From Cloud Architect to AI Systems Architect
AI architecture is built on cloud architecture. Identity, networking, security, reliability, observability, automation and cost discipline remain foundational. This three-part series gives experienced cloud and solution architects a credible transition path: what transfers and what is genuinely new, a capability matrix that separates awareness, working proficiency and specialist depth, and a 90-day lab. It follows Outeniqua Assurance, a fictional South African insurer modernising a claims-assistance workflow; its systems and figures are illustrative. Research claims were checked on 5 November 2026.
3 articles
- Part 1You do not need to start over to become an AI architectExperienced cloud architects are being told their skills have expired. They have not. Part 1 of From Cloud Architect to AI Systems Architect shows which foundations carry straight into AI systems, which six concerns are genuinely new, and how one insurer's claims-assistance design review proved the point.9 min read
- Part 2What transfers from cloud architecture to AI, and what is newVendor stack posters make AI architecture look like a new map to memorise. It is better learned as eight stable layers with products as dated examples. Part 2 of From Cloud Architect to AI Systems Architect sorts each cloud discipline into what carries over, what changes shape and what is genuinely new.8 min read
- Part 3The AI architect capability matrix, and a 90-day labAn experienced architect does not need every AI skill to the same depth. Part 3 of From Cloud Architect to AI Systems Architect sets out a capability matrix with three depths and three tracks, and a 90-day lab in which one architect builds the evidence, not the certificates, that shows the move is real.8 min read
Working through any of this in your own organisation?
These articles come out of delivery work rather than theory. If the problems in this series look familiar, a short scoping conversation is usually the quickest way to work out what is worth doing first.
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