Cloud Architect Fatigue
Fatigue
Backgrund
I’m not a retired Information Technology specialist. I cannot tell you I remember the good old time when computers had the size of a room. I can’t tell you also that I loved times when language C was technological innovation. But what I can tell you is that 15 years ago, the number of technologies on the “market” could fit into a big, but possible to overcome mind map.
Before
Most of the software engineers that graduated from technical universities had a solid understanding of math, they knew who is Mr. Chomsky, and most likely created their own compilers for the very basic programming languages. Although I will not say I miss writing C code on the piece of paper, I will tell you it was a nice feeling to have a finite list of skills to possess and a tangible roadmap that lead to the finish.
First gig
My first gig was very typical — I was asked to create a website. I teamed up, with my friend who was my guru at that time and we have created FlashMX based website with a PHP-baked CMS. You probably know, how hard it is to estimate software. Without providing man-days details, imagine we estimated efforts and agreed on a total price circa 100 euro (divided between two of us). We broke the bank, right? No matter the revenue we’ve got, the value of experience learned in that project is hard to overestimate. It was the time, when I realized, that the software engineering profession will not be piece of cake.
Present
Being a cloud architect seems to be a sweet spot in IT. The public cloud is a new normal. Infrastructure is abstracted away. Scalability and reliability are managed. You are always close to cutting-edge technologies, and it is up to you to define which technologies you want to work with.
Do not forget, compensation is competitive too!
Dream job!
Up to date
You can master and be a master in technology. Pick the name of a technology, and you/google will be able to point to a subject matter expert. There are experts in more than one technology too. Can you name a (cloud) architect? Probably you are a great architect, or a friend of yours is one. However, the people which are on your mind will be unconsciously biased into the set of technologies they select for the solutions they design. That is because people are biased by design. In this case, it is all about the comfort zone bias. It is ok to stay in your comfort zone and develop the software in Java or Node if you are such a software engineer, and you’ve been asked to create software. You might need to read more about node v15.15.1, but that is rather expanding your comfort zone than changing it completely.
Architectural comfort zone
Can you stay in your comfort zone as a solution architect? If you have a hammer everything seems to be a nail. For finite types of workloads, there is the same set of logical blocks that you can put on your high-level architecture diagrams. Is it? If you’re Kubernetes expert with 12 years of experience, most likely you will find a way to justify why to deploy your JBoss server, kafka, Cassandra, and RabbitMQ into the cluster. In the end, you can control the infrastructure in one place, right? I presume you know all the tools that I have mentioned. You know also when to use Redis or Memcachd, why AWS SQS is better than *MQ service and which IPS/IDS solution to use. Want more?
You can’t be up-to-date with all the things.
Cost
You can buy things. Books, training, webinars, articles, podcasts. To learn technology X, you will spend $Y. To learn Z technologies, you will pay Z * $Y.
Most likely, the sum you will have to pay for those things is negligible for you.
How much worth is your hour?
Does the price is the same for you, for your employer, and your family?
Is this cost countable?
The questions above are trivial. Although every one of us has different values and priorities, all of us are connected with time. Unless you are working on the solution to move very fast, at some point in your life you did or you will start thinking about the amount of time you allocate for your profession. I did my math.
As a side not, it is worth to mention there is a second important factor. Your health (which to be fair, can be a game-changer). Burnout can be a serious treat. Do not ignore it.
10x Architect
Someone invented the 10x engineer (harmful?) term. Is there a 10x architect? There are some people that have an aptitude for math, algorithms, and other engineering elements. You can be a fast learner too, but there are limits. The current pace at which software services are being developed makes it impossible to know the names, to not mention understanding them, and have hands-on experience. A few years ago, AWS had a lot of generalist solutions architects. You can imagine that AWS can afford the best in class architects. Best in class architects also fancy working in such brands.
And? They (big brands) added a particular type of architecture architects. It is not uncommon to see “containers solutions architects”, “serverless solutions architects”, “big data solutions architects”, etc.
A couple of years ago I have decided to progress in my career and moved further from a pure development role into an architect role. AWS was already a thing, and AWS Solutions Architect was a way to go for me. Sometime later I’ve managed to get 6 certificates. I was lucky enough to be tasked with appropriate tasks early after my career shift and my theoretical knowledge quickly paid off while on the project.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours learning in the process of certification.
Other hundreds of hours were spent on practicing.
Am I done? LOL. Have you seen the number of announcements on the re:invent 2020? :)
The Plan
Am I tired? I think so. Could I be more conscious of how I manage my time? Could I be aware of the traps while learning and avoid a slog just before yet another recertification? I could have been. Why I didn’t? I lacked mentorship.
Armed with the knowledge and experience, now I can plan it better.
- I can’t stop.
As long as I love to architect solutions, I must learn. - Learn what to learn.
I can’t learn all the technologies that someone mention. I can’t learn all the things AWS updates either. Fortunately, cutting edge technologies are in most cases not there yet to recommend, make it a benefit. Select SME in a given space and watch their blog posts, youtube channels, or channels. - Stay aware.
I can read titles. Sometimes it is more than enough. - Practice the must-haves.
Some things must be touched to be understood. Touch the things that are key to your skillset. - Don’t read/watch all the things.
If I got some link once, I will get it again or will find it if needed. - Trust your teammates.
Good teammates cannot be overestimated. Sometimes I can be picky. - It is my work.
Research is a part of my work. I can’t ignore it and I have to be honest with the stakeholders. - I can know nothing (John Snow).
I don’t have to be afraid of not knowing. As long as I accept it and I’m aware of it. - I will not do it later.
I am surprised that bookmarks in my brave browser can handle so much “must-read” links. It is just not working for me and adds frustration seeing such a long list. - Find a distraction.
I can’t circle only between work and family. Meet Dexter below :) - Experience is my key asset.
Full stop.
All those points are for me. You might find it helpful, that would be cool, but if this post makes you think, even better. Think for yourself.
Disclaimer:
These are my own reflections. Read it with grain of salt. You can disagree, that is fine.
