How To Become a Solutions Architect

In Today’s Cloudbites:

🧑‍💻 How to Become a Solutions Architect

🤖 PartyRock Generative AI Hackathon by AWS

📚 5 AI Tools to Improve Your Productivity

🤫 PLUS: You Can Now Create Videos Via a Text Prompt

Read time: 5 minutes

Hi friends, welcome back to Cloudbites

Today, I’ll be sharing one of the most popular roles in the Cloud industry — the Solutions Architect. I’ll also be highlighting two key points from ChatGPT’s improved memory capabilities.

CLOUD COMPUTING ☁️

🧑‍💻 How To Become a Solutions Architect

#1 Learn the IT Fundamentals

As a Solutions Architect, you will be expected to have a solid understanding across a range of technical domains, specifically in networking, compute, storage, databases, and security.

Having a technical depth in at least one of those and being familiar with Cloud products and services will help you stand out when applying to the role.

This role often requires a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or any other related field(s) to make sure you have the technical fundamentals necessary to excel in the job.

However, you could also up-skill through self-study by taking courses or bootcamps to learn the relevant knowledge and skills.

#2 Complete an AWS Certification (or Two)

Getting certified is a great way to start your Cloud learning journey.

Although most of the skills and knowledge that you will gain from preparing for certifications are theoretical, they are helpful for building a strong foundation on what you need to know about the Cloud services.

As an ex-AWS Solutions Architect, I personally recommend taking the Solutions Architect Associate Certification first, followed by the Developer Associate Certification. 

#3 Build Hands-On Projects

From there, apply the knowledge that you have built from taking the certifications by building Cloud projects. 

Getting some hands-on experience through projects will not only help develop your technical understanding, but also create value for your resume.

Check out my newest YouTube video on 5 AWS Cloud Projects to Get You Hired in 2024 (For Beginners) to get you started!

#4 Develop Architecting Skills

A Solutions Architect’s role involves designing solutions in the form of architectural diagrams and proof-of-concepts.

To grow your architecting skills, you can start by looking at AWS Whitepapers and Reference Architectures created by other Solutions Architects. This is a great way for you to learn about the best AWS architecting practices. 

You can also participate in peer reviews or sharing your designs online to seek feedback.

#5 Improve Customer-Facing Skills

As the Solutions Architect role is very customer-focused, you’ll need to be able to effectively articulate technical solutions to customers.

You can do that by trying to place yourself in their shoes to understand their problems, and translating some highly technical concepts into general terms.

Having a clear communication and presentation skills will help you ensure that your customers fully understand the proposed solution.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to be a Solutions Architect, check out my YouTube video on What skills are needed to become an AWS Solutions Architect?.

🤖 PartyRock Generative AI Hackathon by AWS

Exciting opportunity to participate in a PartyRock Generative AI Hackathon by AWS (over $100,000 in prizes)!

PartyRock is an Amazon Bedrock playground that helps you make your own applications with AI, without having any coding experience. It’s a fun way to learn about Prompt Engineering and Foundational Models to build functional applications with Generative AI.

You will be asked to create a PartyRock application based on one of the following categories:

• Interactive learning experience

• Creative Assistant

• Experimental Entertainment

• Freestyle; or 

• Remix the community-created RPG app into something original.

Applications close 12th March 2024.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) 🤖

🛠️ 5 AI Tools to Improve Your Productivity

1. Ellie: Generates email responses that mimic your own voice

2. Clockwise: Helps you schedule and prioritize tasks more efficiently tailor to your preference

3. Fellow.app: Streamlines meeting management and communication via meeting minutes and action tasks automation

4. Hemingway Editor: Analyzes and improves text for readability, clarity, and conciseness, inspired by your own writing style

5. CodeWP: Provides code suggestions and automates repetitive tasks

🤫 PLUS: You Can Now Create Videos Via a Text Prompt

OpenAI is currently building a model called Sora, which has the ability to create an AI-generated video via text instructions.

Here’s what you should know:

• Sora, a text-to-video model, will have a maximum video duration of one-minute long with commendable visual quality and compliance with user’s instructions.

• Sora has the ability to deliver not only based on the user’s prompt, but also how things (i.e. subject, setting, character) related to the prompt actually are in the real world.

• Currently, Sora struggles with addressing the specific instances of cause-and-effect, chronological description of events, and spatial details based on the user’s prompt.

Even though OpenAI reported that they are still examining Sora’s limitations and there is no official public release date yet, it is likely to be launched as a part of ChatGPT, enabling users to create videos from text prompts.

THAT’S A WRAP

Thanks for reading! 😊

P.S. How was today's email? Reply directly with your feedback, or DM me on Twitter @techwithlucy