Cloud Engineering and Cloud Architecture are two very lucrative jobs within the Cloud ecosystem. The major Cloud Service providers like Google, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services do offer certification training to persons willing to go either of these routes. The demand for both career paths has also increased in recent years as Cloud technologies improve, so it might be worth considering. It is easy to confuse these two job roles, especially for beginners, but in reality, they are very distinct career choices. So which of them is right for right for you? This blog post will explore what it means to be a Cloud Engineer and Cloud Architect job roles.
It is important to make a distinction between these two career paths to make the right choices. If you know the difference between what a Cloud Architect does and what a Cloud Engineer does will help you make the right choices and the training course to follow to become either of these. The goal of this article is to make some distinctions and comparisons between being a Cloud Architect and being a Cloud Engineer. If you know these differences, you will be better able to make the right choice between these two great careers.
WHAT THEY DO: CLOUD ENGINEER VS. CLOUD ARCHITECT
Engineers generally Build things while an Architect Designs, the same is true for a Cloud career. A Cloud Engineer builds and configures the Cloud infrastructure.
Cloud Engineers build (the design given to them by a Cloud Architect). They focus on the infrastructure of Cloud-based computing systems and build them. Cloud Engineers are masters of technology to its smallest units, and they know the technology in great depth. They can configure the technology and troubleshoot when broken. Their job is to make sure that things run smoothly, and they secure the technology. They learn the service, software, and hardware, the intricacies of the technology, and how to configure and troubleshoot them.
Cloud Architects on the other hand design (they leave the building to Cloud Engineers who are better at building), The principal goal of a Cloud Architect is to transform a business using technology. They design the blue for a business to adopt technology to improve the business. The Cloud Architect interfaces between the Business and Technology. They know the business and understand the technology as a whole to better the business.
Cloud Architects will include a lot of non-technical skills such as salesmanship, leadership, excellent communication, and business skills. These on the other hand are normally not necessary for Cloud Engineers to know. They lead the cultural change for the adoption of Cloud technology and will typically oversee migration and production schedules of data from the traditional On-premises to Cloud-based Services.
Cloud Engineer understands the technology better and is the ideal candidate to fix a broken technology or secure it from threats. They do the configuration and the fine details to make things work perfectly.
TRAINING: CLOUD ENGINEER VS. CLOUD ARCHITECT
Cloud Engineers are closer to the technology than Cloud Architects. The focus of the training for Cloud Engineers is on understanding the depths of the technology. Configurations, troubleshooting, software and hardware, various services, etc. They understand all the major components of Cloud Engineering – Linux and Networking, Programming, Cloud Computing, and Dev/Ops.
Training courses for Cloud Engineering should include those offered by many Cloud Service platforms such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are excellent choices. Further training on the other aspects of Cloud Engineering (Networking, Linux, programming languages like Python) is necessary to be a Cloud Engineer.
Cloud Architects will focus on the technology with the focus of using it to transform a business. Less emphasis is on the individual components. Cloud Architects will need to understand the business and will need good knowledge of it. He may be involved with sales and will definitely be involved in making presentations, explaining in simple terms, the technology to be deployed to the Business executives. He must also be trained in a leadership role as he is the one in charge of supervising the business transformation through technology. The job of a Cloud Architect is sometimes more of a consulting role than it is of technical expertise.
The training for Cloud Architect will require more than just technical skills, you will need other non-technical aspects, you must understand the business, and be good at presentation skills, persuasive and leadership skills. You must also have excellent communication skills to be employable as a Cloud Architect.
WHO EARNS MORE? CLOUD ENGINEER VS. CLOUD ARCHITECT
This can vary widely depending on the type of Organisation and location. Glassdoor puts the average salary/earning for Cloud Engineers (in the United States) at $141,799 /year. The most likely range was $113000 to $181000 /year.
Meanwhile, the average salary/earnings for Cloud Architects is $218,667/year. The most likely range is 170,000 -286,000/year. The salaries and earnings for Cloud Architects are significantly higher- about 50 percent higher.
JOB OPPORTUNITIES: CLOUD ENGINEER VS. CLOUD ARCHITECT
Both Cloud careers offer great job opportunities. Cloud Engineers seem to be in higher demand than Cloud Architects. In the US, the job listings on Linkedin and Indeed.com are in the table below.
| Linkedin.com | Indeed.com | |
| Cloud Engineer | 26,559 | 59,147 |
| Cloud Architect | 6,875 | 1,952 |
Comparison Between Cloud Engineer vs. Cloud Architect Jobs Openings
On both job search platforms (Linkedin and Indeed.com), Cloud Engineer has more employment opportunities in terms of numbers.
A ratio of almost 4:1 in favor of Cloud Engineers using just the data from LinkedIn. Similar results are obtainable for the UK.
| Cloud Engineer | 3,571 |
| Cloud Architect | 1,294 |
UK Cloud Engineer Vs Cloud Architect Job Opportunities -LinkedIn
YOUR CHOICE: CLOUD ENGINEER VS. CLOUD ARCHITECT
The Cloud Engineer and Cloud Architect careers are excellent careers in IT. The choice should be based on individual preferences, personality, and available resources (amongst others). There are no right or wrong answers – only what is suitable for you. If you want like to immerse yourself in the technology, do all the configurations, fix broken things, thrive, or can bear working alone, Cloud Engineer seems to be more in that direction.
On the other hand, you want to interface between technology and the business, know more about the business while still keeping an eye on the technology, love teamwork, and presentations, enjoy sales, etc. You may want to take a closer look at Cloud Architecture.
CONCLUSIONS
Cloud Engineers build while a Cloud Architect designs a solution with the goal of transforming a business. They are both excellent career choices with good prospects. The training for both careers is different as the focus and depth are different. Cloud Engineers tend to have more job openings while Cloud Architecture tends to pay better on average. The choice of each will depend on individual preferences and goals. It may be worthwhile to consult a Professional Career Advisor or an expert in either field to help address issues that may be peculiar to you.
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