Cloud leadership: the Architect
I believe that most technology architects have a secret: that the work that everybody wants them to do is not the work that they believe is most important.
I believe that most people want two things from their technology architects. They either want solutions (‘tell me how this is supposed to work!’) or standards (‘tell me the rules I am supposed to follow!’). (Sometimes, of course, they just want the technology architects to get out of their way - but dealing with that challenge is a different article.)
I also believe that most technology architects working in 2021 know that they should focus on capabilities. They realise that the details of solutions are increasingly ephemeral. This does not mean that systems go away (we have learnt that systems almost never go away), but it does mean that, in a modern enterprise, the ability for systems to change and adapt quickly is essential. The system may never go away, but the best systems are flexible and amorphous, and do more tomorrow than they can today. And we only get our systems to be flexible and amorphous by creating the capabilities for them to be so: by building development pipelines, by enabling engineers, by steering enterprises towards a product mindset - and by creating the right capabilities.
I further believe that public Cloud platforms are an essential bearer of these capabilities. Adopted well, they provide software defined, configurable, fully instrumented, automated and architected platforms which are the best possible place to build and run software. That’s why the Architect is one of the seven key leadership roles for strategic Cloud adoption.
To play this role effectively - and make the dream of capabilities come true - the Architect must do a few things. Firstly, they must bring the Visionary’s vision to life in technical terms: they must demonstrate that the vision is real and that it can be achieved. Second, they must be a close ally of the Champion and the Director: they must be prepared to get into the detail of execution, to identify and unblock obstacles, to make tough calls between pragmatism, perfection and progress, without compromising the capabilities which Cloud promises. Third, they must do the difficult architectural job of showing how it is possible to get from here to there. They must figure out where to get started, where to make compromises, how it is possible to survive in a transition state. They must find the points of architectural stability along the way, where value is realised even if the final destination has not yet been reached.
Finally, and I think most importantly, they must keep reminding themselves and others of what it means to get there, to the target. It is easy in Cloud migrations, which involve the physical movement of data and applications, to lose sight of the goal, and imagine that the journey from here to there is the journey from one data centre to another. It is the Architect’s job to remember that the target is not just another data centre: it is the integrated, architected, instrumented, automated platform which gives your enterprise the capabilities you need.
And (I know that I said finally, but there is always another job for the Architect), the Architect must be a tireless and evangelical communicator. As I’ve written previously, technology architects must be leaders and communicators as well as technical experts. There is no value in having the best technical architecture in the world if the only place it exists is in your head, and if no-one is prepared to follow you to its realisation.
Furthermore, understanding this combination of attributes will help you figure out whether you have this person in your organisation. If you don’t have a strong architect with leadership and communication skills, as well as deep Cloud expertise, my recommendation would be to focus on the first two attributes: there are plenty of people who can help you with Cloud expertise, and a great architect will learn from them quickly. Communication and leadership skills take longer to learn. Either way, just like the other leadership roles, finding the Architect will be essential to your success.
