Heavy Networking | April 19, 2019
Heavy Networking 443: Architects Vs. Engineers – What’s The Difference?
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Ethan
Banks
Greg
Ferro
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Today’s Heavy Networking is the result of a listener request. We discuss the differences between network architects and network engineers.
What’s different about each role? Where is the overlap? If you are an architect and find yourself doing engineering, is that a bad thing?
Should an engineer aspire to be an architect? Are architects so out of touch with reality that engineers rightfully hate them?
If an architect and an engineer pass each other in the hall, does the engineer have to kiss the architect’s ring every time, or just the first time?
To answer these questions, we’ve gathered guests who’ve held both roles in their careers (as has your host).
Our guests are Robin Gilijamse, IT Infrastructure Architect; Oli Elliott, Network Architect at the University of Bristol; and Tom Ammon, Sr. Network Architect at a regional service provider in the United States.
We talk about:
- The definitions of an engineer and an architect
- The path to becoming an architect
- The perspective of tactics vs. strategy
- Whether you have to give up hand-on networking
- Why architects have to get more deeply involved with business requirements and nurture personal relationships
- Advice for folks new to the architect role
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Why continuously state “the fun part” when referring to engineering? Maybe just state the facts, omit the slant, and allow the uninitiated to decide for themselves.
An architect is a salesman, an engineer is the technical administrator that builds and maintains the infrastructure.
Great discussion! My organisation is global, and we’ve got a division within the over-arching technical structure where our Enterprise Architect reports directly into our CInfoO, with a handful of domain architects then reporting in parallel into our Information Services Projects Team – a function that spends 99% of the time involved in workflows that are seen as needing a level of governance over and above that of something that would be considered Business As Usual. This means the domain architects do not report to the Enterprise Architect but are expected to have a collaborative relationship.
For further confusion, my role is ‘Infrastructure Architect’ but my day-to-day is focusing on the network and technical security. I interface directly with various players across the business, as well as having a good relationship with our network engineering team. But, the other domain architects do not have any business-level interface and definitely fit into the architect as promotion mold discussed early on in the pod.
As the pod discussed, the role of a [network|domain] architect is often company specific or less defined than the engineering role; but have many others seen role disparity within the same organisation like this?