation

• Cloud Architecture: Designing scalable, high-availability, and fault-tolerant cloud solutions based on best practices.
• Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Cloud: Experience in designing solutions that span across multiple cloud environments or integrate on-premises infrastructure with cloud services.
• Microservices Architecture: Designing cloud-native applications using microservices, ensuring they are loosely coupled, scalable, and maintainable.
• High Availability and Disaster Recovery: Designing resilient architectures with backup, failover, and disaster recovery plans.
• Cost Optimization: Knowledge of cost management strategies and tools to optimize cloud usage and ensure efficient use of resources.
• Cloud Migration: Leading migrations of on-premises applications to the cloud (Lift and Shift, Replatforming, Refactoring, etc.).

• Cloud Security Best Practices: Knowledge of securing cloud environments, including identity and access management (IAM), encryption, network security, and firewalls.
• Security Services: Familiarity with cloud-native security services like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS Shield, Azure Active Directory, Google Cloud Identity, etc.
• Compliance Frameworks: Understanding of compliance requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, and how to implement them in a cloud environment.
• Data Privacy and Governance: Ability to create and manage data privacy policies and access control models for cloud environments.
• Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Assessment: Experience in using tools to test the security posture of cloud systems and mitigate vulnerabilities.

DevOps And Automation

• CI/CD Pipelines: Experience in setting up and managing continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines using tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, AWS CodePipeline, Azure DevOps, etc.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Proficiency in tools like Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), or Google Cloud Deployment Manager for automating cloud infrastructure provisioning.
• Configuration Management: Familiarity with tools such as Ansible, Chef, Puppet, or SaltStack for managing and automating cloud configurations.
• Containerization and Orchestration: Expertise in working with containers (e.g., Docker) and orchestrating them using Kubernetes, Amazon ECS, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Networking & Connectivity

• Cloud Networking Concepts: Knowledge of cloud networking principles including VPC, subnetting, load balancing, DNS, NAT, and security groups.
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) & Direct Connect: Designing secure communication between cloud and on-premises networks.
• Global Distribution & CDN: Familiarity with Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), edge services, and multi-region cloud deployments for globally distributed applications.
• SD-WAN & Hybrid Connectivity: Understanding of hybrid cloud networking solutions that connect on-premises data centers with cloud infrastructure.
• API Gateway & Service Mesh: Using tools like AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management, Istio, or Linkerd to manage API traffic and service-to-service communication in microservices architectures.