Solution Architect: Role and Responsibilities

Reported salaries range from $75,000 to $160,000 per year, and entry-level workers average around $76,000 per year. The highest paid solutions architects are located in San Jose and San Francisco, where the reported average salaries are $144,000 and $132,000 per year, respectively. Solutions architects must be prepared to work with leaders, managers, and employees across every business unit. And if you’re working on a product team, you might also be expected to work with clients to understand expectations and requirements. A solutions architect in a client-facing role will also need to understand how to manage customer satisfaction and set proper expectations for the end-product.

solution architect meaning

Hybrid IT means blending an organization’s core IT infrastructure with an outsourced service provider platform. They tend to be investigative individuals, which means they’re intellectual, introspective, and inquisitive. Some of them are also enterprising, meaning they’re adventurous, ambitious, assertive, extroverted, energetic, enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic. I’d give a selected few people the Software Architect title if they want it but experience tells me the people who would actually deserve the title of Software Architect usually aint that in to titles. The only “Architect” job title that really has a different meaning for me is “Enterprise Architect”, which I see as more of a IT strategy position.

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A solutions architect is responsible for evaluating an organization’s business needs and determining how IT can support those needs leveraging software, hardware, or infrastructure. Aligning IT strategy with business goals has become paramount, and a solutions architect can help determine, develop, and improve technical solutions in support of business goals. 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.

In addition, we know what other enterprise applications exist within those business capabilities already and may have some direction from the enterprise architecture perspective on how to handle any conflicts. For this example, let’s assume that the only business capability where there is a true conflict of functionality is that of the SAP application in the Fulfillment business capability. The direction from the enterprise architecture practice within the organization is to leverage the existing SAP enterprise application and the modular design of FLARP will support this. This is also where the team determines how the integration (hardware and/or software) of any required physical security subsystem into a single interface can improve efficiencies and decisions and reduce cost and risk.

What’s the difference between “Solutions Architect” and “Applications Architect”? [closed]

In general, solution architects design solutions that can be implemented by developers and coders. If you are interested in becoming a solution architect, it’s best to begin learning how to code so that you can understand what other development professionals are doing when they build your company’s products. The main difference between a technical architect and a solution architect in these two roles is that the technical architect is focused on the technical aspects solution architect meaning of software systems, applications, and infrastructure. The solution architect, on the other hand, is focused on the business needs of an organization. Their primary job is to make sure that the solution being developed will meet all of those requirements while also ensuring that it is efficient and cost-effective. In brief, solution architects are hugely important decision-makers who test plans of their development teams, determine which projects are most beneficial.

  • Solution architects have to be business-minded, and identify the most effective solution at every turn for every part of the architecture.
  • If you want to learn more about the solutions we have already delivered, we welcome you to check our top client cases and see the level of our expertise in various industries, including yours.
  • An ‘architect’ is the title given to someone who can design multiple layers of applications that work together well at a high level.
  • A master’s in solution architecture is meant to boost the career opportunities of a solution architect.

It’s also worth mentioning that the role of a solution architect is not limited just to ideation. To make it clearer, let’s look at the tasks solution architect job description should include. Solution architects may work on multiple projects at the same time, which requires effective time management and prioritization skills. They may also be responsible for managing project budgets, timelines, and resources, ensuring that the solutions they design are delivered on time and within budget. Most of the certification platforms, besides the exam itself, offer training courses, learning materials, and practice tests.

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After an application has been determined as a fit within the enterprise and its appropriate business capability areas defined, a determination must be made on how exactly to implement the enterprise application. If you are an IT professional, you’ve no doubt heard of solution architecture. If not, it’s time to learn about this important concept in information and technology management. Solution architecture is the practice of designing, defining and managing solution engineering in relation to specific business problems by tailoring IT solutions to specific business needs. Solution architects design and configure software products to solve a specific business problem. They often work in the cloud computing industry, wherein businesses rely on them to configure the company’s cloud architecture.

It’s important to understand that enterprise architects and solution architects are not opposed to each other but form a synergy with technical architects. All three are integral elements when it comes to maximizing the value that a company can generate through the use of technology. Although there might be overlaps between EA and SA, they have different functions and depend on each other as solution architects take the abstract strategy developed by enterprise architects and turn it into a solution.

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They need to understand not only the technology and software they are working with but also the business context and the needs of the end users. An ‘architect’ is the title given to someone who can design multiple layers of applications that work together well at a high level. Anything that gets into a generic type of ‘architect’ without a specific type of technology (i.e. “Solutions”, “Applications”, “Business”, etc) is marketing speak. The main indicator of the quality of work of a good solution architect is the stability of the IT infrastructure and the speed with which it can adapt to the ever-changing business requirements of the market. It is important to note that all of the architectural roles described are highly intertwined, and in a number of companies they can be combined under two or even one position.

The other angle is from the implementation direction where it has been determined that a specific technology or enterprise application must be implemented and the solution architect must figure out how. It is this latter aspect of the solution architecture role that we will be focusing on as it is most applicable to enterprise applications administration. The work of a solution architect begins with the very first stage of product development, which is to formulate business goals and design the software architecture. He must clearly understand business processes, target audience, plans for future development, and possible integrations with existing products and, in general, with the company’s IT ecosystem.

How to Become a Solutions Architect

They review requirements and translate business into technical specifications. They also monitor project progress and help develop, test, and deploy IT solutions. The solution architect role also requires being able to project into the future and consider upcoming uses. A solutions architect must view the long-term use of this product and implement scalability and adaptability into the solution for the future. During the development process, there are usually several stakeholders who are both technical and non-technical. The solution architect should consider all software development requirements and provide updates about the development process, expenses, etc.

solution architect meaning

Ideally, a solution architect should have technical skills and past architecture experience. Solution architects are the link between the business strategy and IT operations and therefore need to have https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ an understanding of an organization’s architectural environment as well as real-life technical solutions. In their role, they need to establish credibility with both business leaders and IT experts.

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Its importance is nonetheless often overlooked or even completely ignored by companies at both ends. Before we dive into the topic, let’s clarify who is a solutions architect in general. Nowadays, it’s impossible to imagine a successful business without a solid software foundation. 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. Hadoop, NoSQL, or similar data processing platforms, driven on nonrelational and file system–based architecture. Development of system/solution documentations [software requirements specification (SRS), software design document (SDD), user manual, training manual, standard operating procedure (SOP), etc.].

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