Senior Cloud Architect

Expert cloud architecture and infrastructure design across AWS, GCP, and Azure.

Keywords

cloud, aws, gcp, azure, terraform, infrastructure, vpc, eks, ecs, lambda, cost-optimization, disaster-recovery, multi-region, iam, security, migration

Quick Start

# Analyze infrastructure costs
python scripts/cost_analyzer.py --account production --period monthly

# Run DR validation
python scripts/dr_test.py --region us-west-2 --type failover

# Audit security posture
python scripts/security_audit.py --framework cis --output report.html

# Generate resource inventory
python scripts/inventory.py --accounts all --format csv

Tools

Cloud Platform Comparison

Workflow 1: Design a Production AWS Architecture

1. Define requirements -- Identify compute, storage, database, and networking needs. Determine RTO/RPO targets.
2. Provision VPC with Terraform:
   hclCopy

   module "vpc" {
     source  = "terraform-aws-modules/vpc/aws"
     version = "~> 5.0"
     name    = "${var.project}-${var.environment}"
     cidr    = var.vpc_cidr
     azs             = ["${var.region}a", "${var.region}b", "${var.region}c"]
     private_subnets = var.private_subnets
     public_subnets  = var.public_subnets
     enable_nat_gateway   = true
     single_nat_gateway   = var.environment != "production"
     enable_dns_hostnames = true
     tags = local.common_tags
   }
   

3. Deploy compute -- ECS/EKS in private subnets behind an ALB in public subnets. Use at least 2 AZs for redundancy.
4. Configure database -- RDS Multi-AZ for production, single-AZ for staging. Set backup retention to 30 days (production) or 7 days (non-production).
5. Add caching layer -- ElastiCache (Redis) between application and database.
6. Layer security -- WAF on CloudFront, NACLs on subnets, security groups on instances. Apply least-privilege IAM.
7. Validate -- Run python scripts/security_audit.py --framework cis and resolve all high-severity findings.

Reference Architecture

Route 53 (DNS) -> CloudFront + WAF -> ALB
  -> ECS/EKS Cluster (AZ-a) + ECS/EKS Cluster (AZ-b)
    -> ElastiCache (Redis)
      -> RDS Multi-AZ (Primary + Standby)

Workflow 2: Optimize Cloud Costs

1. Audit current spend -- python scripts/cost_analyzer.py --account production --period monthly
2. Right-size instances -- Identify instances with avg CPU <10% and max CPU <30% as downsize candidates:
   pythonCopy

   # Pseudocode for right-sizing logic
   if avg_cpu < 10 and max_cpu < 30:
       recommendation = 'downsize'
   elif avg_cpu > 80:
       recommendation = 'upsize'
   else:
       recommendation = 'optimal'
   

3. Convert steady-state workloads to Reserved Instances or Savings Plans:

   Type	Discount	Commitment	Use Case
   On-Demand	0%	None	Variable workloads
   Reserved	30-72%	1-3 years	Steady-state
   Savings Plans	30-72%	1-3 years	Flexible compute
   Spot	60-90%	None	Fault-tolerant batch

4. Enforce cost allocation tags -- Require Environment, Project, Owner, CostCenter on all resources. Alert on untagged resources after 24 hours.
5. Validate -- Re-run cost analyzer and confirm savings target achieved.

Workflow 3: Plan Disaster Recovery

1. Select DR strategy based on RTO/RPO requirements:

   Strategy	RTO	RPO	Cost
   Backup & Restore	Hours	Hours	$
   Pilot Light	Minutes	Minutes	$$
   Warm Standby	Minutes	Seconds	$$$
   Multi-Site Active	Seconds	Near-zero	$$$$

2. Configure cross-region replication -- Database replication to secondary region. S3 cross-region replication for object storage.
3. Set up Route 53 failover routing -- Health checks on primary. Automatic DNS failover to secondary.
4. Define backup policy:
   • Database: continuous replication, 35-day retention, cross-region, encrypted
   • Application data: daily, 90-day retention, lifecycle to IA at 30d, Glacier at 90d
   • Configuration: on-change via git + S3, unlimited retention
5. Test -- python scripts/dr_test.py --region us-west-2 --type failover and confirm RTO/RPO targets met.

Workflow 4: Audit Security Posture

1. Run audit -- python scripts/security_audit.py --framework cis --output report.html
2. Review network segmentation -- Public subnets contain only NAT GW, ALB, bastion. Private subnets contain application tier. Data subnets contain RDS, Redis, Elasticsearch.
3. Enforce least-privilege IAM -- Every policy scoped to specific resources and conditions:
   jsonCopy

   {
     "Effect": "Allow",
     "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"],
     "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/uploads/*",
     "Condition": {
       "StringEquals": { "aws:PrincipalTag/Team": "engineering" },
       "IpAddress": { "aws:SourceIp": ["10.0.0.0/8"] }
     }
   }
   

4. Verify encryption -- Data encrypted at rest (KMS) and in transit (TLS 1.2+).
5. Validate -- Re-run audit and confirm all critical and high findings resolved.

AWS Well-Architected Pillars (Decision Checklist)

• Operational Excellence: IaC everywhere? Monitoring and alerting? Runbooks for incidents?
• Security: Least-privilege IAM? Encryption at rest and in transit? VPC segmentation?
• Reliability: Multi-AZ? Auto-scaling? DR tested?
• Performance: Right-sized instances? Caching layer? CDN for static assets?
• Cost Optimization: Reserved capacity for steady-state? Spot for batch? Unused resources cleaned?
• Sustainability: Efficient regions? Right-sized compute? Data lifecycle policies?

Reference Materials

Troubleshooting

Success Criteria

• 99.99% availability SLA met across all production workloads with documented uptime reports
• Cost optimization savings above 25% compared to on-demand baseline through Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and right-sizing
• RTO < 15 minutes and RPO < 1 minute validated through quarterly DR failover tests
• Zero critical CIS benchmark findings in production accounts after security audit remediation
• Infrastructure drift < 2% measured by Terraform plan diffs on scheduled compliance scans
• Cross-region failover completes within 60 seconds with automated Route 53 health check validation
• 100% resource tagging compliance enforced via automated policy checks with no untagged resources older than 24 hours

Scope & Limitations

This skill covers:

• Multi-cloud architecture design and comparison across AWS, GCP, and Azure
• Infrastructure-as-Code with Terraform including VPC, compute, database, and networking
• Disaster recovery planning, cross-region replication, and failover strategies
• Cloud cost optimization, right-sizing, and reserved capacity planning

This skill does NOT cover:

• Application-level code architecture or microservice design patterns (see senior-architect)
• Kubernetes cluster internals, pod scheduling, or service mesh configuration (see senior-devops)
• Security compliance frameworks beyond CIS benchmarks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, or GDPR (see ra-qm-team/ compliance skills)
• CI/CD pipeline design, build automation, or deployment workflows (see senior-devops)

Integration Points