#50 - Riding the Architect Elevator to the Cloud - Gregor Hohpe

“The cloud is a change in operating model. It isn’t IT procurement. If you don’t change the way your organization works, the cloud is going to look much more like another data center.“ Gregor Hohpe is the author of “Software Architect Elevator” and “Cloud Strategy”. In this episode, Gregor started our conversation by explaining the role of a software architect, the reason for the latest resurgence of the role, and his software architect elevator concept. He then described what a good architecture should look like and how to deal with trade-offs by using the analogy of financial options. We then discussed in-depth about the cloud and why adopting cloud requires a lifestyle change in order to benefit from it the most. Gregor also described why organizations need a good viable cloud strategy and debunked the concern of many organizations on cloud vendor lock-in. He also gave his tips on how organizations should approach building an in-house cloud platform and how to change the organization structure to embrace the cloud better. Towards the end, do not miss our insightful discussion on Gregor’s law of excessive complexity! Listen out for: Career Journey - [00:06:48] Software Architect Role - [00:07:48] Software Architect Elevator - [00:12:07] An Architect Stands on 3 Legs - [00:14:37] Good Architecture - [00:18:08] Trade-offs - [00:21:09] Definition of Cloud - [00:25:55] Cloud is a Lifestyle Change - [00:28:56] Motivation for Moving to the Cloud - [00:32:18] Cloud Strategy - [00:36:43] Building up Cloud Strategy - [00:39:36] Patterns & Antipatterns - [00:43:57] Cloud is Not an Infrastructure Topic - [00:49:29] In-house Cloud Platform - [00:52:38] Gregor’s Law of Excessive Complexity - [00:57:39] Organization Structure - [01:01:37] 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:05:16] _____ Gregor Hohpe’s Bio As an Enterprise Strategist at AWS, Gregor advises CTOs and tech leaders in their organizational and technology platform transformation. Prior to joining AWS, Gregor served as a Smart Nation Fellow to the Singapore government, as technical director in Google Cloud’s Office of the CTO, and as Chief Architect at Allianz SE, where he oversaw the architecture of a global data center consolidation and deployed the first private cloud software delivery platform. He is an active member of the IEEE Software advisory board. Follow Gregor: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ghohpe/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/ghohpe The Architect Elevator – https://architectelevator.com/ Cloud Strategy – https://cloudstrategybook.com Our Sponsor This episode is proudly sponsored by Emergence, the journal of business agility. This quarterly publication brings you inspiring stories from the most innovative companies and explores themes of new ways of working, reclaiming management, and humanizing business. Each issue is hand illustrated and 100% content. Use the promo code “techlead” to get a 10% discount on your annual subscription. Visit businessagility.institute/emergence to get your edition and support the publication supporting your podcast. Like this episode? Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Pledge your support by becoming a patron. For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/50.