Day In The Life Of AWS Professional Services Consultant- Cloud Infrastructure Architect

1. Title/ProServe team - Cloud Infrastructure Architect - AWS Professional Services

2. Tell us about yourself.

I am always interested in learning about new technologies that drive the current world. From making scheduled trunk phone calls back in the 90s to present day’s click-away video calls and virtual meetings we have advanced a lot in the field of Telecommunications and Networking. This advancement of technology amazed me at every stage of my life and routed my path towards my master’s degree. I have done my master’s in Computer Systems and Networking in Ohio University, Athens, Ohio where I was exposed to various core concepts of operating systems and networking which helped me build my base foundation for my future professional roles. I have had the experience of being a systems administrator in a multi-team traditional data center environment where it used to take several days to provision the systems and cater the infrastructure around it to host the application logic of the business. This experience gave me the rudimentary understanding of systems and networking. I was curious to learn how these things are done in the Cloud and why does it make it easy for organizations to host their applications within minutes and how can a data center be built in less than 5minutes using Cloud technology.

When the opportunity to work in Amazon Web Services (AWS) fell onto my lap, I gladly pounced on it. To join AWS is one of the best decisions of my life. I joined AWS Premium Support (PS) as a Cloud Support Engineer where I learnt the Cloud Computing technology and core services of Amazon’s cloud. Being a part of the Support Engineering team, I had the opportunity to enhance my skill set with different domains like DevOps, Automation, BigData and Analytics while building my core strength on Systems and Networking. Once I developed my breadth and depth in various AWS Cloud services, I wanted to be a part of customers digital transformation journey. So, I decided to transition into the AWS Worldwide Public Sector (WWPS) team as a Cloud Infrastructure Architect (CIA) where I have got the opportunity to work with customers to start their journey with the Cloud. This interest in cloud technologies turned into passion during my current tenure at AWS. I am happy to be a part of this Cloud bubble and will continue to strive for expanding my skill set and helping customers.

Besides work, I am very passionate about Cricket, I play league level cricket in Virginia. Travel, long walks, drives and water sports are few other things that I enjoy the most.

3. Tell us about your role.

I work with a wonderful team of consultants (Security, Application, Infrastructure & DevOps), solution architects, business managers. All of us form a good team with technical and managerial expertise which proves to be well ordered when engaging with customers and their success in the cloud journey. A Cloud Infrastructure Architect (CIA) job is to build the cloud infrastructure foundations for the customer using AWS services and making it easy for customers to operate their environment. The job is similar to constructing the main pillars required for a strong and beautiful house.

My prime responsibility being a CIA includes building infrastructure automation solutions, creating Proof of Concepts, reviewing new/existing customer architecture and providing AWS best practices to help them take advantage of the AWS well architected frame work and efficiently, economically develop their business. I specialize in building foundational framework for AWS Control Tower service which governs a secure, multi-account AWS environment, called a Landing Zone for organizations. This involves automating infrastructure and self-service resource catering needs for the customer to help them operate their multi-account AWS environment in an organized fashion. Often times, I take the responsibility of an advisory consultant and help customers in building their DevOps/Application hosting platforms .

In the last one year, this role provided me an opportunity to help the medical, non profit and research institutes build their AWS Cloud environment to aid for COVID pandemic research and analysis, build micro service applications for fund aids, virtual patient meet applications etc... It gives me immense pride and brings more responsibility to deliver the work on time and in perfect modules for the use case which results in the success of these organizations which in turn is impacting the world positively. Besides working for Non Profit domains, I have the opportunity to work with different other domains like Commercial sector industries to define and create the state of the art cloud technology architectures.

In my role, I am provided with variety of opportunities for technical and managerial skill development by providing mentoring to new trainees, providing training on specific services, creating articles and artifacts for solution re-use, actively taking part in hiring activities.

4. What is your typical day- Morning/noon/afternoon (Special activities, responsibilities, fun facts)?

I usually prepare overnight for the next day’s work. I write down a list of things to do the following day at work. I usually work on multiple projects and divide my work time for these projects. I tend to start my work at 9 AM and call it a day around 6 PM.

A regular day at work includes meeting with customers to gather requirements, update status on the work progress, provide demos and documentation. Before attending any customer facing meetings, a lot of background work is done both individually and with internal teams in the form of meetings, exchanging work or internal collaboration. Between meetings, I do the technical development or research work required for the projects. I am fortunate to work with a wonderful team with a mix of colleagues, mentors, managers who constantly support me to accomplish my goals successfully. I effectively collaborate with all team players involved in a project to complete tasks.

I also set some time aside to develop my skill set with new services and also prepare for new AWS certifications. A good chunk of my day’s time is also dedicated to team building work like hiring activities, mentoring, participating in service oriented trainings and internal team projects. Since the day I joined Amazon, every single day I learnt something new - either technical or a behavioral aspect. Every day you will learn something new and stay smart - a fun fact about working in Amazon.

5. What do you like most about working for AWS? Did you have any inspiring moments?

Working at AWS gives an opportunity to grow big in the domain you wish to. You get all the resources, great minds to collaborate with and constant support from peers, mentors and managers to bring out innovative ideas and simplify the process. AWS is the right avenue to collaborate, contribute and constantly focus on your goals at AWS. I believe in the fundamental - “Customer success is my success“- I try to make sure I steer my work towards this goal on a daily basis. I have had an enormous learning curve since joining professional services. To learn and contribute to the ever-growing AWS cloud technology, bringing success to the customers inspires me to keep going every day.

6. What is your favorite leadership principle and why?

In my opinion, a good AWS leader should know which principle to use at what degree based on the situation. I strongly follow this and tend to apply most of the principles. However, two most important principles I always have in mind are Ownership and Earn Trust.

Ownership - I never say “that’s not my job”, I either try to drive an issue to a resolution or direct the issue to another resource who could help resolve the issue but I make sure to keep an eye on it until its resolved. Over the years of working at AWS, I also learned to own things, stand up and accept success and failure in the same way which gives me immense work satisfaction.

Earn Trust - I provide my full support to my peers or customers and tend to go above and beyond to fetch the solution they require. I don’t hesitate to raise my hand and state my blockers and find help. Being honest and stepping in the shoes of others always helped me to earn trust of my peers and customers.

If you are interested in becoming a part of AWS Professional services please use the link below to apply:?https://www.amazon.jobs/en/teams/professional-services