Leasing a cloud architect through 360 Soft gives you a senior specialist who designs, migrates and governs your workloads on AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud, with security, reliability and cost in balance. The architect works under a service agreement with 360 Soft, remotely, on-site or in a hybrid model, and can join for a defined migration project or as a longer-term member of your platform team. On this page you will find what a cloud architect does, seniority levels, the technology matrix, how we test candidates, KPIs and the factors that shape the cost. This page is part of our IT staff leasing services.
Who needs a cloud architect, and when
Moving to the cloud is easy to start and hard to do well. Without an architect, companies often end up with a lift-and-shift that costs more than the data centre, accounts nobody governs and security gaps that appear in the first audit. Typical reasons to bring in a cloud architect:
- A data-centre exit or a migration of key applications to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud is planned.
- Cloud bills are growing faster than usage and nobody can explain why.
- A landing zone, account structure and identity model must be designed before teams scale.
- A SaaS product must become multi-region, more resilient or ready for enterprise customers.
- Security or compliance reviews require a documented, well-architected design.
- The company wants to adopt containers, Kubernetes or serverless and needs a target architecture.
Responsibilities of a cloud architect
| Area | Typical tasks |
|---|---|
| Strategy and assessment | Application portfolio assessment, 6R migration decisions, business case and roadmap |
| Landing zone and governance | Account or subscription structure, identity and access, policies, tagging, guardrails |
| Solution architecture | Network design, compute and storage choices, containers, serverless, integration patterns |
| Security | Zero-trust networking, encryption, key management, logging and security monitoring |
| Reliability | High availability, multi-AZ and multi-region design, backup and disaster recovery |
| Cost management (FinOps) | Right-sizing, reservations and savings plans, budgets and cost reporting |
| Enablement | Infrastructure as code standards, reference architectures, coaching DevOps and development teams |
Seniority matrix
| Level | Experience | What you can expect |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud engineer moving into architecture | 4–6 years | Designs individual workloads within an existing landing zone and standards |
| Senior cloud architect | 6–10 years | Owns migrations and landing zones, makes platform decisions, works with security and finance |
| Principal / enterprise cloud architect | 10+ years | Sets multi-cloud strategy and governance across the organisation and advises executives |
Technology and certification matrix
| Area | Examples |
|---|---|
| AWS | Organizations, Control Tower, VPC, EC2, EKS, Lambda, RDS, S3, IAM, CloudFormation |
| Microsoft Azure | Management groups, Landing Zones, VNet, AKS, Functions, Azure SQL, Entra ID, Bicep |
| Google Cloud | Resource hierarchy, VPC, GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, BigQuery, IAM |
| Infrastructure as code | Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Bicep, Ansible |
| Containers and delivery | Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, Argo CD |
| Observability and security | CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Security Hub, Defender for Cloud |
| Certifications (where held) | AWS Solutions Architect Associate/Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Professional Cloud Architect, CKA |
How we test cloud architect candidates
- Architecture case: the candidate designs a target architecture for a sample application with given availability, security and budget constraints, and explains the trade-offs.
- Migration scenario: they plan the migration of a legacy workload, including cut-over and rollback.
- Cost review: they analyse a sample cloud bill and propose savings.
- Infrastructure as code review: reading and critiquing a Terraform or Bicep module.
- Security questions: identity design, network segmentation and incident handling.
- Reference check: with previous managers or clients, where the candidate allows it.
You interview the shortlist and make the final decision.
Leased or permanent
Senior cloud architects are scarce and expensive to recruit. Leasing makes sense for a migration or modernisation programme with a clear end, when you need someone within weeks, or when you want an experienced architect to set up foundations and coach your team before you hire permanently. A permanent architect suits organisations whose cloud estate is large and stable enough to need a full-time owner for years.
Working models
- Remote: the specialist works from Türkiye inside your tools, with agreed overlap hours for EU, UK or Gulf time zones.
- On-site: at your office in Istanbul, or travelling for workshops, kick-offs and critical phases.
- Hybrid: mostly remote with regular on-site days.
- Engagement types: a full-time architect embedded in your platform team, or a part-time architect who reviews designs and governance alongside your engineers.
Onboarding process and typical timelines
| Step | What happens | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Brief | We agree the role, skills, seniority, language and working model | 1–2 days |
| 2. Shortlist | We present tested candidates with short profiles | 3–7 days |
| 3. Interviews | You interview and choose | 2–5 days |
| 4. Contract and start | Service agreement, NDA, access set-up, kick-off | Typical start in 1–2 weeks overall |
| 5. First 30 days | Current-state assessment, cost and security quick wins, target architecture draft and roadmap | First month |
KPIs for a cloud architect
| KPI | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Migration progress | Workloads migrated against the plan, with rollbacks tracked |
| Cloud cost against budget | Monthly spend versus forecast and unit cost trends |
| Availability of key services | Uptime against agreed targets |
| Security posture | Open critical findings in cloud security tools |
| Infrastructure as code coverage | Share of resources managed through code rather than by hand |
| Recovery tests | Frequency and success of disaster recovery exercises |
Factors that affect the price
We do not publish prices because every engagement is scoped individually. The main factors are:
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Seniority | Principal and enterprise architects cost more than senior architects |
| Cloud platforms | Single-cloud versus multi-cloud expertise |
| Specialisation | Regulated sectors, Kubernetes platforms or data and AI workloads |
| Working model | On-site work and travel add cost compared with remote |
| Duration and allocation | Full-time or part-time; longer engagements are usually priced more favourably |
| Working hours | Overlap with distant time zones or 7/24 shift coverage |
Permanent cloud architect, freelancer and leasing compared
| Criterion | Permanent hire | Freelancer | Leased via 360 Soft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to start | Often 2–4 months | Fast, availability varies | Typically 1–2 weeks |
| Continuity | High | Risk of leaving mid-project | Replacement process if the fit is not right |
| Employer obligations | On you | Contract risk depends on your country | With 360 Soft under Turkish labour law |
| Scaling | Slow | One person | From 1 to 200+ people |
| Control over daily work | Full | Limited | You direct the work; we handle employment |
Risks and mitigations
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Over-engineered design | Architecture decisions recorded with cost and complexity trade-offs, reviewed with your team |
| Vendor lock-in concerns | Explicit decisions on managed services versus portable components |
| Privileged cloud access | Role-based access, MFA, break-glass procedures and audit logging |
| Knowledge leaves with the architect | Reference architectures, infrastructure as code and documentation in your repositories |
| Poor fit | You choose; replacement process if it still does not work |
Confidentiality, data protection and IP
The cloud architect works under a B2B service agreement between your company and 360 Soft; there is no employment relationship between you and the specialist. The standard package includes a mutual NDA, an IP assignment clause under which all work product, documentation and code created for you belongs to you, and written access rules for your systems.
- EU/EEA buyers: a GDPR Data Processing Agreement (Art. 28) with Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers to Türkiye.
- UK buyers: the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the SCCs.
- Türkiye: the team operates under KVKK (Law No. 6698), the Turkish personal data protection law.
- Access hygiene: named accounts, least-privilege access, MFA, your VPN or VDI where required, and access revoked on the last day.
Legal note
The specialist is employed by 360 Soft under Turkish labour law; payroll, social security and statutory obligations remain with us. This page is general information, not legal advice. Sector rules in Türkiye (for example BDDK for banking or SPK for capital markets) apply to work done there, and the local rules of your own country also apply; please have the agreement reviewed by your legal counsel.
Checklist for choosing a cloud architect
- Which cloud platform or platforms will you use, and is the decision final?
- Is the goal migration, cost reduction, security, resilience or a new platform?
- Do you already have a landing zone, account structure and identity model?
- Which compliance or data residency requirements apply?
- Who owns the cloud budget, and how is cost reported?
- Will the architect also coach DevOps and development teams?
- Which KPIs will you review after 30 and 90 days?
Example scenario
Illustrative scenario: a logistics company in Germany plans to move ten on-premises applications to Azure within a year. A senior cloud architect joins remotely, assesses the portfolio, designs a landing zone with Terraform, decides which applications to rehost and which to refactor, and coaches the internal team so that later migrations follow the same pattern. This is an example of how the role can be used, not a report of a specific client result.
Frequently asked questions
Which cloud platforms do your architects cover?
AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Some architects work across several platforms; tell us in the brief which ones you use.
What is the difference between a cloud architect and a DevOps engineer?
The architect designs the target platform, governance and major technical decisions. A DevOps engineer builds and runs pipelines and infrastructure within that design. Many projects need both.
Can the architect lead a full data-centre migration?
Yes. Senior architects plan the portfolio, the migration waves and cut-overs, and work with your team or a 360 Soft team to execute them.
Can a cloud architect help reduce our cloud bill?
Yes. Cost reviews, right-sizing, commitment planning and cost reporting are standard parts of the role.
Do your architects hold cloud certifications?
Many do, for example AWS Solutions Architect Professional or Azure Solutions Architect Expert. If certification is mandatory for you, we shortlist only certified candidates.
How quickly can a cloud architect start?
The typical start is within 1–2 weeks after the brief.
Is a part-time cloud architect possible?
Yes. A part-time design authority role is common when your engineers do the hands-on work.
Do I interview the candidates myself?
Yes. We test candidates first and you interview the shortlist and decide.
Who owns the designs and infrastructure code?
You do. The service agreement includes an IP assignment clause, and all code is kept in your repositories.
What happens if the architect is not the right fit?
We start the replacement process and arrange a documented handover.
Talk to us about your team
Tell us your cloud platform, the goal of the project, the number of people and your target start date. We reply with architect profiles and an indicative timeline. Call +90 850 335 10 87, message us on WhatsApp, email info@360-soft.com or use our contact page.
360 Soft Marketing Yazılım ve Danışmanlık Ltd. Şti. · Nidakule Ataşehir Batı, Barbaros Mah. Begonya Sk. No:1 D:2, 34746 Ataşehir/İstanbul, Türkiye.
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