Follow the Study of becoming an Enterprise Cloud Architect

Goal

Many growing clients with legacy on premise Microsoft Access database application systems, need remote access and scale.  To thoroughly understand and confidently guild these maturing clients to the proper cloud platform, it’s of paramount importance that the enterprise cloud architect be an export on product offerings of Microsoft Azure, Amazon’s AWS and Google Cloud.

Overall Strategy

Start with Microsoft Learning Path. Download the Skills Outline and complete their ‘Online – Free’ course.

Within the Low Cost Classes, follow along with the video and perform the hands on exercises in your own Azure portal account. Additional hands on exercises may be found GitHub as well as within the additional videos in YouTube.

Then take a few practice exams. If scoring over 85% then schedule exam, else study non-Microsoft materials listed in Low Cost Classes and continue with practice exams.

If still scoring less than 85% on practice exams then consider virtual training by a Microsoft Learning Partner such as NetLearning.com

Caution! Any non-Microsoft materials may be out of date as Azure technologies are constantly evolving.

Microsoft Practice Exams: In order by reliability and functionality:  MeasureUp, then ExamTopics, Udemy, and lastly, SkillCertPro.

Exam Path

The Business Architect

In the course of Enterprise Architect & Cloud Architect study and certification, I’ve learned the major importance of the Business Architect and how it’s capability fits the specific needs of Help4Access clients with complex MS Access database applications. To further develop our mission and provide the IT services our clients need most, I’ll be building out below the study path for the Business Architect.

First a few definitions to give some prospective.  A Business Architect is one of four architect disciplines within an Enterprise Architect.  The four being: 1) Business Architect, 2) Data Architect, 3) Application Architect, and 4) Technical Architect.

The reason the Business Architect capability is such a critical need for our Help4Access customers, is that often MS Access applications either are developed without any formal business analysis and most often requirements come from verbal directions given by a subject matter expert (SME) to a MS Access Solution Architect and are valid at the point in time but over time as other IT systems mature and the business model adapts to market conditions, the original verbal requirements and the system’s capabilities may become lost.  Without a fresh inventor of enterprise needs and capabilities, it’s difficult for executive management to make critical decisions.  

The Open Group is a non-profit organization and global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through technology standards.  The Open Group’s Business Architecture certification what we’ve adopted at Help4Access.

Business Architect Definition – (1 page) – Short read to understand the role.

Requirements   – (15 pages) – What you’ll need to know to pass the exam. Contains links to other documents for study.

Study Guild  – (32 pages) – Extensive. Good to follow along with during online training.

Online Training – ($400-$500) – After completing, it also includes 2x practice exams and the real Exam.

Select YouTube Videos: 

1. 1. TOGAF ADM: Phase B Business Architecture – A Quick Overview
   2. TOGAF Business Architecture: Business Capability Guild
   3. Enterprise Architecture – Business Capability Modelling
   4. TOGAF Business Architecture: Value Stream Guide

Udemy vs. YouTube

Probably don’t need both. Udemy has resources so you don’t need GitHub, unless your looking for additional hands on labs.

Or, just use a Microsoft Gold Training Partner, such as NetLearning.com

Additional Sills

In order of importance: GitHub, PowerShell, Cloud Shell, C#, JSON, MarkPad, Azure Data Studio, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

PowerShell (1 Hour Crash Course):
https://www.udemy.com/course/master-microsoft-powershell/learn/lecture/5490972#overview

GitHub (1 Hour Crash Course):
https://www.udemy.com/course/git-going-fast/learn/lecture/1328088#overview

C# (5.5 Hour Crash Course):
https://www.udemy.com/course/csharp-tutorial-for-beginners/learn/lecture/2158914#overview

Reddit Groups: Azure Certification Group AWS Certification Group

Additional Resources for Success

1. Microsoft Azure Documentation – (Required and Comprehensive).
2. Microsoft Azure Reference Architectures – (I feel this is the most valuable learning asset).
3. ExamTopics.com
   Many of the answers to the toughest questions in SkillCertPro, require heavy research. Gaining intimate knowledge of Microsoft Azure Documentation and especially Microsoft Azure Reference Architectures is required. However, that’s still not enough. ExamTopics.com has live feedback from members to questions which can be of high value.
4. SkillCertPro – ($19,99). Carful, some questions out of date. Not my favorite.

Goal of Study

The goal of this study is to be able to design technical, data, application and business architecture solutions for Help4Access clients who need greater systems maturity to meet their business requirements. See Step 3, Migration Planning.

What’s Missing?

Perhaps: systems integration, change management / DevOps, Power BI?

Product Matrix (work in progress…)

START HERE – see section ‘Types of instances/virtual machines)

**10/08/2021 – sites in review…

https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/aws-azure-gcp-service-comparison
https://www.datamation.com/cloud/aws-vs-azure-vs-google-cloud/
https://k21academy.com/amazon-web-services/aws-solutions-architect/aws-vs-azure-vs-gcp/
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3429365/aws-vs-azure-vs-google-whats-the-best-cloud-platform-for-enterprise.html

We’re Hiring!