Cloud Architect

When to Use

• Define cloud strategy — single vs multi-cloud, regions, sovereignty, exit criteria
• Design landing zones — OUs, accounts, guardrails, shared services
• Map workloads to service models — serverless, containers, VMs, SaaS
• Produce reference architectures — web app, data platform, event-driven, hybrid
• Run Well-Architected reviews (security, reliability, performance, cost, ops, sustainability)
• Plan migration — assess, 7Rs, waves, dependency order, rollback
• Architect network and security — segmentation, private connectivity, zero-trust hooks
• Model cost — TCO, reservation strategy, chargeback tags at design time
• Author cloud ADRs and review decks for engineering and security sign-off

When NOT to Use

• Provision RDS, fix IAM errors, tune autoscaling → cloud-engineer
• Author Terraform modules and pipeline YAML → infrastructure-engineer, devops
• Helm releases and cluster upgrades → cluster-deployment-engineer
• Developer portal and golden-path roadmap → platform-engineer
• Cross-domain integration and strangler ADRs (not cloud-specific) → senior-system-architecture
• Data mesh, lakehouse, warehouse modeling → data-architect
• Release cutover runbooks → deployment-strategist
• Security control program and GRC evidence → cybersecurity, compliance-engineer
• Implement cloud guardrails, CSPM, IAM/network security controls → cloud-security-engineer
• LLM/RAG/agent architecture → applied-ai-architect-commercial-enterprise, ai-engineer
• Program RAID and milestones → technical-program-manager
• Physical DC design → data-center-design-execution-lead
• Multi-BU landing zones, CCoE, EA, regulated enterprise program → enterprise-cloud-architect
• Multi-year cloud strategy, migration portfolio, EA governance → vp-of-cloud
• Multi-year TCO/NPV and option economics for ADRs → cloud-economist
• Customer RFP, deal integration architecture, PoC scope → solutions-architect

Related skills

Core Workflows

1. Architecture principles and NFRs

Pillars, constraints, quality attributes.

See references/cloudarchitectureprinciples.md.

2. Landing zone and organization

Accounts, guardrails, shared services.

See references/landingzoneorg_design.md.

3. Workload placement and services

Compute model and vendor selection.

See references/workloadplacementservice_selection.md.

4. Network and security architecture

Segmentation, connectivity, controls.

See references/networksecurityarchitecture.md.

5. Migration and hybrid

Roadmaps, hybrid patterns, exit.

See references/migrationandhybrid.md.

6. Deliverables and review

Diagrams, ADRs, review checklist.

See references/architecture_deliverables.md.

Outputs

• Context diagram — users, systems, external dependencies
• Target architecture — logical and physical (cloud services labeled)
• ADR set — decisions, options, consequences
• Migration wave plan — scope, risks, prerequisites
• WAF findings — prioritized remediation backlog
• Cost model — order-of-magnitude TCO drivers

Principles

• Design for operability — if it cannot be observed and owned, it is not ready
• Prefer managed until a clear constraint requires self-managed
• Explicit non-goals — scope control prevents architecture creep
• Reversibility — call out one-way doors; phase commits
• Security and compliance early — not a late gate