Solution architecture is the underpinning for any IT project, regardless of whether you actually adopt this practice or not. By deliberately introducing solution architecture, you build the framework that aligns technology, resources, and skills with defined business goals. Digital transformation requires businesses to reconsider either how they deliver value to their customers or what they will eventually deliver. There’s no way to answer these questions without linking technology and business perspectives, which is squarely in a solution architect’s wheelhouse. Besides that, it’s important that solution architects consider the project from a long-term perspective and understand that the solution might need to scale and adapt to possible changes in the future.

This estimation process is a crucial safeguard, ensuring that projects remain within budgetary and time constraints while aligning with the organization’s strategic objectives. Specifically, a solutions architect doesn’t usually need coding skills to enter or prosper in your career, but understanding coding is necessary to make informed decisions. The finance industry tends to pay the highest salaries for senior technical consultants, with average annual pay of $119,321. Comparatively, the highest solutions architect annual salary comes from the retail industry. Senior infrastructure engineers tend to reach lower levels of education than solutions architects.

What Similar Roles Do

They’re the ones moving needles to upgrade their enterprise solutions from a legacy to more modern architecture; to move fast, and fail small, and deliver better solutions. If you must present a future product to investors and stakeholders, a solution architect will suggest the technologies that will match product requirements and communicate the reasoning in plain and clear business terms. A solution architect is necessary for projects where many technology risks are present, uncertain requirements can appear, multiple products must be implemented at once, or the underlying technologies aren’t approved yet. Solutions architects are a vital role in any organization that wants to align its business goals and needs with IT services, products, software, and infrastructure. Before joining Fresh, Dragan worked as a senior application developer, solution architect, software engineer, and founder of a software agency.

These professionals need all their knowledge to oversee the successful delivery of a quality end product to its end users. Usually, when someone mentions infrastructure architects, they refer to solutions architects with all the responsibilities that were described in the previous section of this article. The name “infrastructure architect” usually highlights the fact that this specialist designs and implements software solutions based on the current infrastructure of the customer’s business. A solutions architect position primarily focuses on solution-level decisions and analysis of their impact on the overall business goals and their outcomes. In practice, the responsibility of a solution architect depends on the business processes in a particular company.

Strong Communication and Interpersonal Skills

A senior system administrator specializes in overseeing the computer system operations in an organization. Their responsibilities primarily revolve around monitoring the performance of all software and hardware, https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ installing servers, configuring systems, and making sure every technical aspect is running smoothly. Should there be any issues, they must take charge of troubleshooting and providing solutions.

Therefore, more and more organizations and companies all over the world are facing the ultimate need to go digital and adopt innovations and high-end software to multiply their efforts and keep growing. The solution architect plays an important role in defining what problem needs to be solved, how it should be solved, and who will do it. It’s critical that these decisions are made by an experienced person who can make well-informed decisions based on multiple factors such as cost, time frame constraints, technology dependencies, etc. Independent analysts, consultants, and chief security architects with two years of experience can take this Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam.

Overseeing the Implementation and Integration of Solutions

The following list provides an overview of the best types of education programs. Technical knowledge and skills are available through four-year bachelor’s degree programs. Some also earn specialty certifications, which can take an additional six months. Finally, a solutions architect usually has a few years of experience in lower-level information technology careers. This career focuses on specific types of software products for business management, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

Solutions architect knows programming, integrating, and testing software systems and related devices. It guides those building large-scale IT systems as well as those building large, cyber-physical, engineered systems. Many large systems—satellites, vehicles, robotics, medical devices, and more—have both cyber-physical and large-scale IT elements. In practice, the Solution Architect role is typically filled by a small team rather than one individual. No matter how big or small the business, everyone needs a Solutions Architect in their corner to put a good plan into action.

Azure solution architect certification

While the practice can be managed in-house, there are companies that provide solution architecture consulting as a specific set of services. You will likely need a bachelor’s degree or higher in information technology, computer science, software engineering, or a related field. For more senior roles, you may need more experience or education, including a master’s degree.

• Comparatively, solutions architects have the highest earning potential in the retail industry, with an average salary of $122,080.
• If you understand operating systems, programming, networking, and the latest and greatest in technology, even better.
• A solution architect role also presupposes strong technical skills that help him or her communicate a product vision to a development team.
• Enterprise architects work with many stakeholders including business units, IT departments and other areas of the organization to ensure that they are all working towards the same goals.
• The solution architect’s role is to analyze all non-functional requirements and ensure that further product development will meet them.

Each of these terms includes multiple aspects that we’ll discuss in the article. If you want to catch all details quickly, check out our video about a solution architect what does solution architect do role. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

What is the role of a solution architect in IT companies

But to truly understand and analyze the art of painting, you need to grasp the importance of each part. A solution usually consists of multiple systems and describes a conceptual model that represents the structure and behavior of each system, as well as how they interact with each other. Each system is broken down further with fundamental structures such as system elements, their properties, behavior, and how they interact with other elements.

Most of the time, the project involves technical and non-technical stakeholders, and the solutions architect must ensure that each party’s needs are considered and factored into the project’s scope. Solution architecture is a description of a specific solution that comprises business-related, informational, and technical points of view. Solution architectures help developers define the requirements and strategies needed to successfully implement a software solution. Both roles are vital, but their primary differentiation lies in their focus areas. A Solution Architect zeroes in on particular business problems and designs solutions.

Meeting the requirements of all stakeholders

These specialists are responsible for the project vision that underlies the solution and translates that vision into reality. Of course, you always want to make sure you’re in front of these people if they need to talk to you. Throughout the entire buying process, you always want to make yourself available.