Unlocking Synergy: Enterprise Architects & AWS Solutions Architects

In today's AWS adoption business, the roles of enterprise architects (EAs) and Solutions Architects (SAs), in certain respects, are confused with the first tending to fade in favor of the latter. However, both are essential for businesses aiming to take advantage of the incredible benefits of AWS. While both roles share some similarities, they also have distinct responsibilities and areas of expertise. This article provides the insights needed to understand the reasons why the synergy between EAs and SAs is vital for harnessing the full potential of cloud technology within the business.

Understanding the Roles in the AWS Adoption Context

EAs are responsible for aligning IT infrastructure including cloud computing with the organization's business strategy and objectives. They focus on creating holistic architectural blueprints that encompass all aspects of technology, processes, systems, and people within the organization. Their primary goal is to ensure that IT investments including cloud computing support the business goals while optimizing efficiency, security, and scalability. EAs invested substantial time, energy, and money in developing an expertise centered on helping CIOs answering critical questions like:

• Are the IT organization's AWS initiatives in line with the business goals?

• Are business priorities taken into account within the scope of the AWS adoption project?

• What are the potential risks? How do they impact the business priorities? What risk prevention actions are planned? 

• Is the envisaged AWS architecture compatible with the performance, resilience, security, operations agility, and cost optimization requirements? 

• What are the implementation scenarios? Which ones are compatible with the business roadmap and the IT roadmap?

• What are the envisaged change management actions?

On the other hand, SAs specialize in designing and implementing cloud-based solutions that leverage the capabilities of cloud computing platforms. They are experts in cloud services, architecture, and deployment models. AWS SAs work closely with development teams to architect, deploy, and manage applications in the cloud, ensuring they are secure, scalable, and cost-effective. SAs as well invested substantial time, energy, and money in getting from immersions in several dozens of cloud projects, cloud-based systems design, and certifications the expertise needed to answer the following questions:

• What is the best cloud architecture option? Public, Private, Hybrid, or Multi-Cloud?

• What is the best strategy to share AWS resources and implement authorizations and authentications across the organization?

• What AWS services will be needed to implement low latency, security, high availability, load balancing, and sustainability mechanisms?

• What is the applications migration strategy? What AWS tools can be leveraged to automate the migration process?

• What AWS services can be used to ensure applications, databases, and systems backup and recovery?

• What operations should be automated to ensure operational agility and excellence?

Why EAs Are Set Aside Cloud Adoption Projects

The first explanation that comes to mind is the erroneous idea, nurtured by the majority of the AWS adoption project's stakeholders that, cloud benefits can magically result from implementation alone. These stakeholders include SAs, developers, CIOs, CTOs, and even consulting companies. Other explanations include:

• Focus on Strategic Planning: Enterprise Architects focus on strategic planning and high-level decision-making rather than implementation details. This is wrongly seen as by most stakeholders as a waste of time.

• Large Scope of Responsibilities: Enterprise Architects have a broad scope of responsibilities that goes beyond individual projects including shaping the entire enterprise architecture, including technology, processes, data, and governance. While cloud adoption projects are important, they are just one aspect of the broader enterprise architecture landscape that EAs oversee. This wrongly makes EA seen as time waiting factors.

• Strategic Decision-Making: EAs are responsible for making strategic decisions about technology investments, vendor selection, platform choices, and architectural design. They evaluate the risks, benefits, and impacts of adopting cloud technologies and make recommendations based on their analysis. These activities are wrongly considered non-priority by the CIO and the cloud adoption project team. In addition, the actual implementation and execution of cloud adoption projects are typically handled by project teams, IT operations, and technical specialists. This wrongly makes EA irrelevant for the cloud adoption project.

The Pivotal Role Your AWS Center of Excellence Could Play

We don't say it enough, many of the disappointments that organizations encounter in their cloud journey are due to the absence of EAs. As illustrated in the following exhibit, Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) can play a crucial role in creating synergy between Enterprise Architects (EAs) and SAs:

AWS CoE led by Enterprise Architects to Support Solutions Architects by Philippe Abdoulaye

Let's dive into the benefits of the CCoE:

Strategic Alignment 

The uncontrolled explosion of cloud migration projects not to mention cloud shadow projects are frequent phenomena in IT departments. That's my experience. In addition to generating unnecessary costs, they often prevent the organization from enjoying the benefits they expects from their AWS investments. 

The CCoE, led by EAs can help by setting the strategic direction for cloud adoption and governance within the organization. By aligning cloud initiatives with enterprise architecture principles and business priorities and goals, the CCoE can ensure that cloud solutions designed by SAs contribute to the overall strategic objectives of the organization.

Guidance and Standards

Engineering approaches and the implementation quality that goes with them vary from one AWS project to another. The problem is that, by not capitalizing on mistakes made from one project to another, the IT organization does not improve its AWS practice maturity.

By establishing best practices, architectural guidelines, and standards for cloud adoption and implementation, the CCoE can significantly help IT organizations increase the chances of success of their cloud adoption journey. EAs can work closely with SAs to develop reference architectures, design patterns, and architectural blueprints that guide the development of cloud solutions, promoting consistency, interoperability, and scalability across projects.

Collaboration and Communication

The low involvement of EAs in cloud projects is also explained by the absence of dedicated communication and collaboration platforms. This deprives the cloud adoption project of expertise likely not only to accelerate it but also to increase its chances of success.

The CCoE can serve as a platform for collaboration and communication between EAs and SAs, as well as other stakeholders across the organization. Regular meetings, workshops, and knowledge-sharing sessions can provide opportunities for EAs and SAs to exchange ideas, share insights, and align on architectural decisions and priorities.

Governance and Oversight

The absence of architecture reviews based on approved AWS standards and best practices and made available to implementation teams is a significant factor in the failure of cloud adoption projects.

The CCoE, under the guidance of EAs, can establish governance mechanisms and controls to ensure compliance with architectural standards, security policies, and regulatory requirements. By providing oversight and review of cloud initiatives, the CCoE can help mitigate risks, address architectural issues, and maintain architectural integrity across projects.

Capacity Building and Training

The scarcity of experienced AWS experts is a problem that undermines the quality of cloud services delivered and sometimes causes the failure of the entire cloud adoption project.

By providing training, education, and professional development opportunities for EAs, SAs, and other involved IT professionals, the CCoE can help increase the chances of success of the AWS adoption projects. By investing in skills development and knowledge transfer, the CCoE can help build a highly skilled and capable workforce capable of designing and implementing AWS-based solutions effectively.

Continuous Improvement

The AWS CoE can foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation by promoting feedback loops, lessons learned, and iterative refinement of cloud architectures and practices. EAs and SAs could collaborate to identify areas for improvement, evaluate emerging technologies, and implement optimizations that enhance the efficiency, performance, and cost-effectiveness of cloud solutions.

The Key Takeaway

Keep in mind that, EAs and cloud SAs play complementary roles in driving organizational success through effective technology adoption and innovation. By collaborating closely and leveraging their respective expertise, these professionals can create agile, scalable, and resilient cloud-based IT architectures that support business growth and competitiveness. Embracing the synergy between enterprise architecture and cloud solutions architecture is key to unlocking the full potential of technology within an organization and achieving strategic objectives in an ever-evolving business landscape.