Cloud Architect

☐ Linux & Networking · Required · 6 hrs

TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/S, firewalls, VPNs, routing. Every cloud resource is a networked server at heart.

• Linux and Shell Scripting for Data Engineers (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/linux-shell

☐ Scripting (Python / Bash) · Required · 5 hrs

Automate provisioning, write Lambda functions, parse config. Architects who can't code lose credibility with engineering teams.

• What is Python? Setup & Your First Program (Python): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/python/what-is-python-setup
• Functions — Defining, Parameters, Return Values (Python): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/python/functions

☐ Security Fundamentals · Required · 6 hrs

IAM, least privilege, encryption at rest/transit, MFA, audit logging. Security is everyone's job and the architect's responsibility.

• What is Cybersecurity? (Cybersecurity): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/cybersecurity/what-is-cybersecurity
• The CIA Triad and Security Models (Cybersecurity): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/cybersecurity/cia-triad-security-models

☐ Cloud Core (AWS or Azure) · Required · 15 hrs

Compute (EC2/VM), storage (S3/Blob), databases (RDS/SQL), IAM, VPC/VNet. Learn one cloud deeply before spreading.

• AWS Introduction (AWS): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/aws/introduction
• Azure Introduction (Microsoft Azure): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/azure/introduction
• GCP Introduction (Google Cloud): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/gcp/introduction

☐ IaC (Terraform / Bicep) · Required · 8 hrs

Define infrastructure as code. Repeatable, auditable, version-controlled environments. No clicking in the console at scale.

• Infrastructure as Code for Data Engineers (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/infrastructure-as-code

☐ Containers & K8s · Required · 8 hrs

Docker, AKS/EKS/GKE, Helm, ingress. Modern workloads run in containers. The architect defines the platform.

☐ Serverless Architecture · Recommended · 5 hrs

Lambda, Azure Functions, event-driven patterns, API Gateway. Event-driven serverless reduces operational overhead dramatically.

☐ Cloud Networking · Required · 6 hrs

VPC peering, Transit Gateway, ExpressRoute, private endpoints, DNS zones, service endpoints. Networking is where architects spend the most debugging time.

• Subnetting — Divide Any Network with Confidence (Networking): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/networking/subnetting
• Routing — How Packets Find Their Destination (Networking): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/networking/routing-fundamentals
• Firewalls, ACLs, and Stateful Inspection (Networking): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/networking/firewalls-and-acls

☐ HA & Disaster Recovery · Required · 6 hrs

Multi-region, active-active vs active-passive, RTO/RPO, backup strategies, failover. Every enterprise project needs a DR plan.

• Disaster Recovery and Multi-Region Kafka (Apache Kafka): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/apache-kafka/disaster-recovery-multi-region
• Crash Recovery (DBMS): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/dbms/crash-recovery

☐ Cost Optimisation · Required · 4 hrs

Reserved instances, spot/preemptible, rightsizing, tagging, budgets, finops. Cloud bills at scale are business-critical.

• Performance Tuning and Cost Optimisation (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/performance-tuning
• Cost Optimization (Snowflake): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/snowflake/cost-optimization

☐ Observability · Required · 4 hrs

CloudWatch/Azure Monitor, distributed tracing, dashboards, alerts. You can't architect what you can't observe.

• Data Observability — Metrics, Logging and Anomaly Detection (Data Engineering): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/data-engineering/monitoring-observability
• Monitoring and Observability (Apache Kafka): https://chaduvuko.com/learn/apache-kafka/monitoring-observability

☐ Well-Architected Framework · Required · 8 hrs

AWS WAF / Azure WAF pillars: operational excellence, security, reliability, performance, cost. The structured way to review and defend architecture decisions.

☐ Multi-Cloud & Hybrid · Optional · 6 hrs

Azure Arc, AWS Outposts, cloud-agnostic Terraform. Large enterprises increasingly span multiple clouds.

☐ Certification (SAA / AZ-305) · Recommended · 20 hrs

AWS Solutions Architect Associate or Azure Solutions Architect Expert. Opens doors at consulting firms and MNCs.