For hire: Application delivery architect

There's generally not one person responsible for speeding application delivery. It's clearly one of those things that multiple IT disciplines influence, from application development and network teams to server and storage groups. But having a lead position to help tie together all of a company's expertise and technologies isn't a bad idea. To that end, industry watchers are championing a new role within the enterprise: application delivery architect.

Research firm Gartner proposed in recent note that companies’ next key hires should be application delivery architects and engineers. Joe Skorupa, who authored the research brief, took part in a Webinar that was produced by F5 Networks and made available this week. In it Skorupa expands on the idea of an application delivery architect:

“Application delivery architects and application delivery engineers need a very broad background. They need to understand applications and something about application development, application tuning. They need to have a reasonable understanding of operating system and storage environments. They need to be able to converse with security professionals,” said Skorupa, who is a research vice president at Gartner. “They need to be very, very broad-based in their capabilities and technically deep enough that they can be credible, because these roles are leadership roles.”

In addition to a broad technical background, an application delivery architect or engineer needs to have very solid people skills and should be someone who is naturally curious, Skorupa said. “This environment is changing so rapidly, that unless they’re self motivated, they’ll never stay up to date.”

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There's generally not one person responsible for speeding application delivery. It's clearly one of those things that multiple IT disciplines influence, from application development and network teams to server and storage groups. But having a lead position to help tie together all of a company's expertise and technologies isn't a bad idea. To that end, industry watchers are championing a new role within the enterprise: application delivery architect.

Research firm Gartner proposed in recent note that companies’ next key hires should be application delivery architects and engineers. Joe Skorupa, who authored the research brief, took part in a Webinar that was produced by F5 Networks and made available this week. In it Skorupa expands on the idea of an application delivery architect:

“Application delivery architects and application delivery engineers need a very broad background. They need to understand applications and something about application development, application tuning. They need to have a reasonable understanding of operating system and storage environments. They need to be able to converse with security professionals,” said Skorupa, who is a research vice president at Gartner. “They need to be very, very broad-based in their capabilities and technically deep enough that they can be credible, because these roles are leadership roles.”

In addition to a broad technical background, an application delivery architect or engineer needs to have very solid people skills and should be someone who is naturally curious, Skorupa said. “This environment is changing so rapidly, that unless they’re self motivated, they’ll never stay up to date.”

F5, too, backs the idea of an application delivery architect: “This position underscores the importance of enabling application developers, security teams, and network architects to collaborate for the good of the applications, users, and the business overall. Working together, these disparate teams can unlock the hidden value of the network, as well as take advantage of the consolidation possibilities that [the application delivery network] offers,” F5 said in a statement.

F5’s Webinar is titled, “Unlocking the Hidden Value of Your Network,” and can be accessed here. It explains how application delivery technologies can enhance and protect businesses - and help companies get the most out of their applications, people and data.

Other topics covered in the Webinar include:

* How optimization technologies can improve business agility, efficiency, and security.
* How to leverage application delivery technology to protect and grow businesses during down cycles.
* Examples of how customers are benefiting from application delivery technologies.
* Gartner’s recommendations for organizations to reap the benefits of application delivery technologies.

What do you think about the idea of hiring (or designating) an application delivery architect? As always, your thoughts are welcome.

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