Azure Cloud Architect

End-to-end Azure-specific architecture: service selection, Well-Architected Framework assessment, identity and networking patterns, cost optimization, and operational defaults. Provider-specific complement to our generic senior-cloud-architect skill — that one covers cross-cloud patterns; this one knows AKS pricing tiers, when to pick Cosmos over SQL DB, and how Front Door differs from Application Gateway.

Core Capabilities

• Compute selection — decision tree across AKS, App Service, Container Apps, Functions, VMs/VMSS, Batch, Static Web Apps, and API gateways.
• Data store selection — relational, NoSQL/document, cache, blob, time-series, search, vector, and warehouse decision trees.
• Networking design — VNets, Private/Service Endpoints, gateways (App Gateway, Front Door, Firewall, NAT, VPN/ER), hub-and-spoke and Private Link patterns.
• Identity design — Entra ID, Managed Identity (system/user-assigned), Workload Identity, Service Principals, and least-privilege RBAC scoping.
• WAF assessment — score workloads across Reliability, Security, Cost, Operational Excellence, and Performance Efficiency pillars.
• Cost optimization — right-sizing, reservations, autoscaling, spot, storage tiering, and egress-reduction levers with anti-pattern detection.

When to Use