Software architect Systems designed to be run, changed and handed over.

Four parts of architecture work.

Every design comes with the plan to reach it.

1. Cloud architecture on AWS

   Accounts and networks laid out before the first service.

   Separate accounts per environment, access through IAM Identity Center, private networks with endpoints, and the edge in front: CloudFront, certificates and DNS. Every part has its place in Terraform.

   AWS skills

2. Existing systems

   Start from the system that is already there.

   An existing estate is read before it is redesigned: the accounts, what was clicked together by hand, and the bills. It is brought under Terraform as it stands, then changed one reviewed step at a time.

   Infrastructure as code skills

3. Legacy rewrites

   Progressive rewrites, not a switch-over day.

   The old application keeps running behind the same address while the new one takes over in steps, and traffic moves as each part is ready. Every step can go back.

   Architecture skills

4. Documentation for handover

   Written down for the team that stays.

   Decisions, diagrams and runbooks next to the code, with instructions a coding agent can follow too, so the team can change the system without me in the room.

   Ways of working